Overcoming Distractions

Lindsey Vonn lived up to expectations and won the Olympic downhill Wednesday. The accomplishment came despite a bruised shin that almost took her out of the running and threatened to sideline her Olympic games.

Hurt Feb. 2 during pre-Olympic practice in Austria, Vonn had hardly skied over the past two weeks.

The injury even made her question whether Olympic gold was meant to be...

"...It's been a really tough couple of weeks, pretty much having your Olympic dreams crushed. I felt things weren't going my way, that my whole world was kind of tumbling down. I was really depressed, sad and really just hoping that my Olympic dream was still alive. It definitely wasn't the place I wanted to be."

Yet before Wednesday's race, former U.S. Olympic skier Billy Kidd told FanHouse he could think of no athlete better prepared mentally and physically to block the excruciating pain that accompanies ski boot shin bruises and contusions -- known as "boot bang" to skiers everywhere.

Kidd said Vonn, whom he has known since she was a young racer in Vail, Colo., is accustomed to performing through extreme pain like any elite athlete. Kidd talked about how he has always been impressed with Vonn's focus during her races and he says that ability to block out everything but the run will help her overcome the discomfort she is certain to experience.

"On one hand, it makes it very difficult to perform under pressure, unlike the Super Bowl, where you can make a mistake and you've got two or three hours to make up for that mistake. In ski racing, with that one chance, you make a mistake and it's over – come back in four more years."

"But absolutely, it is a lot of work. With Michael Phelps, swimming back and forth through the pain, or long-distance runners or Mount Everest climbers – all of that is painful. But you push through the pain. Lindsey is just so good at doing that."

Now on this day, she is celebrated for her courage AND her brilliance, for producing under intense pressure, for overcoming pain that lasted three weeks and continued perilously into the downhill -- and for delivering even when so many thought she would fail.

"Americans perform well under pressure," Vonn said. "We're game-day athletes, and we don't hold anything back. I always feel like Americans come out on top. We're free-spirited and really determined people."