Lindsey V for victory (and second place)

Friday was a good day to be a 24-year-old U.S. skier who lives in Park City and is named Lindsey V.

Lindsey Van went into the history books as the first women's world champion in ski jumping.

Lindsey Vonn, who won two titles at this year's alpine worlds, got back to a podium for the first time since slicing her thumb on a broken Champagne bottle 12 days ago, finishing second to Maria Riesch of Germany in a World Cup super-combined race at Tarvisio, Italy.

It's too bad only one of them will have a chance to do it again next year in the Olympics, unless the Supreme Court of British Columbia rules in the jumpers' favor this spring.

Ten jumpers from six countries have sued the Vancouver Olympic organizers to gain ...

More mumbo-jumbo, no medals for Miller

Bode Miller now is 0 for 3, 0 for 4 or 0 for 15.

That means Miller has not won a medal in 15 events of the three major championships in the last four years.

At the 2009 worlds that ended Sunday in Val d'Isere, France, he failed to finish three races, including the first run of Sunday's slalom, and his top finish was eighth in the downhill.

But he did criticize the three medalists in the super-giant slalom because they skied defensively on a course that demanded it.  He, by comparison, threw away a medal in the combined by skiing like a mad fool in the slalom leg and missing a gate, and he was 12th in the Super-G.

He was better in the 2007 worlds: sixth, seventh, 15th, 24th, one DNF.

And, sort of, in the 2006 Olympics: fifth, sixth, two DNFs, one disqualification.

That means he has finished barely half his races (eight of 15) in the last three world championships.

Now there is no question he caught a very bad break in the 2009 downhill, forced to ski through fog so thick the race should have been stopped. And Miller has been battling an ankle injury all season.

But the man who is rightly called the greatest male skier in U.S. history is struggling as never before.

After a 2008 season in which he won the World Cup title with six race victories and five other podium finishes, Miller has not won a race, made the podium just twice and had only four other top-10 finishes this season.

"The results are disappointing, the skiing wasn't,'' Miller said on Sunday.

That was typical Miller mumbo-jumbo, explaining away his failures by insisting, like an artist whose paintings don't sell, that the way he skis, in some search for the ethereal, counts for more than medals.

In an interview last week with Alan Abrahamson of Universal Sports, Miller mentioned he might skip the 2010 Olympics, saying it was "probably likely'' he would retire after this season.

Miller did the same dance the year before the 2006 Olympics.  It made big news because he was coming off a 2005 season in which he won the World Cup overall and world titles in downhill and Super-G.  There was almost a "say it ain't so'' reaction from the non-ski-specialist media, who were told Miller was a ski genius and had yet to discover Miller is a tedious bore given to statements that smack of hypocrisy.

He worried in 2005 that winning a bunch of gold medals would make it hard for him to lead a normal life.  But he likes the life of success, with its Porsches and fast groupies and the rest of the accouterments.

That was no issue after his performance at the 2006 Olympics.

And he is no issue heading toward the 2010 Winter Games, even if he may decide to compete and probably still is capable of getting the Olympic gold medal so lacking from his resume, but not the resumes of nearly all the other great skiers in history.

I leave the last word to John Meyer of the Denver Post, who has paid close attention to skiing for years.

His Saturday blog was headlined, "Bode has become irrelevant -- does anybody care?''

You know the answer.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: An all-too-familiar sight: Bode Miller failing to finish, this time in the first run of the men's slalom Sunday at the world championships.  Credit: Alessandro Trovati / Associated Press

Lindsey Vonn's thumb injury puts her season in doubt

U.S skier Lindsey Vonn will wait to see if she can ski without "extreme pain'' in training before deciding whether to compete in Saturday's slalom, the final women's race at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France.

Vonn, who won Monday's downhill, said today that the condition of the thumb -- which she cut while opening a Champagne bottle Monday at a victory party -- could compromise the rest of her season.

Speaking about the party, Vonn said what "was supposed to be a wonderful night turned into total chaos.''

Read Philip Hersh's full report on latimes.com/sports.

Photo: Lindsey Vonn at today's news conference. Credit: Frank Fife / AFP / Getty Images

U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn out of Thursday's giant slalom

American Lindsey Vonn, winner of the super-G and Monday's downhill at the world championships in France, is out of tomorrow's giant slalom, the U.S. ski team announced.

Vonn had surgery Tuesday to repair an injury to her right thumb and will have more treatment on that thumb in order to be better prepared for Saturday's slalom.

Giant slalom is the weakest event for Vonn, who never has made a World Cup podium in the discipline.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn, post surgery. Credit: Kerstin Joensson / Associated Press

Lindsey Vonn undergoes surgery to repair tendon damage

U.S. ski queen Lindsey Vonn's participation in Thursday's world championship giant slalom is in doubt after she underwent surgery in Austria to repair tendon damage to her right thumb, which she cut while opening a celebratory bottle of champagne Monday.

Vonn, who won the world championship downhill Monday in Val d'Isere, France, flew by private jet Tuesday to Innsbruck, where she underwent surgery at Privatklinik Hochrum, according to the U.S. ski team.

She was remain overnight in Austria and return to Val d'Isere Wednesday.

"The surgery went fine" said U.S. ski team doctor Richard Quincy. "She will have a splint and should be able to grip her ski pole. We anticipate she will be ready to compete in Saturday's slalom and possibly the giant slalom Thursday."

"Everything went really well and I couldn't be more thankful for the care that I've received," said Vonn, who has won gold medals in super G and downhill in Val d'Isere. "The support I've received from my fans has been awesome and I'm looking forward returning to Worlds and challenging for another medal."

Vonn was driven from Val d'Isere to Geneva, Switzerland, where she met a plane supplied by her sponsor, Red Bull.

-- Philip Hersh

Lindsey Vonn in stitches after gold medal celebration

Lindsey Vonn made it down the mountain at an average speed of 50 mph with no problem on Monday.

The celebration of her world title in the downhill several hours later was a bit more dangerous.

Vonn needed four stitches in her right thumb after cutting it while opening a Champagne bottle Monday night in Val d'Isere, France.

"I really think I'm safer skiing 85 miles per hour,"  Vonn said. "I'm in a little bit of pain, but this shouldn't slow me down."

Vonn's next race is the giant slalom on Thursday.

Any pain from the cut would probably be more of a factor during Saturday's slalom, because racers routinely whack their hands on gates in slalom races.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn celebrates after posting the fastest time in the women's downhill at the alpine skiing world championships in Val d'Isere, France, on Monday. Credit: Fel / Presse Sports via US Presswire

Bode Miller fails to finish in men's Super Combined

U.S. skier Bode Miller needed only a relatively conservative slalom run late this afternoon to win the gold in the men's Super Combined at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France, but instead missed a gate midway down the course and failed to finish.

Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, meanwhile, held onto his lead from the downhill leg to win the third world title of his career. France's Julien Lizeroux was second.

Stay tuned to Fabulous Forum and to latimes.com/sports for more coverage of the world championships.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Bode Miller struggles to keep his balance during the Super Combined race. He missed a gate and did not complete the race. Credit: Alessandro Trovati / Associated Press

Lindsey Vonn wins second gold, makes more history

She was bummed after learning she had missed a gate in the Super Combined slalom Saturday after a finish that apparently had won a silver medal.

She was bummed about the one-day delay in the women's downhill caused by relentless snow Sunday.

But it is a mark of just how confident Lindsey Vonn has become that she simply shrugged that off and put together a flawless run today to win the downhill title at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France.

"It was a tough day for me,'' Vonn said.  "We've had two days off, and I have kind of been thinking about the Super Combined, being disqualified there.

"I was actually really nervous in the start, but my husband was there, and he really calmed me down and got me in the right mood for fighting and attacking. That's what I did.''

It gave Vonn another place in the history books as the first U.S. woman to win more than one gold medal in a stand-alone worlds since the event began in 1931. (Andrea Mead Lawrence won two golds at the Olympics in 1952, when the Olympics counted as a worlds.) [The year of Andrea Mead Lawrence's double gold win was corrected at 2:30 p.m.]

It also tied Vonn, who won two silvers in 2007, with Tamara McKinney as the most decorated U.S. woman in worlds history (four medals).

"I live for a moment like today,'' she said after joining former U.S. skiers Picabo Street (1996) and Hilary Lindh (1997) as world downhill champions.

Meanwhile, Bode Miller put himself in contention for a medal in the Super Combined today with one of his typically hair-raising downhill runs. Miller somehow kept himself on the course at the top to finish just 4/100ths behind Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway.

France's Jean-Baptiste Grange, the World Cup slalom leader this season, was expected to be the leading challenger to Svindal and Vonn in the slalom leg later today after losing just 1.4 seconds in the downhill.

On a women's downhill course with just two compression bumps and little chance to glide in a tuck, Vonn's extraordinary ability to find the right line and hit the turns perfectly made the difference.

She finished .52 seconds ahead of Lara Gut, the 17-year-old Swiss phenom, and .57 ahead of Nadia Fanchini of Italy.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsay Vonn. Credit: Pool photo / Getty Images

Lindsey Vonn wins world title

Lindsey Vonn of the United States won the World Championships Super-G on Tuesday in Val d'Isère, France, with a time of 1 minute, 20.73 seconds. She screamed for joy when she saw the time.

Vonn finished 34/100ths of a second ahead of France's Marie Marchand-Arvier. It is Vonn's first gold medal in her three world meets.

"It's a pretty darn good feeling,'' Vonn said after the race. "It gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of these championships and the next Olympics.  I haven't had great results in the past two Olympic Games or world championships. I learned today I can do it under pressure.''

Her performance was more impressive on a difficult course with conditions that had deteriorated considerably by the time Vonn started (21st in the racing order). Three of the top five finishers were among the first five starters, and 16 of the 55 starters failed to finish.  Vonn, 25, who has entered all five events, next races in Friday's Super-Combined.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lindsey Vonn of the United States, center, celebrates after winning the women's Super G competion at the Alpine World Ski Championship in Val d'Isère, France, on Tuesday. Marie Marchand-Arvier of France, left, was second, and Andrea Fischbacher of Austria took third. Credit: Helmut Fohringer / European Pressphoto Agency

Philip Hersh: Lindsey Vonn could be greatest U.S. women's skier

Lindsey Vonn is on the verge of being recognized as the greatest women’s skier in U.S. history.

You could have seen this coming four years ago, until Vonn hit a speed bump a lot bigger than the molehill outside Minneapolis where she learned to ski. It was a year before the last Olympics, when Vonn –- then Lindsey Kildow  –- went into the world championships as the 20-year-old sensation who was chewing up the world’s gnarliest downhill courses.

But there was too much going on in her head then. Vonn felt not only the pressure of sudden expectations but the emotional tension of a strained relationship with her father, who had managed her career so closely he often crossed the line between support and stage managing.

(Amateur psychology, 101:  Alan Kildow was struggling to deal with the idea that her boyfriend, Thomas Vonn, a former World Cup skier, was playing an increasingly important role in Lindsey’s life. The couple was married on Sept. 29, 2007).

So Vonn finished 9th in her first race at those 2005 worlds, fled the media to go cry in her hotel room, then graciously came down an hour later to talk with me and a couple other U.S. reporters who had made the trip to Italy.

Then she finished fourth in her next race. And fourth again in her final race.  She came to talk with the media, broke down in tears, walked away, then returned for questions she answered with a muffled sob or a forced laugh.

"Tears can only speak for me," Vonn said.

Fast forward to now, the year before the Vancouver Games, and you find a confident, celebrated Vonn heading into the biennial world championships that began Tuesday in Val d'lsere, France with the women’s Super-G.

She could win that race.

She could also win the downhill, the combined and the slalom.

Or she could come away without a gold medal, so unpredictable are ski results in events like the world championships and Olympics, so demanding is it for her to ski all five disciplines in the next 12 days.

"I’ve gotten a handle on media and expectations," she said last week. "But I’m pretty hard on myself. I expect a lot from myself. I would like to win a gold medal as much as other people would like to have me win one.  There’s definitely a little pressure."

It was a triumph for her just to compete at the 2006 Olympics after a horrific crash in downhill training. Talk about getting back on the horse: she skied all five events, finishing eighth in the downhill.

In 2007, she broke the world meet jinx with silvers in downhill and Super-G. Then came winning the World Cup overall title last year. That proved to Vonn she had the consistency to be a contender in every race –- and the ability to handle the tension of having the battle for the title go down to the penultimate race.

"The final week of last season was incredibly difficult," she said. "But I has some of my best results that week.  The experience definitely matured me in a lot of ways."

That showed when she hit a rough patch in mid-December after getting this World Cup season off to a fast start. Vonn rebounded with stunning results in the past two weeks and arrived at the worlds (via private jet provided by Red Bull, one of her sponsors) having won the last two World Cup races.

Her five victories this season have tied Vonn with Tamara McKinney atop the all-time victory list (18) for U.S. skiers on the World Cup.  Last year, Vonn passed Picabo Street as the all-time U.S. leader in World Cup downhill wins.

This season, Vonn also has revitalized the gate-skiing roots she established years ago on the 310-foot vertical drop of Buck Hill in Minnesota by winning her first two World Cup slaloms.

Her closest rival in the World Cup standings, Germany’s Maria Riesch, virtually conceded this year’s title to Vonn -– with 12 races to go! -– after she opened a nearly 200-point lead with victories in slalom and Super-G last weekend.

Vonn is a one-woman army for the U.S. team in Val d’Isere.  In 22 World Cup races this season, she has nine podium finishes; no teammate has any.  She has another eight top-10 finishes; the rest of the team has three.

A win next year on the Olympic slopes of Whistler, B.C. would leave her no peer among U.S. women skiers, present and past.

"I can’t help but dream about what Whistler could be," she said.

She is a woman on the verge of a nerveless breakthrough.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo (top): Lindsey Vonn celebrates winning the women's Super G race on Sunday. Credit: Mitch Gunn-US PRESSWIRE

Photo (inset): Lindsey Vonn. Credit: Olivier Morin / AFP / Getty Images