This is a failure of the media/sports industrial complex. We exploit them at younger and younger ages and when they're spit out the other side...they've got no education, few skills, they've been to the top and they're never going to be able to get there ever again.
I feel sorry for Britney Spears. Who wanted her to be famous, her parents or herself? Can a girl that age even make that decision?
I'd tell everybody to go to school, to graduate from college, call it seasoning.
The funny thing is you're in college, rearing to get going. Wanting to eat up the world. Believing you're falling behind.
When ultimately this is untrue. You hit an age... Could be your late twenties, usually sometime in your thirties, where you're doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, or maybe just coasting, and you wonder what you were so hungry for, why you wanted to get started so soon, life is long and there's plenty of time.
But you don't know that when you're young.
What causes someone to excel? Is it nature or nurture? Biology or hard work? Ultimately it's a combination of the two. You've got to have the physical skills, the body, but then whether you win or not depends upon dedication. And training is not enough. The greats don't choke in competition, they get even better!
So Lindsey Kildow is growing up in Minneapolis. Training at Buck Hill, a bump by the freeway whose race program is run by the legendary Erich Sailer, who has trained Olympians previously. Lindsey has success, she's tall and strong, she could go all the way, but you've got to get out of Minnesota to do this, you've got to go to...
Vail. Where they have world class training facilities and educational opportunities alongside.
This splits up the family. Ultimately her parents separate. But her dad is a successful lawyer and there's enough money to make it work. You need the money in ski racing, the equipment and travel eat up your dollars.
So now all the hopes and dreams of the family are invested in young Lindsey. The pressure is overwhelming. Look at all the rubble in her wake, now she's got to make it.
And she does, she has the skills, and...
She shines at the only moment the American public pays attention, the Olympics, where she wins gold in the downhill, the signature skiing event.
And there's reams of copy. How she was injured. How she put cheese on her shins to assuage the pain, how she skied on men's skis with two edges. But she delivered, she triumphed, she was the all-American girl.
She fit the construct.
She was tall, blonde and beautiful.
Now the bottom line is the greatest skier in history is racing right now, Mikaela Shiffrin. She's better than any man, she broke Ingemar Stenmark's legendary World Cup victory record, and isn't done yet. And unlike either Stenmark or Vonn, Shiffrin can win in every event, both the speed and the technical.
And it turns out Shiffrin is very verbal, and insightful.
And certainly attractive.
But she's not a pinup, or the media does not see and promote her as such.
So there's endless press on Vonn.
Which is Lindsey's last name since she married Thomas Vonn. A young girl gets into a controlling marriage. To have security, to escape family turmoil. Her father disapproves and doesn't even come to the wedding. And Vonn helps her win, but ultimately Lindsey wants out and...
Vonn sabotages her equipment.
But Lindsey gets past that and wins again.
Now all these skiers have had injuries. Some more than others. Kildow/Vonn had a ton. But she always came back. The skills remain. That's what Bode Miller told me.
We'll get back to that.
But her knees... The cartilage is evaporating. She wants to break Stenmark's record, but ultimately she has to give up, she's in just too much physical pain. She says she wants to be able to ski with her kids while they're growing up.
Meanwhile, subsequent to the breakup with Vonn, Lindsey gets involved with Tiger Woods. But he steps out on her just like he did Elin Nordegren. And although Lindsey is in the public eye, she comes from a solid background, she's not Hollywood trash, one faux pas and Tiger's out.
But there's never a steady replacement.
And now Vonn is retired. Getting further surgery. And showing up in a bathing suit everywhere, she's a staple in celebrity news, the first skier since Suzy Chaffee to achieve this status, and, in fact, superseding Chaffee by far.
But that's not enough.
Now skiing is an interesting sport. It's a lifetime sport, like golf, or tennis, you can do it forever. But you can't compete at the top level forever, people have tried.
Prior to Bode, the most legendary American World Cup skier was Phil Mahre. He hit the same wall as Lindsey, his life just wasn't meaningful enough, he decided to come back. The skills were still there, but the body was not. He just couldn't compete with the twentysomethings, ultimately he gave up.
And then there's the sad story of Bill Johnson, an outcast who came from nowhere to win the Olympic downhill gold in Sarajevo, like Babe Ruth even predicting it! Subsequently his home life was a disaster, his young son died in a hot tub, he tried to come back, but...
The equipment had changed.
He kept his gold medal underneath the front seat of his truck, it was all he had left.
But skiers no longer used Atomic Red Sleds, straight planks, they employed shorter shaped skis, with such radical sidecuts that they turned themselves instantly when pressured. And Bill was training and his skis separated and he fell and experienced a brain injury and lived for a little bit, but ultimately died, sad and broke.
Now back to Bode. If you follow World Cup ski racing, and you probably don't, the big story on the men's side of the coin this year is the return of Marcel Hirscher. One of the best male skiers ever, maybe the very best. Hirscher won eight overall World Cups and quit. He had nothing left to prove. He rode his motorcycle. And then...
He decided to get into the ski business. He created Van Deer skis. He decided to come back, but he's only 35. And Bode tells me Hirscher can win, because the crop of guys winning now...just don't have his skills, we will see.
But unlike Vonn, and like Stenmark and even Alberto Tomba, Hirscher does not ski the downhill. It's just too dangerous, too risky. You can die. Literally. After all, speeds of ninety miles an hour are not uncommon. And if you follow World Cup ski racing you know...the runs are as smooth as glass, they're sheer ice, injected with water to ensure this. This is how the racers like it, everybody gets an equal chance.
So...
The average skier, I mean even the average skier who skis double blacks, if they found themselves on a World Cup course, they would not be able to hold an edge, they'd be sliding, they'd be completely freaked out.
Racing separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls. It's one thing to be an instructor, quite another to be a World Cup ski racer. And it's one thing to race slalom, quite another to race downhill.
Lindsey Vonn is going to race downhill.
This is an event of strength and speed. Technical discipline is key, but being able to hold a line, stand on your ski, it requires brute strength.
Which is why almost all the downhillers are large people. This mass also helps generate speed.
Can a forty year old hold an edge like a twenty year old? Under pressure, on ice?
Well, theoretically you can work in the gym.
Which is what Vonn does, she's a noted gym rat.
So what's she got... Her body, her good looks, her image. Her workouts. Maybe some dates, no long term love. Maybe she froze her eggs, maybe the window to have children is not closing.
So football players... Some get MBAs and become entrepreneurs.
But there are so many sad stories. Of brain damage and death. All the money frittered away.
John Madden said one NFL football game will compromise your body forever.
And if you're a legendary baseball player you can sign autographs.
How fulfilling is that?
Vonn wants to be fulfilled.
All those young music stars we laud... They missed out on so much. Sure, they're rich, they've had experiences, but this is all they can do, perform. Their options are limited, they're locked in. And there becomes a time when you're just too old to start all over again. And most people don't want to go back to zero, emotionally it's just too tough.
So Vonn has the world's attention.
Does the world really care?
OF COURSE NOT! The world doesn't care about anybody. You learn this as you get older. The spot in the news Vonn filled can be instantly filled by another.
And keeping yourself in the news is a full time job. It's hard to get off the merry-go-round.
But at some point you become two-dimensional, you're famous for what you did, and that's it.
And everywhere you go people see you as that triumph.
Even in the show "Rivals," Rupert cannot get past his triumphant showjumping days. Those were the peak of his life, he's been chasing that high ever since.
Anything is possible. Vonn could come back and do well, despite the odds being against her.
Probably she'll show up, make a few runs, realize she hasn't got it and hang it up.
It's so hard to hang it up. Ask Michael Jordan. Everybody who played beyond the sell date of their abilities.
Lindsey just can't go back to her regular life. Because she never built a regular life.
She didn't go to college and b.s. and find out who she was. Didn't go to different people's houses and meet their parents and experience role models, or the opposite. She was coddled and coached, all for victory.
She didn't have love relationships outside the spotlight. She didn't get high with no one paying attention. She didn't take classes in disparate subjects, ultimately widening her horizons, illustrating the possibilities.
Now some legendary ski racers have come down against this return, talking primarily about the potential for injury.
But the mainstream press, the one that made Vonn an icon? They're eating it all up. Who Lindsey actually is is irrelevant. It's a good story about someone people know.
There's nothing wrong with achievement. But at what cost?
What is life about, doing one big thing and coasting on that forever?
Especially in sports, young people specialize too early.
But some people don't find their path for years. And they've kept the doors open while they're looking.
This is a dangerous subject. Because Vonn is a beautiful, skilled, successful woman, a man really can't raise any questions about her behavior.
But in light of the election is this still so? Is every woman off limits to every man? Can we make no comment, no judgment?
People are skilled or not. Successful or not. Physically attractive or not. They've got personalities. And in truth, we're more alike than we are different.
I'd be saying all of the above if it was a guy trying to return.
Oh, but then there's that issue of children. There's this myth that you can have it all, but you can't no matter whether you're a man or a woman, to be the best in one thing, you've got to sacrifice another. Look at all the rock stars who don't really know their first families, because they were never home!
You can't judge anybody anymore. Everybody's off limits.
Or maybe they're not.
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