LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Tucked in the heart of Banff National Park and surrounded by the mammoth grandeur of the Canadian Rockies, the Lake Louise ski area offers one of the world’s most picturesque settings for racing. When the World Cup tour rolls into this village two hours west of Calgary for races featuring the world’s best male and female downhillers, television coverage in North America and Europe showcase it as one of the continent’s most stunning tourist destinations.
Vail’s Lindsey Vonn would like to use that that setting for a race that could promote the sport far beyond its typical niche following, but also to pursue a dream that has long fascinated her. The most successful female World Cup racer in history wants one chance to compete against men in her best event — downhill — and she wants to do it here on a course where she has been almost unbeatable.
“I train with the men all the time and I really enjoy it,” Vonn said last week in an interview with The Denver Post. “They push me to be a better skier. I always find myself skiing my best when I’m skiing against them. I talk to them, I pick their brain, I see what they’re doing and I, in turn, ski faster. So I would like the opportunity to race against them and see where I stand.”
She plans to sit down with U.S. Ski Team alpine director Patrick Riml soon to develop a proposal he can take to International Ski Federation meetings this spring. The idea is for her to race men in Lake Louise the last weekend of November 2018, the annual spot on the calendar for men’s downhill and super-G here. The women always race here the following week.
“I know I’m not going to win, but I would like to at least have the opportunity to try,” Vonn said. “I think I’ve won enough World Cups where I should have enough respect within the industry to be able to have that opportunity.”
Vonn is the winningest female in history with 76 World Cup wins, so she has clout. She will have the support of U.S. Skiing, but that may not be enough to persuade the FIS, which is not known for forward thinking or creative marketing.
“Her desire to compete against men is fascinating, and I love the idea,” said Tiger Shaw, president and chief executive of U.S. Skiing. “Now, we need to work through the proper process. International governance is at play here. What we can do is work effectively behind the scenes as she works in front of the scenes. I think it’d be great for the sport. We have to evolve.”
Last summer Vonn spent a week training with the female U.S. downhillers in Portillo, Chile, returned to the U.S. and went back a week later to train with male downhillers from the U.S. and Norway, including Norwegian stars Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal. American Steven Nyman hopes Vonn gets her wish.
“It’d bring a lot of attention,” Nyman said. “In ski racing right now, there is no bigger personality. Why not capitalize on it?”
Uphill climb to make it happen
While many believe a race pitting Vonn against male downhillers would bring an avalanche of attention to World Cup racing, the man in charge of the women’s tour doesn’t buy it.
“I just don’t see the interest,” said Atle Skaardal, a former Norwegian downhiller who has been the race director of the women’s World Cup since 2005. “For me it’s a meaningless comparison. It doesn’t matter if she’s one second behind or a half-second ahead. We compete female against female and men against men. To me it doesn’t matter if one gender is faster or slower. It doesn’t mean it’s a good idea, just because it’s of interest to one racer. I haven’t heard of any other sport being dragged into this kind of position.”
Skaardal won two world championships gold medals in super-G in the 1990s. One of his seven World Cup victories came in a downhill at Lake Louise in 1991.
“You can set up a day where a female racer can compete against men racers, just as a show, but it has nothing to do with competition,” Skaardal said. “I don’t see that it’s going to change in the next years — no driving forces to urge a change like that. This is something the teams could do also in training. But why would you want to have a competition in this direction?”
Perhaps because it could be one of the most-watched races in the history of the World Cup? Perhaps because it would attract viewers who know nothing about the sport? Perhaps because Vonn has brought the women’s World Cup to new heights, and wants to continue to raise the sport’s profile?
“It’s definitely frustrating to hear that he said that, because I respect Atle very much,” Vonn said when informed of Skaardal’s remarks last week. “He does a great job on the World Cup, and he is a former racer, so he understands. It’s disappointing to hear he doesn’t support it. But maybe if we organize something and a plan is put in front of him, maybe he would change his mind. I think most of the men are supporting me.”
If the FIS were to consider the idea, Lake Louise organizers likely would welcome the opportunity to host it. The course is essentially the same for men’s and women’s downhills every year, and Vonn has been incredibly successful here, claiming 18 of her World Cup victories.
“What’s important to us is to grow the sport, profile Lake Louise,” said Brian Lynam, Lake Louise race chairman. “If it puts more focus on Lake Louise, where Lindsey has been so very successful, we’d try to support it any way we can as organizers…If someone said, ‘Make it happen,’ we’d make it happen.”
Women breaking barriers
Challenge matches of this sort have happened before. In 1973 the world’s top-ranked women’s tennis player, Margaret Court, played 55-year-old Bobby Riggs. That didn’t go well as Riggs won, 6-2, 6-1. That outcome got under the skin of Billie Jean King, who challenged Riggs. He accepted and King trounced Riggs in a widely hyped event at the Houston Astrodome.
Thirty years later the world’s most dominant female golfer, Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam, expressed her desire to play in a PGA Tournament. The Colonial Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas, put her in the field.
“You look at what Billie Jean King did, that was an incredible boost for women in tennis,” Vonn said. “The same goes for Annika. It was a big deal. I think it would be a great opportunity for women in sports and for ski racing as well. It would draw a lot of attention and a lot of much-needed international publicity.”
Sorenstam agrees, but she also understands why Vonn is so eager to test herself against the men. Sorenstam dominated women’s golf much like Vonn has dominated women’s skiing when healthy.
“How does she get better, that extra challenge?” Sorenstam said. “When you get to a certain point, you need that little extra that gets you more fired up. It would be great if she did it. There’s more to talk about, and men and women together is never a bad thing. It would draw a lot of publicity, excitement. She’d get a lot of fans. She’s not there to prove something other than get better.”
Sorenstam missed the cut at Colonial but still views playing in the tournament as one of her career highlights, mainly because of her willingness to put herself on the line.
“You had experts all over the place, having opinions on how you should do and why you shouldn’t,” Sorenstam said. “I was thankful for the opportunity. I said, ‘I’m just going to give my best, this is how I learn,’ and it was a learning experience. It was wonderful. It was just a fantastic opportunity.”
At Colonial, Sorenstam was among the tournament leaders in accuracy but lacked the strength of the men, forcing her to hit longer irons into greens where her putting failed her. Vonn, a maniac in the weight room, has always been one of the strongest women on the World Cup but concedes she’s not nearly as strong as the male racers.
“I’m not even close,” Vonn said.
But Lake Louise is what downhillers call “a glider’s course,” a track where finesse and feel are as important as strength.
“The advantage I do have is my gliding ability and my touch on the snow,” Vonn said. “The men have the strength and I have the touch. That’s another reason in Lake Louise, I could potentially do well.”
Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria, who won two gold medals at the 1999 world alpine championships in Vail and captured the World Cup overall title that season, agrees that Lake Louise is “a perfect hill” for Vonn but she doubts the FIS will ever approve the race.
“On one side, I would really love to see that, because I know she’s fast,” said Meissnitzer, now a commentator for Austrian television. “From the other side, if something happened, if she got hurt, it would be terrible. And the men can only lose. If they are way faster, then everyone is saying, ‘OK we expected that.’ She wouldn’t have anything to lose. But the men – and I am sure she would be faster than many of them – no (man) on the World Cup would like to be called, ‘You got beaten by a girl.’ So it’s not going to happen.”
Next season Vonn wants her primary focus to be on the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, hence her desire for the race against men to happen in November 2018. She’s even willing to put off retirement a year for the chance. She will be 33 at the 2018 Olympics.
“What is there to lose?” Vonn said. “I don’t think there is any downfall in doing it.”
Why Lake Louise?
There are good reasons why Lindsey Vonn has identified the Lake Louise World Cup stop near Calgary, Alberta, as the best place for her to compete in a downhill against men if she can convince the FIS to go along with the idea:
— Lake Louise is the only venue on the World Cup where men and women compete annually in downhill on the same course. They also compete annually in downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, but on different courses.
— Because of Vonn’s long history of dominance there, Lake Louise is sometimes nicknamed Lake Lindsey. Of her 76 World Cup wins, 18 have come there (14 in downhill, four in super-G).
A look at some notable examples of women competing against men
Babe Didrickson Zaharias: After winning two gold medals in track at the 1932 Olympics, Zaharias took up golf and won 10 LPGA tournaments. She played against men in the 1938 Los Angeles Open and missed the cut. She made the cut at three PGA events in 1945.
Annika Sorenstam: In 2003 the LPGA’s dominant player competed in the Colonial Invitational in Fort Worth, shooting 71-74 and missing the cut at 5-over par.
Roberta Gibb: The first woman to run the Boston Marathon, Gibb ran as a bandit (unregistered) in 1966, 1967 and 1968. She was officially declared the women’s winner of those races 30 years later at the race’s 100th running.
Billie Jean King: Four months after Bobby Riggs trounced Margaret Court, Billie Jean King played him at the Houston Astrodome in front of a crowd of 30,472 and beat him, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, catapulting interest in the women’s game.
Katie Hnida: A placekicker at Chatfield High School, Hnida walked on at the University of Colorado in 1999 and dressed for games but never played. She transferred to the University of New Mexico, where she became the first woman to score in a Division 1-A game.
Janet Guthrie: In 1977, she became the first woman to compete in the Indy 500 and Daytona 500.
Nancy Lieberman: Competed in summer basketball leagues against men and played two seasons in the USBL.
Manon Rheaume: A goaltender who won a silver medal in women’s hockey for Canada at the Olympics, Rheaume played for the Tampa Bay Lightning in preseason NHL games in 1992 and 1993.
