What got me thinking about skiing again was a couple of really cold mornings early this month..it was 40 degrees twice the first week of August. Also, I got an email about a promotion at a ski shop in Rochester. Lindsey Vonn was going to be there. My daughter went on the website and registered. The event would be on a Friday night. Rochester is a couple hours away but I figured this would be pretty fun and great inspiration for my daughter. I (it turns out wrongly) assumed that getting the confirmation email meant the event was planned so we would be able to meet Lindsey, get an autograph and/or a picture with her.
We left Friday after work and stopped at an outlet mall along the way. We didn't really need a whole lot but we were going by and school is coming (my daughter is in high school) so we poked around a bit. My daughter bought a new, white cover for her phone to use for the autograph!. When we arrived at the ski shop, we parked and got in line. It was a long line. In a few minutes there were about a hundred people behind us but there were thousands in front of us. Apparently, everyone was confirmed by email. We seemed to have been had.
Now, Lindsey had a problem. She had been in the shop for about 2 hours and met less that 25% of the people waiting for her. She was put into a situation where the planning was mostly absent. Apparently, about 10 people at a time were let into the store to meet her. At the rate things were moving it would take about 8 hours total to get to everyone. How could anyone expect someone to sign 3 or 4 thousand autographs in a two hour visit? No one seemed to be going anywhere. We decided to stay until they told us to go but had come to the realization that our chances were really, really slim at getting to meet Lindsey.
I have never condisdered myself a huge fan of Lindsey. I love her skiing and her drive. She has incredible focus. She just never seems to be too happy to me. When she won her first Olympic gold medal she broke down and her comments were something about giving up her life for this. No doubt she was happy and over whelmed but it made me feel a bit sorry for her that she felt the sacrifice first and not the joy. I realize I may have misinterpreted the situation but it made an impact on me. I have been an alpine ski racing coach for many years and I always struggle to make it fun for all my athletes. Ski racing is the hardest sport, also the coolest, but definately the hardest. There are so many variables on race day that the outcome is mostly unpredictable. My favorite ski racing athletes (actually, athletes of any sport) are those that you know just love their sport and thoroughly enjoy being part of it all. Those athltetes are great models for the athletes I work with. I never really got that from Lindsey.
Back to Lindsey's current problem. Even though she was stuck in a situation that was way out of her control, she, being the celebrity, would get all the blame. People are completely used to ranting hard in the comments under every website that provides a space for comments. Partly due to the online anonymity (or maybe it is reality television), we seem to have become amazingly rude as a society and what is worse, it has become acceptable behavior. Lindsey was going to get it. I was feeling bad for her and the discussion with my new found skiing friends in line became about her horrible situation.
All of a sudden, at the end of the line (there were still about 100 people behind me) there was Lindsey with a small entourage greeting everyone in the line. She had exited the back of the store and come around the building. As she worked her way toward us, I got out of the way, let my daughter get to her to get her phone autographed. I snapped a couple of pictures. She was great with all kids, happy to meet everyone. Truly amazing. After she passed by, we watched for a few minutes and then headed to our car. I read in the news the next day that she made her way all the way back to the store and went in to meet the last group that was allowed into the store. The estimate was 4,000 people.
Lindsey was able to salvage the pretty bad situation more than remarkably well. She was so gracious and happy. It was great to see. My daughter got her autograph and a nice picture with her. She was sorry she did not get to speak with her but it turned out great after what seemed like seeing Lindsey would be an impossibility. She has also committed to meeting Lindsey again someday. I am a new huge fan of Lindsey Vonn.
On the drive home, I was thinking about skiing. I can't wait.
