Clark wants to be queen of U.S. hill Maine downhill skier set for career peak

COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. – Being the next great American female downhill skier is not enough for Kirsten Clark.

She wants to be a great skier – period.

Just 24 years old, the Raymond, Maine native already has five top-10 World Cup finishes – and one victory – in the downhill and super G, skiing’s speed events.

On Wednesday, she surprised even herself with a ninth-place finish in the World giant slalom.

The second of her two runs – at 1 minute, 10.15 seconds – was the fastest of all 30 women in the field.

Had she not been a bit too nervous in her World Cup season debut in the first run, when she was the 50th skier on the course out of 78 racers, who knows how high she might have finished?

“The first runs I had a lot of nerves and I was really stiff and I didn’t see the top part of the course as well as I should have,” she said. “I made a plan for what I needed to do in the second run, and it worked out.”

Work is the definitive word for Clark. She first put on skis at age 3 and began racing at 7. Her approach is serious and diligent.

“Kristen had an incredible day,” U.S. women’s coach Marjan Cernigoj said. “It’s just the result of her incredible preparation and professionalism she brings to the sport and her career. It was a very, very good performance, especially on her second run.”

With her first World Cup victory in the downhill last spring in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, Clark already had positioned herself as the heir apparent to Picabo Street as the top U.S. women’s speed skier.

Yet she always had an eye on the giant slalom, the event in which she had excelled as a teen-ager.

“I was named to the U.S. team mostly through my giant slalom, and I definitely struggled to bring it back,” she said. “I think having three strong events on the World Cup circuit just shows a solid skier across the board.”

Clark’s 10th-place finish in the combined giant slalom and downhill at last season’s world championships hinted that there was more to Clark than downhill speed.

But speed is definitely her biggest strength.

Her downhill time in the combined event at the worlds was the fastest in the field, and two weeks later she won her first World Cup title in the downhill at Lenzerheide.

She said the work she does in the giant slalom can only help her in the downhill.

“I feel strongly that the GS carries over into the downhill and super G as far as technique goes,” she said.

That could come in especially handy on the Snowbasin downhill course, site of the Olympic downhill at the Salt Lake City Games.

In the meantime, Clark plans to mix in giant slalom races with her downhill and super G efforts.

“If I keep getting top 10s, I know I’m going to be racing a lot more GS’s than I originally planned,” she said.

For now, though, she is off to Lake Louise, near Calgary, where the season’s first World Cup downhill and super G races are scheduled.

“I’m definitely going to take the confidence that I have from this first top 10 GS finish into Lake Louise,” Clark said. “It means I know that I can ski well.”