Olympic speed queen Lindh turns coach for Whitefish ski team

WHITEFISH, Mont. (AP) — Forward, fast and strong.

Those were the only three words Olympic downhill skiing silver medalist Hilary Lindh said to herself as she stood in the starting gate at the 1997 World Championships in Sestriere, Italy. This mantra evolved throughout her career to keep all distractions at bay as she mentally prepared for each race. By repeating those three words in the hours leading up to race time, she focused on positive thoughts while filtering out distractions and worries about winning.

“That’s the death sentence in sports,” Lindh said. “Is thinking, ‘What do you need to do to have that result?’”

Lindh won gold at that race in Italy more than two decades ago, and she remembers that pivotal moment in her career, the Flathead Beacon reports. She crossed the finish line in first place, but before that, she knew she had done everything she could to get there, and her results didn’t matter. Even though she had already participated in three Olympics, won a silver medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, had three World Cup victories and a World Championship bronze medal, all in downhill, she remembers a long journey getting to her victory in Italy after some disappointing results at the start of the season.

Her coach at the time, Herwig Demschar, who hailed from Austria and coached her on the U.S. Ski Team from 1994 to 1997, says it was one of the most memorable and satisfying moments of his career, too.

Although Lindh didn’t know it at the time, that was the last season of her career. The season before, Demschar says she wasn’t sure if she wanted to continue racing. Thoughts of retiring had distracted her, so she chose not to think about retirement the following winter. She wasn’t skiing to her full potential, which Demschar blamed...