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Sunday, January 15, 2006
Despite injury setbacks, Clark's not ready to quit
Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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It was 1994 when Kirsten Clark made the U.S. Ski Team, a fresh-faced speed specialist from the lakeside town of Raymond. She was 17 and fast. She was ready to work. Twelve years later, the 28-year-old Clark stands on the precipice of her third and perhaps final Olympics - a longevity reached only by the elite. Maine's most accomplished female speed skier has stood atop World Cup podiums and has been crowned an American champion, but an Olympic medal has eluded her in an otherwise standout career. Earning a medal will be Clark's focus next month in Turin, Italy - a daunting goal, but attainable if her knee holds up, the snow is packed hard and the stars align above the Italian Alps. Clark's career-best Olympic finish is a respectable 12th place in the downhill at Utah's Snowbasin in 2002. "You go there wanting medals and wanting to win," said Clark. "Skiing is one of the greatest sports there is out there. Just feeling the wind in your face. That adrenaline of race day, the whole lead-up to when I kick out of the start. That excitement, I don't think it can be simulated anywhere else." Clark will race the downhill and super-G in Sestriere, a mountain village outside Turin. She has collected two top-10s this season despite a major setback caused by a staph infection in her knee. The infection put Clark in a hospital this September and significantly set back her training. It was a complication from a knee injury Clark sustained in Austria in January 2004, when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament in a crash. Clark has rebounded impressively, pulling in a fifth-place and a seventh-place finish at the first two World Cup events this season. Her health setbacks have served as motivation. "It wasn't easy coming back from my ACL," Clark said. "I had been third in the world the year before and was struggling to get top-10s last winter. It was hard mentally to swallow that. At the same time, I think knowing that I'm capable of doing more pushes me to keep going." Prior to her knee injury, Clark had put together a career year in 2002-03, with 10 top-10 finishes. She finished second in the World Cup downhill standings and snagged a silver medal at the World Championships in super-G. Although her age could be considered a hindrance in a youth-filled sport, Clark says she wants to continue to compete on the World Cup circuit after the Olympics. She plans to race next year and will take a year-by-year approach after that. "I don't know as far as this being my last Olympics," said Clark, who will turn 29 in April. "It's not going to be my last season. I still have the desire to win and want to be doing it. . . . I still have a lot that I want to accomplish and I think I'm capable of accomplishing it. I'd love to go into a season 100 percent healthy and physically strong." Clark started skiing at age 3, chasing her older brother Sean down the mountain, and her racing career blossomed at Sugarloaf as a student at Carrabassett Valley Academy. Clark had a typical upbringing in Raymond - nothing like fellow CVA classmate Bode Miller, whose mountain-spun childhood has a storybook ring to it. Even before attending CVA, Clark was a driven athlete. She played soccer at North Yarmouth Academy, played Little League with boys, and made friends easily. "She was just kind of a normal kid, truth be told," said Joan Clark, Kirsten's mother. "She never had trouble in school, got a good citizenship award in sixth grade, the headmaster's award at the academy. She was a nice kid, which doesn't make much of a story." Joan moved up to the family camp when Sean and Kirsten attended CVA so the two could be day students rather than boarders. The support helped Clark become Junior Olympics downhill champion by age 16. Since then, she's punched out dozens of World Cup top-10s in downhill and super-G, including a World Cup downhill victory at Lenzerheide, Switzerland, in 2001. Quite a career for the girl from Raymond. "Her career's been awesome," said Sean, who pursued pro skiing for several years and now coaches in Jackson Hole, Wyo. "I like to live vicariously through her. So I'd like to see her keep going. I hope that she can put a couple of runs together next month. But if not, it's not that big of a deal. I'm sure she'd be psyched." Clark's longevity in skiing is impressive, said Julie Parisien, an Auburn native who raced slalom and giant slalom in the 1990s. The two were U.S. Ski Team teammates for a couple of years. "It's incredibly hard. It's amazingly hard. It's a young person's sport," said Parisien, now 34 and a mother. Parisien easily recalled Clark's work ethic and suspects that is what has carried her for so long. "Kirsten is, and always has been, an incredibly hard worker. She has talent. But I think her work ethic has taken her further," said Parisien. "She's just one of those workhorses." Parisien, who is living in Michigan while her husband attends medical school, doesn't get cable television and rarely sees live skiing anymore. But she'll make sure to tune in next month. "The thing is, she so deserves it," said Parisien. "She's quiet. Puts her nose down. But as a teammate of hers, she's the person you can always sort of look to and count on being there. She's the (underdog you) cheer for." And Clark hopes it can all come together. "Each race is getting better and better," said Clark. "In super-G, I can feel myself charging and attacking the hill. (Downhill) is still a little more passive from missing the training, but each race it gets better and better." Staff Writer Jenn Menendez can be contacted at 791-6426 or at:
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