Outlook for super skier getting better by the day

Lindsey Vonn’s availability for the Vancouver games is still day to day leading up to her opening race on Sunday.

WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP) — Each step was noted with enthusiasm, seen as a sign Thursday that, yes, Lindsey Vonn might very well compete in five Olympic races, might be able to think once again about medals, not medicine.

Painkillers and a Novocaine-like numbing cream for the American’s badly bruised right shin? They seemed to dull the aching.

Wearing ski boots, something painful and depressing every time she tried it last week? She yanked them on and did a course inspection.

Actually skiing down a hill for the first time since getting injured Feb. 2, albeit only in a free run and not on the official course? It hurt, sure, but was the most exciting step of all, one that convinced Vonn she was ready to take part in the opening women’s Olympic downhill training session later Thursday.

Alas, that practice wound up being called off after only two racers because of thick fog and low visibility — yet even that development was deemed encouraging by the group known as the Vonntourage.

“I was happy to be back on snow today,” said Vonn, who lives and trains in Vail, Colo. “My shin was still very painful, but I feel like the injury is finally progressing a bit. I am always disappointed when a training run is canceled, but in this situation I definitely welcome the extra day to heal.”

Indeed, her husband, Thomas, called the cancellation “fantastic.”

“It’s not like all her competitors are getting multiple runs down the course. Nobody got to ski it, really, today,” said Thomas Vonn, who serves as a coach and chief adviser to his wife. “So it’s another day of healing, and hopefully tomorrow she feels even better.”

He said she still aims to race in all five women’s Alpine events, which certainly would be a relief to the U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Olympic Committee and her fans — to say nothing of NBC and her various sponsors.

“She’s never taken any races off the table. It’s going to be a day to day: If she can do it, she’s going to do it,” Thomas Vonn said. “But she’s not pulling out of anything at this point, and it’s looking better than it was yesterday.”

U.S. Ski Team women’s coach Jim Tracy was as optimistic as anyone.

He knows full well her history of brushing aside injuries and pain — whether it was making the quick transition from hospital bed to starting gate after a horrific crash in downhill training at the 2006 Turin Olympics, or managing not to miss a single race after badly bruising her arm in December.

Said Tracy of his team’s most famous member: “We’re hoping that she’s going to go full-bore. ... We’re not talking about skipping any events. We’re on a normal program.”

And the ultimate decisions about how much to train and compete will be made by Vonn, not the team.

“I’m not going to tell her she can’t race. And I’m not going to tell her she has to race,” Tracy said. “It’s her health.”

Before her injury became known Wednesday, Vonn was widely considered a contender for perhaps three or four medals — and an overwhelming favorite to win golds in the downhill and super-G — and become the breakout star of the Vancouver Games.

The first women’s race of the Olympics, the super-combined, is scheduled for Sunday.