KILDOW WINS SIMPLY BY SHOWING UP.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

SAN SICARIO FRAITEVE, Italy - Maybe it didn't make a lot of sense unless you knew her. Always the aggressor, forever fearless, consistently positive.

This was something else, though, something that couldn't be bothered by everyday logic, that confronted common sense.

Lindsey Kildow wasn't having any of it, but in the end that shouldn't have been a surprise.

Her hip was bruised, her back in sharp pain. Forty-eight hours earlier she had been airlifted by helicopter to a Turin hospital after a horrific fall in a downhill practice run.

Yet there she was Wednesday, standing at the top of the women's downhill, preparing to test her body like never before, refusing to give in to the pain, to classic wisdom that said she really should be healing in bed.

``It is difficult going from the hospital bed to the starting gate,'' Kildow said. ``But I wasn't worried that I'd forgotten anything.''

Kildow, 21, couldn't be sure how her body would hold up Wednesday in the downhill, but it never occurred to her not to find out.

``Not racing wasn't an option,'' she said. ``That was a last resort. I wasn't even thinking about not racing at all.''

She took what therapy she could, received medication for pain and inflammation. It's inconceivable she was near top condition, yet she had to find out, had to discover how she could respond.

``It was important to know I could do it,'' Kildow said. ``I believed in myself.

``I had such a good feeling. I just had to try it. This is the Olympics.''

So, like defending Olympic champion Carole Montillet-Carles of France, who also was injured Monday during a practice run, Kildow took the lift up San Sicario Fraiteve to await her turn down the mountain.

Down below in the crowd her mother, Linda, waited, uncertain what to expect.

``I don't think she's nervous,'' Linda said. ``She's probably the most cool person I've ever known.''

Her mother was flying to Italy when her daughter lost control on a bump, went airborne and landed hard on her back.

``I really don't know what happened,'' Lindsey said. ``All I remember is being in my tuck and suddenly looking back at the gate.''

Her mother rushed to the hospital after her plane landed. The news had to be frightening, but there was relief when she saw her at the hospital.

``Once I saw her and she was in such good spirits and she looked so good ... I knew Lindsey was OK,'' Linda said. ``I don't know how you could do it. I don't know how you could keep wanting it that badly. I couldn't do that. I'm just in awe of her.''

Kildow had grown close to two-time Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street during her training, and Street tried to help her through her setback.

``She supported me and cried with me,'' Kildow said. ``She just said, 'I know you can do it. You can medal.' ''

But at the top of the downhill, it was just Kildow. Just a young woman who had almost exploded upon the World Cup scene the past two years, now fighting questions and doubts she had never expected.

``I was just worried my body wouldn't be able to hold up, but it did,'' she said. ``I told myself, 'Just don't think about it, just go.' ''

And so she did, attacking the slope, flying down the mountain. Her time was very good, if less than what she would have hoped prior to the accident.

The body held, the back did not give in, her nerves did not desert her.

``I was just a little nervous going through the bumps where I crashed,'' she said.

She finished in 1:57.78, good enough to tie for eighth. There would be no medal this time, but there was victory nonetheless.

``I'm just so happy she finished,'' Linda said. ``She looked tentative, but knowing what she went through, I thought it was a good finish.''

Her time was 1.29 seconds behind Austrian winner Michaela Dorfmeister, a veteran star who had never won Olympic gold and is retiring after this season.

It was a sweet moment for Dorfmeister, yet she took a moment to reflect on her American competitor.

``She has magic knees,'' Dorfmeister said. ``I think it's a miracle she's already skiing, and she did a good job.''

France's Montillet-Carles also completed her run, but her 28th-place finish was 4.54 seconds behind Dorfmeister.

Kildow walked stiffly after the race was over, her back still in obvious pain. She has four more races she can run. If it's uncertain whether she will compete in Friday's combined, she fully expects to ski again at these Olympics.

``I want to get a medal,'' she said. ``I still have other races. Don't give up on me yet.''

She has already triumphed, already pushed herself when it would have been easy to let the downhill pass. It's the one thing that makes perfect sense.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Lindsey Kildow, injured in a crash two days earlier, skis to a tie for eighth place Wednesday in the women's downhill.

Thomas Kienzle/Associated Press

(2 -- color) American Lindsey Kildow pauses after completing the women's downhill Wednesday in San Sicario Fraiteve, Italy.

Luca Bruno/Associated Press