Vonn, LindseyAs we pointed out a couple weeks back, Vail’s Lindsey Vonn, the country’s best hope for an Olympic medal in Vancouver in February 2010, wants Americans to become more jazzed about downhill skiing.

Let’s hope her advocacy didn’t take a hit this weekend after Vonn’s performance at the World Cup event in Aspen, where she did not complete the slalom.

Vonn was one of several riders to openly complain that the course was too icy after workers injected water into the snow to try and keep the surface consistent for all the riders. She tells the New York Daily News it was like trying to ski on pond ice: “It’s like ice skating. It’s not ski racing anymore.”

The icy conditions kept every American woman out of the second run of the race but didn’t prevent others from having success. Sarka Zahrobska of the Czech Republic won the race ahead of two Austrians, stating the obvious: “If you want to win, you have to know how to ski on every snow on every course.”

Still, Vonn remains a legit contender for Olympic gold in Vancouver and will now head to the annual World Cup races in Lake Louise, Alberta, where she has won races in each of the last five years.