Vail skier Lindsey Vonn won a gold medal at the super-G yesterday in France, excelling in tough conditions and setting the stage for a good performance in the Vancouver Olympic Games next February. “I skied with my heart but also my mind,” Vonn tells The Associated Press.

Vonn, 24, thanked her parents and four siblings for moving from Burnsville, Minnesota, to Vail when she was 11 so that she could develop as a skier: “They made a huge sacrifice to bring me out to Colorado so I could ski.”