R & R in San Diego

SAN DIEGO -- I just landed in San Diego last night. It's nice to be back in the warm weather. I was out on the marina today looking at boats. I'm thinking about maybe living on a boat down here instead of getting an apartment.

My ankle is still bothering me. I've been going strong on it the past few weeks. That's why we decided to skip the Kitzbuehel slalom. That slalom was gnarly and really icy. I tried to warm up on it the morning of the race. I went up and thought maybe I could pull it off but I realized there was no point. I wouldn't have been racing to win -- it would have just been to get some points. I've already won that combined before so it didn't really make sense to set me back at this point with the Olympics coming up. My number one priority is to get my equipment dialed in and make sure my body is healthy. That would have been pretty counter-productive so we bailed on it.

I decided to race in Schladming because we needed to figure out if I had the speed to race slalom in the Olympics. If I don't have a chance to be in there in the medals, it's probably better to just save my energy. The conditions in Schladming were good. I made some mistakes but it was the first time this year where I've really shown good speed in slalom. Besides that mistake, my skiing was really pretty solid. We're leaning heavily towards me racing slalom in the Olympics. Whether or not I ski all five events in Vancouver is going to be a matter of how my ankle feels and how well my body holds up. I think the most important thing is that now I feel like I have the speed to be on the podium in all five events. If I didn't feel like that, I wouldn't race in the events where I didn't think I had a chance.

Some young guys were named to the Olympic team recently. Nolan scored his first World Cup points the other day in Schladming. I don't believe Will has ever scored any points. They're both fast and they're young so I think the team is probably trying to prepare them and get them some international experience so they can build off that.

I don't really have specific expectations for myself at the Olympics right now. I think I'm at a place where I have the speed to compete for medals in all the events that I'll be in. My motivation is good. Physically, I have little ailments but in general I'm in better shape than I was in the Olympics in '02 or '06. If I can get my ankle a little bit healthier in the next week and a half to two weeks, I'd be really psyched. My knee is decent. It's a little bit puffy and sore but no different than usual. Those are the things that I'm concerned with and that I can control more or less. Then, it comes down to race day. I tend to go out there and race really hard in all the events and that's what I plan to do.

As far as media attention at the Games -- if you're going to the Olympics, you're on the stage. Someone else is controlling where the spotlight is pointed so it could easily be anybody. I think I'll get some attention but with Lindsey doing so well this year, I think I'll be more under the radar than I was in '06. That was a joke; they blew that completely out of proportion. There's no way to know what it will be like until we get there. It won't be shocking either way and I'm capable of dealing with it.

I'm looking more forward to the Olympics more this time around because I feel like all the pieces are fitting together better -- I'm more physically fit, I feel better mentally, my equipment is good. I'll spend the next few days in San Diego, then will go out to the pre-Olympic training camp in Park City next week to do some fine-tuning.