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A typical women's world cup DH run is in the 90+ second range so it's not like she isn't used to going full out for that amount of time. It does seem a bit strange but I wouldn't rule it out based on 'explosive' vs. 'aerobic'.
You also have to take into account that she is an absolutely legendary athlete - perhaps the greatest female alpine skier of all time.
But the specificity is extremely different. A huge part of skiing is isometric-ish contractions. I.e., in a 400m, count the number of steps taken. Now compare that to the actual number of distinct contractions in a skiing event, even like slalom. It's not the same.
Skiing is also seriously quad-dominant. Running - especially something "longer" like the 400m - is going to be predominately hamstring dominant. I would think that Vonn would do best where "out of the blocks" type motion - even something like 60m, which is run indoors - is way more her style.
it's not a knock at all at her athleticism. But I'd wager pretty strongly that if you hooked up an EMG to a WC skier and hook one up to even a HS track 400m runner, that you wouldn't see ANY sort of similarity in terms of muscle engagement.
Skiing is explosive in a VERY different way than running is explosive. It's just illogical. It'd be like assuming that Fabian Cancellara could run a 52sec 400m because he bikes really fast and biking is an aerobic, leg-dominant sport. It just doesn't make ANY sense.
I agree with this. 400m is not like the 40m-50m dash or even a 200m. I would be willing to bet that she would be an incredible 50-100m sprinter but 400m is a totally different event. I'm also suspect of the coach clocked deal. I was "coach clocked" with a 4.2 40 my freshman year in highschool, which in "real life" was probally 4.5-5.0. In the NFL that much difference determines where you are drafted! I would bet that her 52 is actually 60+. I've seen her training vids (many times) and that style is very similiar to football training where being extremely fast for a short amount of time is the most prized skill.
I also think it's amusing to watch endurance athlete's try to equate spriniting times with endurance times. An endurance athlete's idea of fast is different from a sprinter's idea of fast.