SOELDEN, Austria (Oct. 23) – Olympic champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) will reset the numbers Sunday, starting his journey towards a sixth giant slalom title as he seeks a fourth straight win in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup season opener in Soelden. Ligety, along with teammates and fellow Olympic champions Bode Miller (Franconia, NH), Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) and Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) will open the World Championship season among the favorites this weekend on the Rettenbach Glacier, where over a meter of new snow has fallen. Universal Sports Network will cover the action live both Saturday with women's giant slalom and Sunday for the men.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) will go for a fourth straight opener win when the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup debuts this weekend in Soelden.
- Chase for the Cup: Ligety will be chasing a sixth World Cup giant slalom title, looking for his third straight and fifth in six years.
- Olympic Champs: The U.S. Ski Team will start five men Sunday and three women Saturday including Olympic champions Ligety, Bode Miller (Franconia, NH), Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, CA) and Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO).
- U.S. Streak: Ligety and Miller have combined to win five of the last 10 World Cup openers in Soelden.
- Rookies: Snowbird’s Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) and Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City) will be making their Soelden debut.
- Watch it Live: American fans can watch second run action live with Steve Porino and Doug Lewis on the Universal Sports Network.
- Powder Days: Over a meter of new snow fell overnight Thursday on the Rettenbach Glacier.
- World Champs: The opener will kickoff a season that will feature the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships this February in Vail/Beaver Creek, where every event will be televised live.
U.S. STARTERS
Men
Ted Ligety (seven Soelden starts and hasn’t been off podium since 2005)
Women
Megan McJames (six previous Soelden starts, best 14th in 2008)
TV SCHEDULE
Saturday, Oct. 25, 6:30 a.m. EDT
Sunday, Oct. 26, 7:30 a.m. EDT
QUOTES
Ted Ligety
It’s always fun to start the year and Soelden has always been a place where I’ve had a lot of success. This hill is good in the sense that the anxiety level is brought down just a touch because it’s not as complicated as some other races. It’s always a great hill. It has a good pitch to it – the longest, steepest, sustaining pitch on the World Cup, so that’s always fun. And there’s always a good crowd here, so it’s a good place to have our first World Cup.
Mikaela Shiffrin
I’m really psyched for Soelden, because I feel like my GS has gotten a lot better in this prep period. Hopefully they’ll be able to get the race venue under control – there’s a lot of snow up there.
It’s always nice to know you have an Olympic medal. It’s a very good feeling. But it doesn’t actually change my confidence when I’m up on the hill, because I still have to remember how to make a good turn or remember how to memorize a course.
Julia Mancuso
It’s always an early race, but it’s fun and exciting. This summer’s been good. I’ve been training, it’s been perfectly progressive up until the last week, and so I feel good about my GS. I definitely have a later start number than I’m used to, but it’ll be fun to race and dust the cobwebs off.
Snow day, I don’t know – probably get up to some fun out there. I don’t know, I was looking forward to going powder skiing, but I guess we’re just going to have to play in the powder…build a snow man.
Brennan Rubie
I’m excited for Soelden, because I’ve never skied the hill before. I guess I don’t know what to expect, so all I can do is send it. Training has been going pretty good. We got some pretty good training in Saas Fee. I’m excited to get the season started.
Jared Goldberg
I feel good about skiing in my debut at Soelden. The skiing has been really good. The training has been awesome. We got great training in New Zealand – a lot of tech training – which is a big change for the speed team. And we trained a bunch in Corralco (Chile) with a good amount of speed. I’m psyched to ski Soelden. It looks like a good course for me, and has a lot of flats, so I think it’s going to be a sweet hill for me.
Sasha Rearick, Head Men’s Coach
It’s been a good prep period with a lot of new projects this summer, between PSIA camp, slalom camp, and rebuilding the Europa Cup into the structure of the team - a lot of good things for the future. We’re excited to get back to racing because it’s been a long prep period. I feel good about where the guys are. We’ve had a good training camp in Saas Fee, the World Cup coaching staff did a good job of finding the best training in Europe – so I’m stoked with where the guys are.
