Alpine

Ligety Wins Soelden GS

by
USSA
2013-10-27 04:41
 

SOELDEN, Austria (Oct. 27) - Four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) pulled out an historic win at the Soelden World Cup GS, becoming the first man in history to win three World Cup GS races in a row at Soelden. Ligety beat out Frenchman Alexis Pinturault by 0.79 seconds to nab his 18th victory and open the Olympic season. Two-time overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) skied into the top-20 during his first World Cup race since Feb. 2012. Teammate Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) finished 20th, right behind Miller.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Four-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) pulled out an historic win at the Soelden World Cup GS, becoming the first man in history to win three World Cup GS races in a row at Soelden. He has matched Hermann Maier with three World Cup GS wins at Soelden.
  • Ligety beat out Frenchman Alexis Pinturault by 0.79 seconds to nab his 18th victory and open the Olympic season.
  • Ligety has now been on every World Cup GS podium since he won the 2012 World Cup GS opener in Soelden. That's nine-straight GS podiums.
  • Two-time overall champion Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) skied into the top-20 during his first World Cup race since Feb. 2012.
  • Teammate Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) finished 20th after running toe-to-toe with Ligety during race training.
  • The course was drenched in sun and became slushy during the first run, but high winds, bumps and variable light made for a more difficult second run.
  • The start was lowered by 10 gates for both runs due to the high winds.
  • Next the World Cup travels to Levi, Finland to race slalom. The women take the hill on Saturday, Nov. 16 and the men on Sunday, Nov. 17.
  • Ligety will be in New York City this Tuesday to receive the U.S. Olympic Committee's Olympic SportsMan of the Year Award, a part of the 100 Days Out to Sochi festivities.

QUOTES
Ted Ligety
It feels good. I was definitely a little anxious coming into this race just because you never really know how you stand. In training last year I was winning by a second and a half versus everybody, and this time I was getting beat in training sometimes so it’s good to know that you’re actually still fast. And we have a lot of guys that are skiing fast so it’s nice to get some confirmation.

I think the best preparation for the Olympics is the World Cup season because that gives you the confidence, it keeps you sharp and just that whole competitive atmosphere keeps you going and gives you the ability to bring your best skiing to the Olympics. That’s what happened at World Championships last year. I had a lot of confidence with my super G and my giant slalom skiing and I was able to roll into some medals. So right now my main focus is doing well in the World Cups, and then come the week before the Olympics I’m going to think about the Olympics.

Second run is always difficult. It’s super dark on that pitch and it gets bumpy. There are a couple little tricky sections, so I’m glad I made it through. It wasn’t clean but it was what I had to do to get the victory. It’s a good day for sure. Any win is a good win and it’s cool that I’ve been able to have this kind of success here in Soelden. It’s always treated me well ever since my first time racing here, so it’s definitely nice to get a win right off the bat.

Bode Miller
It was disappointing skiing today. It’s not where I’ve been skiing the last weeks and obviously not where I want to start out. I didn’t really come in with much of a goal. I wanted to obviously finish and see where I stacked up. I was hoping to ski similar to how I skied in training. That’s always my goal. But you know, sometimes it doesn’t happen. I think fewer things were in my favor. The light has broken up and the wind is actually blowing all around, swirling in every different direction. On the bottom I could feel that it just wasn’t going downhill at that point.

I skied better in the second run. The balance was better and the tactics were better, but I didn’t have the same amount of speed. I’m skiing a lot faster than that in training but that’s the difference in races. You have to get a good start position first. But I gained some points, so that’s good. In training I know where I’m at, so I’m not really worried about too much. It just would have been nice to ski better.

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