Are, Sweden (Dec. 12, 2014)—Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) slayed his way to second place in Are, Sweden, behind Marcel Hirscher from Austria - who collected his 25th career World Cup win - and ahead of Stefan Luitz of Germany. Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) grabbed more giant slalom World Cup points, finishing in 22nd. The win moved Hirscher back atop the Audi FIS Ski World Cup GS standings and set the stage for an epic battle for the globe with Ligety, which will continue next weekend in Alta Badia.
With the sun setting just after 2:00 p.m. in Sweden, the giant slalom took place under the lights. The Norwegians set a super technical first run on the steep and injected course. Without much room for error, the course spat out DNFs—18 racers first run, including David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO). But Ted Ligety and Tim Jitloff both skied solidly, with Ligety sitting third and Jitloff 19th after first run.
Ligety shreds to third first run, before getting second overall. (Getty Images - Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom)
The Americans set a much more open second run, allowing the men to let their skis run a bit more. Jitloff had a few mistakes, finishing 22nd overall. Ligety looked calm when he pushed out of the starting gate, losing a little time on the top section of the course, but putting the hammer down in the second half. With his infamous angles, Ligety skied through the finish in first place, only surpassed by Hirscher, who slaughtered the field by over a second. Stefan Luitz from Germany rounded out the podium.
Along with Chodounsky, Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City, UT), Mark Engel (Truckee, CA) and Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT) did not qualify for second run.
Universal Sports will re-air the giant slalom at 11:00 p.m. EST on Saturday. The men race slalom on Sunday, with Universal Sports streaming the two runs live at 4:30 a.m. EST and 7:30 a.m. EST, with on-air broadcast of second run live.
QUOTES
Ted Ligety
I’m happy to be second. It’s nice to get on the podium. It’s easy to think of places where I could have made up time—just in the top steep section, I lost 1.6 second or something to Marcel [Hirscher]—but the rest of the way, we were very competitive. I struggled to get in the rhythm in that really steep section, which is Marcel’s bread and butter. I need to clean up the steeper part of my skiing. He skied it unbelievably. It was impressive to see that and an inspiration for weeks to come.
I’ve always wanted to ski a GS at night. We have some night slaloms, but no night GS races. This is a really good course; it has a little bit of everything—gliding sections, a halfpipe-like section, steeps, sidehills.
My hand is not perfect. I avoid hitting gates with it and dragging it on the snow. Otherwise, I don’t think about it when I’m skiing. Tomorrow will be the first time I crossblock a gate since I broke it, so we’ll see if that hurts.
RESULTS
Official Results
