Ligety 18th in Levi Slalom

LEVI, Finland (Nov. 16) - Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) finished 18th, 3.33 seconds out, Sunday in the Audi FIS Ski World Cup tour's first slalom. David Chodounsky (Crested Butte, CO) finished 26th, 4.32 seconds out. Small mistakes in the wrong spots cost Ligety and Chodounsky time. Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen laid down an aggressive and fast second run, beating his great rival and last year's winner Austria's Marcel Hirscher with an overall time of 1:50:39. It was win number two for Kristoffersen, who had played the position of second fiddle throughout the 2014 season. Germany's Felix Neureuther looked a bit stiff in the lower back first run, but dominated the top section of the second run to round out the podium. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) let it go second run on the steep with good, tactical skiing and had an amazing recovery on the steeps, but that mistake cost him time. He finished 18th in the season-opening slalom on the Audi FIS Ski World Cup in Levi.
• Leaders: A mere .12 separated Norway's winner Henrik Kristoffersen and Austria's Marcel Hirscher, but a whopping 1.31 seconds separated Hirscher and Germany's Felix Neureuther for third. 
• Norway in the Hunt: Despite Aksel Lund Svindal's departure with a ruptured Achilles, Norway is doing just fine. Kristoffersen earned his second Audi FIS Ski World Cup win. His first was last season at Schladming. Sebastian-Foss Solevaag was a mere .01 out from the podium, causing Neureuther to sweat a little bit. 
• Good track in Levi: The Levi course crew did an incredible job with the hill after a few cm of fresh snow fell last night. The track was in the same condition for bib 1 as it was for bib 30, but the second run was a difficult set with a tricky combination on the pitch.
• Will Brandenburg (Spokane, WA), Nolan Kasper (Warren, VT), Will Gregorak (Longmont, CO), Tim Kelley (Starksboro, VT) and Michael Ankeny (Deephaven, MN) also started but didn't make the flip for a second run. 
• Time to make a mark: There are nine slaloms to go in this 2015 Audi FIS Ski World Cup season, and time for Ligety to prove his slalom skiing is deserving of the podium. The next slalom stop on the Val d'Isere, Dec 13-14. 
• Off to North America: The World Cup tour now swings to North America with a downhill and super G in Lake Louise, Canada followed by the famed Audi Birds of Prey Race Week Dec. 5-7 in Beaver Creek, CO - home of the 2015 FIS Ski World Championshps. The team will prepare for the back-to-back speed series with training at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper.
• TV rebroadcast: The second run was broadcast live from Levi on Universal Sports Network. The race is now available for on-demand streaming at UniversalSports.com and will be rebroadcast at 4:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and midnight EST. 

QUOTES
David Chodounsky
I came in here skiing really well - so I was hoping to perform a little better. It didn't go quite as well as I wanted. I had a better second run going, but a broken pole in the first five gates didn't really help me out. I mean, this one didn't go my way, but I have to keep fighting. I'm really happy with the way I'm skiing so I'm going to try to keep it going into Val d'Isere.

Ted Ligety
There's definitely a lot to improve. We haven't had good training volume in slalom yet this season. I feel like I skied better second run, just made mistakes in the wrong spots. It is what it is. I'll move on to the next one. I want to be able to get on the podium this season. I think I have that kind of speed, I just have trouble relaying that into the race and having consistency so hopefully I can try to get that figured out.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Official Results