A second World Cup title in Giant Slalom for Ted Ligety! 

12/Mar/2010

Ted Ligety added another major trophy to his collection today as he clinched the second FIS World Cup giant slalom title of his career with a solid third place in the season's final event. This later triumph places Ted in some pretty illustrious company as he joins Phil Mahre to become the second American man to earn two World Cup giant slalom titles.

"Having two globes is awesome. It's cool to have those and to be the best in giant slalom over the last couple of years is nice."
Ted’s specialty title is his second in three years, having won it already in 2008. The 2006 combined Olympic champion had a solid first run and, after falling slightly behind at the third interval, he picked up the pace in the second run to tie for third in the race with Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer.

"It's always better to tie someone than be one hundredth behind, so I was happy to be on the podium," Ligety joked. He knows what he is talking about! Two years ago he lost a giant slalom at Beaver Creek by only one hundredth to Austria’s ski legend Benjamin Raich after having clearly dominated the first run.

With a somewhat narrow 43 point-lead on the giant slalom standings going into Friday's race, Ligety said things fell into place on game day for him to beat his toughest challengers for the title. "I knew I had to have a good first run and I was pretty lucky in the sense that Massimiliano Blardone had a big screw up and then Marcel Hirscher got disqualified. That opened it up for me and I skied decently in the second run."
At the end of the race, Ted clinched the title with a nice lead of 71 points!

While those advantages locked Ligety in the title run before his second run, the 2006 Olympic champ had no idea he had already won the globe when the time came for him to race. "I didn't actually know that I had won the title no matter what at that point," he explained. "I would have gone harder had I known that, but I had a safe second run and was still pretty excited to get again on the podium."

With that new Crystal globe, Ligety added the 2010 discipline title to the first he won in 2008. He also capped the year with three consecutive World Cup podiums in giant slalom to bookend a season that began with second in Soelden, in Austria, last October. Despite his success in GS, Ligety was looking for more with his slalom, but has one more chance in slalom tomoorrow to end on a high note.

"I don't feel like the year has been great otherwise, so it's definitely nice to walk away with the speciality globe. It's cool to be able to ski at this level for multiple years." Wrapping up the race Ligety noted the future he hopes to have on the hill when 2011 World Championships are held here.

"The hill is actually pretty good. It's difficult on the top and then the bottom has a super long flat. It's a confidence booster to do well on the hill that you know you're going to have World Championships here."

First Olympic medal for Silvan Zurbriggen! 

22/Feb/2010

Seven years after finishing 2nd in Slalom at the St Moritz FIS Worlds, Switzerland’s Silvan Zurbriggen reached another major podium today at Whistler Creek where he came in 3rd in the combined event after two strong runs down the demanding Dave Murray course.
A solid 7th in the morning in the downhill portion of this Super-combined, only 7/10 behind the leader, the Silvan veteran knew he was battling for a spot on the podium in the slalom leg. Fortunately the Swiss didn’t let himself being too much impressed by the challenge and fought again with great determination.
Another gusty run propelled him into 3rd place and allowed his team to celebrate its first medal in that discipline since the 1992 Games at Albertville.
“This is huge for me, I was aiming for the podium here but there were so many good skiers involved today that I was not too sure,” said the 28-year-old afterwards. “I was very pleased with my downhill run this morning, the course was extremely challenging and it was far from being easy. It definitely was a strong boost for my moral.”
“I again gave my best in the slalom but I didn’t ski as well as I was hoping. It was a tough run but I skied with my guts. I badly wanted that medal after all these difficult years and all my injuries and setbacks. I’m proud of myself being able to deliver a medal with all that pressure on my shoulders.”
“It’s a great reward. I’m more than delighted now. It will help me be very motivated again at the end of next week for the slalom. This is a nice slope for a world class slalom.”
A powerful and talented slalom specialist in the early part of his career, Zurbriggen choose to become an all-rounder afterwards yet he struggled finding his pace for while. Three years ago he suffered a career-threatening knee injury after a huge crash at Val Gardena and he had to work very hard to get back on the tour.
Las winter he finally celebrated his first World Cup win as he clinched the ‘Classical’ Hahnenkamm combined at Kitzbühel and finished 2nd in the combined World Cup standings behind his teammate Carlo Janka. He finished the Overall World Cup standings in 19th position.
Last summer, he opted to train more slalom and skip the speed events to focus on the gate event. This strategy helped him to nail two encouraging podium finishes in slalom at Alta Badia and Schladming and also two in combined.
And there is still more to go for here this week.
 

First Olympic medal for Andrew Weibrecht. 

20/Feb/2010

Andrew Weibrecht, who came into the Vancouver Games with a rather 10th place in the 2007 Beaver Creek downhill topping his World Cup race results, achieved quite an extraordinary performance today during the men’s Super-G clocking the 3rd best overall time to capture an unexpected bronze medal behind two of his great role models, Axel Lund Svindal and Bode Miller.
“This is awesome, absolutely unbelievable, I have no words to fully express my feeling right now,” the skier from Lake Placid said after some of the top-favorites finished their race without  beating his time. He waited longer than the other two medalists to talk to the press because he wanted to be sure to keep his medal.
“I was very happy to start with a lower number this morning and I pushed as hard as possible,” also said the 24-year-old who put down some top 15s in important places this season in the speed events as 11th in the Kitzbuehel’s Super-G and in the Beaver Creek downhill, 12th in both events at Lake Louise, 13th in the Wengen downhill.
"I knew that with an early start number I had an advantage for sure and I tried to the best I could to capitalize on it. I had some mistakes but I was charging the whole way. It’s the first time I had ever come down leading, so I was excited about that. I couldn’t believe it held up as long as it did."
"It’s incredible that we came out firing so hard, especially in a year, on the men’s side where we haven’t had a lot of wins or podiums. To come out and put down medals at the beginning of the games is awesome. It was definitely, by far, the most exciting ski race that I’ve ever watched.”
“I was fore sure impressed and motivated by the performances achieved by the US women, especially Julia Mancuso who already got two silver medals after a so-so season,” he explained. “She showed that believing and fighting hard can help achieving great results.”
“I was so excited to be on that podium in the finish line next to such impressive skiers as Aksel and Bode who have been great inspirations for me. I’ll always remember that day.”
Weibrecht who grew up in Lake Placid, NY, the place of the 1980 Winter Olympics, was also proud to carry on the Olympic tradition of his resort. “I often ski on White Face Mountain where the 1980 Olympics took place and I always dreamed to be once competing at the Games,” he also told the press. “And here I am with that bronze medal, it’s wonderfull.”

3rd Olympic medal for Julia Mancuso! 

19/Feb/2010

A day after finishing in an amazing 2nd place in Downhill, Julia Mancuso added another Olympic silver medal at her collection of medals today by ending in 2nd place in the combined event.
The 25-year-American champion, a strong 3rd in the morning downhill leg, skied at her best in the afternoon in slalom to successfully defend her position on the podium and became the most successful US women alpine skier with a total of three Olympic medals. Four years ago, she captured the giant slalom title at Sestriere.
Back in 2006, she did win a World Cup super-combined event at Zauchensee, in Austria, but failed to excel in that event in recent seasons.
“After my good downhill run this morning, I was pretty confident and ready to fight hard for another podium finish today even though my slalom season has been pretty disappointing this winter on the World Cup tour. I skied pretty well in training in past weeks so I was hoping for a good slalom run today.  For once I had a good start position which has not been the case on the World Cup for a long time.”
“To get another Olympic medal is definitely awesome, I almost don’t believe it. The big races obviously inspire me a lot, I feel a lot of energy and I’m very motivated. It’s especially exciting because I’m coming back from way behind.”
“The downhill leg went very well, I managed to immediately find back my determination from yesterday and I had another very solid run. I don’t think I could have been faster. It put me in a perfect position for another great result and I fought hard in the slalom run in the afternoon.”
“The course suited me really well as I allowed me to attack the way I wanted. So far these Games have been incredible for me. I was lucky that the weather was pretty nice these days, almost as nice as California. It inspired me to fight hard and fully enjoy my time here.”
“There are still two good races to come for me in the coming days. I also feel well in Super-G and giant slalom so I’m ready for more. I feel relaxed and fully ready to give my best soon again.”