Schladming, Austria – Twelve years after American Daron Rahlves stole super G gold from the Austrians at the 2001 World Championships in St. Anton, the U.S. Ski Team’s Ted Ligety did the same on Wednesday in front of 24,000 fans in the Austrian ski resort of Schladming.

“I thought actually I had a good chance here because my super G is going well. But knowing this hill, I knew it would be good for someone like me who is more of a GS type skier,” said Ligety, of Park City, Utah. “I put a lot of risk especially on the bottom where it was steeper. The whole way I was just trying to link up turns. I saw a lot of guys sliding the top of the turn I knew I was capable of making it cleaner.”

Running tenth in flat light, Ligety used his giant slalom skills to knife the steep bottom section of the course at the FIS Alpine Ski World Championships to take a two tenths of a second win over France’s Gautier De Tessieres. Pre-race favorite Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway held the lead most of the way before a late mistake cost him the lead, finishing two hundredths behind De Tessieres.

“I saw Ted’s run,” Svindal said. “He went full risk all the way and made no mistakes.”

Ligety has never won a super G at any race level. His best previous was a Dec. 2009 second place in an Audi FIS World Cup in Val d’Isere. It was his third World Championships medal and second gold.

“Ted’s been skiing great. All season he’s been charging – clean skiing and with the confidence to take it down the hill at super G speeds,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick. “We had a great training camp leading into here. He came in skiing with confidence and executed great skiing. When you put those things together – why not?”

It was the first super G gold for the USA since Bode Miller, of Franconia, N.H., won in Bormio, Italy in 2005. Miller had tied for silver two years earlier in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Daron Rahlves, of Truckee, Calif., won in St. Anton, Austria in 2001. In the women’s Worlds super G in Schlamding on Tuesday, Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., earned bronze.

With the Austrian squad still waiting to score medals on home snow, the men’s action will continue with the marquee downhill on Saturday.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS Alpine Ski World Championships
Schladming, Austria – Feb. 6, 2013
Men’s Super G