Ted Ligety signs autographs for young fans at Sunday's Birds of Prey World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek ski resort in Colorado. (photo: Doug Haney)
World Cup

Ligety Skis to Impressive Win in Beaver Creek

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Avon, CO – Ted Ligety validated his huge opening win in Soelden five weeks ago with a huge 1.76-second victory on Sunday over Austria’s Marcel Hirscher in front of a roaring U.S. crowd at the Audi Birds of Prey giant slalom in Beaver Creek.

“It’s great winning in front of the home crowd especially by that kind of margin,” said Ligety, of Park City, Utah. “It’s so nice to have so many friends and family here and on this slope. This hill has always treated me well and it’s fun to ski here.”

In fact, Ligety’s win on Sunday was his third in Beaver Creek. Leading off the first run, Ligety took a .78-second lead and expanded it by nearly another full second on the final run.

Ted Ligety signs autographs for young fans at Sunday's Birds of Prey World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek ski resort in Colorado. (photo: Doug Haney)
Ted Ligety signs autographs for young fans at Sunday’s Birds of Prey World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek ski resort in Colorado. (photo: Doug Haney)

“Both runs were pretty tricky tactically,” he explained. “First run there was a lot of variable distance. This hill has a lot of rolls and it’s always tricky tactically. It was never really my specialty to ski tactics – I just skied hard and made mistakes when I made them. But I think this year I’ve been better on the tactics side of things. On the second run it was super fast – really high speed, the most speed we’ve had in GS in a bunch of years. I felt like I skied well and was smart over some of those rolls.”

Ligety retained his lock on second place in the overall Audi FIS Alpine World Cup standings, carving into the lead of Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal who was sixth on Sunday. Svindal now maintains an 80-point margin.

“Winning the overall has been a big goal of mine since I started ski racing,” Ligety confirmed. “I think it’s attainable but with Aksel (Lund Svindal) skiing as well as he is – if he keeps that he’s going to be tough to beat. It will be difficult but I have a better chance this year than I have had in the past.”

Bend, Ore.’s Tommy Ford finished 26th in his first race back from hip surgery and teammate Tim Jitloff, of Reno, Nev., followed closely behind in 27th.

The men’s World Cup tour now heads to Val d’Isere, France, for a giant slalom and slalom next weekend.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Birds of Prey – Beaver Creek, CO – Dec. 2, 2012
Men’s Giant Slalom

Rank Bib Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  1 LIGETY Ted 1984 USA  1:13.49  1:12.10  2:25.59  0.00
 2  3 HIRSCHER Marcel 1989 AUT  1:14.27  1:13.08  2:27.35  10.76
 3  8 SIMONCELLI Davide 1979 ITA  1:14.59  1:13.07  2:27.66  12.65
 4  11 MOELGG Manfred 1982 ITA  1:14.97  1:13.18  2:28.15  15.65
 5  4 PINTURAULT Alexis 1991 FRA  1:14.93  1:13.26  2:28.19  15.89
 6  12 SVINDAL Aksel Lund 1982 NOR  1:16.04  1:12.30  2:28.34  16.81
 7  14 JANSRUD Kjetil 1985 NOR  1:15.85  1:12.83  2:28.68  18.89
 7  10 DOPFER Fritz 1987 GER  1:15.78  1:12.90  2:28.68  18.89
 9  5 BLARDONE Massimiliano 1979 ITA  1:16.18  1:12.69  2:28.87  20.05
 10  44 NOESIG Christoph 1985 AUT  1:17.05  1:11.85  2:28.90  20.23


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