Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Grange ignored rapidly deteriorating course conditions Sunday to convert a first run lead into the slalom gold medal to close out the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Garmisch.nSweden’s Jens Byggmark earned silver, while Manfred Moelgg of Italy headed home with the bronze medal. Officials performed heavy course maintenance throughout the race but were fighting a losing battle.

“Garmisch put on a fantastic show. The volunteers and the course workers really had to work hard with these conditions and they did a fantastic job,” commented U.S. Ski Team head men’s coach, Sasha Rearick. “It’s been an amazing two weeks here.”

World Champs rookie Nolan Kasper, of Warren, Vt., was 15th and giant slalom gold medalist Ted Ligety, of Park City, Utah, 19th.

“This obviously wasn’t my best ever performance in slalom, but the GS was the big goal and to do that with so much pressure was pretty awesome,” said Ligety.

The U.S. Ski Team closed the World Championships with three medals including a pair of silvers from Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley, Calif.) and Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.).

“It wasn’t the medal performance that everyone expects here,” admitted Ligety, “but I think it was still good. The young guys are hammering. I think Tommy Ford has a lot of potential and Nolan Kasper is showing every race that he has more and more speed, so he’s going to be strong for years to come.”

The Audi FIS Alpine World Cup resumes Friday, in Are, Sweden for women and Saturday in Bansko, Bulgaria for men.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – February 20, 2011
Slalom

Gold: Jean-Baptiste, Grange, 1:41.72
Silver: Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 1:42.15
Bronze: Manfred Moelgg, Italy, 1:42.33