Avon, CO – Ted Ligety and Bode Miller produced a riveting one-two giant slalom finish for the U.S. Ski Team on Sunday to close the Audi Birds of Prey World Cup race week in Beaver Creek.

It was the first time two Americans have shared the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom podium since Miller and Daron Rahlves went one-two during the 2005 Birds of Prey giant slalom, also at this Colorado ski resort. Ligety won the race, his fourth consecutive World Cup victory in GS and his third straight in Beaver Creek, with a comfortable, second-plus margin. Ligety is the first to win four giant slalom straight since Italy’s Alberto Tomba in 1991.

“I’ve always loved this hill. It’s great to have my family and friends here for this. I’m just so psyched to get a win,” said Ligety, who celebrated his 10^th consecutive GS podium finish on Sunday, the second-longest streak of giant slaloms podiums in World Cup history. “The conditions were tough. The visibility is really tough. There’s so much snow in the track. You couldn’t really tell where the good snow was and where the soft snow was. That was definitely an issue but it was kind of the same for everybody so it was what it was and you just went for it.”

It was the first giant slalom podium for Miller, who has been fighting to return to winning form, since March of 2007.

“Sharing the podium with Bode is awesome. I’m a little bit surprised, actually,” Ligety added. “He probably doesn’t like it when I say that, but it’s impressive how he was able to bring his intensity up and put down some impressive runs. That’s cool to be able to have another American guy challenging me up there. Him having the speed he had today was impressive, so it’s going to be a matter of whether he can pull the consistency off. So you don’t know until you’re several races in.”

Ligety and Miller also went one-two in the first run, showing their dominance of the course despite two distinctly different styles.

“Even though I maybe took a little too much risk and made some mistakes, I really wanted to ski 100 percent. That’s why I did the work I did in the summer,” Miller said. “I’m ready to ski as hard as I can now, and I think to be able to beat somebody like Ted, that’s what you have to do. You have to be able to go absolutely 100 percent top to bottom with no mistakes and no fatigue. Today the fitness is there. Without the mistakes we’ll be there.

“This is a tough hill to make speed on and to try to close a gap. So I knew after the first run that it was probably unlikely to beat Ted,” Miller admitted. “He’s just a really clutch performer in those kind of situations. I wanted to make sure that when I got to the finish line I at least let him know that I was coming for him and that there’s no coasting.”

Ligety looks to continue his streak with Miller right on his tails as they head to Val d’Isere, France for giant slalom and slalom Dec. 14-15 and then Val Gardena for super G and downhill Dec. 20-21.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup
Birds of Prey – Beaver Creek, CO – Dec. 8, 2013
Men’s Giant Slalom