TORINO: ALPINE: USA's TED LIGETY WINS COMBINED GOLD

TORINO: ALPINE: USA’s TED LIGETY WINS COMBINED GOLDSESTRIERE, Italy – Ted Ligety smoked the competition to earn a stunning gold medal in the men’s combined Tuesday. Entering the second run in third place, Ligety laid down an impressive run to finish the combined with a time of 3 minutes, 9.35 seconds.

“I just threw down whatever I had,” Ligety said, grinning and breathless on Austrian television. “I knew I was trailing [Austrian Benni] Raich by eight-tenths and it would take everything to knock off a guy of that caliber. I don’t know what to say. I’m absolutely ecstatic right now.”

Raich, the leader going into the second run, skied out and did not finish. Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic earned the silver medal, .53 behind Ligety. Austria’s Rainer Schoenfelder earned the bronze, 1.32 behind Ligety.

After the win, U.S. skiers Steve Nyman and Scott Macartney tackled Ligety, and the three teammates rolled in the snow together. They rose, and Ligety waved an American flag while he was propped on the others’ shoulders. Click here for a photo gallery of the men’s combined.

“I’m not surprised he’s on the podium,” U.S. men’s coach Phil McNichol said. “I’m a bit surprised he won gold.”

It was only the fourth Olympic alpine gold medal ever for U.S. men.

Ligety was the fastest man down in the first run of slalom with a time of 44.09 seconds. He entered the second run in third place behind Raich and Kostelic.

Ligety’s only combined result is 12th on Feb. 3, 2005, at the World Championships in Bormio, Italy, other than ninth in the combined at the 2004 world juniors in Maribor. This season, Ligety has competed in three super combined races, with a DNF in Wengen and 10th-place finishes in Chamonix and Val d’Isere.

Tim Gaylord of Green River, Utah, whose son Travis grew up racing with Ligety, recalled a fundraising event in Park City where the two racers (who were 16 at the time) beat Alberto Tomba. “Travis and Ted raced against Tomba but were not quite able to beat him,” said Gaylord. “He was impressed enough to say, ‘Maybe someday I will see you in Europa Cup races'”

Gaylord said Ligety was someone whose ‘desire and dedication has just been phenomenal.’

Ligety was the 2004 Sprint/Ski Racing Junior of the Year, and a student of Ski Racing’s Top Performance Race Camp on Mount Hood as a kid. We recently had a chance to catch up with Ligety to discuss ski design and his keys to success.

After winning the downhill portion of the combined by .32, Bode Miller appeared to take a commanding lead over Raich after the first run of slalom, but was disqualified 20 minutes after his run, with officials using television replay to confirm that Miller had straddled a gate.

“It’s not the first time it’s happened,” Miller told reporters. “I have no idea where I hooked a gate. It must have been in the flushes. You go so quick through there.” Miller won the downhill portion of the combined earlier Tuesday.

“I was actually with Bode when they called down that he’d disqualified, and we both kind of looked at each other,” Ligety said. “We were like, are you serious. … I was pretty bummed for him. … I want to be winning races because I beat people skiing.”

Despite finishing 32nd in the downhill portion, Ligety had a sense that he could play a role in the outcome of this race. Asked to evaluate his downhill run, Ligety said, “It was good enough, I’m in contention, not too far behind those slalom guys. Coming into the slalom race for the next two runs, I’m going to have to throw it down. I’m glad Giorgio Rocca is only a few hundredths in front of me. He seems to set me up pretty well. And with Raich and Schoenfelder only a second ahead, that doesn’t bode too badly.”

After scorching the first run to climb to third, Ligety again threw down the fastest time in the second run to move past Kostelic and put the pressure on Raich. When Raich hooked a tip midway down the course, the gold was Ligety’s.

It was the first Olympic medal for Kostelic, who had the company of his sister, World Cup women’s points leader Janica, for the race. “Janica came to the finish and she was crying really hard,” he said. “She was crying more than I was. She told me, today I give you my strength. … This was a very emotional moment that we had in the finish, for sure.”

Ligety had the line of the press conference, referring to Miller’s controversial “60 Minutes” remarks in January. “No, I have not skied when I’m drunk,” Ligety said.

Tuesday night, a big bash was planned at USA House. Ligety, though, has some down time before his next event. The giant slalom will take place Mon. Feb. 20, and the slalom, in which he’ll be a favorite, is Saturday, Feb. 25.

Olympics

Men’s combined
Sestriere, Italy
Feb. 14, 2006
1. Ted Ligety, USA 3:09.35
2. Ivica Kostelic, CRO 3:09.88
3. Rainer Schoenfelder, AUT 3:10.67
4. Daniel Albrecht, SUI 3:10.73
5. Giorgio Rocca, ITA 3:10.74
6. Ondrej Bank, CZE 3:11.00
7. Marc Berthod, SUI 3:11.22
8. Pierrick Bourgeat, FRA 3:11.29
9. Peter Fill, ITA 3:12.21
10. Kjetil Jansrud, NOR 3:12.32
11. Markus Larsson, SWE 3:12.34
12. Martin Vrablik, CZE 3:12.41
13. Jean-Baptiste Grange, FRA 3:1.51
14. Noel Baxter, GBR 3:12.79
15. Ales Gorza, SLO 3:12.91
16. Scott Macartney, USA 3:13.05
17. John Kucera, CAN 3:13.26
18. Johan Brolenius, SWE 3:13.27
19. Andrej Jerman, SLO 3:13.80
20. Krystof Kryzl, CZE 3:14.18
21. Francois Bourque, CAN 3:14.25
22. Alexandr Horoshilov, RUS 3:15.46
23. Cristian Javier Simari Birkner, ARG 3:16.54
24. Pavel Chestakov, RUS 3:16.84
25. Ivan Heimschild, SVK 3:18.41
26. Tin Siroki, CRO 3:20.16
27. Jaroslav Babusiak, SVK 3:20.78
28. Roger Vidosa, AND 3:21.37
29. Steven Nyman, USA 3:22.68
30. Andrej Sporn, SLO 3:23.53
31. Mihail Sediankov, BUL 3:23.90
32. Claudio Sprecher, LIE 3:24.08
33. Natko Zrncic-Dim, CRO 3:24.15
34. Mario Matt, AUT 3:28.78
35. Florentin-Daniel Nicolae, RUM 3:31.89
Other competitors:
DNS: Kjetil Andre Aamodt, NOR.
DNF DH: Filip Trejbal, CZE; Jonathon Brauer, AUS.
DNS SL1: Konstantin Sats, RUS.
DNF SL1: Aksel Lund Svindal, Lasse Kjus NOR; Silvan Zurbriggen, Didier Defago, SUI; Michael Walchhofer, AUT; Ryan Semple, CAN; Michal Kalwa, POL; Stefan Georgiev, BUL
Alex Anton, AND; Sindri M Palsson, ISL; Alexander Heath RSA; Patrick Staudacher, ITA.
DSQ SL1: Bode Miller, USA; Nikolai Hentsch, BRA.
DNS SL 2nd: Manuel Osborn-Paradis, CAN.
DNF SL 2nd: Benjamin Raich, AUT; Anton Konovalov, RUS; Ivan Ratkic, CRO; Nikolay Skriabin, UKR; Renars Dorsh, LAT.
DSQ SL 2nd: Jorge Mandru, CHI

THE SCOOP

Equipment
Men’s combined, Sestriere, Feb. 14, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1. Ligety, Volkl/Nordica/Marker
2. Kostelic, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
3. Schoenfelder, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
4. Albrecht, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
5. Rocca, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6. Bank, Elan/Nordica/Elan
7. Berthod, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
8. Bourgeat, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9. Fill, Dynastar/Lange/Look
10. Jansrud, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men’s Olympic combined, Sestriere, Feb. 14, 2006 … It is the second event of 10 scheduled for the Olympic Games. … It is the first world-level victory for Ted Ligety. He had never won a World Cup race (was second in slalom at Adelboden). … It is the 11th Olympic gold medal in alpine for the USA. … The first officially in combined. (Phil Mahre won the combined in 1980 at Lake Placid, but combined was not counted as an
Olympic medal). … It is the 29th Olympic medal (alpine) for USA. … The first of these Games and first since Bode Miller won silver in GS at SLC Feb. 21, 2002. … The last USA gold medal in an alpine event was Picabo Street in SG at Nagano Feb. 11, 1998. … Ligety is the youngest U.S. alpine gold medal winner since Deb Armstrong at Sarajevo Feb. 13, 1984. … He is the third U.S. alpine skier to win an Olympic gold medal without previously winning a World Cup race: Deb Armstrong Feb. 13, 1984 Sarajevo and Tommy Moe Feb. 13, 1994 Lillehammer. … Ligety had been 3.06 seconds behind following the DH leg of the event.

It is the first Olympic medal for Ivica Kostelic. … It is the fifth Olympic medal for Croatia, the first not won by Janica Kostelic. … Ivica Kostelic has previously won seven World Cup races, scored 14 World Cup podiums. … and a World Championships gold medal in slalom from 2003.

It is the first Olympic medal for Rainer Schoenfelder. … He had been fourth in combined at Salt Lake City … It is the 88th Olympic medal for Austria. … The 12th in combined.

The winning margin was .53. … Third place was 1.32 out. … The top eight skiers were within two seconds. Austria has two Olympic medals; France, USA, Croatia and Switzerland each have one.