Ligety streak on the line in Soelden

By Published On: October 25th, 2014Comments Off on Ligety streak on the line in Soelden
Ted Ligety at the Vail-Beaver Creek 2015 press conference in Soelden. GEPA

Ted Ligety at the Vail-Beaver Creek 2015 press conference in Soelden. GEPA

SOELDEN, Austria – Olympic champion Ted Ligety will reset the numbers Sunday, starting his journey towards a sixth giant slalom title as he seeks a fourth straight win in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup season opener in Soelden.

“It’s always fun to start the year and Soelden has always been a place where I’ve had a lot of success. This hill is good in the sense that the anxiety level is brought down just a touch because it’s not as complicated as some other races,” said Ligety. “It’s always a great hill. It has a good pitch to it – the longest, steepest, sustaining pitch on the World Cup, so that’s always fun. And there’s always a good crowd here, so it’s a good place to have our first World Cup.”

Teammate and fellow Olympic champion Bode Miller joins Ligety on the start list, and the two will open the World Championship season among the favorites this weekend on the Rettenbach Glacier. Universal Sports Network will cover the action live Sunday.

“It’s been a good prep period with a lot of new projects this summer, between PSIA camp, slalom camp, and rebuilding the Europa Cup into the structure of the team – a lot of good things for the future,” remarked U.S. Ski Team head men’s coach Sasha Rearick. “We’re excited to get back to racing because it’s been a long prep period. I feel good about where the guys are. We’ve had a good training camp in Saas Fee, the World Cup coaching staff did a good job of finding the best training in Europe – so I’m stoked with where the guys are.”

Ligety will be chasing a sixth World Cup giant slalom title, looking for his third straight and fifth in six years. He and Miller have combined to win five of the last 10 World Cup openers in Soelden. Meanwhile Snowbird’s Jared Goldberg and Brennan Rubie will be making their Soelden debuts, and Tim Jitloff will also start for the men.

“I feel good about skiing in my debut at Soelden. The skiing has been really good. The training has been awesome,” noted Goldberg. “We got great training in New Zealand – a lot of tech training – which is a big change for the speed team. And we trained a bunch in Corralco (Chile) with a good amount of speed. I’m psyched to ski Soelden. It looks like a good course for me, and has a lot of flats, so I think it’s going to be a sweet hill for me.”

Release courtesy of USSA

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