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Three-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety

Published

October 30, 2012

Three-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) served notice on the field with an historic 2.75-second margin of victory in the World Cup opener in Soelden for his 12th career win. Ligety mastered the controversial new GS skis, soft snow conditions, variable light and a raging blizzard to post one of the largest margins in the sport’s history. He repeated as champion on the Rettenbach Glacier and marked his sixth straight podium in Soelden. It was the biggest victory margin in World Cup GS in 34 years. While Ligety will remain in Europe to train for the World Cup slalom in Finland in two weeks, the speed team is congregating this week for the opening of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountainnext Wednesday.

HIGHLIGHTS

Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) powered through a raging blizzard to move up from second in the first run to win the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup opening giant slalom in Soelden by an historic 2.75 seconds.
It was Ligety’s 12th career World Cup win and sixth straight podium in Soelden, doubling up after last year’s opening victory.
Ligety was .04 behind France’s Thomas Fantara after the first run with Fantara unable to match Ligety, finishing fourth.
After Ligety skied in near darkness in the first run, light came in and out on the course that was ragged with new snow alongside the track. The second run was run in a near whiteout with a raging blizzard.
Ligety’s 2.75-second margin was the seventh greatest of all time in GS but the first of that magnitude in 34 years when the legendary Swede Ingemark Stenmark posted two separate margins of around four seconds.
Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) was 8th after the first run but dropped to 19th.
Ligety will remain in the Team’s training base at Soelden to train for the upcoming World Cup slalom in Finland while the speed skiers gather in Colorado for the opening of the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain next Wednesday.
Universal Sports TV will provide top to bottom coverage at 10:00 a.m. ET with a repeat at 1:00 a.m. Subscribers can also watch online including live streaming of all Audi FIS Alpine World Cups. Click for access information and to learn how you can help get Universal Sports on your local cable network.