Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
Beaver Creek – I ran the downhill training runs last week in Lake Louise, Alberta, to get ready for the super combined here Thursday.
It didn’t go that well. Conditions were pretty bad. It was snowing and the racing surface was pretty soft the first couple of days, so it wasn’t an ideal situation to be on downhill skis for the first time in a couple of months. The last day I had a couple of decent splits, but I still was making gigantic mistakes here and there.
I will race the super combined, giant slalom and slalom here this week. My training in GS has been awesome; I feel I’m skiing as well in GS as I ever have. My slalom isn’t comfortable yet. I don’t feel like I’m completely on top of my boards.
The super combined is a pretty cool new event. Traditional combined involves a downhill and slalom on different days. The super combined here will be a downhill with only one slalom run instead of the usual two, all on the same day.
If I don’t have a great downhill run, I have to start way far back in the slalom after all these downhill skiers destroy the course. By the time I go, I’m hacking through downhill skier ruts. I can still kill their slalom times, but it ruins my chance of catching guys who are good in both events like Benjamin Raich of Austria.
If you are fast in downhill and you are great at slalom, it’s awesome. But if you are on the cusp of making the top 30 in the slalom run – by virtue of your finish in the downhill – you’re (out of luck).
Last year, for example, I was like 50th in one of the downhills. I was like second in the slalom and finished like 10th for the event.
If I finish the downhill, say, 28th to 30th, that would be great because it would mean starting the slalom first, second or third. Being able to start slalom among the first couple of guys is a huge advantage.
I think they should run the slalom first, instead of the downhill. Start position in downhill doesn’t mean as much. If you are starting 40th in the downhill, it’s not that big a deal, but if you’re starting 40th in the slalom, it is.
Beaver Creek is my favorite place to compete. It’s in America, all my friends and family show up and I captured my first World Cup podium here last year in slalom.
We’re in Europe almost the whole season. The Euros get to go home all the time, so it’s nice to be able to take them out of their element.
