Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
Park City, Utah – I flew home Sunday because the men’s races this week are a pair of downhills in Bormio, Italy. It will be nice to have a Christmas break. Hopefully, I can get in some powder skiing.
Last Saturday I raced in a parallel slalom exhibition in Pila, Italy, where I crashed and went into the nets. I was unhurt, but French racer Stephane Tissot wasn’t so fortunate. He crashed and broke his tibia in two places, requiring surgery. It was awful.
It was a made-for-TV event. All the Italians were prepared for it with 181-centimeter women’s giant slalom skis. All the rest of us were trying to choose between our 193-cm GS skis or 155-cm slalom skis. It was pretty fast. On the second run of my first heat I got shot out and tangled up in the net pretty good.
Tissot was in great form, finishing fourth in Levi, Finland, and winning the first run last week in Alta Badia, Italy. He has skied well the past year and a half, and to suffer such a severe injury in an exhibition event is pretty disastrous. He’s one of the nicer guys on the tour, always humble and fun to be around.
I have been pretty happy with my season so far. I always wish for more than I get, but I’ve had a podium in giant slalom – I’m sixth in the standings – and I got my slalom back on track with a podium last week in Alta Badia.
I’m definitely moving in the right direction to be where I want to be in January, when there are some really big races, including the huge slalom events in Wengen, Switzerland, Kitzbuehel, Austria, and Schladming, Austria. The world championships in February are huge, but there are a lot of important events before then, with the heart of the slalom season in January.
Some people are talking about the slump the Austrians are in, but I don’t put too much weight on that. It would be very easy for them to come into January and start dominating again. I think they have had some bad luck, and a lot of guys on other teams are skiing the best they have skied in a long time.
Bode Miller has been in unbelievable form in the speed events, and Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal has been great in GS. It’s hard to compete with those two guys when they’re skiing at such a high level. Slalom has a bunch of guys skiing at a high level, including three Swedes in the top five of the standings.
