BEAVER CREEK — Daron Rahlves retired a year ago and Bode Miller is competing on his own, but the U.S. Ski Team will not lack podium contenders over the next four days of World Cup racing on a Birds of Prey course that appears particularly nasty this year.
Steve Nyman scored his first podium here a year ago and fellow downhiller Marco Sullivan earned his first last week at Lake Louise, Alberta. They — and Miller — hope to maintain ownership of the Birds of Prey downhill, which Americans won the past four years.
In today’s super-combined and Sunday’s giant slalom, the team has a strong contender in Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety, who appears to be at the top of his game in the technical events. Ligety also will race Saturday’s super-G.
Ligety was second in the season’s first giant slalom last month at Soelden, Austria. He missed a turn in a subsequent slalom at Reiteralm, Austria, but impressed his coaches with how fast he was skiing.
“Ted is looking fabulous right now,” U.S. coach Phil McNichol said. “He’s skiing slalom as fast or faster than he’s skiing GS, and his GS is (really) good.”
It is a much more encouraging scenario for Ligety than at this time a year ago. Ligety broke his hand in the preseason, which severely affected his pole plant in slalom early in the season. He also had trouble adjusting to a change of equipment brands.
Now he’s healthy and feeling comfortable on his gear.
“My skiing is going really well, I’m super-psyched,” said Ligety, 23. “This is the best I’ve been skiing, going into a season.”
Ligety earned his first career podium here two years ago in a slalom, two months before he became an Olympic champion. Last year he was on the podium here in giant slalom. This season his goal is to challenge for season titles in both disciplines.
“That’s a tough thing to do, you have to be on the top of your game every race,” Ligety said. “It’s a big goal, but I think if I keep it together I should be OK.”
Keeping it together in today’s super-combined (a downhill combined with one slalom run) could be a challenge for a racer who is relatively new to World Cup downhill. Thinner than usual snow cover has presented racers with a bumpy course that more closely follows the natural contours of the hill, and Ligety called Tuesday’s training run a “rattle-fest.” Wednesday’s training run was canceled because of a snowstorm.
Course preparation crews watered the first steep section of the course, known as “The Brink,” making it extremely icy. That figures to complicate ski preparation because “grippy” snow further down the course will hold edges better.
“It’s kind of a tricky situation because you don’t want your skis too dull for that really icy section, but too sharp for the rest of the course,” Ligety said. “That’s a tough play for the technicians. It will be interesting. Most of us will go for the duller edges and just sacrifice those two (icy) turns.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
