BEAVER CREEK — Ted Ligety may not be a contender to win the World Cup overall title quite yet, but that day may be coming.
He’s a podium threat every time he races slalom and giant slalom, he’s improving in the speed disciplines and he’s always a contender in combined races, having won an Olympic gold medal in 2006.
Ski team coaches are entering him in select downhill races to give him experience and help him progress toward the day when he can be a four-event racer. He didn’t race the downhill here but was the top American in Saturday’s super-G (seventh).
“Ted’s still young,” U.S. men’s head coach Sasha Rearick said after the 24-year-old Ligety finished second in Sunday’s GS. “Ted’s talent is in slalom and GS. He’s the best technical skier in the world, and there’s no need for us to rush him into speed.”
Ligety set the goal of winning the overall when he was a young racer growing up in Park City, Utah. In another year or two, he could be a legit contender. Until then he will concentrate on trying to win the slalom and GS titles. He won the GS title last season.
“Super-combined is definitely a priority,” Rearick said. “Super-G is a fourth priority.”
In memoriam.
Friends of longtime U.S. Ski Team correspondent Paul Robbins buried some of his ashes in the snow at the finish line between runs Sunday. Robbins, who covered every Winter Olympics since Lake Placid in 1980 with great passion, died of a heart attack last February.
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
