Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
KITZBUEHEL, AUSTRIA — I raced the notorious Hahnenkamm downhill for the second time last week and it was a lot of fun.
It was kind of nerve-wracking that the first training run was my second run on downhill skis this season, which wasn’t an ideal situation on the world’s most intimidating downhill course, but I made it down pretty well.
On the second training run my right ski popped off when I was going about 75 mph, just before the Carousel turn. I was able to pull off a “miraculous” recovery, skiing to a stop on my uphill ski without falling.
It was a scary moment. I just looked back up the hill and said, “Whew, I escaped that one by the skin of my teeth!”
I put my ski back on and asked if I could continue the training run, but they wouldn’t let me, and in retrospect it’s a good thing I didn’t. If there was something wrong with the binding on the right ski, it could have been trouble on the famous, long sidehill near the bottom of the course when you have to stand on your right ski a long way at a high speed.
In the downhill race I was 37th, but in the long run Kitzbuehel might be a good downhill for me. I’d rather race Kitzbuehel every weekend than some of these other downhills that are more like highways. Kitzbuehel is such a rush because you’re always looking for speed but you’re also looking to hang on.
You have to be a good turner, but you also need a lot of courage. Being so technical, Kitzbuehel is a better match for my skill set as a technical skier than downhills that have a lot of gliding.
The slalom didn’t go well. I had a bad first run (19th), making a lot of mistakes, and I wound up straddling a gate in the second run. I hiked back up to make make the gate legally, skied about 10 more gates, missed another gate and popped a “Flying V” spread-eagle off a roll to entertain the crowd.
The day wasn’t a total loss, though, because the winner was Julien Lizeroux of France. He’s the athlete’s favorite guy, the friendlist and funniest guy on the tour, and it was his first podium.
