Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety, the 2008 World Cup giant slalom champion, reports regularly from the tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
ALTA BADIA, Italy — Today I’m competing in an exhibition event with a winner-take-all prize of 100,000 euros — almost $144,000!
It’s called the World Alpine Rockfest, and it’s being held at the Paganella ski area in Italy. There will be 16 racers, including Bode Miller, Didier Cuche and Aksel Lund Svindal, competing in a head-to-head, knockout-elimination format.
We’ll be racing 30-second giant slalom runs with a jump in the middle, sort of like the old U.S. Pro Tour format. The two racers who make the finals will be making four runs each.
I think that’s pretty cool. With traditional ski racing, one of the drawbacks is that you get to see your favorite racer ski only one or two runs for a couple of minutes. No other sport is like that.
If I make the finals, it will be interesting to see how fast I can go in an all-or-nothing race with so much money on the line.
After the race there will be a concert with a band called Placebo, which is really big in Europe.
The World Cup races this week didn’t go so well for me. I was seventh in Sunday’s giant slalom at Alta Badia, and didn’t qualify for the second run in Monday’s slalom. The courses were a lot more icy than we’re used to racing.
It’s not that ice is a problem. We’d prefer to race on ice, because it makes the race more fair. But the courses in Alta Badia were more icy than we’re used to seeing. It’s hard to prepare for ice like that, because we don’t see anything like that in training, and it’s hard to select the right skis for the conditions.
After the exhibition race today, I’m heading home for six days in Utah, because this week’s World Cup races are downhills in Bormio, Italy. My next World Cup race will be a slalom in Zagreb, Croatia, on Jan. 3.
