Editor’s note: Since 2006, Ted Ligety has reported from the World Cup in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. This is Ligety’s first installment this season.
BEAVER CREEK — I’ve had a good start in giant slalom, and I’ll be heading over to Europe this week with the red leader’s bib.
The first GS of the season in October at Soelden, Austria, was cancelled due to fog after the first run with me in second place. In the season’s second GS here on Sunday, I won.
Soelden is always difficult mentally because you don’t know where you stand. To come down second there, not feeling like I had that great of a run, was the confidence boost I needed. It also gave me the confidence to start working on my other events, knowing I didn’t have to get my bread and butter event going.
I won the first run Sunday, and on the second run I just knew I had to ski hard. I didn’t want to hold back. I was thinking I’d rather blow out with the lead than come down and feel like I choked.
Normally when I’ve won in the past, it was by a couple hundredths of a second, or a tenth. To win by eight-tenths is awesome.
My primary goals this year are to win my third season giant slalom title and to improve my slalom. I won the giant slalom title last season but didn’t really do it the way I wanted to do it. I had the least amount of points in the last three years, so that was a big motivator for my training over the summer.
Slalom has been a struggle for me the last couple of years. I’m working hard and trying to get as much training as I can, and part of that is testing equipment to get the set up right for me. I really want to start getting on the podium again in slalom. Four or five years ago, I would have thought I’d have a slalom win by now. That’s something I really want to work at, especially if I want to challenge for the overall title in the next year or two. I need to be scoring a bunch of points in slalom.
Over the last few days I got a bunch of new slalom skis from Head, my new supplier. We’re still tweaking the set-up. As fast as slalom is now, you have to have the set-up dialed in. Lots of ski companies make great skis, but they have to work for you. We’re really trying to get that set-up right in slalom. Once you find that set-up, your slalom form comes together magically.
Since 2006, Ted Ligety has reported from the World Cup in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. This is Ligety’s first installment this season.
