Two-time World Cup giant slalom season champion Ted Ligety, the 2006 Olympic champion in combined, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
ALTA BADIA, ITALY — I won another giant slalom Sunday and took the lead in the World Cup overall standings.
Alta Badia is the most iconic GS hill in the World Cup, so it was cool to get this win. As it usually is, it was super icy. It’s like skiing on cement. There’s no forgiveness. It’s so rattley and so hard on your body.
A lot of guys didn’t have very good grip with their edges, especially on the first run (16 DNFs). I was second fastest in the first run, behind Cyprien Richard of France.
Second run I skied pretty well the whole way down, made a couple small mistakes, and Cyprien hooked his arm in a gate near the bottom. He lost a fair amount of speed and ended up finishing behind me.
Equipment is a huge part of being able to ski well on ice. If you watched anybody on Atomic or Salomon, they had almost no chance of gripping, especially on the first run. Fischers seemed to be working well, and obviously my skis worked great. The Head skis are working perfectly for me in all conditions.
You need the confidence to push your line and trust that your skis will hold on snow that is that unforgiving. If you come into a turn with your weight a little bit inside, rather than being balanced well, you can slide on your rear end for three gates before you can get back up.
I couldn’t ask for a better start to the season in GS. I finished second in the first run of the first race this season and the race was canceled when weather prevented a second run. Since then we’ve had three GS races and I’ve won all three. I’m excited about winning those races, especially the first two by substantial margins.
I’m taking a few days off for the holidays in Utah — hopefully powder skiing — and then I fly back to Europe on Dec. 28. We’ll train a couple of days and then go to Munich, where we will compete in a parallel slalom event at the Olympic Park. It should be cool. They’re really into skiing there, and it’s right in town, so I think it will be fun.
