Two-time World Cup giant slalom champion Ted Ligety, the 2006 Olympic champion in the combined, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
KRANJSKA — gora, slovenia I was able to pad my lead in the giant slalom standings Saturday. I finished third and Aksel Lund Svindal, my closest pursuer for the GS title, finished 22nd.
My lead now is 77 points, and that’s a lot more comfortable going into the last GS race at the World Cup finals in two weeks.
Sunday’s slalom didn’t go well — I didn’t finish the second run — but it was an awesome day for my young teammate, Nolan Kasper, who finished second for his first career podium.
I’ve seen him coming on as one of the fastest slalom skiers in the world, and he proved that Sunday. It was cool to see him on the podium.
He’s from Warren, Vt., and he’s only 21. He’s a pretty good GS skier, but slalom is far and away his best event. He’s a funny kid because he has a ton of energy. He acts like he’s on Red Bull all the time. He also has a goofy sense of humor.
It’s fun to be around guys like him and Tommy Ford, another 21-year-old from Bend, Ore. They really push me a lot and they’re both pretty goofy, so it’s always entertaining to be around them.
Seems like overnight I’ve gone from being one of the young guys to one of the old guys. (Ligety is 26.) It’s cool to see these young guys moving up, and it feels a little awkward calling myself an older veteran. I feel like I should still be considered one of the young guys.
The concept of being a team leader in skiing is complicated, because it’s not really a leader-follower sport. It’s not like other sports where you rally around one person. But I can share my experiences with these younger guys, and it’s beneficial for me to have them pushing me. That definitely helps your daily training motivation.
When it comes to technique, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. You have to figure out for yourself how to be fast. There’s a lot of different techniques, and you have to learn yourself in order to figure out the best way to get down the hill the fastest way you can. It’s not something a coach or teammate can tell you how to do.
