BEAVER CREEK — Ivica Kostelic of Croatia settled a score with a course that has given him quite a few scars.
Whipping through gates with unshakable confidence, Kostelic captured a season-opening World Cup slalom Thursday. He finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 50.20 seconds, holding off Cristian Deville of Italy by 0.14 seconds. Marcel Hirscher of Austria slipped to third.
For once, Kostelic conquered the hill instead of the other way around. He has crashed quite a few times at Birds of Prey, two of which resulted in being carried down by snow patrol on the back of a sled. Three of his nine knee surgeries have come because of wipeouts at this venue, and he has also hurt his back on this course.
No wonder he wanted a little revenge.
“It sounds maybe a little over the top now, but I was dreaming of a day when I would beat this course and finally say, ‘Now we’re even,’ ” Kostelic said.
So now Kostelic and the mountain are officially even.
American Nolan Kasper finished fourth despite fighting a virus that sapped his strength.
Fellow American Ted Ligety couldn’t recover from a major mistake at the bottom of the course and fell to 13th, and Bode Miller finished 27th.
The Associated Press
