I lasted four gates in Sunday’s slalom, and it was very frustrating. It happened so quickly I was in shock.
I went into the race feeling like I was moving in the right direction in slalom. I had some great training last week in Adelboden and tweaked my equipment set-up. I was able to figure out a more comfortable, more balanced position that allowed me to go a little harder and a little faster. In the slalom portion of a super-combined Friday, I finished fourth, so I felt I was in a good position to do well Sunday.
It was a rhythm of four gates and then a hairpin. On the fourth gate coming into the hairpin, I just lost my outside ski for a fraction of a second. I kind of buckled over and got shot out of the turn, had no chance of making it through the hairpin. One second I was fine, and the next second I was out of the course. It was a bummer.
The wind really goes out of your sails when you go out so early in a race. You wake up early in the morning, you prepare to race, and when the race lasts six seconds it’s a pretty big letdown.
Right now I need good slalom results, because I am hoping to contend for the overall title this year. Right now I’m in fourth place with 493 points, 232 points behind Marcel Hirscher of Austria . I wasn’t far back Sunday morning, but Hirscher picked up 100 points by winning the race and I got none. Getting a good result Sunday would have given me valuable points.
We’re midway through the season now, and I have a decent but distant chance of winning the overall. I’m not one of the favorites, but I’m one of the guys in the running for it. I’m leading the giant slalom standings, but I’m going to need to score a lot more points in slalom in order to contend for the overall, especially with Hirscher skiing as well as he is in slalom and GS. It’s frustrating that I let the Adelboden slalom slip through my fingers last week (did not finish second run) and this one. I could have easily picked up another 50-60 points just with decent results in those races. That’s 50-60 points that are gone.
Ted Ligety, the reigning World Cup giant slalom champion, reports regularly in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer
