Beaver Creek — Ski races usually are defined by mistakes that separate racers by mere fractions of seconds, and the first run of Sunday’s World Cup giant slalom at Beaver Creek was a great case in point.
Olympic champion Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah, was annoyed after finishing fourth with a ragged run, but he’s only 0.25 of a second behind pacesetter Benjamin Raich of Austria. The second and final run will begin at 12:45 p.m.
Ted Ligety (left), shown here after winning Beaver Creek World Cup GS last year, is in fourth place after the first of two runs Sunday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
“That was a pretty mediocre run for sure,” said Ligety, who has been nearly unbeatable here in GS. “I need to be skiing a lot cleaner the whole way down. Hopefully I can clean it up next run.”
Alexis Pinturault of France is in second place, 0.01 of a second behind Raich, and Marcel Hirscher of Austria is third, 0.01 of a second ahead of Ligety.
Ligety has won the last three World Cup GS races here and four of the last five. Another win certainly is within his grasp.
“I’m only two-10ths out, so that’s not a whole lot to make up,” Ligety said. “As I’ve shown in the past, I have a lot of speed on this hill when it works out right. Hopefully I can put down one of those kind of runs again.”
