BEAVER CREEK — Ted Ligety has been nearly unbeatable in giant slalom at Beaver Creek, winning four of the last five World Cup GS races and the world championships GS last February, but the course beat him on Sunday.
It beat him up, too.
Ligety said it felt “like Mike Tyson or somebody punched me in the leg” after he crashed on the first run and struck a gate pole at 30-40 mph. His ego was bruised, too. It was only his second failure to finish the first run of a World Cup GS since February of 2009.
Ligety is the reigning Olympic champion in GS and has won gold medals at the past three world championships. He finished second in Saturday’s super-G, but crashing in the discipline he has dominated for so long, and on home snow, was tough to take.
“It’s not cool in any kind of race when you go out,” Ligety said, ” but this one’s especially a bummer for sure.”
Two other top GS racers went down in the first run, Alexis Pinturault of France and Thomas Fanara of Italy. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, a three-time World Cup GS champion and four-time World Cup overall winner, had the fastest first run and cruised unchallenged in the second run to capture his 15th World Cup GS victory. That broke the record for GS wins by an Austrian, pushing him past Benjamin Raich and Hermann Maier.
Hirscher said he didn’t let up in the second run despite the absence of chief rivals.
“I’m always skiing against the time, not against Ted or Felix (Neureuther of Germany) or who else,” said Hirscher, who won Saturday’s super-G. “I’m always searching for perfect turns. I’m happy with my skiing, and hopefully I can bring this momentum back to Europe.”
Taylor Shiffrin, a University of Denver racer and brother of superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, was one of the race forerunners. Shiffrin offered a detailed analysis of the first-run carnage and was in a more talkative mood than Ligety.
“It’s a tricky course,” Shiffrin said. “There’s a combination of very tight turns in a few sections and then very open, straight, speedy turns through those other sections. You have a lot of speed, a lot of intensity and the snow is very aggressive. A lot of these skis are very sharp, case in point Pinturault kind of getting juiced and thrown off Red Tail down here.”
With sharp skis on “aggressive” snow, racers can easily catch an edge and lose control.
“I think a lot of guys were having trouble with how much the snow transformed overnight, being so aggressive because it’s so cold,” Ligety said. “My ski (edge) just bit really quickly and I had to kind of let go of it the gate before. Then I booted out and went on my side and couldn’t get back on my feet before I went through that next gate.”
Ligety had other issues. He has been battling back problems because of three herniated discs, and he was sick.
“I’m not feeling good,” Ligety said, “but I’ve done well when I’ve been sick before.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or @johnmeyer
