Hirscher takes giant slalom; defending champ Ligety fades
After winning the Alpine combined last week, Austrian star Marcel Hirscher took the Olympic giant slalom Sunday — and has a good shot at one more gold medal.
Hirscher’s 1.27-second giant slalom victory over Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen was the largest margin in the Olympics in 50 years. And Hirscher still has the slalom — his best event — to come.
“At the moment, I’m pumped!” Hirscher said. “I had no choice. I knew I had to give 100 percent and I had to go into this battle.”
American Ted Ligety, the 2014 Olympic champion, was 15th with a time of 2:21.25.
“Today was just a really off day,” Ligety said. “A really bad day and time to not ski up to the level I wanted to. Nothing to blame but myself. Just didn’t have the speed and the legs today, I guess.”
Ligety, 33, said he was unsure if he would try to make the 2022 Olympic team.
Back in the pack: Four years ago, the American men swept the Olympic medals in slopestyle skiing. But injuries and some new faces have leveled the field.
“There are so many countries so competitive and so good in slopestyle,” said defending silver medalist Gus Kenworthy, who finished last among the 12 finalists Sunday.
The international talent showed up as Oystein Braaten of Norway won the gold medal and Alex Beaulieu-Marchand of Canada took the bronze. The lone U.S. representative on the podium was Nick Goepper, who needed a dazzling final run to secure the silver medal.
At the very least, Goepper achieved his goal to improve on the bronze he won at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Joss Christensen, the 2014 gold medalist, didn’t even make the team as he recovered from knee surgery. Kenworthy broke his thumb last week. And defending world champion McRae Williams and Alex Hall failed to get out of qualifying.
A new job: Adam Rippon, who finished 10th in figure skating, changed his mind and will not join NBC as a correspondent for the rest of the Olympics.
Rippon said he was “flattered” with the offer but said he “would have to leave the Olympic team ... and I really feel like I need to be there for them during their events.”
Also: In a dramatic photo finish in the biathlon 15-kilometer mass start, Frenchman Martin Fourcade edged Simon Schempp of Germany to win his second gold medal of the Games . ... Japan’s Nao Kodaira took the women’s 500-meter speedskating title in an Olympic record of 36.94 seconds, the first woman to race under 37 seconds at sea level. Brittany Bowe of the U.S. was fifth . ... Norway won its fifth cross-country skiing gold of the Games, taking the men’s 4-by-10-kilometer relay . ... Oleksandr Abramenko won the men’s aerials, giving Ukraine just its third gold ever at the Winter Games.