Ligety rounding into form at just right time
DAEGWALLYEONG, South Korea — Over the summer and into the fall, Ted Ligety’s long road back looked to be headed for an unforgiving dead end.
Injuries and time away from the hill had taken their toll, and Ligety looked nothing like the skier who had raced in three Olympics, won two gold medals and posted 25 World Cup victories in his decorated career.
“He missed so much training that his rhythm and timing was off,” said Sasha Rearick, coach of the U.S. men’s alpine team. “I’m not going to lie. In August, his skiing was not in his top form, by far. There was a lot of steps we had to take.”
Ligety had missed most of the previous two seasons with injuries to his knee in 2016 and his back in 2017. With little time to prepare for the Pyeongchang Games, Ligety and his coaches agreed he needed to take a step back, focusing on gentler runs.
“That’s one of the reasons Ted is such a champion: He knows that going back and getting those fundamental rhythms down are essential for his performance,” Rearick said.
Ligety slowly found his groove, and on Jan. 28, in his last race before the Winter Games, he reached the podium in the giant slalom for the first time in more than two years. He hopes the third-place finish in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, bodes well for these Olympics. Ligety likely represents the best chance at a medal for U.S. men.
“It was good to be back in a spot where I feel like I can challenge for wins,” he said. “It’s a good time to have that confidence boost.”
Ligety is the face of the U.S. men’s alpine team. These Olympics mark the first ones since 1994 without Bode Miller, now working as an NBC analyst.
Entering Olympic competition, Ligety is ranked No. 38 in the World Cup overall standings, the top-ranked American male. At No. 45, Bryce Bennett is the only other U.S. skier among the top 60. Of the 12 American men on the alpine team, only Ligety has found the podium this year, and two others have cracked the top 10.
Andrew Weibrecht, competing in his third Olympics, is the team’s wild card. Despite modest World Cup results, he has managed to win two Olympic medals in super G — a bronze in 2010 and a silver four years later.
Ligety looked like a dark horse until he cracked the top 10 in two World Cup stops in December. Finally, in his last chance before Pyeongchang, he broke through for his first podium finish since 2015.
“That’s a step in the right direction,” Ligety said Tuesday. “There’s still some ground that needs to be gained to reach (the) next couple steps. Hopefully, I can continue that progression.”
He also feels good about the Olympic course. The U.S. team jokingly calls Ligety the defending Pyeongchang champion because he won the last World Cup event there, in 2006.
But a veteran skier knows to cling to any reasons for optimism. For Ligety, this latest Olympic chapter has been the bumpiest. He’s 33 now and no longer the giant slalom racer with the target on his back.
(Marcel Hirscher of Austria is the overall World Cup leader, having won four giant slalom races and six slalom events.)
Nonetheless, Ligety said, “I feel like I’m skiing well. Am I skiing at the highest level I ever have? It’s hard to say. … I feel like I’m getting close to that.”