AFP/Wengen, Switzerland
All-rounder Ted Ligety put in a decisive downhill performance to clinch victory in the men’s super-combined in Wengen yesterday, the American’s third World Cup win of the season.
Ligety, the 2006 Olympic and 2013 world gold medallist in the discipline, clocked a combined total of 2min 44.74sec over a slalom and downhill, their running order reversed because of intermittent morning snow.
France’s Alexis Pinturault, who topped the standings after the slalom leg, came second at 0.22sec, with Croatia’s Natko Zrnic-Dim in third (+1.08sec).
“It’s good to get this win, definitely. Hopefully it will change the momentum for me,” said Ligety. “I’ve finally won a combined. I’ve won the Olympics and world championships but I haven’t won a World Cup before and it’s nice to get that.”
This season has so far been mixed results-wise for Ligety, the Park City skier winning the giant slalom in Soelden and Beaver Creek and claiming a third in Altabadia, but bombing out of both the slalom and giant slalom in Adelboden and Val d’Isere, and also the super-Gs in Lake Louise and Val Gardena.
His recent form in the technical events was something he claimed hinged more on bad luck than his skiing.
And while he was left less then pleased with his slalom run, he felt he did his talking in the downhill. “I felt I didn’t have that good a slalom run. I thought I should have been closer (to Pinturault) in the slalom,” the 29-year-old said.
“In the downhill, I was motivated to go hard, I’m not preserving myself to stay alive. I can be fast sometimes.”