BEAVER CREEK — Ted Ligety’s “brilliant strategy” in the alpine combined at the world alpine ski championships paid off Sunday when a bronze medal fell to him in a manner he never expected.
He was joking about that strategic acumen. The Olympic giant slalom champion was lucky to claim the sixth world championships medal of his career, and he readily admitted it.
Ligety had a “horrible” downhill run in the morning, finishing 29th, and he believed he had “no chance” of claiming a medal in the afternoon slalom run.
But he caught a huge break by finishing so far back in the morning.
In the combined slalom, the top 30 run in reverse order of their downhill finish, and that meant Ligety ran second in slalom. With the temperature soaring into the 40s, the track slowed considerably, so it was a huge advantage to run when Ligety did.
Marcel Hirscher of Austria got lucky too. He finished 30th in the downhill, so he ran first. He claimed the gold medal.
Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud was the only late starter in the slalom who was able to overcome the conditions. After winning the downhill — by more than three seconds over Ligety — Jansrud lost nearly all of his lead but took the silver, 0.19 of a second behind Hirscher and 0.30 ahead of Ligety.
PHOTOS: Day 7 of the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, Men’s Alpine Combined
“This is definitely a surprise,” Ligety said. “After the downhill run, I thought there was no possibility of getting anywhere close to a medal. It was just dumb luck. Good strategy, I guess, to be running 1 and 2, just because it’s so hot and (such) soft snow that we were more lucky than anything else. Jansrud probably lost four-tenths (of a second) on the bottom three gates, just because it was so sticky. We just got really lucky with how it played out.”
Ondrej Bank of the Czech Republic crashed hard on the Red Tail Jump just above the finish in the downhill, suffering a concussion and cuts on his face. He was transported to the Vail Valley Medical Center, where he was said to be conscious and able to move his extremities.
His misfortune was a huge break for Hirscher. Bank crashed through the finish line ahead of Hirscher, who would have been 31st in the downhill, but Bank was disqualified, moving Hirscher up to 30th. If Bank had finished, Hirscher would have started 31st in the slalom and he would have had no chance with the conditions.
“I wouldn’t have won with bib number 31,” Hirscher said. “You always need luck to be in the first position. He’s such a nice guy, Ondrej Bank. I wish him all the best. Hopefully he’s coming back really soon.”
Ligety usually expects to be within a second of the downhill specialists in a combined, not three seconds behind.
“My feeling on my skis just wasn’t very good,” Ligety said. “I never really felt like I was on a clean edge. It was like sliding away from me. I just never really stacked up as far as being able to look for speed, because I felt like I was always kind of fluttering on top of the snow instead of being able to get a good edge in. It wasn’t the good, dynamic skiing I’m used to doing (in downhill).”
He also had one big mistake about a third of the way down the slalom run that ultimately cost him the gold medal, but given the struggles he has had in slalom recently, he was pleased. He had the second-fastest slalom run, only 0.43 behind Hirscher’s slalom time. Hirscher is a great slalom racer.
“My slalom run was really good.” Ligety said. “That one mistake was unfortunate, but to be that close and be able to ski that well was encouraging.”
Hirscher figures to be Ligety’s biggest threat in Friday’s giant slalom. They have had some brilliant GS duels over the last five years and tied for the World Cup GS title last season. Ligety won in 2013 with Hirscher second, and that order was reversed the year before.
Sunday, though, Ligety was just glad to have luck on his side.
“If I was half a second faster in the downhill, I wouldn’t have been able to get a medal at all. That’s how big a difference running early was,” Ligety said. “It was a brilliant strategy to be that slow, I guess.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
