Jitloff Rocks Squaw with GS Victory
SQUAW VALLEY, CA (March 21) - Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) brought a crowd of thousands to a roaring crescendo Friday with another masterful performance in Squaw Valley to win his second consecutive Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships giant slalom title. The Olympian, who grew up nearby and raced as a young athlete at the 1960 Olympic resort, captured his second victory in three days at Squaw with a 1.61 margin of victory over Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City). Fellow Olympian Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) was third as Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) did not finish the final run. NBC will broadast a one-hour special on the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships Sunday, March 23 at noon ET.
HIGHTLIGHTS
- Olympian Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) won his second-straight Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships giant slalom title with a 1.61-second margin of victory in front of a crowd of thousands.
- It was his fourth U.S. Championship title in giant slalom and the fifth of his career (2013 GS, 2009 GS and combined, 2008 GS).
- Jitloff also won the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships opening FIS giant slalom race Wednesday by a massive 2.79 margin of victory.
- Brennan Rubie (Salt Lake City), who won the final run, was second and 2014 Olympian Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) finished third.
- Olympic gold medalist Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) was third after the first run, but fell on his hip in the final and slid out of the course.
- Bryce Astle (Sandy, UT; Snowbird Sports Education Foundation) and U.S. Development Team members Tanner Farrow (Ketchum, ID) and AJ Ginnis (Waitsfield, VT) finished 1-2-3 among juniors.
- The 2014 Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships continue Saturday with men's and women's slalom on Red Dog.
- NBC will broadcast a one-hour feature on the event at noon ET on Sunday, March 23.
QUOTES
Tim Jitloff
It was sketchy in there for a second, but I kept it solid, I kept it safe. When I got down at the bottom here I did charge to make sure I got in there. I just put down two good ones today, two solid ones. I didn’t do anything over the top. Yeah, it was a good day.
I’ve got family and friends here that come up from this area and I definitely wanted it. So I had to get down and I had to get down fast. I’m psyched that I did it in front of everybody. It’s a good feeling.
Brennan Rubie
I hung out and saw the first guys going into the flip and I tried to see what was going on with the course. I saw it was attackable, but I just tried to hold on for dear life because I knew I had some time to make up on Jit and Ted and everybody who destroyed me first run.
I think in terms of my season, today was icing on top of the cake. Today was just about having fun and seeing how fast we could go.
Jared Goldberg
It feels good. My GS has been really good all year. This is only my fourth giant slalom race of the year and I’ve probably only trained about four or five times. I’ve been training everything else. The skiing has been good. I’ve been skiing well and technically well in the speed events. It was just another day of fun skiing through gates.
Ted Ligety
It’s the end of the season. When it’s this intense of a hill it’s definitely a big challenge. I was running on fumes even in the World Cup during the last little bit, so it’s always difficult to come and try to compete at a super high level at the very end of the season.
They did a really good job of pulling off a race here. It’s a really impressive crowd and cool to have all these kids out here cheering us on. That’s definitely the highlight of it.
RESULTS
Official Results
