Ligety Fifth In Alpine Combined
Ted Ligety (Park City, Utah) finished fifth in the men's alpine combined to lead Team USA at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre Tuesday afternoon at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
In the first-run downhill, Ligety finished 26th, 2.12 seconds off the lead, which proved to be too large of a margin to overcome to land on the podium, despite skiing the fourth-fastest time in the second-run slalom.
“I was happy with how I did today,” said Ligety, who won the 2006 alpine combined gold medal at the Torino Games. “To battle from a disadvantage against some of the best slalom skiers in the world isn’t really the formula for a medal, but I’m happy with how I skied both runs.”
Austria's Marcel Hirscher won the gold after posting the fastest slalom run of the day. France swept the remaining two podium spots, with Alexis Pinturault earning the silver medal and Victor Muffat-Jeandet claiming the bronze.
Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calif.) finished in 15th in the downhill and 17th overall in his first Olympic event.
“The results don’t dictate how I felt,” Bennett said. “I thought I executed well mentally and technically in the downhill, but I was two seconds out and it’s hard to rebound from that.
“It was cool to get my first Olympic race out of the way because it was a little nerve-racking,” Bennett added, “so, for the downhill race I think I can be in a better place mentally.”
Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) was 36th, but most importantly, finished fourth in the downhill portion, setting himself up for Thursday’s downhill race.
“My downhill run today was good, I’m happy with it,” Goldberg said. “There are a couple of things I can clean up, but it was good to get another training run for the downhill race.”
Ryan Cochran-Siegle (Starksboro, Vt.) also raced Tuesday but did not finish the downhill.
Up next, the men compete in downhill on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. KT / 9:30 p.m. EST Wednesday. The men race Super-G on Friday at 11:00 a.m. KT / 9:00 p.m. EST Thursday.
“I’m feeling good in both super-G and giant slalom, and I feel like I’m skiing well,” Ligety said. “So hopefully I could get another couple good days of training in, and keep the ball rolling.”
RESULTS
Men’s alpine combined
Jared Goldberg finished fourth in the downhill portion of the alpine combined Tuesday at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games. Getty Images/Agence Zoom - Alexis Boichard)
Bryce Bennett was 15th in the downhill portion of the alpine combined at Jeongseon Alpine Centre Tuesday. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
