Ligety Fifth in Wengen Combined

WENGEN, Switzerland (Jan. 16, 2015)—Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) battled the alpine combined—a downhill followed by one run of slalom—to be the top American in Wengen, finishing in fifth place. Downhiller Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT) skied to 15th, his first top 15 on the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup this season. Carlo Janka of Switzerland won the race by 1.31 seconds and Victor Muffat-Jeandet of France was second.

The first run on Wengen’s famed Lauberhorn downhill was solid for Ligety and Goldberg, giving them good start numbers for the slalom portion. Ligety took 27th—a respectable finish for the tech skier. “It wasn’t great skiing. My turns were really grindy in some places,” Ligety critiqued after his downhill run. “In this snow, you pay hard because there’s decent snow out there.” Goldberg finished 19th.

After the downhill, the men had to change equipment, location and their state of mind to get ready for the slalom run. Unlike a traditional ski race discipline, in which the audience can forecast the overall finish from the first run results, alpine combined is hard to predict.

Jared Goldberg takes 19th in the downhill, and 15th overall. (Getty Images-Agence Zoom/Alexis Boichard) 

Ligety had a clean slalom run, showing off his tech skills by skiing from 27th to fifth. He won this race in 2014, but with his result in downhill, he could not keep up to speedy Janka. Goldberg, even with a few mistakes in downhill, pulled out his first top-15 result of the season. “My slalom is doing pretty good,” he said before the second run. “I’ve been training a lot and I think it’s the best it has ever been.”

After running both downhill training runs, Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) decided to forerun, instead of competing in the race. “It was a hard decision to not race here,” said Miller. “But I know this is the right decision here and I’m hoping I can go into Kitzbuehel and be ready.”

Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) and Wiley Maple (Aspen, CO) DNFed in the slalom.

Due to weather conditions, the tech men will now race slalom on Saturday and downhill on Sunday in Wengen. Both races will stream live on Universal Sports.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Ligety sits in sixth in the overall World Cup hunt.
• Since 2011, Ligety has finished in the top 5 in every World Cup combined races.
• Watch the re-air of the combined on Universal Sports at 2:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. EST on Friday.

QUOTES
Ted Ligety
After downhill:
It wasn’t great skiing. My turns were really grindy in some places. In this snow, you pay hard because there’s decent snow out there. You lose a lot of time. The positive side is that I run early. I’m not crazy far from the downhill guys.

Wengen is cool. The slalom hill is really classic. There’s not much snow on it, but it has a lot of cool features.

After slalom:
I knew I didn’t have a good enough downhill run to have much of a chance, unless I got a little lucky. And I didn’t ski well enough in the slalom. But it is worthwhile to get some gauge on the snow [for Saturday’s slalom race]. It’s super springlike, how it has been for a long time here. 

Jared Goldberg
After downhill:
I was attacking for sure. I wasn’t holding back at all. I maybe attacked too hard in places that didn’t allow because of the flat light. There are a lot of bumps now. I tried to tuck everything.

My slalom is doing pretty good. I’ve been training a lot and I think it’s the best it has ever been. My downhill for sure has been a lot of faster this year.

This is a really fun slalom hill. It’s a legitimate slalom hill. It is steep and there are rolls everywhere and fall aways. So I’m just going to be balanced and ski as fast as I can.

After slalom:
This is my first slalom in a race situation this year. I’m definitely stoked on it. I skied well. I was just trying to attack and come out of the gate. I haven’t skied much slalom—only trained about three days. I just wanted to come out and get a good rhythm going and risk it the whole time. It was a wild ride and I lost time here and there. 

Sasha Rearick, men's head coach
Good competition today. Hats off to Janka—first win for him in a long time. It’s nice to see a champion like him back on top.

We didn’t put down the downhill runs we needed to be competitive today. I thought Ted did a good effort. He skied the bottom really well in the slalom. Goldberg had another top-15 performance for him in combined. Step by step, he’s going the right way. He made a pretty big error in the super G turns in the downhill. It cost him quite a bit. In slalom, he’s skiing solid enough to play the game. If we’re going to play the game, we have more work to do. He needs to be quicker on his feet, quicker tempo. Overall, I'm looking forward to tomorrow. 

Bode Miller, forerunner
I’m just trying to prepare. Unfortunately, this isn’t the normal preparation you go through, but you have to work with what you got. I’m not quite healthy all the way yet, but I’m healthy enough to run these courses. There are all these different challenges with fitness and equipment. Everyone else has thousands of hours of skiing already and I have 20, or 15. I have to be prepared to pull the plug. If I’m not ready, I don’t want to risk severe injury.

It was hard decision to not race here, but I know this is the right decision here and I’m hoping I can go into Kitzbuehel and be ready. My skiing is coming along, but it’s my fitness. Unfortunately, these aren’t gentle hills. There’s no such thing as taking it easy in Kitzbuehel. I have to be prepared to race and win. It’s going to be a last minute decision there.

I was taking sections of this course really easy [in training], and I’m still pushing my back right to the limit. I’m eight weeks out of back surgery. Usually at eight weeks, you’re allowed to lift a gallon of milk or start moving around, and I’m racing World Cup. I’m taking a risk just being out here.

RESULTS
Official results