Val d’Isere, France – World Champion Ted Ligety battled soft snow and a shortened course to finish third in the Val d’Isere giant slalom on Sunday behind race winner and reigning Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall and GS champ Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who scored his first World Cup win of the season. Podium newcomer Stefan Luitz of Germany finished second.

“It’s awesome but it was so hard,” said Hirscher. “I was told before leaving the start that (Saturday’s slalom winner) Pinturault skied out and was not sure what to do. It’s hard to know how much to break…but I decided I had to give it all I had to make sure I win. Luckily it paid off.”

“Val d’Isere’s always tough, it’s not a hill I particularly like. It’s not very user friendly, it’s very steep the whole way,” explained Ligety, who was seventh after the first run. “I’m happy to salvage it and to walk away from this hill with a podium when it could easily have been a DNF (did not finish).

“It’s a very unforgiving hill. On a normal course you would have a little bobble and on this hill it becomes a big, big mistake.”

The podium result kept Ligety, of Park City, Utah, in the World Cup GS driver’s seat and eased him closer to overall leader Aksel Lund Svindal, now 38 points ahead, but halted his win streak after taking the first two GS races of the season in Soelden, Austria and Beaver Creek, Colo., by a massive 4.81 seconds.

“We as a team skied too conservative in the first run. Fortunately Ted is such a fast skier that skiing conservative still keeps him in the game,” said U.S. Ski Team Head Coach, Sasha Rearick.

Ligety will skip the downhill next weekend in Val Gardena, Italy in favor of training. He will race the super G and following giant slalom in nearby Alta Badia.

“Ted is going to skip the downhill in Val Gardena and will train slalom in Italy instead,” added Ligety. “We’re cashing in some chips with the Italian team who we partnered with to train at the U.S. Ski Team Speed Center at Copper Mountain. They’ve offered us free accommodation and training leading up to Val Gardena and Alta Badia, so we’re going to take advantage of that.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Val d’Isere, France – Dec. 9, 2012
Men’s Giant Slalom