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After Miller is DQ’d, teammate Ligety snares the combined gold
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SESTRIERE, Italy – After the downhill portion of the Alpine combined Tuesday, the gold medal was Bode Miller’s to lose.
And that’s exactly what he did when he straddled a gate and was disqualified in the first of two evening slalom runs.
Fortunately for the struggling and wounded U.S. Alpine ski team, Ted Ligety, a 21-year-old slalom and giant slalom specialist from Park City, Utah, was there to claim an improbable victory and become the first American skier ever to win the Alpine combined in the Olympics.
“It’s great to be where I am, but it’s definitely unexpected for sure,” said Ligety, who had never even won a World Cup race.
Ivica Kostelic, the older but far less accomplished brother of top woman skier Janica Kostelic, claimed the silver medal for Croatia, and Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria got the bronze.
All three owed their medals in part to early leaders who missed slalom gates.
After the downhill, Miller held a .32 second lead over his closest rival, Didier Defago of Switzerland, 2.06 seconds over Austria’s Benni Raich, the reigning world champion, and 3.06 seconds over Ligety, who was in 32nd place.
Defago, former Olympic champion Lasse Kjus and 10 other skiers missed gates and didn’t finish the first slalom run.
Raich skied fourth and Miller 10th. After Miller crossed the finish line, the scoreboard showed that he still led second-place Raich by .97 seconds.
But soon an asterisk was added.
About 20 minutes later the scoreboard showed Raich as the leader. Then in huge letters the scoreboard announced that Miller had been disqualified for straddling a gate.
“I didn’t protest. It’s totally out of my hands,” Miller said. “Jesse (Hunt, the team’s Alpine program director) said on the video it’s clear. If it’s clear, it’s clear. It’s not the first time. I’ve fallen more times than most people finish slaloms.”
” . . . At least I won’t have to go down to Torino to the medals plaza tomorrow.”
Ligety was with Miller when he learned of the disqualification.
“I was pretty bummed for him,” Ligety said. “I don’t think there’s any way I could have surpassed him.”
Ligety had already turned in what proved to be the fastest of the first slalom runs, 44.09 seconds. But with Miller gone, Ligety’s deficit was down from 1.83 seconds to just .86 behind Raich and .46 behind second-place Kostelic going into the second slalom run.
Ligety’s solution was to go even faster on the second run, 43.84 seconds, giving him a total time of 3 minutes, 9.35 seconds and first place among those who had skied so far.
Kostelic skied next and finished .53 seconds behind Ligety.
Raich, the only other skier remaining with a chance at the gold, was next.
More than two-thirds of the way down the run, he also straddled a gate, setting off a finish area celebration in which Ligety’s teammates tackled him and hoisted him on their shoulders.
“I didn’t think I was going to get gold at any place,” Ligety said. “I didn’t think that until Benni went out.”
“I was kind of in disbelief when he went out. That was definitely the moment when I realized obviously that I was the gold medalist. I was extremely happy to be in that position, to win the race.
But at the same time, I want to beat the other guys while they’re skiing.”
Ken Stephens
Dallas Morning News