Ligety slaps plastic, Weibrecht excels in New Zealand

After four months off snow, Ted Ligety is happily “slapping plastic,” again.

Ligety, the 2008 World Cup GS champion, injured his right knee while training for the U.S. National downhill back in March. While he did not need surgery, he has been in full blown recuperation mode since. He arrived at the ski team’s first of two Southern Hemisphere on-snow camps at New Zealand’s Cornet Peak in late July and within days, according to Twitter, was slapping plastic, or running gates.

Ligety and Andrew Weibrecht arrived at Coronet Peak in late July with Head Coach Sasha Rearick. They were joined a week later by Chamonix World Cup winner Marco Sullivan, Scott Macartney, Erik Fisher and invitee Travis Ganong for a two and half week giant slalom camp.After four months off snow, Ted Ligety is happily “slapping plastic,” again.

Ligety, the 2008 World Cup GS champion, injured his right knee while training for the U.S. National downhill back in March. While he did not need surgery, he has been in full blown recuperation mode since. He arrived at the ski team’s first of two Southern Hemisphere on-snow camps at New Zealand’s Cornet Peak in late July and within days, according to Twitter, was slapping plastic, or running gates.

Ligety and Andrew Weibrecht arrived at Coronet Peak in late July with Head Coach Sasha Rearick. They were joined a week later by Chamonix World Cup winner Marco Sullivan, Scott Macartney, Erik Fisher and invitee Travis Ganong for a two and half week giant slalom camp.

For Macartney, it was also a return to snow, only he’d been away since a January ACL tear in Wengen, Switzerland. Macartney split his rehab between the new Center of Excellence in Park City and his home in Washington.

“We’ve had a solid block of four days of really good giant slalom training on injected snow,” said Rearick. “Both Ted and Scott are taking it easy, mostly free skiing, but they’re skiing pain free and that’s the important thing. The goal is to get them really comfortable and strong before our September camps in Chile.”

That goal also remains consistent for Steven Nyman and TJ Lanning. Both are continuing their charge back to snow from knee injuries are targeted to return for the Chile camps.

“The snow has been excellent and that’s all thanks to the hard work they’re doing here at Coronet Peak,” said Rearick. “The crew here has gone out of their way to make sure we have everything we need and that’s translated into some solid improvement from the guys, particularly Weibrecht.”

According to Rearick, in addition to helping Ligety get back to an estimated 70 percent thus far, the extra week in New Zealand has resulted in huge strides for Weibrecht.

“Andrew has made some incredible breakthroughs with his GS,” said Rearick. “He’s moving his center of mass towards the initiation point of each turn much better than ever and that’s translated into very clean skiing on the fall line.”

Weibrecht exploded onto the World Cup scene at the onset of the 2008 season with a stunning run from the 53rd starting position to finish 10th at the Birds of Prey Downhill at Beaver Creek, CO. Coaches see the technical training as a way to focus Weibrecht’s speed.

Weibrecht and the speed Team will move later this week to nearby Treble Cone for a block of super G training, while the men’s tech skiers including Tim Jitloff  and Jimmy Cochran arrive later this week at Coronet Peak.

The men’s World Cup season opens Oct. 25 with the traditional giant slalom in Soelden, Austria. The U.S. swing is slated for the Birds of Prey race week Dec. 4-6 in Beaver Creek, Colo. It will be the only World Cup stop in the United States prior to the February Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. – US Ski Team