TORINO: Alpine: Raich leads slalom; Ligety, Miller out in first run

TORINO: Alpine: Raich leads slalom; Ligety, Miller out in first run{mosimage}SESTRIERE, Italy – A double gold-medal dream ended abruptly for American Ted Ligety on Saturday when he straddled a gate in the first run of men’s slalom, a rare mistake for him.

“Normally it’s something I don’t do,” said Ligety. “In races I almost never straddle. … I almost never straddle in training either.”

Heavy favorite Giorgio Rocca of Italy and American Bode Miller also failed to finish. Miller avoided the media, as he has throughout the Games.

Earlier this week, in an interview with Ski Racing, Miller’s serviceman Robbie Kristan explained that Miller’s problems in slalom, were the fault of not having much time to train and perfect the equipment set-up.

“It’s the lack of training for slalom,” said Kristan. “It’s not possible to do it if you run all the races. It’s tough. The other guys are training slalom every week, every couple of days, at least, if not more. But they have time to do it.”

Austria’s Benni Raich is one of those guys. He sped down the course in 53.37 seconds to hold a .01 lead over Finland’s Kalle Palander and a .07 advantage on Japan’s Kentaro Minegawa.

Four more racers were within a second of Raich and within striking distance of the medals: Austria’s Rainer Herbst, Canada’s Thomas Grandi, Sweden’s Andre Myhrer and Austrian Rainer Schoenfelder. In all, nine of the first 21 racers did not advance to the second run.

Ligety, the surprise gold medalist in the combined, hooked a tip on a hairpin gate early on the course. Ligety finished a run that would have put him near the top of the leaderboard after the first of two runs.

Miller, the defending World Cup overall champ, also straddled a gate in the men’s combined slalom when he looked poised to win. Saturday’s DNF confirms these Games as a major, major bust for a racer labeled a five gold-medal hopeful by the mainstream media.

Rocca, who won five straight World Cup slaloms to open this season and was considered the favorite in the event, was first out of the start hut but crashed halfway through the run. His skis crossed at a gate and he tumbled to the snow, sliding on his back.

Afterward, he lay in the snow for several moments.

”It’s a pity, it’s a pity,” Rocca told Italian state TV. ”I was going down well, in that point I wanted to gain speed. And instead …

”I know the people wanted the most (from me) and I gave it, at least while I was still in the running,” Rocca said. ”A pity.”

The Italian’s failure to complete the first of the two slalom legs was a massive disappointment to the legions of supporters who showed up to cheer for him.

”Giorgio tried to push away from the gates during the race as I suggested to him,” said Alberto Tomba, the 1998 Olympic slalom champion. ”But unfortunately he was wrong. He made a mistake. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Dozens of supporters climbed atop nearby snowdrifts to watch Rocca from outside the venue.

”I feel sorry for them, but they still love me and I feel close to them,” Rocca said.

Several other skiers also failed to finish the run, while defending champion Jean-Pierre Vidal of France didn’t start after breaking an arm while skiing for pleasure Friday.

The slalom is the final alpine event of the 2006 Winter Games, which wrap up with Closing Ceremony on Sunday.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.