Olympic champion Ted Ligety signs two-year contract with Rossignol skis

Olympic champion Ted Ligety signs two-year contract with Rossignol skis{mosimage}Ted Ligety is moving to Rossignol equipment after spending the spring being courted by several ski companies that were interested in signing the Olympic combined champion.

Ligety plans to have the full-time support of Alec Kalamar, the former serviceman of Lasse Kjus, the Norwegian skier who retired in March.

Ligety, a 21-year-old Utah native, was the only American man to win an event at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, taking the gold medal in the men’s combined while skiing on Volkl skis and Nordica boots.

Ligety tested the Rossignol equipment against his Volkl/Nordica set up in a five-day testing session in Italy last month.

“Going over there was refreshing,” Ligety said in a telephone interview. “It was motivating to get out there and try other stuff.”

He was joined there by his agent and his former coach, Rob Clayton, who is now the headmaster of the Winter Sports School in Ligety’s hometown of Park City.

“We had five full days of testing, three slalom and two GS — pretty intensive,” said Clayton, who was impressed with Ligety’s businesslike manner with the ski companies that were courting him.

Ligety had originally planned to test Atomic equipment as well, but chose not to when he learned it would require traveling to Austria in addition to Italy.

Ligety’s agent, Burlington, Vermont-based lawyer Ken Sowles, said Ligety’s stock rose dramatically over this season.

“Ski companies have been interested in signing Ted for the past year,” said Sowles. “But with his performance last season, this interest increased dramatically. Ted had his choice of skiing for any ski company.”

Sowles said Ligety’s relationship with Rossignol will go beyond skis and service.

“We are exploring some great promotional opportunities with them,” said Sowles. “And it’s a bonus for Ted that they are moving to his hometown of Park City.”

The ski testing Ligety did do was in the Val Sarantino area of northern Italy, not far from Bolzano.

“It was actually pretty awesome snow,” said Ligety. “It wasn’t icy, but it was as hard as any World Cups. “I wasn’t even leaving a groove after eight runs.”

He said it was difficult to part ways with Volkl, which had supported him with equipment since he was 14, and particularly hard to say goodbye to his serviceman with that company.

On Tuesday, Ligety was planning to attend a photo shoot with Rossignol representatives in Snowbird, Utah.

For much of the last two weeks, the skier has been on vacation in Mexico after a jam-packed schedule of racing and ski testing.

Following the Olympics in Sestriere, Ligety raced in Korea, Japan, Sweden, Maine and Pennsylvania — where he went to a fundraiser — before finally attending the ski test in Italy.

At one point during the tests, Ligety asked Rossignol if they had a softer slalom ski than the one he had tried. They did not, but Rossignol’s snow test manager drove 10 hours to the company’s factory in France, made some new skis, and returned.

According to Thor Verdonk, the racing products manager for Rossignol USA, the snow test manager made a completely different type of ski — and only after reassembling the machinery necessary to do so, which had been disassembled as the company relocated its race room.

Ligety is not the first member of the U.S. men’s team to switch brands this spring. Bode Miller switched from Atomic to Head, without testing the skis.

Miller also plans to use Head boots, said Sowles, who represents Miller in equipment negotiations as well.

“We have now about 200 athletes in alpine, and in the future we go to 120, and to give a better service and reactivity for our athletes,” said Angelo Maina, Rossignol’s racing manager, in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning.

“Ligety will be for the next two years a number one athlete,” said Maina, adding that Thomas Grandi and “five or six others” would also be the face of the brand.

“We have a big motivation,” he said.