Beaver Creek: Austrian Benjamin Raich squeaks by Ligety for the GS win

Even though it was Herman Maier’s 36th birthday, the day belonged to Austrian Benjamin “Benny” Raich, who managed to stay strong during his second run to climb from the eighth spot of his first run finish to the gold. “I was great on the top of the first run but on the lower part I was really bad,” Raich said of his run. “I was pushing really hard at the bottom which you have to do if you want to win the race. The second set was good for me.”

Raich just barely scraped past American Ted Ligety by just .01 seconds. Although you can’t knock a silver medal, it was a tough finish for Ligety, who lost 1.5 seconds during his second run. “I felt like I held the skis a little longer than I should have,” Ligety said. “The second run was set straighter than I like, and the last time I was in first, Aksel beat me.”

Norwegian superstar Aksel Lund Svindal failed to do that, however, which would have nabbed him a three-peat at Beaver Creek, but he did manage two solid runs to grab the bronze. “I knew I could ski fast (in GS) but I was missing a little bit of speed,” Svindal said.

 

Even though it was Herman Maier’s 36th birthday, the day belonged to Austrian Benjamin “Benny” Raich, who managed to stay strong during his second run to climb from the eighth spot of his first run finish to the gold. “I was great on the top of the first run but on the lower part I was really bad,” Raich said of his run. “I was pushing really hard at the bottom which you have to do if you want to win the race. The second set was good for me.”

Raich just barely scraped past American Ted Ligety by just .01 seconds. Although you can’t knock a silver medal, it was a tough finish for Ligety, who lost 1.5 seconds during his second run. “I felt like I held the skis a little longer than I should have,” Ligety said. “The second run was set straighter than I like, and the last time I was in first, Aksel beat me.”

Norwegian superstar Aksel Lund Svindal failed to do that, however, which would have nabbed him a three-peat at Beaver Creek, but he did manage two solid runs to grab the bronze. “I knew I could ski fast (in GS) but I was missing a little bit of speed,” Svindal said. Two years ago when Svindal was the World Cup Overall Champ he said he felt more sure of his GS ability. “I used to think I just could run a solid race but now I feel like I have to push harder,” Svindal said.

Svindal’s teammate, Kjetil Jansrud, a lesser-known Norwegian actually put on a bigger show, winning the second run by about .2 seconds, and winning each split. For Jansrud, this marked a huge success, as he moved from 43rd (and a 13th place finish in the first run) all the way to fourth.

American Tim Jitloff scored his second batch of World Cup points, finishing 24th after nearly skiing off the course. “At about the third gate, my heart stopped but I made a great save to keep it going. I just tried to calm down and be relaxed,” Jitloff said. “But then I came over the ‘Golden Eagle’—it was really weird. I just got caught my edge and the next thing you know I’m sailing through the air and totally funky. At that point I lost too much time to make it back up. But the speed is there, and I had to go for it. If you want to make top 30 in the world you have to go for it, so I just said screw it I’ll go for it.”

Even though the sun was shining, overall it was a relatively tough day. ‘Team American’ Bode Miller was in fifth position after the first run, yet slid off course on the Golden Eagle face. It was a tough break for Miller, who until then led the pack through the first split.

Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht also went off course after posting fourth after the first run, as did twenty others. Austrian Herman Maier was one of those skiers, and wasn’t too happy about his birthday gift. “My run was bad but fast,” he said. “But I had a mistake in the midsection and then went out. The course is nice for GS, but I don’t have a good feeling for it. The last time I skied GS was at Soelden. It’s not easy to ski it the right way.”

Maier plans to celebrate the rest of his birthday in the air. “I’ll be flying home. Hopefully there will be a cake on the plane,” he said.

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men’s Giant Slalom, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 7, 2008

1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

2 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

3 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

4 Jansrud, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

5 Simoncelli, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

6 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia

7 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

8 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

9 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

9 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

Men’s Giant Slalom, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 7, 2008. … It is the seventh race of the men’s 38 race 2008-09 World Cup schedule. … the second of eight scheduled giant slaloms. … It is the 36th World Cup race held at Beaver Creek, the sixth giant slalom. … It is the last U.S. hosted race of the season, the final race of a four race set at Beaver Creek. … One race, combined, was moved due to snow. … Ted Ligety won the first run.

It is the 26th career win for Benjamin Raich. … His 12th in GS. … It is his second win at Beaver Creek, the previous a slalom Dec. 5, 2004. … It is his first podium of the season having placed fourth at Soelden Oct. 26.

It is the 14th career World Cup podium for Ted Ligety. … His eighth in GS. … He has been on the podium in his last four GS’s. … It is his third podium at Beaver Creek, one other in GS ( 3rd Dec. 2, 2006) and one in slalom (3rd Dec. 4, 2006).

It is the 19th career podium for Aksel Svindal and his third in four days having won the DH and SG at Beaver Creek earlier this week. … It is his seventh podium in GS, and first since October 2007.

It is the 23rd career scoring result for Jean-Philippe Roy. … his 16th in GS. It is the second World Cup scoring result for Tim Jitloff, both having come this season in the two GS’s held. … He was 20th at Soelden.

Svindal maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 345-216 for Hermann Maier (first run DNF). … Didier Defago (7th in race) is third at 198 with Didier Cuche (6th in race) fourth at 196. … Ligety is the top American on the overall standings in a tie with Daniel Albrecht (2nd run DNF) for sixth with 185pts. … After two races Raich leads the GS standings 150-140 over Ligety with Cuche third at 120 and Albrecht fourth at 100. … Austria leads the Nations Cup standings (both genders) 1905-1219 over the Swiss with the U.S. third at 953.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	6	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:12.36	1:12.25	2:24.61	0.00
2	2	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:11.31	1:13.31	2:24.62	0.06
3	4	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:12.00	1:12.71	2:24.71	0.61
4	43	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:12.72	1:12.04	2:24.76	0.91
5	15	292120	SIMONCELLI Davide	1979	ITA	1:12.41	1:12.51	2:24.92	1.89
6	5	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:11.87	1:13.32	2:25.19	3.53
7	16	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:12.40	1:12.96	2:25.36	4.56
8	32	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:12.72	1:12.75	2:25.47	5.23
9	23	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:13.07	1:12.75	2:25.82	7.36
9	17	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	1:12.79	1:13.03	2:25.82	7.36
11	27	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO	1:12.51	1:13.39	2:25.90	7.85
12	1	292000	BLARDONE Massimiliano	1979	ITA	1:12.32	1:13.73	2:26.05	8.76
13	21	191750	FANARA Thomas	1981	FRA	1:12.98	1:13.10	2:26.08	8.95
14	24	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:13.48	1:13.03	2:26.51	11.56
15	50	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	1:13.28	1:13.27	2:26.55	11.81
16	20	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:13.38	1:13.39	2:26.77	13.14
17	26	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	1:13.36	1:13.52	2:26.88	13.81
18	14	191423	RICHARD Cyprien	1979	FRA	1:12.98	1:14.01	2:26.99	14.48
19	22	190677	CHENAL Joel	1973	FRA	1:13.74	1:13.29	2:27.03	14.73
20	3	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:12.34	1:14.76	2:27.10	15.15
21	30	101895	ROY Jean-Philippe	1979	CAN	1:13.66	1:13.58	2:27.24	16.00
22	52	150644	KRYZL Krystof	1986	CZE	1:13.59	1:13.76	2:27.35	16.67
23	49	192653	FREY Thomas	1984	FRA	1:13.69	1:13.98	2:27.67	18.62
24	42	534959	JITLOFF Tim	1985	USA	1:13.32	1:14.80	2:28.12	21.36
25	28	420148	KARLSEN Truls Ove	1975	NOR	1:13.82	1:14.53	2:28.35	22.76