Ted Ligety wins 1st World Cup super-combined

WENGEN, Switzerland: Ted Ligety, the American giant slalom specialist, earned his first super-combined victory on the World Cup on Friday — a discipline he already owns an Olympic and world championship title in but had curiously never won on the season-long circuit.

He was already the favorite for Olympic gold in giant slalom. He may have just made himself the frontrunner in another discipline as well.

The American trailed Alexis Pinturault of France after the morning slalom leg but surpassed last year´s Wengen super-combined winner in the decisive downhill run on the classic Lauberhorn slope.

Ligety won three gold medals at the 2013 world championships at Schaldming, Austria, but has struggled to establish himself as an all-around skier on the grueling World Cup tour.

He cited a key assist from teammate Bode Miller.Ligety overturned a 1.22-second deficit from the slalom to beat Pinturault by 0.22. Natko Zrncic-Dim of Croatia was third, trailing 1.08 behind Ligety´s combined two-run time of 2 minutes, 44.74 seconds.

Pinturault suggested he and Ligety are the main medal contenders in the Sochi super-combined scheduled for Feb. 14.

"Yes, of course. The big challengers for me is going to be Ted Ligety and Ivica Kostelic, for sure," said the 22-year-old Frenchman.

Ligety, Pinturault and Marcel Hirscher are the established big three in a high-class giant slalom line-up, and the American´s latest downhill display suggested his world title in super-combined was no fluke.

Miller, the reigning super-combined Olympic champion, finished 2.15 seconds behind Ligety after being seventh fastest in tricky slalom conditions in the morning.

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway finished fifth and took the overall World Cup lead from Austrian rival Hirscher, who skips speed events. Svindal earned 45 World Cup points to lead Hirscher by 22. (AP)