Ted Ligety wins GS for 2nd career Olympic gold

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia: This was the race Ted Ligety knew he should win. So did everybody else. And that, Ligety explained Wednesday after becoming the first American man in Olympic history with two Alpine skiing gold medals, was precisely what made the feat so tough.

Sometimes, being a popular pick can be overwhelming. Ligety learned that four years ago, and dealt with the matter far better on this day.

Scraping the snow with his gloves and hips while taking wide turns around gates, his body swaying left and right with a pendulum´s precision, Ligety finished the two-leg giant slalom with a combined time of 2 minutes, 45.29 seconds, winning by nearly a half-second.

His gold is the first for the U.S. Alpine team at the Sochi Games. Yet Ligety´s overriding.

The only other American with a pair of Olympic Alpine golds is Andrea Mead Lawrence, winner of the women´s slalom and giant slalom in 1952.

Eight years ago, at the Turin Games, Ligety grabbed gold in the combined, the very first Olympic event of his career. Oh, how easy everything must have seemed then. He was 21, went from unknown to champion in a blink.

Then came the disappointment of Vancouver four years ago, when Ligety arrived at the Olympics as early as anyone and "just got stale," as Rearick put it. Expected to shine again, Ligety failed to finish one of his events and came in fifth, ninth and 19th in others.

He used what happened in 2010 to drive his tremendous success since, particularly in his best event. He won the giant slalom at the 2011 and 2013 world championships, and he´s won nine of 14 GS races in the World Cup over the last two seasons.

So even after his Sochi Games began slowly — 12th in the super-combined; 14th in the super-G — he was focused on the giant slalom.
Naturally, the rest of the ski world trained its eyes on him Wednesday. (AP)