Ligety .01 off Alta Badia Podium

ALTA BADIA, Italy (Dec. 18) - Reigning Audi FIS Alpine World Cup and World giant slalom champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) fell .01 short of the Alta Badia podium Sunday after finishing fourth behind Italian winner Massimiliano Blardone. Ligety, who was leading after the first run by .49, retained the discipline lead 330-265 over Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who finished fifth on the day.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Italian Massimiliano Blardone won the giant slalom for the third time at Alta Badia ('05, '09, '11)
• Ted Ligety finished fourth, just .01 off the podium after leading the opening run by .49
• Ligety has finished 1-2-1-4 in the first of nine scheduled giant slalom races this season
• The Gran Risa slope is the longest giant slalom course on the World Cup tour
• Bode Miller was 16th and Tim Jitloff 18th as Tommy Ford skied out in the second run
• A slalom is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 19 in Alta Badia

QUOTES
Ted Ligety
It felt OK but it didn't go as well as it should have.

Both of us (Hirscher) underperformed today. He lost almost as much time in the second run as I did. 1.7 is inexcusable to lose to anybody no matter what the snow conditions are like. We both should have been a lot faster than that and we both are capable of a lot more than that. It's frustrating and he's equally as pissed as I am.

I don't know what exactly it was. Both those guys (Ford and Miller) were skiing OK before the bottom but it's just not an easy run, and after a first run that's 1:30 it's pretty taxing.

Sasha Rearick - Head Coach
Ted lost the gas pedal a little bit on the second run and just in general is capable of skiing so much better. Both he and Hirscher lost speed on the bottom and Ted got a little gift with Hirscher finishing behind him.

It was a tough race today physically. The first course was a huge physical challenge and the second run was completely the opposite with a really fast set, but you had to work really hard from top to bottom on both to be fast.

Bode was hammering up top with good agressive skiing and went on his hip over the pitch. He did a great job getting back on his feet and within two or three turns was right back in the rhythm looking for speed.

Both Tommy and Jit were skiing agressive, but didn't bring enough back on the dealy over the roll at the bottom. That was the one spot where we lost a little bit of time on the first run. The boys wanted to go in there agressive and they just didn't pull it off.

TV
Universal Sports will air the race at  2 p.m. ET on their 24-hour TV network.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=AL&raceid=66768