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WHISTLER, Canada -- Up at Whistler Creekside, Park City's Ted Ligety had four shots for medals. He's zero for two so far, but his best chances are still to come. Tuesday he'll compete in the giant slalom, and he takes on the slalom on Saturday.
Four years ago the home-grown ski racer stunned the world in the 2006 Torino winter Olympics. Hauling gold back to his mining hometown and from there "Shreddin' Ted" has cut right to the front of the line.
"Winning the gold medal, I try to say it hasn't changed me at all. I used to live with my parents, I don't anymore, hahaha, which is, I guess, the big thing. So, I mean, that's obviously a nice to have, is be living on your own," he says. "I mean, being an elite athlete, I think, is for most kids growing up is an ideal job. I always dreamed about doing it when I was a little kid. To actually have that come to fruition and be able to be a star athlete, it's pretty crazy and a lot of fun; and to be able to parlay that into the business side of things is really nice as well."
That golden moment on the world's stage in Sestriere helped fuel a new business, "Shred Optics," run by Ligety and a buddy.
"'Shred,' starting that was a lot of fun with a friend of mine. We do goggles, helmets and sunglasses, so it's a fun distraction from skiing," he says.
But one quick peek into Ligety's brutal training tells you he doesn't allow many distractions from skiing at this time in his life. The gold medal march up Main Street in Park City 2006 was fun, but he's greedy, and not shy in the spotlight.
He says, "As an athlete, you want to always be one of the best guys; that's always your goal. And so being a favorite is always something you look forward to, I think."
The dynamics of the way his body moves , his physiology, just works really well for ski racing; but the fact that he is relaxed allows him to get high level performances out of himself in pressure situations. Ligety is counting on "Ligety's Legions" making the short trip from Utah and getting the Euro stars on the road and away from their comfort zone.
"It's nice to get them out of their element a little bit and having them live out of their duffel bags, and it's nice also to have friends and family only an hour and a half flight away, so, it's good," he says.
You won't find Miller or Ligety lounging at the athletes' village. The ski team has its own ski-in ski-out condos in Whistler.
"Living in the village is fun, but it's obviously not super conducive for doing well athletically. It will be nice having those condos there, and obviously Whistler is an awesome area," Ligety said.
It will be even more cool for him if he can put down two solid runs in Tuesday's giant slalom. He's ranked first in the world in that event and had the fastest time in the slalom portion of Sunday's super-combined too.
E-mail: tkirkland@ksl.com
