Ligety 3rd Straight Soelden Podium

SOELDEN, Austria (Oct. 25) - Olympic champion Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) kicked off the 2010 Olympic season in a huge way as he shredded his way to a second-place podium finish during the Audi FIS World Cup opener in Soelden Sunday. It marked the third year in a row Ligety has finished on the podium in Soelden.

"This is the toughest year I've raced in Soelden. It hasn't been that many years, but today was super bumpy and pretty variable snow. I was psyched to make it down and get second, so it was definitely a good day," Ligety said. "I'm super psyched with how I am skiing and it's a good way to start out the season."

Ligety, who also finished the first run in second was flanked by the Swiss on both sides of the podium. Defending World Cup GS champion Didier Cuche won by .60 seconds and reigning GS World Champion Carlo Janka finished third, trailing .35 behind.

"Soelden is always a little different every year just because it's the first race of the year and you don't really know how fast you're skiing. You have to psych yourself up all that much more because you have no idea if you're fast or not, but luckily I was able to step up and have good races," Ligety said. "I felt like I was skiing great. I still had some mistakes, but everyone has mistakes every run, so it's not too big of a deal there."

It was the first race back for Ligety who suffered a late season knee injury in March 2009. Ligety made an incredibly swift recovery thanks to hours spent rehabilitating at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association's Center of Excellence in Park City, UT over the summer.

"The spring was definitely the most boring I've had in a while. I was basically immobile for about six weeks and then headed straight into rehab full time," Ligety said. "It's great to have a facility like that  - it's pretty key, especially when we get injured. But it's also great to have a place where everything we need for dryland training is taken care of."

The U.S. Ski Team's Tim Jitloff (Reno, NV) almost pushed into the second run, finishing 31st - one spot ahead of World Cup rookie Tommy Ford (Bend, OR), skiing his first World Cup. Jitloff missed the cut by two-tenths with Ford .06 behind his teammate.

"Jitloff's been skiing a lot better than he performed today.," Men's Alpine Head Coach Sasha Rearick said. "He was expecting more, he wasn't just focused on what he needs to do to ski fast. We're going to go back and work on that."

Smart racing was the key component of Ford's performance in his first World Cup that had Rearick excited about where the young athlete will go.

"Tommy Ford, I'll tell you what, that was a hell of a performance. First World Cup and he came out and skied in the race just like he does in training," Rearick said. "He did get tossed around once in the chop and got off line on three gates, but he was smart on  the delays  and in the next seven gates I think he skied better than anyone else in the race. To be able to play forward like that at 20 years of age and in your first World Cup is a tremendous performance."

According to Rearick, being able to race without trying too hard was what got Ford on the cusp of qualifying for the second run.

"The only thing I said to Tommy today, and the coaching staff has said it for a while, is to just go out there and ski," Rearick said. "Some guys want to go to race - they want to put more effort and put in that something extra. But when you have to compete on your biggest day, you have to try less hard. He did that today and I am very proud of what he did."

With the first World Cup of the season completed, the Men's Alpine Team will stay in Europe to train for races in Levi, Finland.

"It's kind of a busy schedule," said Ligety. "But it's fun. We have a good group of guys on the Team and our coaches are a lot of fun to work with, so I'm looking forward to it."

The next GS of the season will be in Beaver Creek at the Audi Birds of Prey, when the World Cup circuit converges on the Colorado Rockies for the only three days of alpine action in the U.S. prior to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.