Mr. GS Ted Ligety focus on Giant Slalom

Double Olympic champion Ted Ligety has announced that he will be scaling back his race schedule for the 2019-20 season.

Ligety, who will turn 35 this summer, has struggled with various back and knee injuries since his last FIS Ski World Cup victory in 2015. He announced in a recent interview with KPCW radio that he will only be racing in giant slalom World Cup events this season, which kicks off October 27 in Soelden, Austria.

“So it’ll be a little bit easier schedule on my body,” Ligety explained. “I’ll be able to be home a little bit more as well, and then we see. I mean, I would like to keep going as long as I feel like I can win races and feel healthy. That’s really the biggest part, and nowadays I have a 2-year-old son, and there’s more factors than there was when I was 25 years old.”

Ligety, nicknamed “Mr. GS” for his GS prowess, has a 2014 Olympic gold medal and three world titles in that event. He also has an Olympic alpine combined gold medal from 2006, and world titles in the super-G and alpine combined from 2013.

“There’s a lot of hard miles on my body up to this point, but I’m still enjoying it,” said Ligety, whose 321 World Cup starts are the most among active Olympic medalists now that Lindsey Vonn and Aksel Lund Svindal have retired. “Right now, I feel really healthy and trying to get to a point where I feel I can win races. That’s the goal right now.”

Release courtesy of U.S. Ski & Snowboard.