Ted Ligety has almost certainly won the men’s Alpine skiing giant slalom today in Sochi, giving him the following Olympic bests and records:
- With his second Olympic gold medal, Ligety becomes only the 2nd American with 2 Alpine skiing gold medals, and the first male, after Andi Mead-Lawrence, who won her 2 gold medals in slalom and giant slalom in 1952.
- He becomes the 5th American male with 2 or more Alpine skiing medals – Bode Miller (6), Phil Mahre (2), Tommy Moe (2), Andrew Weibrecht (2). There are 8 American women with 2+ Alpine skiing medals, led by Julia Mancuso with 4, making Ligety the 13th American to win 2 or more medals in Olympic Alpine skiing.
- Ligety becomes the 7th American to win Alpine skiing medals at 2 or more Olympics. This list is led by Bode Miller and Julia Mancuso with 3, with Dianne Roffe, Picabo Street, Phil Mahre, and Andrew Weibrecht the 4 Americans to win Olympic Alpine medals at 2 Winter Olympics.
So how is the United States doing in Alpine skiing at Sochi? Not quite as badly as originally described a few days ago, now helped by medals in the men’s Super G and giant slalom. Here is how the US performance in 2014 ranks compared to our previous medal rankings in Olympic Alpine skiing.
Year | NOC | RankUS | RankEU | G | S | B | TM |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | United States | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 8 |
1984 | United States | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 5 |
1964 | United States | 3 | 3 | - | 2 | 2 | 4 |
1994 | United States | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | 4 |
2014 | United States | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||
1960 | United States | 4 | 6 | - | 3 | - | 3 |
1948 | United States | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | - | 2 |
1952 | United States | 4 | 2 | 2 | - | - | 2 |
1972 | United States | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
1992 | United States | =5 | =7 | - | 2 | - | 2 |
2002 | United States | 6 | 6 | - | 2 | - | 2 |
2006 | United States | 5 | 2 | 2 | - | - | 2 |
1976 | United States | =7 | =7 | - | - | 1 | 1 |
1980 | United States | 6 | 5 | - | 1 | - | 1 |
1998 | United States | 7 | 6 | 1 | - | - | 1 |
After the men’s giant slalom, here is the 2014 Olympic Alpine skiing medal list (assuming no changes after top 30 starters):
2014 – NOCs | G | S | B | TM |
---|---|---|---|---|
Austria | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
United States | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Germany | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Slovenia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Norway | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
France | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Italy | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Croatia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Canada | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Totals | 9 | 7 | 9 | 25 |
””Ligety becomes the 3rd person to win the giant slalom twice””??
Ligety hasn’t won the Olympic GS twice; his first gold was in the 2006 combined. He has never medaled in the Olympic GS before.