- Title: ITALY: U.S. fans celebrate Ligety's gold in Alpine skiing combined.
- Date: 14th February 2006
- Summary: O2)SESTRIERE, ITALY (FEBRUARY 14, 2006) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) VARIOUS OF SPECTATORS LEAVING VENUE OF ALPINE SKIING COMBINED EVENT FANS WALKING IN STREET GROUP OF U.S FANS WITH AMERICAN FLAGS (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. FAN SAYING: "We've been running with Bode (Miller) in camp and Bode hooked a tip and it sucks to hook a tip. Excuse me world for that linguistic faux pas, but we thought with that, that the race was over. So it was the most embarrassing moment of my life, but that's because we are all about comedy for you....Go USA and boy does gold feel good. Go USA!" FAN WAVING U.S. FLAG VARIOUS OF U.S. FANS FIREWORKS OVER VENUE OF ALPINE SKIING COMBINED EVENT VARIOUS OF FIREWORKS
- Embargoed: 1st March 2006 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Sports
- Reuters ID: LVA74CKO3J5XV87HQDRHZQTKA0L7
- Story Text: Fans from the United States celebrated in the Italian Alps village
of Sestriere on Tuesday night (February 14) as unheralded American Ted Ligety
won Olympic gold in the Alpine skiing combined event after leader Benjamin
Raich of Austria skied out of the slalom second leg.
Ligety had been expected to play second fiddle to his better known team
mate Bode Miller but the overall World Cup champion, who led after the
downhill leg, straddled a gate pole in the first slalom run and was
disqualified.
Croatian Ivica Kostelic, a former world slalom champion who had won
nothing in more than two years, took silver with Austrian Rainer Schoenfelder
winning the bronze.
Raich, world combined champion and overall World Cup leader, had a lead
of 0.40 seconds going into the final slalom leg but straddled a gate halfway
down the second run and went out.
American team officials, waiting with Ligety at the finish line of the
Giovanni Agnelli course, celebrated wildly as they realised their man had won.
Miller, combined silver medallist at the last Olympics, had been a
favourite for gold in Turin while the 21-year-old Ligety, skiing in his first
Games and without a single World Cup win, remained in the shadows.
Ligety, who has had three World Cup podium places in slalom this
season, produced the fastest time of the first slalom leg to push him up to
third overall, behind Kostelic and Raich, going into the decisive leg.
Kostelic, the older brother of Janica who is defending three Alpine
skiing gold medals in Turin, had knee surgery two years ago and has not won a
race since.
Outgoing champion Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway failed to defend his
title after injuring his knee in Sunday's downhill when he finished fourth. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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