KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Ted Ligety of the United States won his fifth giant slalom of the season Saturday to clinch the World Cup discipline title with a race to spare.
It’s his fourth GS title after winning in 2008 and 2010-11. He also successfully defended his GS title at the world championships last month.
“To win here again is a super cool feeling,” said Ligety, who has won in Kranjska Gora five times and been on the podium every year since 2008. “I am really proud of that.”
Ligety held his first-run lead to win in 2 minutes, 35.43 seconds for his 16th career victory, all in GS.
He established an insurmountable 125-point lead over Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who was 0.45 behind in second.
“It’s a big weight off my shoulders,” Ligety said. “I had an awesome, awesome season but Hirscher was there all the time. Even if I beat him by three seconds, he was still in second place. That makes it tough going for the title. It becomes kind of a head game when he is so close all the time. So I am pretty psyched to have it locked up now.”
Ligety has finished on the podium in all seven GS races this season and became the first man to achieve that feat since Michael von Gruenigen of Switzerland in 1995-96.
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