With a winning combined time of two minutes and 22.47 seconds, the American showed his continuing mastery of the Slovenian piste where he won three times in succession from 2008 to 2010.
“It’s a great day and a timely victory after two weekends when the results were not so good. I just skied today the way I should have skied in Crans or Bansko,” he said after his third win of the winter.
Ligety is now 92 points behind Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who finished third, in the giant slalom World Cup standings and could still overtake him in the World Cup finals in Schladming, Austria, next week.
“It’s a great battle for the globe. I don’t think you should look at what I did wrong and where, and when Marcel failed to secure it. You should rather look at the fantastic level of skiing required to win in the discipline this season,” said Ligety.
Hirscher trailed the American by 2.03, while second place went to France’s Alexis Pinturault, who finished 1.61 off the pace.
In the race for the overall World Cup, Hirscher is now only 55 points behind Swiss Beat Feuz, who finished 35th in the morning run and failed to qualify for the second leg.
“It’s 60 points in the pocket but you can’t say I skied with the points in mind in the second leg. I didn’t ski tactically. I could not ski a percent better. Ted was just unbeatable today,” the Austrian said.
“It’s fascinating when I see what I can produce when challenged. It’s an important time in my career but it is also for Beat Feuz against whom I skied in the junior ranks. He’s a great challenger and it’s a great fight.”
Back in action after three weeks out for injury and a knee operation, defending overall champion Ivica Kostelic had to be content with 25th place and is now 201 points behind Feuz in the standings.
The race was marred by a spectacular crash by Italian Florian Eizath, who was carried away from the course with a suspected broken arm.
