Italians go 1-2 in giant slalom

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ALTA BADIA, Italy — It was a mixed day for the U.S. Ski Team and a memorable one for the Italian squad on home snow Sunday.

Local favorites Max Blardone and Davide Simoncelli finished first and second in the challenging giant slalom on the Gran Risa course, while Ted Ligety struggled with his grip to place seventh and Bode Miller failed to qualify for the second run.

Ligety was 12th in the opening leg, which was run at 1 Fahrenheit.

“First run I think a lot of the guys were taken by surprise by how icy it was,” Ligety said. “I for sure was. I just felt like I had no grip on the top. I changed skis for the second run — something with a little thicker edge — but I just couldn’t ski clean either run really.”

Ligety is also recovering from stomach flu, which forced him to miss a few days of training this week.

Benjamin Raich leads the GS standings with 235 points, Blardone is second with 230 and Ligety is next with 192.

Blardone led both legs and clocked a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 35.76 seconds for his fifth World Cup victory — all in giant slalom. Simoncelli finished 0.43 seconds behind and Cyprien Richard of France moved up from sixth in the first leg to finish third, 1.63 seconds back.

Women’s World Cup

VAL D’ISERE, France — Lindsey Vonn capped a successful weekend with a third-place finish in a super-G that helped her to reclaim the sole lead of the overall World Cup standings barely two months before the Vancouver Olympics.

Following her victory in Friday’s super combined, Vonn made mistakes in the upper part of the Oreiller-Killy course on Sunday, but finished strong to gain a spot on the podium. Franzi Aufdenblatten posted her first World Cup victory, leading Nadia Styger to a 1-2 Swiss finish with Vonn 0.26 seconds off the pace.

After a mediocre weekend of technical events last week in Are, Sweden, where she lost the World Cup lead to rival and friend Maria Riesch of Germany, Vonn bounced back in Val d’Isere. The 25-year-old American has had success in this French Alps resort, winning the super-G and the downhill at the world championships earlier this year.

Vonn has been on the podium in every discipline this season except in giant slalom and now has 581 points in the overall standings to lead Riesch by 50 points. Kathrin Zettel of Austria is third with 384 points.