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PREVIEW MEN'S GIANT SLALOM – FRIDAY 13 FEB 2015
Ligety hoping to continue Giant Slalom domination
> Ted Ligety can become the first man to win the Giant Slalom world
title three times following his wins in 2011 and 2013. Six other men
have won the world title in this discipline twice.
> Ligety can equal the record of winning a specific event three World
Championships in a row. This was set by Christel Cranz in 1939
(Slalom and Combination) and later equalled by Marielle Goitschel
(Combination), Ingemar Stenmark (Slalom), Erika Hess (Combination)
and Kjetil André Aamodt (Combination).
> Ligety also finished third in 2009 and can equal Ingemar Stenmark
and Karl Schranz on a record four World Championships medals in this
event.
> Ligety can win a medal in the Giant Slalom for the fourth successive
time this event is held, that would equal the record of winning a medal in
a specific individual event in most consecutive editions, which is held by
four skiers: Marielle Goitschel (Slalom and Combination), Hanni Wenzel
(Combination), Ingemar Stenmark (Giant Slalom) and Kjetil André
Aamodt (Combination). Tina Maze can also achieve this feat in the
Giant Slalom on Thursday.
> The US skier has won a total of four individual world titles and can
surpass Bode Miller on most individual titles among US skiers (both
genders).
> Ligety can also surpass Lindsey Vonn to become the US skier with
the most individual medals at the World Championships. Both have won
six medals. Vonn will participate in the Giant Slalom on Thursday.
> Ligety also won Olympic gold in Sochi last year and can become the
first man to win the world title in this event as reigning Olympic
champion since Gustav Thöni in 1974.
> The only other men who have achieved this feat are Toni Sailer
(1958) and Stein Eriksen (1954).
> Ligety also won the last four World Cup races in the Giant Slalom in
Beaver Creek (2011-2014), including his only World Cup race win in all
disciplines this season (7 December). Ligety finished second in Beaver
Creek in 2011 after winning in 2010.
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> Ligety is the only man to have won multiple World Cup Giant Slalom
races in Beaver Creek (5 wins).
Hirscher poised to give Austria Giant Slalom world title
> Marcel Hirscher has won four of the five Giant Slalom World Cup
races this season, including the last three. Only in Beaver Creek he
failed to win, finishing third behind Ted Ligety and Alexis Pinturault.
> Hirscher finished second behind Ligety at the 2013 World
Championships.
> The last Austrian to win the world title in this event is Hermann Maier
in 2005.
> Hirscher has won World Championship gold in Slalom (2013) and
Super Combined (2015) and he can become the fourth Austrian skier to
win gold in at least three different individual events after Toni Sailer (4),
Hermann Maier and Karl Schranz (3).
> Austria still have the most men's Giant Slalom world titles with seven.
They are followed by Switzerland with six.
Pinturault looking for second career Giant Slalom victory
> Alexis Pinturault is third in the Giant Slalom World Cup standings
behind Marcel Hirscher and Ted Ligety.
> Pinturault can become the fourth Frenchman to win the world title in
this event following François Bonlieu in 1964, Guy Périllat in 1966 and
Jean-Claude Killy in 1968.
> Pinturault has reached the podium in 14 of his 39 Giant Slalom starts
in major competitions (World Cup races, World Championships and
Olympic Games), but has won only once, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on
24 February 2013.
> Pinturault finished second in the Giant Slalom in Beaver Creek behind
Ted Ligety on 7 December 2014.
International Ski Federation
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