Ted Ligety, Mikaela Shiffrin Win Gold At 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships

The 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships were held in Beaver Creek, Colorado from February 2nd-15th and the U.S. Ski Team finished 2nd overall in the medals count with five. Austria was the overall leader with nine, including five gold in the 11 events. No surprise there; it would have been news if Austria hadn’t finished first.

The top individual winners were Austria’s Anna Fenninger and Slovenia’s Tina Maze. Fenninger took the gold in the women’s Super G and Giant Slalom, and silver in the Downhill. Fenninger won gold at the 2014 Olympics in the Super G and took the silver in the Giant Slalom at the Sochi Games. Maze won gold in the Downhill and Super Combined and silver in the Super G. Maze is a four time Olympic Medalist, winning two at Sochi and two in Vancouver in 2010.

Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. won gold in the Slalom, as she did in the 2013 Worlds and in the Sochi games last year. Shiffrin’s teammate Ted Ligety took the bronze in the men’s Super Combined and won the gold in the Giant Slalom. Ligety is a two time Olympic Gold Medalist, winning the Combined in Turin, Italy in 2006 and the Giant Slalom in Sochi.

The other American winners were Travis Ganong (silver in men’s Downhill) and Lindsey Vonn, who won the bronze in the women’s Super G. Vonn’s single bronze was a bit of a surprise considering how well she has skied this year, but last year at this time she was at home with a serious knee injury and it was questionable if she’d even be able to ski again at world class levels.