SOELDEN, Austria (AP) — Ted Ligety of the United States won the season-opening men’s giant slalom on Sunday for his 25th career World Cup victory.
The Olympic and world champion held on to his first-run lead to beat Thomas Fanara of France by 0.15 and Marcel Hirscher of Austria by 0.17. The rest of the field finished at least 1.90 seconds off the lead.
It was Ligety’s fourth win here. He has dominated the discipline since 2012 but was beaten for the GS title by Hirscher last year.
Norwegians Aksel Lund Svindal and Kjetil Jansrud, expected to be Hirscher’s closest competitors for the overall championship, finished more than four seconds off the lead in 24th and 25th respectively.