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Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
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I'm going to put this here just because we haven't had a Ted Ligety chat in a while.

This FB Page often makes videos private. For now its public so the link works.
 

Tom K.

Skier Ordinaire
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When that guy is "on" he reminds me of Gretzky in his prime:

Say, honey, what's wrong with those other guys?!
 

Swede

Making fresh tracks
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Going to be interesting to see if he'll be the first guy to figure out the new skis -- again. I believe he is a very meticolous person, which speaks for it. Then, I had a feeling his career was going 'downhill' last season ... perhaps back or other complications? And the new skis have less 'figuring out' than the first r35:s. I wish him luck. He seems to be a super nice person.
 

Blue Streak

I like snow.
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I'd love to see him make a comeback, but I wouldn't bet a bottle of Blanton's on it.
 

Muleski

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You guys are confusing me.....Ligety is on the team. No discussion of retirement that I have heard of for 18-19. But he's not a kid, and it would not shock me. Has a lot of things going on, on his plate, etc.

Biggest issue may be how his back holds up, and how well he's able to ski. He is not the type to just "hang on." I understand that the past two seasons have been frustrating, but he feels well now.

Class act. Hope all goes well.

Now on retirement, when do we think that Hirscher will retire? Any change that he wraps it up this season? What say you?
 

Swede

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You guys are confusing me.....Ligety is on the team. No discussion of retirement that I have heard of for 18-19. But he's not a kid, and it would not shock me. Has a lot of things going on, on his plate, etc.

Biggest issue may be how his back holds up, and how well he's able to ski. He is not the type to just "hang on." I understand that the past two seasons have been frustrating, but he feels well now.

Class act. Hope all goes well.

Now on retirement, when do we think that Hirscher will retire? Any change that he wraps it up this season? What say you?

I too got confused ... I did mean for this season 17/18 and as a respons to Blue Streaks talk about "comeback" ... I was aware that he struggled with back issues last seasons. Great to hear that he feels better. I was very tired (and not 100% sober) when I replyed to Frankly.s "haha" ...
 
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K2 Rat

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Now on retirement, when do we think that Hirscher will retire? Any change that he wraps it up this season? What say you?

I would be very surprised if Hirscher retired any time soon. He is only 28 and 4-6 years younger than Ted, Vonn, Felix and Svindal. Although he has won 6 straight overalls and one could say he has nothing left to prove, I think there are a couple of goals that he still has. First, I think he would like to win at least 10 more World Cups to be 2nd on the leader board behind Stenmark. But maybe more importantly, to be the leading Austrian male in front of Maier's 54. That means at least 2 more years of racing. And we will see how his Olympics go this year, but if he wants to go down as one of the greatest of all time, then he needs at least one Olympic gold medal. I know overalls are more important than one race, but he still needs at least one in my opinion. All the greats have one! Could he stick around for 2022? Sure, as he will only be 32 then. But depends on how he is going as I think he will want to go out on top. If he wins Gold this year, I see him retiring after adding to his 4 World Championship medals at the 2019 Worlds, as long as he has 55 WC wins.
 

Primoz

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@K2 Rat honestly I don't think Hirscher cares all that much about some records and how he will be written, or not, in history books. He sure wants to win, but with him, I have feeling he is skiing for fun (sure winning is also part of fun), and when he will find out something to give him more fun, even if that's mediocre performance at mx riding (just riding not even racing), he will put skis into garage and do something else. I sure can be wrong, but with him I have impression he really doesn't care if he's just one victory away from whatever record, when he will find different priority in his life, he will quit next second. And he already said several times, he doesn't see himself skiing when he's 30. So I honestly doubt, we will see him at next Olympics (2022 I mean).
 

K2 Rat

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@K2 Rat honestly I don't think Hirscher cares all that much about some records and how he will be written, or not, in history books. He sure wants to win, but with him, I have feeling he is skiing for fun (sure winning is also part of fun), and when he will find out something to give him more fun, even if that's mediocre performance at mx riding (just riding not even racing), he will put skis into garage and do something else. I sure can be wrong, but with him I have impression he really doesn't care if he's just one victory away from whatever record, when he will find different priority in his life, he will quit next second. And he already said several times, he doesn't see himself skiing when he's 30. So I honestly doubt, we will see him at next Olympics (2022 I mean).

For sure you could be right, as I don't know him at all and what motivates him. I guess I don't read enough as I have not seen where he says he does not see himself skiing at 30. Which means we could see him skiing another 2 years and probably get his 10 WC wins, not that he may care about that !!
 

Muleski

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I threw it out there as he has made the comment that he will not be doing this at age 30, as Primoz notes, more than once. I've seen it in print a few times. He turns 29 in March. He's been doing it a long time. I guess my point is that we should enjoy watching him while we can as you just never know.

Some do just say, "I've had enough." Have no clue when that will be for him. He goes at it hard! And he has made so much money that he likely is not hanging on for another payday.

Hope he's fit and on top of his game very soon. I hope the exact same for Ted. Healthy and fast. And enjoying it. I think either could pull the plug fairly soon.
 

Frankly

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Not that we have any influence but we should be encouraging the stars to cash out and retire now that they've proven their point (and they are still healthy). Make room for new talent to make the races more exciting as relative unknowns battle it out.

I'd much rather see a movie of Hirscher and Ted free skiing than of either of them winning yet another race. We have a wonderful library of their performances, what is going to do this season that could be better? It's not like they're going to invent some new technique or revolutionize racing this year.... Both have long since peaked, and while there is honor in maintaining such a high level of performance, once the Olympic and overall WC contests are over what makes the following 18-19 season so special?

Same for Chondunsky, Nyman, Julia, Vonn... get out of the way, allow resources to go to developing the next generation.

Euro-TV should take all these older veteran ski racers and helicopter them into the Himalayas and film an Inferno Race down some 8000m peak. That would be a ski race! $$$$$
 
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graham418

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Euro-TV should take all these older veteran ski racers and helicopter them into the Himalayas and film an Inferno Race down some 8000m peak. That would be a ski race! $$$$$

I would love to see that.
 

Muleski

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Like many, one of my ski "heros" was Franz Klammer. He and I are close age wise, but U was no Klammer. We all remember 1976.

I remember seeing him freeskiing in the mid 80's in Vail. Wow. He was making the beautiful GS sized turns through a pretty good sized mogul field. Made it look like a gentle groomer. Then when he got on steep, smooth terrain, the jets came on.

Pretty convinced that he could have skied anything...very fast. Most of these guys are the same. Daron Rahlves is another. Great to watch ski anything.

On the other topic, I think we'll see a lot of change on the USST, in many respects after this season. Keep in mind that moving athletes out is hard if they still make the objective criteria and "want to keep skiing."
Steven Nyman is past his prime, still rises to the occasion a couple of times a season and maintains a high WR. So does Choudunsky.

The objective team criteria does not always work that well, IMO.

So much work to be done with the team. It's going to be tedious. Thank goodness for MS!
 

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