Jeongseon, South Korea • If Ted Ligety is going to grab another Olympic medal, he’ll have to wait for another day.
The Park City skier and two-time gold medalist, could not finish his run in Friday’s super-G finals here, skiing off the course near the end of his run.
“I feel like I skied well. I knew I was on the dark horse side of things for the super-G, so I knew I needed to take a lot of risks in order to have a chance,” Ligety said. “Just kind of made a dumb, stupid, risky mistake at the bottom.”
Austria’s Matthias Mayer took gold in the competition with a time of 1:24.44. Ryan Cochran-Siegle was the highest American finisher, coming in 14th overall and 1.28 seconds behind the leader.
Holladay’s Jared Goldberg ended his Olympic run with a 21st-place finish on Friday, but came away encouraged with his performances in the combined, downhill and super-G in Pyeongchang.
“This was a big week for me mentally,” Goldberg said. “I’ve put so much work into being here and I skied my heart out. There were outdoor sport things that happened with wind and conditions but that’s something I can’t control. So I think this was a big step for me.”
In his second Olympic Games, Goldberg said he felt more comfortable — and is already eying 2022 in Beijing.
“These last few days I was just having fun, enjoying it,” he said. “It was a really good experience. You can’t complain. You’re at the Olympics. … This time, compared to Sochi, I felt like I was really part of the show now and I have what it takes to be up there at the top. Now I have four more years to figure it out.”
Ligety, meanwhile, will compete in Sunday’s giant slalom. Despite not finishing Friday’s race, Ligety believed his performance had set him up for success in his best event.
“For me, super-G is actually good training for giant slalom,” Ligety said. “It gives me the confidence to make clean turns at high speeds, so I feel like I can take the confidence out of skiing today and get ready for Sunday.”
Sunday’s race will be in Yongpyong, the course where he won his first World Cup event 12 years ago.
“It’s going to be cool on Sunday to go back to a hill where I had first World Cup win,” he said. “I think I’ll be the only person in the competition to actually race on that hill before.”
