Some better results would be best thing for US men

SESTRIERE, Italy -- On Monday, as the US men's ski team went down in flames in the giant slalom, veterans Daron Rahlves, Erik Schlopy, and rookie Ted Ligety made their way along the phalanx of reporters, hearing questions that amounted to ''What the heck happened here?"

Bode Miller found an escape route back to his motor home. He was quoted an hour after the race as saying, ''If only things had happened differently, I could have had four gold medals right now.'

No need to rise to that bait.

But the vicissitudes of luck, snow conditions, weather, and equipment preparation aside, the nagging question remains: What has become of the ski team that entered these Games brimming with such confidence and promise under the slogan ''Best in the world"?

To a man, the members of the team will say they are skiing great, with many racing like winners all season. But aside from Ligety's surprise gold in the combined, they will call this a season of bad bounces. A team of big hitters on a streak of popups.

And with only Saturday's slalom remaining, the US men are down to their final hope -- and it isn't one of the vaunted pre-Olympic big names, Miller or Rahlves, but Ligety, the 21-year-old from Park City, Utah.

Ligety came to the US Ski Team last season and began an ascent in the standings, and this year reached three World Cup podiums in slalom.

So no one was surprised to see Ligety listed as a possible favorite to medal in these Games -- but not the way he did. Though last year he was talking about getting into the speed side of the sport, he has not had time to do much training in that area, choosing to concentrate on his technical gate running.

So last Tuesday, after a mediocre downhill run, Ligety hit a pair of untouchable slalom heats to win the gold medal and give an early season bailout to the US team, whose hopes were dashed earlier by Miller's disqualification.

So Ligety is a true medal contender Saturday. Not only is he on his game in the slalom, but he doesn't mind rolling the dice -- particularly with a medal in his pocket.

''I take risks when I ski," said Ligety. ''In GS [giant slalom] I'm not so good that I can ski without risk and expect to get a medal, so I probably took some pretty big risks out there.

''In slalom, there's a potential for 55 mistakes out there," said Ligety, referring to the gates on the course. ''But you can't hold back or you won't be competitive at all. There are definitely areas in slalom when you just make the right or wrong decision. Hopefully you've learned to make the right ones and keep it fast."

Ligety is joined on the slalom team by Schlopy and Miller, though Miller's status is in question. US Alpine director Jesse Hunt said Miller's knee was hurting and would be reevaluated before Saturday.

On the women's side, today's slalom will feature three US skiers -- Kristina Koznick, Sarah Schleper, and Lindsey Kildow.

The top-five ranked women are Marlies Schild (Austria), Janica Kostelic (Croatia), Kathrin Zettel (Austria), Anja Paerson (Sweden) and Nicole Hosp (Austria). The first run will be midday at the Sestriere Colle course, while the final will be held under the lights.