{"id":802119,"date":"2019-12-08T15:44:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T22:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/american-tommy-ford-wins-birds-of-prey-giant-slalom\/"},"modified":"2019-12-08T15:44:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T22:44:00","slug":"american-tommy-ford-wins-birds-of-prey-giant-slalom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/american-tommy-ford-wins-birds-of-prey-giant-slalom\/","title":{"rendered":"American Tommy Ford wins Birds of Prey giant slalom"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Tommy Ford races his way to his first World Cup win at the Xfinity Birds of Prey on Sunday at Beaver Creek. The American had multiple top 10 finishes in World Cup races in his career, but this is his first win.<\/strong>
Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

BEAVER CREEK \u2014 The question on many people\u2019s minds after the Birds of Prey giant slalom at Beaver Creek on Sunday: Who is Tommy Ford?<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old won the first World Cup race of his career on home turf at Beaver Creek on Sunday, the first American to win a Birds of Prey race since Ted Ligety in 2014.<\/p>\n

Ford hails from Bend, Oregon, is a nine-time national champion and has been skiing with Team USA since 2009. According to his ski team bio, he went to Dartmouth, is a fan of raspberry rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream and thinks Bruce Lee should play him in a hypothetical biographical film.<\/p>\n

Off the hill, he enjoys climbing, drawing, surfing, mountain biking and other outdoor activities \u2014 usually with his girlfriend, women\u2019s U.S. Ski Team member Laurenne Ross.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just loves it, he totally loves it,\u201d his mom, Mary Ellen, said of his passion for ski racing.<\/p>\n

Ford was swarmed by his teammates, coaches and family after the race \u2014 as the fans let out a strong \u201cUSA\u201d chant.<\/p>\n

Phrases like \u201ca new era,\u201d \u201cnerves of steel\u201d and \u201cunbelievable\u201d were thrown around the finish corral.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was special, really special,\u201d said fellow U.S. Ski Team member River Radamus. \u201cThat was the coolest ski racing or sports memory I\u2019ve ever been a part of. He\u2019s been so close for so long and kept chipping away and finally made it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norwegians Henrik Kristoffersen and Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen rounded out the giant slalom podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s hard to beat the Americans on home snow,\u201d Kristoffersen said after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on this snow for quite a few years,\u201d said Nestvold-Haugen, a Denver University graduate. \u201cI always like the snow. It\u2019s what we call the \u2018hero snow\u2019 where it gives back more. It feels like being home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018On this path for a long time\u2019<\/p>\n

The giant slalom is a two-run format, with the top 30 advancing to the second run and the time totals of both runs added up.<\/p>\n

On a snow day at Beaver Creek, some racers had trouble with the course and visibility. Frenchman Alexis Pinturault made a mistake at the top on his first run, opening the door for the rest of the field to make a move. Two racers later, Ford put down the fastest first run of the day, setting himself up to go last in the second run, a competitive advantage knowing what he must do to win.<\/p>\n

Fellow American Ted Ligety finished the first run with the fourth-fastest time, however he finished eighth after the second run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of thoughts going through the mind,\u201d Ford said about waiting in the start gate before his second run. \u201cOnce things get going, it just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford has cracked the top 10 eight times in World Cup races, including fourth in Soelden last week. His runs at Beaver Creek were smooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just sticking to what I know and trusting my skiing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With Mt. Bachelor plastered across the front of his helmet, Ford reflected on his upbringing that got him to the top spot on the Birds of Prey podium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been skiing as hard as I can and on this path for a long time,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel very grateful for my upbringing at Mt. Bachelor and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019ll probably celebrate his first World Cup win with a big dinner with his friends and family.<\/p>\n

The Americans had a strong showing in the giant slalom Sunday, with Ford taking first, Ligety eighth and Ryan Cochran-Siegle finishing 23rd. In total, six Americans took to the giant slalom course for the first run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose young guys are coming,\u201d Ford said, naming River Radamus, Brian McLaughlin and George Steffey. \u201cWatch out.\u201d He added Cochran-Siegle is \u201cstill consistent\u201d and there\u2019s \u201cof course Ted.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a man who doesn\u2019t set an alarm in the mornings \u2014 including Sunday\u2019s race day that started at 9:45 a.m. \u2014 Ford is a ski racer American fans will soon love if they don\u2019t already.<\/p>\n

This story is from VailDaily.com<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tommy Ford races his way to his first World Cup win at the Xfinity Birds of Prey on Sunday at Beaver Creek. The American had multiple top 10 finishes in World Cup races in his career, but this is his first win.Chris Dillmann \/ cdillmann@vaildaily.com BEAVER CREEK \u2014 The question on many people\u2019s minds after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 07:50:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}