An Early Arrival

Everyone knew Ted Ligety was going to be an Olympic star.

At Vancouver.

In 2010.

The idea that the 21-year-old Ligety, on a Tuesday, in Italy, in a race teammate Bode Miller had won by a mile until he lost it, could scream down one downhill and two slaloms to win the Olympic combined took several stretches of imagination.

His mother, Cyndi, might have believed, or not, given that she could not remember her son’s ever winning a major race as a kid growing up in Park City, Utah.

Olympic experience?

Ligety was a forerunner, a course tester, at the 2002 Salt Lake City games.

Wins on the World Cup circuit?

Zero.

World championship triumphs?

Zilch.

Times he has been confused for Bode Miller in the chairlift line?

Never.

Ligety made his first ski race victory in major competition an Olympic gold medal.

And that is ... ?

“Good timing,” U.S. men’s Coach Phil McNichol beamed.

Numbers never tell the whole story in Alpine’s most confusing event, but here are the only numbers that count:

In a three-run event -- one downhill and two runs of slalom -- staged on two mountains, on the same day, Ligety posted the fastest cumulative time, 3 minutes 9.35 seconds.

“It’s something that I never would have expected,” Ligety said, echoing the sentiments of all who witnessed it.

Croatian Ivica Kostelic, brother of superstar Janica, finished .53 behind and claimed the silver at 3:09.88. Austrian Rainer Schoenfelder earned the bronze at 3:10.67.

A lot of things had to go right for Ligety to pull off this minor miracle ... and what do you know?

Kjetil Andre Aamodt of Norway, the defending Olympic champion, pulled out because of a knee injury. Other potential contenders skied out left and right.

The two race favorites, Miller of the United States and Benjamin Raich of Austria, had to screw it up -- and did so royally.

Miller won the morning downhill run, had a huge lead over anybody who mattered and was cruising toward his third Olympic medal when he was disqualified in his first slalom run for straddling gate No. 42 (out of 55).

Miller, who missed a medal in Sunday’s downhill by .11 of a second, seemingly needed only to stand up through two runs to win.

Making a right-footed turn, though, he pinned the gate with his left ski. It was so close you had to see it in slow motion to be sure.

Miller didn’t know he had done anything wrong and left the hill thinking he was leading Raich by .97 with one run to go. Soon, however, an asterisk appeared beside Miller’s name on the scoreboard -- the equivalent of a steward’s inquiry.

A few minutes later, Miller’s name disappeared altogether. He was informed of his DQ while he was “spinning” on a stationary bike between runs.

“I was with Bode when they called it down,” Ligety said. “ ... I was pretty bummed for him. No way could I have surmounted him today. I was kind of lucky in that way.”

Miller, who put up a fuss this season after a gate straddle in Wengen, Switzerland, offered no resistance after seeing the video replay.

“To me it was clear,” Miller said. “There was no reason to protest it.”

Miller’s ouster jumped Ligety from fourth to third place going into the second run of slalom.

Ligety had given himself a chance by putting down a decent effort -- 32nd overall -- in the morning downhill, his weakest event. He was close enough, though, to make up the time difference in slalom, his best event. He has three top-three slalom finishes in the World Cup this year.

Before his final slalom run, Ligety trailed Kostelic and Raich, and they would be the last three skiers down, in that order.

Ligety ripped off a sizzling run of 43.84, the day’s fastest, clinching at least the bronze medal.

Then Kostelic skied and came up half a second shy.

Only Raich now stood between Ligety and gold, Raich one of the world’s finest slalom skiers.

He had a .86 advantage over Ligety after the downhill and the first slalom run, but that ceased to matter when, late in the course, Raich missed a gate and was disqualified.

“I was kind of in disbelief, because that was obvious, it was the gold medal,” Ligety said when he saw Raich ski out. “I was happy to see that, but I don’t want to win like that. I want to beat the guys skiing.”

The U.S. ski team, which had been shut out in Sunday’s downhill, broke into jigs and snow angels.

Ligety was tackled by teammates Scott Macartney and Steve Nyman. Miller had already left the arena.

“I lost my voice screaming for Ted,” Macartney said.

Nyman said of Ligety, “He’s got the coolest head. He’s not a choker at all.”

Ligety’s parents, Bill and Cyndi, were almost speechless. Bill, a real estate agent in Park City, had a large camera around his neck and was exercising his trigger finger.

Cyndi recalled how she’d put Ted on skis when he was 2 -- and how he’d hated it.

Bill described what a late bloomer Ted was, not making the U.S. team until his late teens.

“He was never a star as a kid,” Bill Ligety said. “He never did stand out.”

Ligety was described as just a normal kid, nice and polite, not at all like the bodacious Bode.

“No,” Ted offered in his post-race news conference, “I have not skied when I was drunk.”

Ligety’s parents had not thought to order champagne, just in case.

“Who would have guessed it?” Bill Ligety said. “We were just hoping he would get down the downhill in one piece.”

The smartest people in ski racing didn’t see this coming. McNichol, the men’s coach, had gold-medal hopes for Ligety in the slalom, but the combined was a longshot.

With a few breaks, maybe Ligety could squeeze out bronze.

“I thought he had medal potential, but not gold medal,” McNichol said.

Ligety was going to be groomed, eventually, as an all-event skier with a chance to shine at Vancouver.

Suddenly, with one victory, he has more gold medals than American stars Miller and Daron Rahlves have -- combined.

“I have no idea how it’s going to change my life,” the soft-spoken Ligety said. “So far, my life’s been OK.”

Ligety is only the fourth American male skier to win Olympic gold, joining Steve Mahre, Tommy Moe and Bill Johnson.

And now, with confidence brimming, he has to be considered one of the favorites in the men’s slalom Feb. 25.

For American skiers, these Games started out being all about Bode.

They may end up being about Ted.

*

MEDAL WINNERS

ALPINE SKIING, MEN’S COMBINED

GOLD

* Ted Ligety, Park City, Utah

SILVER

* Ivica Kostelic, Croatia

BRONZE

* Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria