Page 22 - ARUBA TODAY

A22 SPORTS
Tuesday 3 January 2017
Ligety finds a new way to win _ by sponsoring his rivals

ANDREW DAMPF ter people in the world. It’s
AP Sports Writer something that I’ve always
SANTA CATERINA VALFUR- encouraged, along with
VA, Italy (AP) — Slowed by going to school.”
injuries, Ted Ligety is finding Ligety and Italian friend
a new way to win. Carlo Salmini founded
By sponsoring some of his Shred to take advantage
biggest rivals. of Ligety’s newfound popu-
Ten years after founding larity after his unexpected
Shred - the ski helmet, eye- gold medal in combined at
wear and accessory com- the 2006 Turin Olympics.
pany known for its 1980s- “We had no business plan,
style fluorescent colors and no business knowledge or
designs — Ligety has been skills — just passion and the
watching as a proud spec- drive to make the prod-
tator lately. ucts of our dreams,” Salmini
“Good to see my com- said.
pany winning while I’m on Ligety and Salmini met in
the sideline,” Ligety wrote 2005 when Ligety took a lik-
on Instagram when Shred ing to the carbon-fiber shin
athletes Cyprien Sarrazin and arm guards that Salmi-
and Carlo Janka faced off ni was making in his Venice
in the final of a World Cup home.
parallel giant slalom earlier “I started everything out of
this month in Alta Badia. France’s Alexis Pinturault crosses the finish line of an alpine ski, men’s World Cup combined in my garage,” Salmini said.
Santa Caterina, Italy, Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016.
Bothered by an aching Associated Press “Ted won the Olympics on
back, Ligety — the Olympic biggest competitors on the Racer. fundraising event for the the shin guards that I had
and two-time world cham- product,” Ligety said in an And a group of young rac- “B’’ team in Vail, Colorado, made with my own hands.”
pion in giant slalom — sat interview. ers led by Brennan Rubie re- each November during Ligety and Salmini also run
out the parallel race. While Ligety has set the cently got together to pose training camp. Slytech, which produces
In all, Shred athletes have golden standard, he’s just in a nude calendar called Besides pure American en- body protection equip-
won eight races this sea- one of many U.S. Ski Team “Under the Suit: The Bodies trepreneurial spirit, U.S. ski- ment for skiing and moun-
son. Swiss standout Lara athletes who have started of the Ski Team,” the sales ers have plenty of time to tain biking, with the umbrel-
Gut and French ace Alexis entrepreneurial ventures. of which are helping them dream up business and fi- la company called Anom-
Pinturault have three each Last year, Bode Miller has fund their travel around Eu- nancial plans as they travel aly Action Sports
while two more French- become the co-owner of rope. through the Alps while their These days, most of the
men, Mathieu Faivre and the New York-based Bomb- “This is a new experience European rivals go home company’s production is
Sarrazin, have one each. er Ski brand. for us. We’re running it between races. done in China, Taiwan and
Former overall World Cup After her Kiss My Tiara un- ourselves, setting up the “They’re building skills — South Korea and Ligety
champion Carlo Janka derwear moment, Julia website and marketing it,” organization skills, leader- joins Salmini for a two-week
of Switzerland also wears Mancuso has moved on Rubie said. “We can grow ship skills — and realizing trip to Asia each spring to
Shred, as do a number of to Pure Golden Wellness, a as people and market our- how hard life is,” U.S. men’s check on production.
rising American racers — health and fitness coach- selves and also grow as ski- head coach Sasha Rearick The company’s headquar-
plus snowboarders and ing initiative. ers.” said. “Those are all things ters are about to be con-
freestyle skiers. Steven Nyman and his Along the same lines, that are super important solidated in Ligety’s home-
“It’s cool to see a lot of my brother created Fantasy Ski Tommy Biesemeyer runs a for these guys to be bet- town of Park City, Utah.q

Skier Jean Vuarnet, who struck gold with tuck position, dies

PARIS (AP) — Olympic ski- Olympic gold on metal skis. 16 people who died in a
ing champion Jean Vuar- He was also the only com- murder-suicide involving
net, who helped pioneer petitor in that race to use the Order of the Solar Tem-
the aerodynamic tuck the speedier low tuck po- ple doomsday group.
position for downhill racers sition, squatting down with French police discovered
but suffered tragedy with knees bent. the charred remains of 14
the deaths of his wife and Vuarnet later lent his name victims — arranged in a
son in a doomsday cult to a successful brand of star formation — in a forest
murder-suicide, has died, eyewear and was involved clearing near the Alpine
the French Olympic Com- in the development of the city of Grenoble. Two other
mittee announced Mon- Avoriaz ski resort in the bodies were found nearby.
day. He was 83. French Alps. Investigators said police
Vuarnet died of a stroke, a officer Jean-Pierre Lardan-
statement by the commit- Born in the Tunisian capital chet and Swiss architect
tee said. of Tunis on Jan. 18, 1933, Andre Friedli fatally shot the
The Frenchman won Olym- Vuarnet grew up in the others, doused the bodies
pic gold in the downhill at Alpine Morzine region of with gasoline and set them
the 1960 winter games in A Saturday, Jan. 6, 1996 photo from files of Jean Vuarnet, cen- France afire before killing them-
Squaw Valley, California. ter, former French ski champion and business tycoon accompa- In 1995, Vuarnet’s wife, selves. Autopsies showed
Rejecting wooden skis, he nied by his sons Pierre, left, and Alain, right, at Morzine, France, Edith, and their youngest that most had taken sleep-
was the first skier to win an during the funeral of his wife Edith and his son Patrick. son, Patrick, were among inducing drugs.q
Associated Press