Ted Ligety Quotations

It's the nature of the beast, playing sports on the ski team and how competitive all of us are. I want to beat everybody's time.

My parents never pushed me to ski race. It was my choice and something I really wanted to do. I would have rebelled if they had pushed me, and I wouldn't have had the same passion.

I don't do ski racing to be famous.

I feel very confident in my skiing. I know I have a good chance to win any race I start.

I think it is important to let your kids have independence and ownership. Let your kids do what they have a passion for.

I've never liked the idea of working for other people.

When I grew up, I had a lot of fun ski racing with my friends. We pushed each other, and this made it easier to work hard.

I'm very involved in Shred, constantly checking in on something. It takes a lot of time. But it has let me leverage who I am as an athlete into a product.

A lot of racers have some of their best days when they're sick.

I started playing around with GoPros on my own to get some cool footage. But it's actually become a big training tool for my team and me.

I work a lot with my ski sponsor, Head, to develop new technologies.

I'm fine with being a little bit of an instigator.

Ski racing is probably the least guaranteed sport out there. It's really rare when the favorites win.

Sochi will be my third Olympics, and I'm coming into these games in a stronger position than I've been in years past.

There are definitely perks to being a good ski racer.

I wanted kids to know that it's cool to be in a ski race in the morning and to go play in the terrain park in the afternoon. It's not one or the other.

I was sort of in disbelief that he went off the course.

I would prefer to win standing up to him.

I was pretty bummed for him. I don't think there's any way I could have surpassed him.

There is fresh snow on top of the ice, it makes it a little inconsistent. It was hard to find an edge. I just couldn't make it with the risks I was having to take.

I think it's kind of stupid to make him do it if he isn't going to be in the next run.

I was with Bode when they called down that he had been disqualified. We both kind of looked at each other and were like, 'Are you serious?' I was pretty bummed for him. You definitely don't ever want to see your teammate go down that way.

I was kind of in disbelief because that was obviously the gold medal. I was happy to see it but I don't like to win like that. I want to beat the guys skiing.

I was in disbelief when Raich went out.

I think I've gotten to the point where I shouldn't be having to talk about Bode.

When I saw (Raich) ski out I just couldn't believe what was happening.

Bode is tough on any hill he races. But there's a lot of people out there. The Italians' confidence has to be way up there after what they did at home.

That's how it goes sometimes. I skied over part of the gate. I knew I had a good chance and of course I'm disappointed.

It's awesome. I really wish Bode hadn't straddled and I would prefer to have won with Benny still in the race.

It's to be expected. If you're the best, you deserve the most attention for what you're doing.

It's great to be where I am, but it's definitely unexpected for sure.

It's really hard to get words for it. I never expected to be where I am right now.

It's really hard to find the words. This is incredible.

It's something I never would have expected. I was only skiing giant slalom last year, but every single race I've been getting a better feeling on the skis.

I never expected to be here right now. A medal wasn't something that I could have foreseen.

I knew I could ski well. When I got to the bottom, I was surprised how far I was ahead. I was not surprised I was ahead.

I have no idea how this will change my life. I'm pretty satisfied with my life so far, so I hope it doesn't change too much.

I have no idea how this will change my life.

I'm an athlete, so I'm very interested in making the sport as safe as possible - just for my own career longevity.

I didn't see anything and he was surprised by it. I was pretty bummed for him. No way could I have surmounted him today. I was kind of lucky in that way.

I definitely feel for him. He definitely had a lot of pressure on him here.

I can't believe I'm an Olympic champion. It's really hard for me to get words for today. I wasn't really planning on being in the position I'm in right now.

One of the cool things about ski racing is there is never a perfect run so it's hard to be satisfied in that sense, you can always go that extra step, i don't think any of us have the realistic goal of having the perfect run. Ski racing is the most variable sport out there, conditions change run-to-run, we only get one chance at it and the margin for error is tiny.

I was skiing fast in training, but that really doesn't count for anything until you actually do it in a race. So to finally get to prove how fast you are skiing is an added bonus that goes along with winning the first race of the year. Any race win is a good win. I don't really care where it is. I've been on the podium a bunch of times here, but it's always good for your confidence to start off the year with a victory.

It's my first Olympics, I'm very young. It's incredible.

Something I still work on today is ankle flexion—ankle pressure in your boots. There is no way to turn or have your skis carve unless you’re going down the hill leaning forward, and that puts you in a good athletic position to do whatever you want to do on your skis—make quick turns, make long turns, or absorb bumps.

You've just got to get in the starting gate and throw down whatever you've got.

If you're having fun doing what you're doing, you're gonna really want to work hard at it.