SOELDEN, Austria -- Ted Ligety will be the overwhelming favourite when the Olympic ski season opens on Sunday with a World Cup giant slalom on Rettenbach glacier.Steve Larmer Authentic Jersey . The American has won this race for the past two years and finished on the podium for the past five. A year ago, Ligety didnt just win here, he dominated with a massive victory margin of 2.75 seconds. Taking advantage of extensive preparation on newly shaped skis introduced last season, he went on to win six of eight giant slaloms on the circuit. "I hope to come close to that," Ligety said on Thursday. "But people have figured out the skis by now and I cant really expect to win GS by those kind of margins." Ligety also won three gold medals at last seasons world championships -- a feat no man had accomplished since French great Jean-Claude Killy won four 45 years earlier. So how does he find motivation having already achieved so much? "Ted is internally motivated, has always been internally motivated and thats never been a question," U.S. mens head coach Sasha Rearick said. "The challenge now, after a year like that, is everyone wants a piece of him -- media, industry, commercials, the foundation, marketing. So hes been busy. But hes done a good job to make sure that hasnt interfered with his training and keeping focused on what is important. Hes working on getting better every day." While Ligety is hoping to peak for the Sochi Games in February, he also wants to win the overall World Cup. Ligety broke the 1,000-point barrier for the first time last season but he still finished third overall behind Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway. "The overall challenge is going to be able to execute week in and week out," Rearick said. "He was able to do that in GS consistently, now its about taking that same kind of consistency into the slalom and super-G. Last year we saw a real, big gain in his super-G and now we need to make that same jump in slalom." Ligety showed his super-G potential by winning that event at the worlds, and his main emphasis in preseason training has been on slalom. "Hopefully thats the formula to win the overall," he said. "The overall is every World Cup skiers big goal and every year I round out my skiing. Its not easy though." To help Ligety achieve his overall goal, the U.S. squad has a special multi-event team of coaches to work exclusively with Ligety and fellow allrounder Bode Miller, who is back after taking a season off to let his surgically repaired left knee fully heal. "My knee is good. Its a little puffy but its been that way for a long time," Miller said. "Overall it feels better than it has since 01." Having sat out last season, the reshaped GS skis are completely new to Miller. "Its been difficult because I havent had a chance to ski at a very high level," he said. "So when I got on the race hill here it was a bit of a shock. ... Its less fun, more work, but it seems OK." Miller also has a solid record in Soelden. He won in 2003 and 2004 and has eight consecutive top-10 finishes. Still, having not raced for so long, Miller wasnt about to make any predictions for Sunday. "Its an intimidating race hill," he said. "I hope to be in touch and gain some points." Hirscher and Svindal are again the favourites for the overall title. Hirscher took the coveted crown the past two seasons and Svindal won it in 2007 and 2009. "Im ready," Svindal said. "Last year I made the overall exciting and I want to be a part of that excitement again. If its Ted or whoever I want to make it hard for them, too. I for sure want to win it." Another overall contender could be Alexis Pinturault, the Frenchman who was sixth overall last season with three victories in three different disciplines: Slalom, super-combined and giant slalom. The only racers to win in GS last season besides Ligety were Hirscher in Val dIsere, France, and Pinturault in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. After Soelden, the World Cup goes to Levi, Finland, for slaloms on Nov. 16-17, followed by stops in the United States and Canada before the traditional races in Europe. The Sochi Games run from Feb. 7-23. Brad Richards Authentic Jersey . - Once Gerald Green gets going, he doesnt think he can be stopped. Marcus Kruger Jersey . The Lions traded their fifth overall pick in the 2014 CFL Draft to the Ottawa Redblacks for QB Kevin Glenn.Canadian pro cyclist Ryder Hesjedal publicly apologized on Wednesday after a soon-to-be-released book revealed that he was taught how to take a banned substance when he was a mountain bike racer in 2003. "Cycling is my life and has been ever since I can remember," said Hesjedal in a statement issued by his management group Slipstream Sports. "I have loved and lived this sport but more than a decade ago, I chose the wrong path. And even though those mistakes happened more than 10 years ago, and they were short-lived, it does not change the fact that I made them and I have lived with that and been sorry for it ever since. To everyone in my life, inside and outside the sport - to those that have supported me and my dreams - including my friends, my family, the media, fans, my peers, sponsors - to riders who didnt make the same choices as me all those years ago, I sincerely apologize for my part in the dark past of the sport. I will always be sorry." Danish newspaper Politiken published an excerpt from former cyclist Michael Rasmussens autobiography Yellow Fever on Wednesday, which said that Rasmussen taught Hesjedal - among other Canadian cyclists - how to take Erythropoietin. The excerpt did not say whether Rasmussen ever saw Hesjedal or any other Canadian cyclist actually take EPO or any other banned substance, or whether they ever used these substances at any time in their career. "It soon became evident that the three Canadian mountain bikers Seamus McGrath, Chris Sheppard and Ryder Hesjedal, had seen the light: A good result in the World Cup (2003) would send them to the Olympics in Athens in 2004," read the books excerpt from Politiken. "They moved into my basement in August, before I went to the Vuelta a Espana, and after I had ridden the Championship of Zurich. They stayed for a fortnight. I trained with them in the Dolomites and taught them how to do vitamin injections and how to take EPO and Synacthen." EPO is a naturally-produced hormone released from the kidneys and acts on the bone marrow to stimulate red blood cell production. The increase in red blood cells improves the amountt of oxygen that the blood can carry to the bodys muscles. Jeremy Roenick Blackhawks Jersey. Hesjedal added that he was contacted by anti-doping authorities over a year ago and was "open and honest" about what happened in his past. "Although I stopped what I was doing many years before I joined Slipstream Sports, I was and am deeply grateful to be a part of an organization that makes racing clean its first priority and that supports athletes for telling the truth," he said in his statement. "I believe that being truthful will help the sport continue to move forward, and over a year ago when I was contacted by anti-doping authorities, I was open and honest about my past. I have seen the best and the worst of the sport and I believe that it is now in the best place its ever been. I look at young riders on our team and throughout the peloton, and I know the future of the sport has arrived. Im glad that they didnt have to make the same choices I did, and I will do everything I can to continue to help the sport that I love." Hesjedal made the move to stage racing in 2005 and won the Giro dItalia in 2012, becoming the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour race. The victory also earned him the Lionel Conacher Award as Canadas male athlete of the year. Rasmussen has admitted to using performance enhancing drugs through his professional career. The Danish rider said in his own media conference last January that he doped from 1998 through 2010 and was served with a two-year ban by Anti-Doping Denmark. Cycling Canada released its own statement on Hesjedals apology later on Wednesday. "Like many Canadian cycling fans, we were shocked and saddened to learn that Ryder Hesjedal was involved in doping over a decade ago. To his credit, he has been open and honest with the anti-doping authorities that investigate such matters in a confidential fashion as we learned today through his statement and the subsequent statement of Travis Tygart, CEO of USADA. "We continue to urge any athletes that have information about doping in the sport to come forward to the CCES to help with the ongoing fight against doping." cheap nfl jerseyscheap jerseys ' ' '
