Moments before launching through the gates in a race, Ted Ligety isn’t worrying about the course bellow him; he’s not thinking about keeping his turns tight or his tuck low.

In fact, he’s trying to keep skiing out of his mind completely.

“Before the start, I’m just trying to joke around and not focus on the race too much,” he said.

Well, his easy-going style may be a reason that this U.S. Alpine Team member won the World Cup giant slalom title last season and is poised to repeat again this winter.

At only 5 feet 11 inches, Ligety has developed into one of the world’s best skiers in technical races. But recently, he’s been putting more emphasis on speed events in order to compete for the World Cup overall downhill title.

With a slighter build, at least compared to the top speed skiers, Ligety has been striving to improve his “gliding” skills, as he usually loses ground in flatter areas of courses.

“I just need more consistency to finish more (speed) races,” Ligety said, while noting that a switch to Rosignal skis may help his performance this season.

Also, over the past few summers, Ligety has been joining the “speed” team while it trains in Chile, but he says that his priorities are still on his “bread and butter” events: the slalom and giant slalom.

“It’s hard to maintain full-on training in slalom and GS when going for speed events. It’s hard to balance,” he said. “ ... My schedule is going to be built around the technical races.”

Ligety’s main goal for the season is retaining his GS title, while placing in the top-3 in slalom.

Through the first two events, Ligety has one podium — a third-place GS finish in Soelden, Austria — and finished 22nd in Levi, Finland in Slalom. The two races put him at fifth in the overall downhill standings.

Ligety opted not to compete in downhill and Super G this weekend in Lake Louise, Alberta, in order to gain more training time for the following week’s race, the Audi Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek.

It will be his first speed race of the season, as the Birds of Prey is the only World Cup event to hold all four races that count towards the overall title.

Breaking onto a speed podium in Beaver Creek may be difficult for Ligety, as he said the flat portions of the course certainly put him at a “disadvantage” to the larger racers.

“The Sunday GS at Beaver Creek will be a big event for me, though,” he said.

Every race this season may seem a little “bigger” for Ligety now that he has a target on his back as one of the racers to beat each week.

But with Ligety’s ho-hum demeanor, it’s unlikely that the pressure will be too much for the 24-year-old to handle.

“I don’t have to worry about guys focusing on me,” he said nonchalantly. “I just need to focus on myself racing against the clock.”

Bryce Evans can be reached at (970) 668-4634 or at bevans@summitdaily.com.