Ford Grabs Ninth US National Title

After a somewhat disappointing fifth-place finish in super-G earlier in the Toyota U.S. Alpine Championships, Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.) walked away with his ninth career national title on Sunday in giant slalom.

Ford continues his end of season giant slalom dominance by earning what will be Ford’s third career title in the discipline. With three top-10 FIS Ski World Cup finishes under his belt on the season, including an eighth place at World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden, Ford finished off the season strong and with a smile.

In his first run, Ford took a commanding 0.71-second lead over the field, and it looked unlikely that anyone could catch him unless something went awry second run. Thankfully, it didn’t go awry, and though Ford lost some time in the middle of the course, he was able to find the gas pedal and, as a result, two tenths at the bottom split to come out with a 0.36-second margin of victory.

“I approached today’s race as I would a World Cup, and I gave it my all,” Ford said. “First run was really solid top to bottom, and a blast. The second run was slightly chattery at the top of the turn – saw some people looking like I felt in slalom – going straight and hard. That made it challenging to muster the energy to do a consistently fast run from top to bottom, and I knew I had to go hard because guys like Brian are coming up.”

Rounding out the podium was former N-UNI Team member and Dartmouth skier Brian McLaughlin in second and German-born CU Boulder athlete David Ketterer in third. George Steffey (Lyme, N.H.) was the top junior, finishing fifth overall in the giant slalom.