By USSA

VAL GARDENA, Italy– Travis Ganong of Squaw Valley led a back of the pack charge by the U.S. Ski Team in the Val Gardena super G, starting 58th and finishing 24th to lead five U.S. Ski Team athletes into the points.

Ted Ligety was 25th to retain second in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall standings behind race winner Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway.

Ganong was followed in 59th start by Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), who finished 29th. Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, N.Y.) was 27th and Andrew Weibrecht (Lake Placid, N.Y.) 30th.

“I’ve had really great speed in training. Today I was just approaching it like another training day. I was just trying to go for it as hard as I can and then react to any mistakes,” Ganong said.