Theodore Sharp Ligety (born August 31, 1984) is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics.

[3] Ligety planned to participate in the 2021 World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo but withdrew due to an injury, which prompted his retirement from ski racing in early February, 2021.

Ski Team head coach Sasha Rearick studied Fu Style Tai Chi.

Ligety also became just the fourth American male skier to win Olympic gold, along with Moe, Phil Mahre (slalom, 1984) and Bill Johnson (downhill, 1984).

He won the final two giant slaloms of the year at Kranjska Gora and Bormio to edge out two-time defending champion Benjamin Raich of Austria for the season title.

Ligety opened defense of his 2008 giant slalom title with a third-place finish in Sölden, Austria, and then placed second at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Taking the bronze medal on February 13 (and starting with bib number 1) he had to strain because he was only ninth-placed (with a deficit of 1.71 sec.

At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at Whistler, he finished ninth in the giant slalom (on February 23, he was eighth-placed after the first leg, 0.60 sec.

Ligety won his sixth World Cup race in December 2010, his first win on home snow in the U.S., taking the giant slalom by a substantial 0.82 seconds at Beaver Creek, Colorado, the site of his first podium five years earlier.

It was the first World Cup victory in the U.S. (and North America) by an American male in four years; the last was by Bode Miller in the downhill at Beaver Creek in December 2006.

While under pressure as a big favorite to win a gold in the giant slalom, Ligety began his first run with an attacking attitude and established a 0.93 second lead.

He skied carefully on the second run to secure the first-ever gold medal for an American man in the discipline.

Ligety became the first male American ski racer in history to win two Olympic gold medals in his career.

At the season finals in Lenzerheide he surprisingly finished second, tied with Christof Innerhofer, in the downhill race.

Before the last giant slalom race of the season Ligety was trailing Marcel Hirscher by 50 points for the discipline title.

However, Ligety won the race on March 15 with a 0,03 second advantage over Alexis Pinturault and with Hirscher finishing fourth, both skiers ended the season tied with 560 points.

The Crystal Globe was however awarded to Ligety who won due to having five discipline victories during the season compared to Hirscher's two.

The 2015 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup season was less successful for Ligety as he was able to win just one race and finished third in the giant slalom standings and eleventh overall.

At the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2015 held in Beaver Creek, Ligety finished third in the super combined event despite being ranked 29th after the downhill leg.

[28] Ligety returned to the World Cup racing late in 2017, competing in the Super G at Lake Louise on November 26 (DNF), and finishing seventh in the giant slalom on December 3, 2017, at Beaver Creek.

He went on to compete at the FIS World Cup events in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Wengen, Adelboden, Alta Badia, and Val d`Isere.

[33] Ligety has won six national championships, putting him behind the all-time record of nine, held by Bode Miller and Tiger Shaw.

Although a GS specialist, Ligety is among the few alpine ski racers to have a World Cup podium finish in all five disciplines.

Ligety became the fifth man in history to win three or more gold medals at one world championships and the first in 45 years, when Jean-Claude Killy won four in 1968 at Chamrousse, with the combined as a "paper race."