Ted Ligety on Racing, Risk and Building Shred Optics | Guiding You Forward
Quick Summary
In this conversation, Ted Ligety pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to compete at the highest levels of alpine ski racing—and what comes after. He reveals the mental warfare of competitive racing and breaks down what it means to navigate turns on the ice and snow at highway speeds—and faster—with no safety features and millisecond margins for error. We wrap up this segment with an inside look at Ted’s company, Shred Optics, from inception to innovation and its 20-year evolution.
What does it take to tear down a mountain at 80 miles an hour, knowing that one wrong edge could mean devastation? Mountain America Guiding You Forward podcast host Chase Christensen sits down with Ted Ligety—Olympic gold medalist, five-time world champion and one of the best technical skiers of all time—to explore the raw truth behind the glory. From the mental warfare of racing to life as an entrepreneur and father, Ted opens up about what fuels him when the stakes are high.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- Why ski racing is the toughest mental sport.
- How fast alpine racers actually fly down the mountain.
- Ted’s journey from Olympic gold to performance product innovator.
The reality of ski racing at an elite level is you’ll lose far more than you’ll win—and every loss happens in front of the world. Ted shines a light on the relentless World Cup circuit, what it takes to keep your mental reserves full and his strategy to stay competitive. “I think [ski racing] is the toughest mental sport in the world,” he says. “[You have] a minute and a half to prove yourself. A mistake is losing the race or, at the ultimate extent, death. The consequences are real.”
How fast do alpine ski racers actually go? For Chase, a die-hard F1 fan, this is the question he’s been dying to ask. When he asks, you can hear the shift in energy—these two are clearly in their element. Ted breaks down the velocities across the different races, from the technical events to the flat-out insanity of the downhill. How does Ted answer? “Fast. Faster than highway speeds.” Watch the full episode to get Ted’s take on hurtling down the mountain at speeds that could get you a reckless driving ticket on the interstate—except there’s no roll cage, no runoff area and the margin for error is measured in milliseconds.
After 17 years dominating the World Cup circuit, Ted made his final competitive run in 2021. But retirement doesn’t mean slowing down—it means channeling that competitive fire into something new. Ted’s entrepreneurial journey began right after the 2006 Olympics, when he couldn’t find ski goggles that didn’t force him to choose between style and performance. “I want to create fun-looking goggles that are also cutting-edge on the performance side of things,” he explains. Shred Optics was born and has been growing and innovating for over two decades. Watch the full video to learn how the company figures into his retirement plan.
