Shiffrin best in snow
Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin mastered a tricky slalom course yesterday to cruise to her 36th career World Cup win in Lienz, Austria.
Backed by a huge 1.14-second lead from the opening leg, the defending overall World Cup champion avoided risks and posted only the 11th-fastest time in the final run but still comfortably beat second-place Wendy Holdener of Switzerland by 0.89 seconds.
Frida Hansdotter of Sweden was 1.22 behind in third, and Bernadette Schild of Austria was another 0.55 behind in fourth.
“It was a wild ride,” Shiffrin said about her second run on the Schlossberg course, where she earned her first career podium six years ago. “There were a couple of weak spots but there were definitely some spots that were really fast.”
The win stretched Shiffrin’s lead in the overall standings to a massive 391 points over second-place Viktoria Rebensburg. The German skier does not compete in slaloms but will start in today’s GS on the same hill.
Shiffrin also went further ahead in the discipline standings, 75 points clear of Petra Vlhova of Slovakia. Shiffrin has won 18 of the last 23 slaloms she competed in, but she was beaten by Vlhova in the season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland, last month . . . .
Dominik Paris dominated on home snow in a World Cup downhill to end the season-long podium drought for Italy’s men’s team in Bormio, Italy.
Paris won by a slim 0.04-second margin ahead of Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway on the demanding Stelvio course, which was softer than usual due to heavy snowfall a day earlier.
Hockey: Slovakia stops U.S.
Samuel Bucek scored an unassisted goal with 2:08 remaining in the third period to give Slovakia a 3-2 victory over the United States at the world junior hockey championship in Buffalo, N.Y.
Filip Krivoski scored the other two goals for Slovakia, and Roman Durny made 43 saves.
Casey Mittlestadt and Brady Tkachuk
had goals for the U.S., which had won nine straight world junior games entering the night.
The U.S. faces Canada in an outdoor game at the Buffalo Bills’ New Era Field this afternoon.
In other preliminary-round games, Sweden edged the Czech Republic, 3-1, Russia pulled away in the third period for a 5-2 victory over Switzerland and Finland beat Denmark 4-1.
Baseball: Sano accused
A photographer who has covered the Minnesota Twins accused Miguel Sano of assault, posting on Twitter that the All-Star third baseman forcibly attempted to kiss her following an autograph session at a mall in 2015.
Betsy Bissen tweeted that she screamed and resisted Sano until he gave up “after a solid 10 minutes of fighting.”
Sano said he “unequivocally” denies the allegation . . . .
The Miami Marlins are listening to trade offers for Christian Yelich and catcher J.T. Realmuto, three sources told The Miami Herald over the past several days . . . .
Misc.: Terps Jackson out
Maryland forward Justin Jackson will miss the remainder of his sophomore season with a torn labrum in his right shoulder that will require surgery . . . .
Suspended North Carolina State guard Markell Johnson is facing a felony assault charge in his home state of Ohio . . . .
Missouri State basketball players Tanveer Bhullar and Darian Scott were suspended for a violation of team rules on the same day that a police report listed them as persons of interest in a $1,500 theft investigation . . . .
Sevilla is hiring Vincenzo Montella as coach, a month after the Italian was fired by AC Milan . . . .
Swansea hired 52-year-old Carlos Carvalhal as its fifth manager in barely two years with the task of keeping the disjointed team in the Premier League.