Hirscher gets his 50th Cup victory

Marcel Hirscher won a slalom at Zagreb, Croatia, to match Italian great Alberto Tomba’s tally of 50 men’s World Cup victories.

The six-time overall champion from Austria became only the fourth male skier to reach that mark, joining Hermann Maier (54) and Ingemar Stenmark (86).

On the women’s circuit, only Lindsey Vonn (78), Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Vreni Schneider (55) have passed the 50-win milestone.

Tomba, who also won Olympic gold in slalom and twice in giant slalom, won his last race shortly before retiring in March 1998 as Hirscher turned 9 that month.

Hirscher has rebounded nicely from fracturing his left ankle in preseason training in August and has not missed a race this season because of the injury.

Watched by 11,000 spectators under floodlights, Hirscher beat his Austrian teammate and first-run leader Michael Matt by 0.05 seconds. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway was 0.11 behind in third. In other news: • Carlijn Schoutens won the 5,000 meters at the U.S. speedskating trials in Milwaukee, earning a second Olympic berth to go with the 3,000. She won in 7 minutes, 12.27 seconds. Petra Acker was second in 7:26.49, and three-time Olympian Maria Lamb finished third at 7:31.11.

Schoutens, born in the U.S. to Dutch parents, won the 3,000 on Tuesday to qualify for her first Olympics