U.S. WILL BE SENDING RECORD 242 ATHLETES TO WINTER OLYMPICS

The United States will send the largest team ever to attend a Winter Olympics — 242 athletes — to next month’s PyeongChang Games in South Korea, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced Friday.

Alpine skiers Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, figure skating favorite Nathan Chen and speedskater Shani Davis, the winner of four Olympic medals, headline the team of 107 women and 135 men who will be seeking to give America its 100th Olympic gold and 300th medal.

Team USA won 28 medals, including nine golds, at the 2014 Sochi Games in Russia, and with 103 Olympians returning, the team is looking for an equally strong showing.

“It’s been pretty brutal to wait for another Olympics,” said Vonn, who will be making her fourth appearance at the Games, having missed out on a trip to Sochi with a knee injury.

• Wendy Holdener won a World Cup combined race by a big margin and set herself up as the favorite for an Olympic gold medal next month.

Vail’s Vonn, the first-run leader, led Holdener by 0.71 of a second after the opening super-G but dropped back to finish fourth in a rare slalom run for the American star.

• Christof Innerhofer was again fastest in training for the last World Cup downhill race before the Olympics.

Preseason concussions rise.

YORK» The NFL plans to talk to NEW its teams about how practices are conducted after a 73 percent increase in concussions during preseason workouts in 2017.

Executive vice president Jeff Miller said data from the league’s annual preliminary report on injuries will be discussed with coaches and general managers to try to understand how preseason practice concussions jumped to a five-year high of 45 last summer from 26 in 2016.

The overall number of concussions suffered in practice, including the regular season, jumped to 56 from 32 a year earlier.

Part of the reason for the NFL’s concern is the sharp increase coming after two straight years of declines. And in the preseason, there were almost as many injuries in practice (45) as there were in games (46), according to data gathered by IQVIA, a company hired by the NFL.

• Buffalo Bills center Eric Wood has a neck injury that will force the nine-year veteran to retire.

Wood tweeted that he was initially diagnosed with the injury in his season-ending physical and that Bills doctor Andrew Cappuccino and other physicians said he will not be cleared to play football, regardless of whether he undergoes surgery or other treatment.

Wood was the only Bills offensive player to be on the field for every snap in the 2017 season.

• Former Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy has been hired to the same position with the Arizona Cardinals, and Al Holcomb is following new Cardinals coach Steve Wilks from Carolina to be the team’s defensive coordinator.

• The man who killed NFL running back Joe McKnight in a December 2016 road-rage confrontation was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury in suburban New Orleans.

Jurors began deliberations Friday afternoon in the case of Ronald Gasser, 56. Manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.

Miocic vs. Cormier set for UFC 226.

A UFC superfight between champions Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier will headline UFC 226 in Las Vegas on July 7.

Miocic (18-2) will be seeking his fourth consecutive heavyweight title defense. Cormier (20-1), the UFC’s light heavyweight champion, will move up in weight.

Footnotes.

Five-star men’s basketball forward Emmitt Williams committed to LSU. … Four-star receiver Jalen Hall committed to Oregon.