Shiffrin nixes downhill at worlds
MERIBEL, France — Mikaela Shiffrin has ruled out skiing the downhill at the world championships — keeping to her pre-announced schedule of four events.
Shiffrin inspected the course before the opening downhill training session Tuesday just to take a look at the layout ahead of Wednesday’s super- G race. But she did not enter the training session.
Then she performed a few runs of super- G training.
Shiffrin straddled a gate in the slalom leg and was disqualified from the combined race Monday that opened the championships.
After the super- G, she also plans to ski her preferred events of giant slalom and slalom at the end of next week. Shiffrin had left open a small possibility that she would race the downhill but now she’s decided not to.
Pinturault wins gold in combined
COURCHEVEL, France — Racing in his hometown, Alexis Pinturault ended a drought of nearly two years by winning the gold medal in the men’s combined at the world skiing championships on Tuesday.
In a tricky slalom run on a steep pitch, the Frenchman retained his lead from the super-g portion to edge defending champion Marco Schwarz by 0.10 seconds.
Guardians hire female coach
CLEVELAND — Amanda Kamekona, a former star softball player at UCLA, has been hired as a minor league hitting instructor for the Cleveland Guardians. She’s the first female on-field coach in team history.
Kamekona, 36, will be based at the team’s year-round complex in Goodyear, Ariz., where she’ll work with the team’s developmental players. The Guardians have an Arizona Rookie League team.
College football Wrigley-bound
CHICAGO — Wrigley Field will host a college football game for the third time since 2010 when Iowa plays Northwestern next season. Northwestern and the Chicago Cubs announced Tuesday that the Wildcats’ home game would be played Nov. 4. Northwestern played Illinois at Wrigley in 2010 in the MLB ballpark’s first college football game since 1938, and the Wildcats hosted Purdue there in 2021.
Daly, Mayweather Daytona team
Indycar driver Conor Daly will attempt to qualify for the Daytona 500 with the NASCAR team owned by Floyd Mayweather. The Money Team Racing raced its way into the Daytona 500 last year with driver Kaz Grala; Daly made his Cup Series debut for the team in October on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Taurasi eyes ’24 Paris Olympics
Diana Taurasi said immediately after winning her fifth Olympic gold medal in Tokyo that she might try for a record sixth in Paris. It’s still on her mind 17 months out of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“It’s something that it’s on my radar,” Taurasi told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday after the first day of a USA Basketball training camp in Minnesota. “I’m still competitive, still driven, still want to play, I still love being a part of USA Basketball.”
Taurasi will be 42 at the time of the Paris Games, but said if she’s healthy enough she’d like to give it a go.