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January 15, 2007 Sports Briefing By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WINTER SPORTS U.S. SKIERS PLACE 1-2-4 Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Kildow captured the top two places yesterday in a women’s World Cup super-combined event at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, and Resi Stiegler just missed making it a sweep for the United States. Mancuso had a combined time of 2 minutes 9.16 seconds to edge Kildow by 0.06 seconds. They had the best times in the morning downhill portion and held their places in the afternoon slalom run. Marlies Schild of Austria was third. Stiegler was fourth, one-fifth of a second behind Schild. (AP) MILLER FALTERS IN SUPER COMBINED Mario Matt of Switzerland won a men’s World Cup super-combined yesterday at Wengen, Switzerland, on a sloppy course that wiped out Bode Miller. Matt rallied in the slalom, taking advantage of starting first on the slope; conditions worsened with each competitor because of rain and temperatures in the 50s. He was 34th after the downhill but regrouped for his first World Cup victory in almost two years. Matt had a combined time of 2 minutes 27.87 seconds. Marc Berthod and Silvan Zurbriggen, both of Switzerland, took second and third. Miller, who won the famed Lauberhorn downhill Saturday, has yet to complete either a slalom or combined event this season. He was second fastest in the downhill but straddled a gate in the slalom. Ted Ligety of the United States, the Olympic combined gold medalist, finished 10th. “Nobody had a chance after Matt,” Ligety said of the deteriorating conditions. “It’s not fair to the athletes, but it’s not fair to the spectators, either.” (AP)

Skiing Mancuso leads spectacular effort by U.S. women: Not since the 1984 Olympics had U.S. women been so dominant in a major skiing competition. Winner Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, Calif., and Lindsey Kildow of Vail, Colo., captured the top two places in a World Cup super-combi Sunday in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria. Resi Stiegler of Jackson Hole, Wyo., was fourth. The 1-2-4 finish was a first for U.S. women in a World Cup event, and matched the showing in the giant slalom at the Sarajevo Olympics 23 years ago — when Debbie Armstrong of Seattle won gold, Christin Cooper took silver and Tamara McKinney placed fourth. Mancuso’s combined time for the morning downhill and afternoon slalom was 2 minutes, 9.16 seconds. “What a great victory for me, but for the team also,” Mancuso said. Matt prevails: Austria’s Mario Matt won a World Cup super-combi event on a sloppy course in Wengen, Switzerland, that helped wipe out American Bode Miller and left some skiers grumbling that the race wasn’t fair. Matt rallied in the slalom, taking advantage of starting first on a slope that seemingly got worse with each competitor. He was 34th after the downhill and had a combined time of 2:27.87. Miller, second after the downhill, straddled a gate in the slalom.

February 10, 2007 Mancuso Finishes Second to Paerson in Super-Combined By NATHANIEL VINTON ARE, Sweden, Feb. 9 — It was so cold Friday at the Alpine skiing world championships that many of the public toilets froze. As a result, Swedish fans danced from foot to foot as they waited for another victory from their countrywoman Anja Paerson. Paerson won the super-combined event in 1 minute 57.69 seconds after a downhill run of 1:11.00 and a slalom of 46.69, adding another gold medal after a victory in the super-G on Tuesday. The Olympic champion Julia Mancuso of the United States finished second, 0.81 seconds behind. Mancuso collected her third career world championship medal. She won a bronze in the super-G and the giant slalom at the last championships, two years ago in Bormio, Italy. Even without the subzero temperatures, which forced her to wear a mask in the downhill portion of the race, Mancuso said the daylong event was about perseverance. “To me, that’s what the combined is — just fighting all day,” she said. “I was pretty far behind Anja, and I knew it was going to be tough to get the gold.” Mancuso, a 22-year-old Californian, had the second-fastest time in the downhill in the afternoon, and the fifth in the slalom, which was held under floodlights as the sun set on this brutally cold Scandinavian wilderness. The temperatures forced Mancuso to switch ski boots just before the second run. She said the plastic had become so stiff that it was affecting her technique during a warm-up run. “I couldn’t get them off at first, they were so stiff,” said Mancuso, who switched to more flexible boots than she normally uses for giant slalom. “Here it’s so cold, it doesn’t really matter what you ski on. No matter what, your boots are going to be stiff.” It was another episode in the strange saga of Mancuso’s ski boots. Mancuso’s results last year on the World Cup circuit suffered after she left her boots at a hotel in Canada. For the next month, the boots, in the care of shipping companies and couriers, would arrive to her competition sites too late. Once her boots caught up with her, she began finishing on the World Cup podium. Last February, she won the Olympic giant slalom in Turin, Italy. Late last month, Mancuso’s boot sponsor started distributing posters showing her wearing its boots and little else, making her the most recent to pose for the infamous “Lange Girl” campaign. The posters have hung in the back rooms of ski shops since 1968. Although critics see them as a sexist anachronism, Mancuso said she volunteered for the photo in part to supplant the skinny models involved, and in part to divert attention from the men. “Women’s skiing could use the attention,” Mancuso said last week. “The men get so much more recognition. Whenever skiing gets on a cover of a magazine, men are always chosen for the picture.” Mancuso has also lent her star power to the World Wildlife Fund, auctioning her race bibs and helmets to raise money for its programs. She and her teammate Ted Ligety partnered with the organization even before this winter, which has been one of the worst for the skiing industry. “I feel like global warming is having a major impact on skiing and ski racing,” Mancuso said. That was hard to tell this week in Sweden, where the air has been so cold that it has slowed the racecourses (because sharper snow crystals create more friction). The world championship men’s downhill is scheduled for Saturday, followed by the women’s on Sunday, with Paerson aiming to extend her resurgence. For once, the women will race on a course that is faster and more picturesque than the men’s. Bode Miller, the defending downhill world champion, is considered the favorite, having won the downhill in the men’s combined Thursday. Even Hermann Maier, an Austrian, said that Miller was the favorite. Maier, at 34, may be racing in the last major international event of his career. Maier was selected for the final coveted spot on Austria’s four-man squad for the race Saturday, even though including him forced coaches to bench Christoph Gruber, who won a training run on the course Wednesday. Toni Giger, head coach of the Austrian men’s team, justified the decision to include Maier. “He is one of our great medal collectors,” he said.