Street Feels Better in First Downhill

For Picabo Street, the climb back to the top is slow.

After racing in her first downhill since shattering her left leg and shredding right knee ligaments at the World Cup finals in 1998, she knows she needs to be patient.

“It gets better every time I go down, but it’s going to take awhile,” said Street, who finished 24th in Saturday’s downhill at St. Moritz, Switzerland, after finishing 34th in her comeback race, a super-G at Val d’Isere last week. “I’m just building on my confidence and soon I’m hoping to get to a place where I’ll do all the little things that you have to do right to do well in the downhill.”

Brigitte Obermoser led an Austrian 1-2 finish in the race for her first downhill victory. She was timed in 1 minute 38.68 seconds. World Cup overall champion Renate Goetschl finished second at 1:39.03.

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Alessandro Fattori led an Italian sweep of the top three places in a World Cup downhill at Val d’Isere, France, for his first victory on the circuit.

Fattori was timed in 1 minute 52.25 seconds, followed by Kristian Ghedina in 1:52.57 and Roland Fischnaller in 1:52.66.

Hermann Maier, who had won the two previous downhills, tied for 16th with Austrian teammate Josef Strobl in 1:53.89.

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Per Eloffson of Sweden won his third consecutive event in the Nordic World Cup, taking the 10-kilometer cross-country combined event by 31.1 seconds over defending World Cup champion Johan Muehlegg of Spain. Bente Skari-Martinsen of Norway won the women’s 10-kilometer classical style race. . . . Magdalena Forsberg of Sweden missed a target from the shooting range but produced the fastest cross-country skiing performance to win the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint event of the World Cup biathlon at Anterselva, Italy. . . . Olympic champion Hiroyasu Shimizu of Japan won the 500 meters in a World Cup speedskating meet at Nagano, Japan, beating Canada’s Jeremy Wotherspoon by 0.41 seconds. Shimizu finished in 35.22 seconds. Olympic champion Catriona LeMay-Doan of Canada swept the women’s 500, winning in 38.61 and 38.68.

Miscellany

Jeff D’Amico and the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to a $2.3-million, one-year contract, about seven times his $325,000 salary last season. D’Amico, a 24-year-old right-hander, finished 12-7 with a 2.66 earned-run average, third in the National League behind Kevin Brown of the Dodgers (2.58) and Randy Johnson of Arizona (2.64).

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India defeated top-seeded Rick Leach and Ellis Ferreira, 6-3, 7-5, to advance to the final of the ATP Tour world doubles championship at Bangladore, India. They will play American Donald Johnson and South Africa’s Piet Norval, who defeated Simon Aspelin and Johan Landsberg, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Sweden broke its world record in the women’s 200-meter medley relay at the European short-course swimming championships at Valencia, Spain, winning in 1 minute 48.31 seconds. The old record was 1.49.47. Massimiliano Rosolino of Italy broke the 18-year-old European 1,500-meter freestyle record of 14:37.60 held by Russia’s Vladimir Salnikov, finishing in 14:36.93.

Juan Carlos Gomez of Cuba knocked out Argentina’s Jorge Castro in the 10th round at Essen, Germany, to defend his World Boxing Council cruiserweight title for the ninth time. . . . Mbulelo Botile of South Africa knocked out Paul Ingle of England in the 12th round at Sheffield, England, to win the International Boxing Federation featherweight title. . . . Paul Spadafora easily retained his IBF lightweight championship with a unanimous decision over top-ranked challenger Billy Irwin at Pittsburgh.

The Ice Dogs scored four unanswered goals in the third period Friday night to defeat Anchorage, 5-1, in a West Coast Hockey League game in Alaska. The teams played again late Saturday.