Schlopy Earns Olympic Berth

Erik Schlopy, skiing on his hometown hill at Park City, Utah, earned a spot in February’s Olympic Winter Games by winning a U.S. Ski Team Gold Cup men’s giant slalom Saturday.

Schlopy, sensational in finishing third in the World Cup giant slalom standings last season but struggling this season because of a respiratory ailment, beat Thomas Vonn of Newburgh, N.Y., for the Olympic spot reserved for the Gold Cup winner.

Schlopy was fastest in both runs down CB’s Run, Park City’s longtime World Cup race course and site of the men’s giant slalom in the final week of the Winter Olympics.

“Today was an experiment for me. I went and tried something brand new,” Schlopy said. “The first run, I didn’t feel very good. In fact, I was very pessimistic about my skiing at the bottom, but I was fast. That’s a great sign, when you don’t feel that great and you’re fast. You know you’re going in the right direction.”

Schlopy, 29, led Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., the top skier on the U.S. team, by 0.22 seconds after the first run, with Vonn 0.29 behind. Schlopy was virtually assured of victory when Vonn made a time-robbing mistake early in his run and Miller skied off the course after missing a gate.

American Kristina Koznick stood on the podium listening to the Swedish national anthem and was moved by the prospect of hearing her own at the Salt Lake Olympics.

“I got tears in my eyes,” said Koznick, who tied for second at a World Cup slalom race at Lienz, Austria. “I thought about what it would be like to be up there, winning the gold medal and hearing the American national anthem, and I felt a chill go right through me.”

Koznick, who has four World Cup victories and four seconds, is not only confident about doing well at the Olympics, she expects to challenge Anja Paerson of Sweden, who won the World Cup slalom title Saturday.

Koznick and German Monika Bergmann tied for second, just .05 of a second behind. Paerson’s winning time was 1 minute 24.74 seconds.

World Cup leader Todd Hays and Brian Shimer secured berths on the U.S. Olympic team, finishing 1-2 in the final race of the U.S. Bobsled Federation trials at Park City.

Joining Hays and Shimer on the team are push athletes Garrett Hines, Randy Jones, Pavle Jovanovic, Mike Kohn, Bill Schuffenhauer, brothers Dan and Darrin Steele, and Doug Sharp.

Although the federation did not designate who would drive the USA I sled in the Olympics, Executive Director Matt Roy said Hays most likely would. Hays had already qualified by leading the World Cup standings.

Fritz beat Josef in a battle of the Strobls as Austrian skiers swept the first four spots in a World Cup downhill race at Bormio, Italy. Fritz won in 1:55 to edge Josef by .19 of a second. They are not related.

Nina Kemppel won the Nordic Gold Cup at Midway, Utah, becoming the first female cross-country skier to qualify for four U.S. Olympic teams. In men’s competition, Justin Wadsworth outlasted Kris Freeman in the stretch of the final race to qualify for his third Olympics.

Norway demonstrated its superiority in the World Cup cross-country sprint with Haavard Bjerkeli taking the men’s race and Anita Moen winning the women’s event at Salzburg, Austria.

Austrian Felix Gottwald won a Nordic Combined World Cup sprint race at Oberwiesenthal, Germany, by pulling away from points leader Ronny Ackermann of Germany on the final hill.

Karyn Bye had three goals and two assists as the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team beat Russia, 11-0, in the opening game of the Holiday Tournament at Lake Placid, N.Y.

The United States yielded an opening goal but beat Belarus, 5-2, at the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships at Pardubice, Czech Republic. The U.S. team concludes round-robin play in Group A today against Slovakia.

San Diego’s Mark Woolf scored two power-play goals in the second period to help defeat the Ice Dogs, 3-2, in a West Coast Hockey League game at the Long Beach Arena.

Passings

Opal “Shagg” Courtney, a former Harlem Globetrotter player credited with creating one of the team’s most entertaining moves, died at Gary, Ind. He was 89. Courtney, who died Wednesday, played three seasons with the Globetrotters. He is credited with creating the move of spinning the ball on the index finger, then rolling the ball across the shoulders and into his arms behind his back.