Maier Wins World Cup Super-Giant Slalom

Hermann Maier won a World Cup super-giant slalom Sunday at Lake Louise, Canada, leading Austria’s sweep of the top four spots.

“At this early point in the season, I’m surprised that it’s happened,” Maier said. “I’m very, very happy with a great performance.”

Maier, a double Olympic gold-medal winner and three-time World Cup overall champion, sat out almost two seasons after a 2001 motorcycle accident nearly cost him a leg.

“I have to forget everything from before my accident,” Maier said. “I can’t feel much in the right leg, and that’s often a problem in the gliding sections because I don’t know if I’m on the edges or flat parts of the skis.

“It was good for me after the accident to have a goal: to learn to walk, maybe to ski again. Now the next thing is to improve skiing.”

He finished in 1 minute 36.69 seconds, 0.26 ahead of Michael Walchhofer. Current overall World Cup champion Stephan Eberharter was third in 1:37.24.

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Jeffrey Buttle of Canada skated a strong program to beat Olympic bronze-medal winner Tim Goebel of the United States and win the NHK Trophy at Asahikawa, Japan.

Skating to “Samson and Delilah,” Buttle fell on a triple lutz late in his routine and stepped out of a triple axel, but was otherwise solid enough to receive 211 points from the judges.

Goebel, who led after the short program, executed his opening triple axel-triple toe loop but fell on his next two elements -- a triple flip and a quad toe-triple toe -- to finish second with 205.51 points. Song Gao of China was third with 192.89 points.

Buttle clinched a place in the Dec. 12-14 Grand Prix final at Colorado Springs, Colo.

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Andre Lange piloted Germany I to victory in a Bobsled World Cup four-man race at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Lange, who won the season-opening four-man race the previous weekend, posted a two-run time of 1:51.5. Todd Hays’ United States I sled was next, 0.24 seconds back.

Matthias Hopfner guided Germany II to third place, 0.49 seconds behind.

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Ronny Ackermann beat German teammate Sebastian Haseney by 22.1 seconds in a sprint event at Kuusamo, Finland, for his second consecutive Nordic Combined World Cup victory.

Hannu Manninen of Finland was third, 34.3 seconds behind Ackermann. Felix Gottwald of Austria was fourth.

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Sigurd Pettersen of Norway won a ski jumping World Cup event at Kuusamo that was shortened to one round because of strong winds.

Pettersen had a jump of 131 meters for 134.3 points. World Cup champion Adam Malysz of Poland was second with a jump of 129.5 meters and 133.1 points. Veli-Matti Lindstrom of Finland finished third.

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Bobsledding legend Eugenio Monti, 75, was in critical condition in a hospital at Belluno, Italy, with a gunshot wound to the head, and police were investigating the shooting as a possible suicide attempt.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA and reports of the Italian state television network RAI, Monti shot himself in the head. He had been in poor health.

Monti, who turned to bobsledding after a knee injury ended his skiing career, won gold medals in the two-man and four-man bobsled races in the 1968 Winter Olympics at Grenoble, France, after winning silver and bronze medals in the previous Games.

Swimming

American swimmer Michael Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley in the short-course World Cup at Melbourne, Australia, giving him six victories in as many races.

Phelps, who set five world records at the long-course world championships in Spain this year, led the way as Americans won six races on the final night of the three-day competition.

The other American winners were Ed Moses in the men’s 200 breaststroke, Jason Lezak in the men’s 50 freestyle, Lindsay Benko in the women’s 200 freestyle and Amanda Beard in the women’s 200 individual medley.

Phelps held off countryman Ben Michaelson to win the 100 butterfly in 51.11 seconds. Michaelson finished in 51.52, and Adam Pine of Australia was next in 51.95.

Phelps won the the 400 medley in 4:06.28, the fastest time in the world this year. Nicholas Rostoucher of France was second in 4:09.19, and Dean Kent of New Zealand was third in 4:09.26.

Benko won the 200 free in 1:55.27, and was followed by Australians Elka Graham in 1:55.40 and Petria Thomas in 1:56.21.

Beard won the 200 individual medley in 2:09.48.

Golf

Sergio Garcia of Spain won the Nedbank Golf Challenge for the second time in three years, defeating Retief Goosen of South Africa with a 15-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a playoff at Sun City, South Africa.

Garcia, the tournament’s winner in 2001 in a playoff with Ernie Els, closed with a two-under-par 70 and Goosen shot a 69 for a 14-under 274 on the Gary Player Country Club course.

Garcia earned $1.2 million for his first victory since the 2002 Korean Open.

Passings

Lori Romeiro Gardner, the wife of former San Francisco Giant pitcher and current coach Mark Gardner, has died of liver cancer. She was 39.

Gardner, who died Friday at Stanford University Medical Center, had undergone two liver transplants since being diagnosed with the disease six years ago.

She was an All-American softball pitcher at Fresno State.

Gertrude Ederle, the toast of America and Europe in 1926 when she became the first woman to swim the English Channel, died Sunday. She was 97. Story in Section B.