Tapia’s Condition Is Upgraded to Serious

The condition of boxer Johnny Tapia was upgraded from critical to serious Sunday, a day after he fell in his home in Las Vegas and lost consciousness.

A University Medical Center spokesman provided no further information other than the five-time world champion’s condition had improved.

Tapia, 35, was admitted to the hospital early Saturday . He was put on a respirator and was being treated for head trauma.

Tapia and his cousin were involved in a police standoff at a house near Bullhead City, Ariz., late Friday that ended with the arrest of two men and Tapia being given a citation for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Tapia returned to his Las Vegas home several hours after the confrontation with police and was with his wife, Teresa, when he fell, according to his publicist, Trayce Zimmermann, who said she had no additional details about what happened.

Tapia last fought Nov. 3 when he lost a 12-round decision to bantamweight Marco Antonio Barrera.

Winter Sports

Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., regained the lead in the World Cup Alpine skiing overall standings by finishing second behind Ivica Kostelic of Croatia in a slalom at Bormio, Italy.

Kostelic, the defending World Cup slalom champion, won his third consecutive race with a combined time of 1 minute 49.03 seconds. Miller was 0.40 behind.

Miller, 1.05 behind and in ninth place after the first run, aggressively attacked the course on his second run, crossing in 1:49.43 to complete his first slalom of the season and take the overall lead.

Miller needed to finish better than fourth to move ahead of Austrian Stephan Eberharter in the overall standings. Miller leads with 690 points. Eberharter, who won a downhill Saturday to move into first place, is second with 655.

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Australian A.J. Bear, 25, was in good condition one day after crashing in the downhill at Bormio. He suffered head injuries and broke his left arm in the crash.

Dr. Guiliano Pradella said blood clots in the front of Bear’s brain were healing quickly and there were no neurological problems.

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Hermann Maier will return to World Cup competition Tuesday, nearly 1 1/2 years after a motorcycle accident nearly cost him his right leg.

Maier will ski in a giant slalom at Adelboden, Switzerland, in hopes of competing at the world championships next month.

“We made this decision because Hermann feels really good, he’s been training well, feels no pain and has made incredible progress,” said Hans Pum, alpine director of the Austrian Ski Federation. “And we want to give him a chance to qualify for the worlds.”

The two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time overall World Cup champion has been sidelined since the motorcycle accident in August 2001.

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Five-time Olympic champion Ole Einar Bjoerndalen of Norway won a 15-kilometer biathlon World Cup event at Oberhof, Germany.

He finished in 41:44.2 and defeated Vladimir Dratchev of Belarus by 13.5 seconds.

Uschi Disl of Germany won the women’s 12.5-kilometer race, defeating Ekaterina Dafovska of Bulgaria by three seconds.

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Felix Gottwald of Austria, winner of three bronze medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics, won a World Cup Nordic combined event at Chaux-Neuve, France.

Defending champion Ronny Ackermann of Germany was second, 45.3 seconds behind. American Todd Lodwick finished third, 1:42.5 behind.

Baseball

Right-hander Paul Wilson agreed to a $4-million, two-year contract with Cincinnati, a move that General Manager Jim Bowden said would give the Reds a proven fourth starter and someone with the ability to pitch 200 innings.

Wilson, 29, who was not tendered a contract by Tampa Bay, had a 6-12 record and a 4.83 earned-run average in a career-high 193 2/3 innings last season with the Devil Rays.