Blardone, Simoncelli Give Italy’s Skiers a Lift

If Italy is looking to stir more interest for the Olympics, maybe this will help: Max Blardone and Davide Simoncelli finished 1-2 in a World Cup giant slalom Sunday at Alta Badia, Italy, in a big lift for the home country.

“This is another good sign for Turin,” retired Italian skiing great Alberto Tomba said.

The Americans hardly fared as well. Bode Miller fell and did not finish his first run but kept his lead in the overall and giant slalom standings. Teammate Daron Rahlves finished fourth, losing time with a slight error at the beginning of his second run.

After Giorgio Rocca’s two slalom wins and Elena Fannchini’s downhill victory, Italy is tied with the U.S. with four World Cup wins this season. Only Austria has more (eight).

Blardone pleaded with Italians to show more interest in the Feb. 10-26 Turin Games, which have been marked by low domestic ticket sales and only scant awareness outside the city.

“We’re really putting our hearts into this and I hope this creates some attention,” Blardone said.

Blardone won a World Cup race for the second time, finishing with a combined time of 2 minutes 27.14 seconds over the steep and twisty Gran Risa course. Simoncelli, who led after the first run, finished 0.2 of a second behind.

Canada’s Francois Bourque finished third, matching the best result of his career.

Miller leads the overall standings with 442 points, 17 more than Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, who finished 23rd. Austria’s Michael Walchhofer also fell in the opening run to drop from second to third overall, 22 points back.

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Michaela Dorfmeister won a World Cup super-G race at Val d’Isere, France, to extend her lead in the overall World Cup standings, and Lindsey Kildow of the U.S. finished fourth.

Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria was second, followed by Emily Brydon of Canada in near-perfect conditions on the Jean-Claude Killy course. Kildow had won Saturday’s downhill in snowy and windy weather.

Dorfmeister won in 1 minute 17.59 seconds and has 466 overall points after nine races. Meissnitzer is second with 400 points, followed by Kildow with 372.

Kildow and Julia Mancuso are expected to be the stars for the U.S. women’s ski team at the Winter Olympics.

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Todd Hays and the United States 1 team won a four-man bobsled World Cup race at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Hays, Pavle Jovanovic, Bill Schuffenhauer and Steve Mesler clocked the fastest time in both runs at the Eugenio Monti track for a combined time of 1 minute 44.86 seconds.

Germany’s Matthias Hoepfner and Switzerland’s Martin Annen ended up tied for second place, 0.23 of a second behind. Annen leads the World Cup overall standings with 325 points. Andre Lange, who finished eighth with Germany 1, is second overall with 276. Hayes is fourth with 260.

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Jakob Janda of the Czech Republic won his fourth ski jumping event of the season to extend his World Cup lead at Engelberg, Switzerland.

Janda earned 252.2 points after leaps of 129 and 130 meters to win the large-hill event. He was 6.1 points ahead of second-place Michael Uhrmann of Germany, who went 128.5 and 128.5 meters.

Austria’s Andreas Kofler was third with 242.6 points, jumping 128 and 126.5 meters.

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Petter Tande and Magnus Moan gave Norway two World Cup victories in Nordic combined events at Ramsau, Austria. Tande won with a 100-meter jump, and Moan won the 7.5-kilometer sprint in 20 minutes 21.4 seconds, ahead of fellow Norwegian Ola Morten Graesli. It was Moan’s third World Cup win.

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Xu Nannan and Zhang Xin gave China a 1-2 finish in women’s aerials, and Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus won the men’s event at the World Cup freestyle aerial skiing event at Beijing.

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In cross-country skiing, Canada’s Beckie Scott and Sara Renner capped their impressive two-week World Cup run at home with a silver medal in the classical team sprint relay at Canmore, Canada.

Scott recorded her fifth consecutive top-three finish in as many chances a day after winning gold in the 15-kilometer classic and taking home silver Thursday in the 10-kilometer freestyle. Germany’s Viola Bauer edged Renner in the final 10 meters to spoil the Canadians’ chance at a gold medal.

Norway held off Sweden to win the men’s team sprint by one-tenth of a second in 16 minutes 22.4 seconds.

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Germany swept the first four spots in a men’s 12.5-kilometer pursuit at a World Cup biathlon event at Osrblie, Slovakia. Sweden’s Anna Carin Olofsson won the women’s 10-kilometer pursuit.

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Angela Ruggiero scored on a power play to help the U.S. women’s hockey team beat Finland, 3-1, at Trenton, N.J., in a tuneup for both teams for the Olympics. It was the final game for the Americans before their Olympic roster is set Dec. 27.

Sarah Parsons and Katie King also scored for the Americans to back the goaltending of Chanda Gunn. Emma Laaksonen had the goal for Finland.

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SOCCER

Sao Paulo Wins Club Championship, 1-0

Sao Paulo won the Club World Championship at Yokohama, Japan, beating heavily favored Liverpool, 1-0, on a 27th-minute goal by Mineiro.

In the third-place game, Ronald Gomez scored on a free kick with a minute to go, and Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica rallied past Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, 3-2, with two late goals.

AC Milan and cross-town rival Inter Milan each won, 4-0, to move closer to Serie A leader Juventus.

Ivan Cordoba, Obafemi Martins, Adriano and David Pizarro each scored once to help lift Inter into sole possession of second place after beating Reggina.

Milan moved into third place by topping Messina with two goals from Andriy Shevchenko and one each from Andrea Pirlo and Alberto Gilardino.

Juventus, which was limited to a 1-1 tie with Lazio on Saturday, leads the league with 43 points.

Inter is next with 35 points, followed by Milan with 34 and Fiorentina with 33.

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PASSINGS

Former Olympic Nordic Winner Dies

Sverre Stenersen, a Nordic combined champion at the 1956 Olympics, has died in Oslo. He was 79. Stenersen won the gold medal at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Four years earlier, he won a bronze at the Oslo Olympics.