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Paerson begins to peak

Benjamin Raich of Austria in front of Mt. Eiger during a World Cup super-combi event in Wengen, Switzerland, on Friday. PHOTO: AP

Anja Paerson is locked in another battle with Janica Kostelic for the overall World Cup title. You would never know it by listening to the Swede, however.

"What am I second? I am so focused on the Olympics, I don't know where I am in the standings," Paerson said. "I will skip some World Cups if I have to -- I want to be in good shape for all five events at the Olympics. I will do a lot for that."

Paerson picked up an unexpected World Cup downhill win Friday to close in on Kostelic, who she edged by three points for last season's title. She is second to the Croat with 685 to 782 points.

Paerson's downhill triumph was only the second among her 29 World Cup titles. The Swede raced down a slope buried in thick snow to clock 1 minute, 37.70 seconds with the top four separated by only .09.

Michaela Dorfmeister took second at 1:37.74, with Swiss skier Fraenzi Aufdenblatten another .04 back. Kostelic missed the podium by .01 seconds in 1:37.79.

"It was unbelievably close," Paerson said. "I can't believe I won. I have been fighting the downhill all year and I didn't come here with a positive attitude -- I was hoping to finish top 10."

Anja Paerson of Sweden competes during the women's World Cup downhill event in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, on Friday. Paerson finished first in the event. PHOTO: AFP

Paerson said the downhill win will allow her to concentrate on other disciplines heading into the Turin Olympics, which start in three weeks.

She will enter five races, trying to pick up her elusive first Olympic gold medal -- the slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super-G and combined.

At Salt Lake City in 2002, Paerson settled for a bronze and silver while longtime rival Kostelic stole the show with three golds.

Shiro Nishikawa of Japan competes during a World Cup freestyle event at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah on Friday. PHOTO: AFP

"The pressure on me is really high back home in Sweden," Paerson said of the Olympics. "When I do bad in the downhill or super-G, they ask me why I am entering. Now that my downhill is in order, I can maybe concentrate on the super-G or slalom."

The only points the 24-year-old Swede had collected in a rocky downhill season was an 18th at Val d'Isere, France. In two other races she failed to finish and was 53rd.

The downhill will be followed by another Saturday and a super-G Sunday, the first World Cup races held at the newly designed Franz Klammer slope since 1997.

The revamped slope had been billed as one of the hardest and most dangerous on the women's circuit before the skiers arrived this week.

Skiers said it didn't live up to the hype and was on the slow side for a downhill, flat at the top followed by a series of curves. That helped technical racers like Paerson, who has won 26 slaloms and giant slaloms.

"People were saying this was the most difficult slope on the women's circuit -- I was surprised at how easy it was. It was very technical," Paerson said.

Dorfmeister closed in on Lindsey Kildow for the lead in the downhill standings, with 252 points to the American's 274.

Kildow was ninth in 1:38.59 after winning the last two downhills. The American turned in poor times on the slope all week in practice, followed by a 29th in qualification.

Dorfmeister, 32, will retire after the Olympics and would like to earn a gold. She won a super-G silver at Nagano, Japan, in 1988, missing the top prize by a fraction of a second.

"I was frustrated when I came down the slope just .04 behind today. When I saw how close the top racers were, however, I felt lucky," Dorfmeister said. "At the Olympics you will need a lot of luck. Everything has to be right that day."

The Austrian made her World Cup debut at Bad Kleinkirchheim 15 years ago when she was 17.

Bode Miller can't stay out of the spotlight he says he detests.

A day after delivering a humbling public apology, the reigning overall champion lost a super-combi as well as an argument with the World Cup chief.

Miller, who apologized for making comments about skiing and drinking in a recent television interview, seemed back on track Friday morning, posting the second-fastest time in the downhill leg of the super-combi.

Then, showing a glimpse of his former slalom genius in the afternoon leg, Miller seemed on the verge of victory, building a massive lead at the final split before straddling a gate meters from the finish line.

Instead, it was rival Benjamin Raich of Austria who won in 2 minutes, 38.46 seconds to further pad his lead atop the overall standings. Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt was runner-up in 2:38.65, while Peter Fill of Italy posted his first career podium result, placing third in 2:38.78.

"This is great. I've scored 360 points in one week," said Raich, who won a World Cup giant slalom and finished third in a slalom last weekend in Adelboden.

But Miller, who had delivered his best slalom performance in eight months, said that while the front part of his right ski did hit the flattened gate, his foot never crossed over the pole.

"My ski definitely hit the gate but it [the gate] went down the middle of the ski and my foot was on the right side of it," Miller said, explaining why he completed his run even though International Ski Federation rules state skiers must abandon a race if they miss a gate in order to preserve the piste.

"The tip of my ski went over it but I didn't hook it completely."

Following the race, Miller spoke with FIS World Cup director Guenther Hujara, but was unable to get his disqualification reversed.

According to the International Ski Competition Rules, article 661.4.1 states that a gate has been passed correctly when both the competitor's ski tips and both feet have passed across the gate line. The gate line in slalom is the imaginary shortest line between the turning pole and the outside pole.

"Bode raises the question, but there is not a question. There was not a big discussion or a fight," Hujara said. "It's very clear that the ski tip has to cross the gate line, and it's more than obvious that he was straddling the gate."

Miller, whose sole victory this season came in December in a giant slalom at Beaver Creek, Colorado, has struggled all season to recapture his form. He has failed to complete a full slalom since the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide last March.

Miller also skipped the mandatory bib draw ceremony in the town square for Saturday's downhill, letting down organizers and thousands of fans who braved the night's cold to see him.

It was unclear why he was absent, though Miller often complains of excessive sponsor, media and public duties.

Miller, who was supposed to start 27th in Saturday's downhill, will now start after the 30th skier.

"This is normal procedure. He will start after or behind the 30th," Hujara said of the penalty. "It just never stops with him."

No other skier missed the draw.

Both super-combi races this season have seen the apparent winners disqualified.

At Val d'Isere, France, last month, Austria's Michael Walchhofer was awarded the victory after winner Didier Defago of Switzerland was disqualified for violating equipment regulations.

Raich now leads the World Cup overall standings with 706 points. Michael Walchhofer climbed into second with 520, while Miller and teammate Daron Rahlves remained tied but dropped into third with 489.

Toby Dawson and Michelle Roark won in moguls to give US skiers first place in three of four competitions Friday at a World Cup freestyle event.

Australia's Lydia Ierodiaconou, who returned to the World Cup after tearing a knee ligament before the season, was the only non-American skier to win a gold in front of the US home crowd.

Ryan St. Onge won the men's aerials in the first day of competition at Deer Valley.

Roark, a former figure skater who switched to skiing after skating became too expensive as a youngster, won the women's event under lights with 26.32 points, edging defending World Cup champion and current leader Jennifer Heil of Canada (25.96).

In the men's event, Dawson was nearly flawless and finished with a score of 27.34. Second place went to Janne Lahtela (26.48) of Finland, who won the 2002 Olympic title on the Deer Valley course with Australian Dale Begg-Smith in third place (26.33).

American favorite Jeremy Bloom didn't qualify for Friday's moguls finals, which followed the first of two days of aerials.

St. Onge received 243.59 points for two quad-twisting triple jumps (four twists, three somersaults), getting his fourth World Cup win.

"Even though I won today, I'm taking away things I want to fix before the Olympics," said St. Onge, who already had qualified for his first Olympics by winning the US Ski Team Olympic Trials Dec. 30 in his hometown of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Joe Pack, the 2002 Olympic silver medalist, had a quad-twisting triple and triple-twisting double (three twists, two flips) to finish at 241.49. Dmitri Dashinski of Belarus grabbed third place.

Ierodiaconou tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee last summer on the second jump of her preseason at Lake Placid, New York. Doctors used a cadaver ligament to repair her knee and she got back to jumping in December.

World Cup cross country skier Reto Burgermeister was suspended for five days for having elevated hemoglobin levels, the Swiss ski federation said Saturday.

The 30-year old was tested Friday morning after training in Val di Fiemme, Italy, and then suspended by the International Ski Federation in accordance with normal procedure.

All previous blood tests taken since Dec. 2005, showed normal levels, Swiss Ski said.

According to team doctor Beat Villiger, there could be many reasons for the Burgermeister's elevated hemoglobin levels. The skier was scheduled to undergo tests in Davos, Switzerland, to discover why.

Hemoglobin is the part of a red blood cell that carries oxygen from the lungs to all cells. Illicit strategies such as the use of synthetic hemoglobin and blood transfusions have been used by some athletes to increase the oxygen in the muscles.

Burgermeister, who has two career World Cup podium results, has cracked the top-20 just once this season. He was 18th in a 15km race in Beitostoelen, Norway, in November.

CROSS COUNTRY

Sandrine Bailly of France claimed her first World Cup victory of the season in a 7.5km sprint race.

Bailly missed one of 10 targets and finished in 24 minutes, 57.6 seconds. Kati Wilhelm of Germany also had one penalty lap and was 1.4 seconds behind for second place.

Russia's Svetlana Ishmouratova was the only competitor in the top 10 to hit all ten targets but was 23.6 seconds adrift in third place.

Wilhelm retained her overall World Cup lead with 387 points, 49 more than Swede Anna Carin Olofsson, who finished eighth on Friday. Ishmouratova is third overall with 328 points.

Ski Flying

Defending champion Roar Ljoekelsoey of Norway held the lead after day one of the Ski Flying World Championships on the Kulm jump Friday.

Thomas Morgenstern was second and fellow Austrian Martin Koch third.

Coming from third after the opening leg, Ljoekelsoey had a faultless second leap with the day's best of 207.5m to take victory.

"It was simply perfect, although the conditions were very windy," Ljoekelsoey said.

The Norwegian scored 401 points for his two jumps, compared to Morgenstern's 378.2 and Koch's 377.4 points.
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