Mission impossible for Renate Goetschl?
The Austrian ski star has traveled all the way to northern Finland hoping to improve her dismal slalom record as she chases Sweden's Anja Paerson down the stretch for the World Cup overall title.
Going into the first of two weekend slaloms on Saturday at Levi, a ski resort north of the Arctic Circle and a new stop on the women's World Cup circuit, Goetschl trails Paerson by 123 points in the overall standings.
Goetschl began her racing career as a slalom skier, and won a race in that discipline in only her second World Cup in 1993. But this season, she has scored points in only one of her four slalom races. The rest have come in her favored speed events.
With seven points, Goetschl is tied for 44th of 49 skiers in the slalom standings.
So it's advantage Paerson, who has won six World Cup slaloms this winter and finished runner-up in the other.
After this weekend, only one race in each discipline remains. They are a slalom and giant slalom, Paerson's favorites, and downhill and super-G, Goetschl's favorites.
With 10 wins this season -- six in slalom and four in the GS -- Paerson could tie Swiss great Vreni Schneider's season-record of 14 wins if she wins all four remaining gate races.
Paerson, a 22-year-old from Tarnaby in northern Sweden near the Arctic Circle, is favored to join Ingemar Stenmark and Pernilla Wiberg as the third Swedish racer to win the overall title.
Stenmark, who also hails from Tarnaby, is history's greatest men's gate skier.
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS