Alpine skiingPICABO RETURNS TO SLOPES: The first step to complete recovery came Monday for Picabo Street when she stepped into her bindings, took a seat on a lift and, for the first time in more than a year, skied -- albeit somewhat cautiously for her -- runs at Park City Mountain Resort.
In March 1998, Street -- currently director of skiing at Park City -- fell during a downhill run in Switzerland and suffered a broken femur and torn ligaments.
Earlier this summer, she said she was looking forward to skiing again, slowly at first and gradually picking up speed to the 2002.
Her plans are to spend time "free skiing" with guests of Park City and members of the various ski teams but to do very little if any racing this season. She said she would throw herself into the racing world at the start of next season with her eyes on another gold in 2002.
In a women's giant slalom on the World Cup tour, Sarah Schleper of Vail finished 26th out of 29 qualifiers. U.S. skier Kristina Koznick did not qualify.
In overall standings, Koznick fell from 36th to 40th. Schleper's finish moved her up to 47th. In the race for the Nations Cup, Austria leads with 6,640 points to 448 for the 10th place U.S. team.
FUNDING FOR FLEISCHER: An "Evening with Chad Fleischer" in Colorado on Saturday will help the injured downhill racer in his drive to Salt Lake in 2002.
The community of Beaver Creek is holding to fundraiser to help Fleischer, a resident of Vail, pay for his training. The event will include a reception, silent auction and concert by blues artist Rod Piazza.
Fleischer is sidelined for the remainder of 1999-2000 after he fell two weeks ago and tour a rotator cuff in his left shoulder.
Cross country skiing
WORLD CUP SPRINT: Germany's Peter Schlickenrieder tore through the final 100 meters in a snowstorm last week to win the men's 1.5-kilometer World Cub sprint at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Kristina Smigun of Estonia won the women's sprint.
No U.S. skiers qualified for the 16-racer finals, which produced eight semifinalists leading to the final sprints.
Snowboarding
WORLD CUP GS: American women captured the top two spots in World Cup snowboard giant slalom action at Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec two weeks ago.
Rosey Fletcher and former Utahn Sondra Van Ert took first and second in the last meet of year Dec. 18. Karine Ruby of France was third.
In the men's division, France's Matthieu Bozzetto continued his winning ways with a first-place finish. Ian Price topped American racers with a fourth-place showing.
WORLD CUP HALFPIPE: In the final snowboard World Cup halfpipe event of the millennium, Americans Kim Stacey and Tricia Burns managed third- and fourth-place finishes.
Sweden's Anna Hellman was first and Yuri Yoshikawa of Japan was third at Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec Dec. 19.
The men's winner as Thomas Johansson of Sweden followed by a pair of Finns, Jari Vastamaki and Aleski Litovaava. Zach Horwitz was the top U.S. male in fourth.
Biathlon
EX-OLY CHAMP RETIRES: Former biathlon Olympic and world champion Mark Kirchner said Wednesday he was retiring because he wanted to spend more time with his family. The 29-year-old German won three Olympic gold medals and 10 world titles.
Nordic combined
WORLD CUP UPDATE: Hometown hero Todd Lodwick's third-place finish in the cross-country stage of a Dec. 21 World Cup nordic combined event in Steamboat Springs, Colo., could not make up for a disappointing 28th place performance in the jumping stage.
Lodwick finished 12th in the overall competition, which combines results from ski jumping and cross country skiing. Finn Samppa Lajunen won the event.
Lodwick is in 11th place in the overall World Cup standings.
Hockey
U.S. WOMEN ON A ROLL: Erin Magee scored three goals as the United States women's hockey team beat Sweden 9-1 on Friday in the final preliminary-round game in the Christmas Tournament.
The United States, 4-0 in preliminary-round play, will face the winner of today's game between Russia and Sweden in the championship game Sunday.
Tuesday, Cammi Granato scored a goal and assisted on another as the U.S. women's select team defeated Sweden 3-1 in the 1999 Women's Christmas Tournament.
A.J. Mleczko and Karyn Bye also scored for the Americans, who held a big advantage in shots on goal, 39-13.
The double round-robin tournament features the national teams from the United States, Russia and Sweden.
The Americans opened the tournament Monday with a 3-0 win over Russia.
AMERICAN JUNIORS UNDEFEATED: The U.S. National Junior Team tied the Czech Republic and beat Slovakia as play began in the 2000 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship tournament in Sweden.
The competition, featuring the world's top hockey players under the age of 20, began Christmas Day and continues until Tuesday.
Michigan State forward Adam Hall, of Kalamazoo, Mich., scored the only goal of the game Tuesday as the U.S. downed Slovakia 1-0. Goalie Rick DiPietro of Winthrop, Mass., and Boston University stopped 27 shots to record the shutout.
In Sunday's 2-2 tie with the Czech Republic, U.S. goals were scored by Barrett Heisten of Anchorage, Alaska, and the University of Maine, and by Brooks Orpik of East Amherst, N.Y., and Boston College.
The Americans were scheduled to play Finland Wednesday afternoon and meet Canada on New Year's Eve.
Figure skating
BUTTON HONORED: Dick Button, the 1948 and '52 Olympic champion turned television commentator and event producer, was named figure skating's person of the century by International Figure Skating magazine Tuesday.
Button was honored for his 53 years of contributions to the sport.
"We feel no other individual represents the sport of figure skating better than Dick Button for the entire 20th century," said IFS publisher Mark Lund in a telephone interview from his Worcester, Mass., office.
"His technical innovations in the 1940s and '50s, his creation of the World Pro Championships in 1973, convincing ABC to put figure skating on television (in 1962), his 40 years as a commentator, set him apart," Lund said.