Alpine skiing
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP: France's Laure Pequegnot picked up her second World Cup slalom victory of the season at Saalbach, Austria, Sunday when first-run leader Tanja Poutiainen of Finland fell on her second run.
The United States placed two skiers among the top six finishers Sunday. Kristina Koznick of Burnsville, Minn., was fourth, .01 seconds off the podium, while Sarah Schleper of Vail, Colo., had the second-fastest final run and moved up to fifth — her fifth top-10 in a row. Caroline Lalive of Steamboat Springs, Colo, was sixth in the combined downhill/slalom times over two days.
Pequgnot won with a time of 1 minute, 27.22 seconds. Switzerland's Sonja Nef was second in 1:27.80, and Sweden's Ylva Nowen third at 1:27.89.
Koznick narrowly missed the podium with a two-run time of 1:27.90 and Schleper, 12th in the first run, ate up the second run to move into fifth place at 1:27.98. No other American was in the top 30.
However, in the combined calculation, mixing the slalom with a downhill Saturday, Austrian Renate Goetschl finished first, with Lalive sixth and Julia Mancuso of Squaw Valley, Calif., 11th.
Biathlon
WORLD CUP: Ukraine's Olena Zubrilova won a 12.5-kilometer biathlon World Cup event Sunday at Oberhof, Germany for her first victory of the season.
The former world champion didn't miss once, completing the mass start competition in 40 minutes, 26.1 seconds to edge France's Liv Grete Poiree by 10.8 seconds.
Sweden's Magdalena Forsberg, the overall-standings leader, finished third, 12.9 seconds behind.
Bobsled
WORLD CUP: Todd Hays rallied the United States to victory in the four-man bobsled Sunday at St. Moritz, Switzerland, his final World Cup race of the season.
Sharing second on the world's only natural track were the Swiss team led by Christian Reich and the German team led by Andre Lange.
Hays, a strong medal favorite for next month's Olympics in Salt Lake City, decided to end his World Cup season and return to the United States to prepare for the games.
With two victories and a second-place finish, Hays leads the four-man World Cup standings with 171 points.
Another American team of Brian Shimer, Darrin Steels, Doug Sharp and Mike Kohn was sixth.
Cross country skiing
U.S. CHAMPIONSHIPS: John Bauer is headed to the Olympics after winning the 50-kilometer classic technique race Sunday in Bozeman, Mont., for his third national cross-country ski title in five days.
Bauer, who trains in Duluth, Minn., covered the four-lap course at Bohart Ranch in 2 hours, 49 minutes, 7.8 seconds on the last day of the U.S. championships.
Kris Freeman, of Andover, N.H., was second in 2:50:29.4, with Andrew Johnson of Greensboro, Vt., third. Both are expected to be on the U.S. Olympic cross-country team announced Jan. 21.
Nina Kemppel, of Anchorage, Alaska, collected her 18th U.S. title in the women's 30K race with a time of 1:48:21.8. Unni Odegaard of Norway was second, more than 2:30 behind, with Aelin Peterson of Fairbanks, Alaska, third.
WORLD CUP: Fabio Maj led Italy's second team to victory Sunday in an 18-kilometer World Cup race in freestyle cross country at Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Julia Tchepalova's Russian team dominated the 9-kilometer women's sprint.
Maj, who also won the men's 10K freestyle Saturday, beat countryman Giorgio di Centa in the final meters to win by 0.9 seconds. Finland finished third, a second off the pace.
Russia and Italy set the pace in the women's sprint. Tchepalova, who won Saturday's 5K freestyle, beat Sabina Valbusa by 6.3 seconds in the last leg. Riikka Sirvio's Finnish team was third, 23.1 seconds back.
Freestyle
WORLD CUP: Hours after defending Olympic men's aerials gold medalist and current World Cup leader Eric Bergoust won Sunday's World Cup competition in Mont Tremblant, Canada, he realized he'd hurt himself during an earlier practice run.
A collision with a kicker on a speed check left his left side severely bruised and sore. Rather than sit out, Bergoust — who has already secured a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team — lowered his degree of difficulty and ended up finishing third.
Canada's Nicolas Fontaine placed first, with Belarus's Alexei Grichin second. Park City's Joe Pack finished 10th.
Topping the podium for the women were Canada's Veronica Brenner, Belarus' Alla Tsuper and Switzerland's Manuela Mueller. Tracy Evans was the leading American at seventh. Emily Cook, placed 10th. She is still performing less difficult maneuvers than she'll use in the Olympics while she recovers from an injury.
Luge
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Markus Prock of Austria won the singles luge title Sunday at the European championships in Altenberg, Germany,, with three-time Olympic champion George Hackl of Germany finishing fourth.
This was Prock's third European title, the others coming in 1994 and 1998. He has won the overall World Cup title nine times but has finished runner-up twice to Hackl at the Olympics.
German Dennis Geppert was second, 0.11 behind. Italian world champion Armin Zoeggeler was third, 0.281 off the pace.
Nordic combined
WORLD CUP: Austria's Felix Gottwald won a World Cup Nordic combined event Sunday at Ramsau, Austria, for his sixth victory this season.
Gottwald, who turned 26 on Sunday, rallied from fourth place in the opening 10-kilometer race to finish with a total of 240.0 points.
He moved into the overall World Cup lead with 1,480 points. He is 135 points ahead of Germany's Ronny Ackermann, who had a cold and did not compete.
Samppa Lajunen of Finland was second Sunday with 238.7 points and compatriot Jaakko Tallus was third with 234.7.
Bill Demong of Vermontville, N.Y., posted the best World Cup result of his career Sunday, finishing seventh behind U.S. teammate Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Short-track skating
EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Italy's Fabio Carta again dominated the European short track championships, winning titles Sunday at 1,000 meters and 3,000 meters in Grenoble, France.
Carta also won Friday's 1,500-meter race and placed third in the 500 meters.
In the women's event, Bulgaria's Evgenia Radanova won all four individual races. On Sunday she added the 1,000 and 3,000 meters to her 1,500- and 500-meter titles.
Italy won the men's 5,000-meter relay and the women's 3,000-meter relay Sunday.
Ski jumping
WORLD: Austria overcame two more spectacular leaps by German star Sven Hannawald on Sunday to win a team event in World Cup ski jumping in Willingen, Germany.
Austria ended a six-year title drought in the team competition, earning 1,141.3 points from its four jumpers. Finland was second at 1,141.3 while Germany was third at 1,112.0.
Hannawald, who recently swept the Four Hills event, leaped 148.5 and 141.5 meters to lead all competitors during the team event, which doesn't produce an individual winner.
The two days of ski jumping drew 100,000 spectators, who sang nonstop during the competition.
Snowboarding
WORLD CUP HALFPIPE: Finnish snowboarder Heikki Sorsa won a World Cup half-pipe event Sunday at Alpe d'Huez, France, and Frenchwoman Cecile Alzina captured the women's event.
Sorsa won for the first time this season, earning a best score of 44.4 points out of a possible 50. Norway's Halvor Lunn was second and Finland's Risto Mattila was third.
Alzina scored a winning 44.6 points in her second run. Canada's Maelle Ricker took the silver and France's Doriane Vidal won the bronze.
Speedskating
WORLD CUP: Dutch speedskaters won three long-track World Cup races Sunday in Heerenveen, Netherlands, with Olympic champion Marianne Timmer capturing the women's 1,000 meters, Jan Bos the men's 1,000 and Carl Verheijen the men's 5,000.
The Dutch dominated the three days of World Cup competition, but Sunday was exceptional with three gold medals, three silver and one bronze in three races.
Timmer won in 1 minute, 16.93 seconds, followed by compatriot Andrea Nuyt in 1:17.18 and Sabine Volker of Germany 1:17.26.
Verheijen was timed in 6:28.20, with Gianni Romme second in 6:32.82 and Bob de Jong completing the Dutch trio in 6:32.96.
Romme said he was getting back in shape after he failed to qualify for the 5,000 meters of the Salt Lake City Olympics three weeks ago.
Romme, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 in the 1998 Nagano Games, will start only at the 10,000 meters.
In the men's 1,000, Jan Bos won in 1:10.12, followed by Erben Wennemars of the Netherlands in 1:10.19 and Kyu-Hyuk Lee of South Korea in 1:10.34.
On Saturday, Canada had a big day, with Jeremy Wotherspoon winning the men's 500 meters in 35.24 and Catriona LeMay Doan the strongest woman in 38.12. Anni Friesinger of Germany won the women's 3,000 meters in 4:08.40.
On the first day of the event, Dutchman Gerard van Velde won the men's 500 in 35.46, LeMay Doan was the best female sprinter in 38.28, Canadian Dustin Molicki captured the men's 1,500 in 1:48.60 and Friesinger won the women's 1:58.18.