Critics question Laos dam project
House approves $895B defense bill with military pay raise, ban on transgender care for minors
KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she suffered an abrasion on her left hip and that something “stabbed” her when she crashed during her second run of a World Cup giant slalom race Saturday, doing a flip and sliding into the protective fencing. Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd before going to a clinic for evaluation. “Not really too much cause for concern at this point, I just can’t move,” she said later in a video posted on social media . “I have a pretty good abrasion and something stabbed me. ... I’m so sorry to scare everybody. It looks like all scans so far are clear.” She plans to skip the slalom race Sunday, writing on Instagram she will be “cheering from the sideline.” The 29-year-old was leading after the first run of the GS and charging for her 100th World Cup win. She was within sight of the finish line, five gates onto Killington’s steep finish pitch, when she an outside edge. She hit a gate and did a somersault before sliding into another gate. The fencing slowed her momentum as she came to an abrupt stop. Reigning Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden won in a combined time of 1 minute, 53.08 seconds. Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia was second and Swiss racer Camille Rast took third. The Americans saw Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien finish fifth and sixth. “It’s just so sad, of course, to see Mikaela crash like that and skiing so well,” Hector said on the broadcast after her win. “It breaks my heart and everybody else here.” The crash was a surprise for everyone. Shiffrin rarely DNFs — ski racing parlance for “did not finish.” In 274 World Cup starts, she DNF'd only 18 times. The last time she DNF'd in GS was January 2018. Shiffrin also has not suffered any devastating injuries. In her 14-year career, she has rehabbed only two on-hill injuries: a torn medial collateral ligament and bone bruising in her right knee in December 2015 and a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee after a downhill crash in January 2024. Neither knee injury required surgery, and both times, Shiffrin was back to racing within two months. Saturday was shaping up to be a banner day for Shiffrin, who skied flawlessly in the first run and held a 0.32-second lead as she chased after her 100th World Cup win. Shiffrin, who grew up in both New Hampshire and Colorado and sharpened her skills at nearby Burke Mountain Academy, has long been a fan favorite. Shiffrin is driven not so much by wins but by arcing the perfect run. She has shattered so many records along the way. She passed Lindsey Vonn’s women’s mark of 82 World Cup victories on Jan. 24, 2023, during a giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy. That March, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine mark for most World Cup wins when she captured her 87th career race. To date, she has earned five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals — along with a silver — and seven world championships. In other FIS Alpine World Cup news, the Tremblant World Cup — two women’s giant slaloms at Quebec’s Mont-Tremblant scheduled for next weekend — were canceled. Killington got 21 inches of snow on Thanksgiving Day, but Tremblant — five hours north of Killington — had to cancel its races because of a lack of snow. AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report. More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiingMAUI – The No. 2-ranked UConn men’s basketball team dropped an overtime thriller, 99-97, to Memphis to open the Maui Invitational at the historic Lahaina Civic Center on Monday. The Huskies trailed by 12 with three minutes left in regulation, but freshman Liam McNeeley led a comeback effort and Solo Ball nailed a 3-pointer with a fraction of a second left, sending the game to overtime. Coach Dan Hurley, angry with the referees from the very beginning of the game, was called for a costly technical foul with 40 seconds left as he argued an over-the-back foul against McNeeley, and the Tigers went up four. Hassan Diarra scored eight points for the Huskies in overtime, but was forced to heave a shot at the buzzer that was off the mark. UConn is now 4-1 on the season and 9-4 all-time in the Maui Invitational. After their first loss in their last 17 games dating back to last season, the Huskies will meet the loser of Game 2 between Colorado and Michigan State on Tuesday. The tone was set early as Samson Johnson collected his first foul about 20 seconds in. It took only four minutes for the first technical to be called against UConn’s bench. The foul trouble continued as Johnson, McNeeley and Ball picked up two a piece midway through the opening half. UConn finished the game with 29 total fouls, sending Memphis to the free throw line for 40 shots. UConn struggled to operate through the physicality of Memphis’ defense, but Tarris Reed Jr. (22 points, 11 rebounds) held his own to keep UConn in the game as the Tigers started 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. Sophomore Jaylin Stewart, only averaging 2.8 points in 12.8 minutes per game, took advantage of his opportunity as the Huskies’ deficit grew to six. He made a 3-pointer and scored seven consecutive points, dunking to tie the game before Reed slammed another to take the lead. The first half was Adama Sanogo-esque for Reed, who went into the break with 15 points and seven rebounds. He and Stewart combined to score UConn’s final 22 points of the half, enough to keep up with Memphis’ 13-for-23 shooting from the field, 5-for-10 from beyond the arc, and knot the halftime score at 40. But UConn’s offense couldn’t keep up in the second half. Ball started UConn’s scoring with a 3-pointer, but it was more than four scoreless minutes before Karaban made his third triple of the game to quell a 5-0 Memphis run. Stewart reentered and almost immediately slammed a putback dunk off a McNeeley miss with 14 minutes to go, tying the game back up at 48. Stewart didn’t score again, however, and finished the game with 16 points and five boards. The Huskies started the second half just 3-for-10 from the field in the second half before Hunter and Mahaney traded triples and Karaban hit all three from the line after he was fouled on a 3-point attempt, tying the score for the 11th time. But the shots didn’t stop falling for Memphis. Hunter, 7 for his first 10 3-pointers, hit one from the corner while drawing the fourth foul on Mahaney and converted the four-point play. He was good again from beyond the arc 30 seconds later, pushing Memphis’ lead to 10 points with 8:09 left in the game. Memphis’ lead grew to 13 before Karaban’s fourth triple of the game with 3:37 left. Reed dunked twice to keep the game from getting out of hand, but fouled out with about three minutes left. McNeeley, quiet with just two points through the game’s first 37 and a half minutes, nailed back-to-back 3-pointers and cut the Huskies’ deficit to four with 1:38 to go. The Huskies forced a turnover down three with 14 seconds left, and Ball sent the game to overtime with a 3-pointer just before the buzzer. Johnson fouled out with a technical foul in the overtime period and finished with just two points, and Ball fouled out with 13 seconds left in overtime.