ALTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria — Lindsey Vonn showed again Saturday she is the standout downhill racer in this Olympic season.

Vonn won her second World Cup downhill in four races this season, raising expectations in this remarkable comeback racing at age 41 with her right knee rebuilt using titanium implants.

The United States star was 0.37 seconds faster than Kajsa Vickhoff Lie in tricky, overcast conditions. Vonn was jumping up cheering in the leader’s box when her teammate Jacqueline Wiles raced into third place, 0.48 back.

On a shortened course that took her fewer than 67 seconds to complete, Vonn still clocked 130 kph (81 mph) for one of the fastest speeds any women racer will hit this season.

“It feels amazing. I try to enjoy every single second I am out here because it is just so fun to go fast,” she said.

Vonn crossed the finish line with a look of determined satisfaction, punching the air with her right fist and nodding with short, sharp movements of her head.

“I knew what it was going to take to win today,” she said. “It was a sprint and I had to give it everything I had, definitely had to risk a little bit.”

Vonn extends World Cup records

With each victory, Vonn extends her record as the oldest race winner in the 60-season history of the World Cup circuit. Her 84th career win on the circuit was her record-extending 45th in downhill.

The United States star later made a family video phone call alongside her coach Aksel Lund Svindal, the men’s downhill champion at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics where Vonn took bronze in the women’s race.

Vonn was Olympic downhill champion at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and shapes as a strong contender for the next gold medal race scheduled Feb. 8 on the first Sunday at the Milan Cortina Olympics.

It is at the storied Cortina d’Ampezzo slope where Vonn has excelled in her career, including a World Cup downhill win eight years ago where Wiles also was third.

“Being on the podium again with her is super special,” Wiles said.

Sofia Goggia, the 2018 Olympic champion, was only 17th Saturday trailing Vonn by 0.97.

The defending Olympic champion, Corinne Suter, made her season debut Saturday after injuries and was more than a second slower than Vonn.

Banner day for US team

The U.S. team had five racers in the top 20 with world champion Breezy Johnson seventh, 21-year-old Allison Mollin a career-best 14th and Keely Cashman tied for 18th, less than a second behind Vonn.

The race was delayed for 25 minutes while Austrian prospect Magdalena Egger was airlifted from the course after a season-ending fall and crash into the safety nets. She stood up with a bloodied nose, and later tests showed extensive damage to her right knee including a torn ACL, the Austrian ski federation said.

Egger was runner-up in Vonn’s season-opening downhill win last month at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Vonn extended her lead in the season-long World Cup downhill standings, after finishing second and third in the other races. Saturday’s race was the fourth of nine scheduled downhills in the World Cup this season.

She earned 100 race points and now leads by 129 from Emma Aicher of Germany, who placed sixth Saturday. Vonn is chasing a ninth World Cup downhill season title a full 10 years after her eighth, when she also won in Zauchensee.

“I felt like I was skiing better in super-G this summer,” she said, “but when I got to the races in St Moritz everything was working really well right from the start.”

On Sunday, Vonn will start in a super-G that should be on a longer course than the downhill.

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Four different players scored as the St. Thomas women’s hockey team beat Bemidji State 4-1 on Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, giving the Tommies their first conference sweep of the season.

Ilsa Lindaman and Chloe Boreen each had a goal and two assists for St. Thomas (10-12-0, 5-11-0 WCHA). Ella Boerger and Rylee Bartz also scored for the Tommies. Goaltender Dani Strom had 18 saves.

St. Thomas had won the Friday series opener 2-1. Strom made 35 saves over the two games.

Bemidji State opened the scoring on Saturday as Isa Goettl scored just 4:00 into the first period. But the Tommies took control afterward, with Lindaman and Boerger scoring before the end of the first.

Bartz and Boreen each scored in the second.

St. Thomas outshot the Beavers 29-19.

The Tommies host No. 1-ranked Wisconsin next weekend with Friday’s game scheduled for a 2 p.m. start at Lee and Penny Anderson Arena.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — John Blackwell had 26 points, Nick Boyd scored 22 and Aleksas Bieliauskas set a career high with 17 points to lead Wisconsin to a 91-88 win over previously unbeaten, second-ranked Michigan on Saturday.

The Badgers (11-5, 3-2 Big Ten) beat their highest-ranked regular-season opponent since a win over No. 2 Michigan in 2019. They beat the AP poll’s No. 2 team on the opponent’s court for the second time since winning at Maryland on Feb. 13, 2016.

The Wolverines (14-1, 4-1) led by as much as 14 in the first half and lost because they gave up 54 points in the second half.

Michigan had a game-tying basket waved off by basket interference on Aday Mara, who followed up Roddy Gayle Jr.’s missed layup with 35.2 second left. The call stood after video review.

Braeden Carrington, from Brooklyn Park, Minn., made two free throws on the ensuing possession after being fouled on a long, inbounds pass. Carrington split a pair of free throws with 9.6 seconds left for a three-point lead that gave Michigan a shot to tie the game, but Gayle missed a 3.

Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau scored all 19 of his points in the first half and Morez Johnson Jr. scored 13 of 18 points in the first half. Yaxel Lendeborg finished with 14 points and Nimari Burnett added 10 points for the Wolverines.

Wisconsin trailed 38-37 at halftime but outscored Michigan 20-7 to start the second.

Bieliauskas entered the game averaging 4.0 points per game. The freshman forward from Lithuania showed why Greg Gard recruited him early in the second half, making 4 of 4 3-pointers in less than three minutes.

Up next

Wisconsin: Visits Minnesota on Tuesday.

Michigan: Visits Washington on Wednesday.

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Peach Bowl: Indiana smites Oregon

For the second time in three days, the Timberwolves’ offense exploded against the Cavaliers.

But unlike Thursday in Minneapolis, the Cavaliers returned the favor on the other end in Cleveland on Saturday.

Cleveland scored 83 points in the second half to down Minnesota, 146-134, in the matinee, halting the Wolves’ win streak at four games. The 146 points are the most Minnesota has allowed in a game this season.

Minnesota recorded just three stops over the first eight minutes of a final frame in which Cleveland’s lead grew to as big as 17 points. The Cavaliers scored 38 points in that span — a 222-point full-game pace.

The Wolves’ offense continues to roll. It’s what had Minnesota up by two points at the break despite surrendering 63 points over the first two frames. Minnesota shot 57% from the field while making 16 triples.

But the offensive excellence was cancelled out by Cleveland’s near identical success going the other way. The Cavaliers shot 60% from the field and made 15 3-pointers.

The Cavaliers had six players score 16-plus points, including 20-plus for five guys. Donovan Mitchell led the charge with 28 points and eight assists, while Sam Merrill went 5 for 6 from distance and Jarrett Allen tallied 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Cleveland shot 70% from the floor in the second half and 63% from distance.

Minnesota (25-14) entered Saturday’s affair with the fifth-best defense in the NBA, but Cleveland’s spacing and shooting gave the Wolves fits last season, and the Cavaliers (22-18) do seem to be slowly creeping toward the level of play that earned them the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs a season ago.

Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 25 points, five rebounds and three assists, but all three of those helpers came early, and Edwards was inefficient from the field.

The Wolves’ starters, who’ve been so good as a unit of late, were wiped off the floor, with the Cavaliers winning Julius Randle’s 31 minutes by 20 points after Randle led Minnesota in plus-minus two days earlier.

Cleveland pulled away in the third in part because of its own offense, but the Wolves also became disconnected as a whole during that span. Minnesota devolved into isolation basketball that resulted in just four assists in the frame. The lack of movement impacted effort on both ends.

It was the opposite of the brand of basketball that made Minnesota so successful over the previous four wins.

Naz Reid had 25 points on 9 for 12 shooting for the Wolves off the bench.

Mike Conley sat for rest purposes. The Wolves have lost the last two games the veteran has sat versus Brooklyn and now Cleveland. Joe Ingles saw brief second-quarter action in Conley’s absence, and Bones Hyland played 20 minutes, tallying 12 points and seven assists.

Minnesota is back in action Sunday, when it hosts San Antonio in a big game between presumptive Western Conference playoff teams who are in firm contention for top-four seeds and home-court advantage in Round 1 of the postseason and beyond.

Despite playing Saturday, the Wolves will have a rest advantage in that contest, as the Spurs played Saturday evening in Boston.

Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) dunks in front of Cleveland Cavaliers guard Sam Merrill, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, left, fouls Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, right, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

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