THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, MARCH 7, 2021 B3
ALPINE SKIING ROUNDUP | WORLD CUP
Shiffrin beats Vlhova, claims 45th slalom victory
Associated Press
JASNA, Slovakia — Mikaela
Shiffrin denied her Slovakian
rival Petra Vlhova a home
victory Saturday, winning the
first World Cup slalom follow-
ing the world championships.
Shiffrin trailed first-run
leader Vlhova by 0.27 seconds
on a hill where the Slovakian
regularly trains.
But the American had a
blistering final run to win the
race by 0.34 as the pair con-
tinued its dominance in the
discipline.
They combined have won
31 of the 32 World Cup sla-
loms held since January 2017,
a streak interrupted only once
by Switzerland’s Michelle Gi-
sin.
“I feel pretty amazing about
it,” Shiffrin said about her 45th
career slalom win and 69th
overall. “It was a really good
fight for me and that’s a pretty
nice feeling to have right now.”
The result moved Shiffrin
within one victory of a World
Cup record. Only one skier,
male or female, has won more
races in a single discipline:
Swedish great Ingemar Sten-
mark triumphed 46 times in
giant slalom in the 1970s and
80s.
Wendy Holdener finished
0.52 behind in third. It was the
26th career slalom podium for
the Swiss skier, who is yet to
win a race in the discipline.
Katharina Liensberger was
1.42 off the lead in fourth and
missed a slalom podium for
the first time this season.
The Austrian beat Vlhova
and Shiffrin to gold in the sla-
lom at the world champion-
ships two weeks ago, ending
MLB
Continued from B1
Flexen never found solid
ground in the majors during
the three seasons he shuffled
back and forth between the
minors and the Mets. The first
major league hitter Flexen
faced in his debut —Manuel
Margot — took him deep in
2017.
There clearly was talent, but
there was never consistency.
Which all led to an unsightly
3-11 record and an ERA north
of 8.00 in the 27 appearances
he made for the Mets between
2017-19.
So it was off to South Korea
and an opportunity with the
Doosan Bears in the Korean
Baseball Organization.
“(He) kind of had a career
changing experience last year
in Korea and has really figured
out who he is and what makes
him tick,” Seattle pitching
coach Pete Woodworth said.
While the majors were shut
down due to the COVID-19
pandemic, Flexen was making
starts and racking up innings.
He started 21 games for Doo-
san in the regular season with
an 8-4 record and a 3.01 ERA.
He struck out 132 batters in
116⅔ innings, and made three
starts in the playoffs before
Motor sports
Continued from B1
Larson, fired by Chip Ga-
nassi Racing after using a ra-
cial slur during an iRacing
event in April, was hired by
Hendrick Motorsports when
his ban was lifted at the end of
last season. His official return
was last month at Daytona In-
ternational Speedway, where
he opened his second chance
in NASCAR with a 10th-place
finish in the Daytona 500.
He was running in the top
three with seven laps remain-
ing a week later on the Day-
tona road course when Lar-
son, in a moment of admitted
over-aggressiveness, spun his
Chevrolet and fell to a 30th-
place finish. Last week at
Homestead-Miami Speedway,
Larson led five laps and fin-
ished fourth, marking back-
to-back weeks he believed he
had a shot to win.
Next up is Sunday’s race at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
It’s the fourth race of the sea-
son and falls one day short of
his fourth and final Cup race
a year ago.
Gabriele Facciotti/AP
Mikaela Shiffrin competes during Saturday’s World Cup slalom in
Jasna, Slovakia. Shiffrin edged Petra Vlhova for the victory.
the American’s streak of four
world titles.
Shiffrin won bronze at the
worlds but later said she was
disappointed in her skiing.
On Saturday, though, the
three-time overall champion
was back to her best.
“That was good, it was a
really big step,” said Shiffrin,
who still found “some small
things” she could have done
better.
“But it was OK as I kept
pushing. That’s the feeling
that I want to have,” she said.
“Today it was good enough to
win, sometimes it’s not. But
that’s the feeling, that’s the
fight.”
The race resembled the vic-
tory from Shiffrin’s only pre-
vious visit to the Slovakian
resort, in 2016, when she also
beat the home nation’s favor-
ite, Veronika Velez-Zuzulova.
“Last time it was the fight
between Zuzu and me,” Shif-
frin said. “It’s actually quite
a pleasure to come here and
have that fight with these girls.
The two times we came to
Jasna, we had a Slovakian girl
who was on top level.”
The result gave new impe-
tus to the battle for the slalom
season title. With three races
left, Vlhova was leading Shif-
frin by 45 points, with Liens-
berger 70 points behind in
third.
Vlhova narrowed the gap
on overall World Cup leader
Lara Gut-Behrami. The Swiss
skier sat out the race and was
holding a lead of 107 points.
The race weekend was ini-
tially scheduled to start with
a giant slalom, but organizers
swapped the program as un-
favorable weather was forecast
and moved the GS to Sunday.
Also Saturday:
Kriechmayr ends down-
hill drought in home coun-
try: SAALBACH-HINTER-
GLEMM, Austria — Vincent
Kriechmayr ended his two-
year-long victory drought in
men’s World Cup downhills
Mariners prospect Kelenic sidelined by knee strain
PEORIA, Ariz. — Seattle Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic will
be sidelined due to a strained adductor muscle in his left knee.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said an MRI on Saturday
revealed the injury. No timeline was given for the outfielder’s return.
“While disappointed that Jarred will be sidelined, we are relieved
that the long-term outlook is positive,” Dipoto said. “We all look for-
ward to seeing him back on the field in the near future.”
Kelenic appeared to be injured during his first at-bat on Friday
against the Chicago White Sox. Kelenic reached on an error, but ap-
peared bothered after reaching first base. Kelenic remained in the
game and was replaced an inning later.
The 21-year-old Kelenic, who hit Seattle’s first home run of spring
training earlier this week against the Cubs, has been the center of
attention during spring training.
Kelenic’s arrival in the majors was part of comments made by
former team president and CEO Kevin Mather that indicated Seattle
was considering manipulating Kelenic’s service time.
Kelenic and his agent lashed out at the Mariners in comments
made to USA Today following Mather’s resignation last month. After
homering earlier this week Kelenic said he’s using those words as
motivation.
“I’m a competitor,” Kelenic said. “I’m a very driven person as it
is. Having said that, you know, something like this comes up and I
think you can look at it one of two ways: One, you can sit and pout
about it, or you can use it as motivation and let it drive me even
more. That’s kind of where I’m at. Each and every day I’m letting this
drive me.”
— Associated Press
Doosan lost to the NC Dinos
in the Korean World Series.
Flexen found the feel for an
old-fashioned 12-to-6 curve-
ball, to go along with a cutter
and change up in his pitching
arsenal. He also took his health
and conditioning more seri-
ously. When he pitched for the
Mets, Flexen was above 250
pounds. Now, he’s around 215.
“You look at video from
when he was with the Mets,
and then you start looking at
some video on how he was
doing over in Korea, it was
The season was paused for
the pandemic, Larson was
suspended during the shut-
down and missed the final 32
races of the year.
Despite his layoff and the
move to a new organization,
he’s already fitting in well at
Hendrick Motorsports. The
team got its first win of the
season last week from William
Byron, a playoff driver who
typically hovers around the
cutoff mark but is now auto-
matically qualified.
Alex Bowman had one of
the fastest cars at the Day-
tona 500, and reigning series
champion Chase Elliott could
have won both the Daytona
500 and the road course race
a week later. Chad Knaus, vice
president of competition, be-
lieves Hendrick drivers could
have swept the first three
races of the season and Larson
could get a victory soon.
Coming off the suspension,
Larson has made a strong off-
track impression on Hendrick,
too. He has been a welcome
addition to the driver debriefs,
which no longer include sev-
en-time champion Jimmie
Johnson downloading infor-
mation for the first time in
nearly two decades.
“I’ve been really impressed
with Kyle. Having him here,
he’s been very open, very
forthcoming with information
from what he’s feeling,” Knaus
said. “He’s an open book. He’s
been great and we could not
be more pleased with his per-
formance.”
He’s also noticed a patience
in Larson, particularly at
Homestead last week when
Larson could have been too
aggressive with his preferred
style of riding up against the
wall.
“Everybody also had the
thought of Kyle, fast but he
crashes. Or fast but he hits
the wall, fast but does a lot
of those things,” Knaus said.
“Homestead would have been
a great opportunity to com-
promise the car and he didn’t
do it. He ran top-five all day
long, didn’t think he had more
than that and didn’t want to
push it.
“That’s a high level of ma-
turity that I did not know he
had.”
three weeks after he took the
world title in the discipline.
Wearing bib No. 1, the Aus-
trian opened the race on the
Schneekristall course with a
near-flawless run.
Kriechmayr found the fast-
est line coming out of the start
gate, as most of his rivals were
already a few tenths of a sec-
ond behind at the first split.
Beat Feuz, who leads the
downhill season standings,
came closest but the Swiss
skier finished 0.17 off the lead.
“You can always do better
but it was a good run,” Kriech-
mayr said. “I had the right
tactics at the start and could
carry my pace into the middle
section.”
Last month, Kriechmayr
became the first skier to win
gold in both downhill and su-
per-G at world championships
since American standout
Bode Miller did it in 2005.
The Austrian had two pre-
vious downhill wins on the
World Cup but none since his
triumph in Wengen, Switzer-
land, in January 2019.
Matthias Mayer — also
Austrian — was 0.27 behind
in third.
Feuz increased his lead over
Mayer in the discipline stand-
ings to 68 points, with only
the season-ending downhill at
the World Cup Finals remain-
ing. A race win is worth 100
points.
“I’m not a genius in math-
ematics, but I believe every-
thing is still possible,” Feuz
said.
A super-G on Sunday will
conclude the race weekend at
the Austrian resort, which will
host the worlds in 2025.
two different pitchers,” Ser-
vais said.
Flexen made his spring
training debut on Friday,
throwing two innings against
the Chicago White Sox and
striking out three while giving
up one earned run and two
hits. It was his first time pitch-
ing on American soil since
Aug. 31, 2019, with Triple-A
Syracuse in the Mets organi-
zation.
A year ago, Flexen was go-
ing through spring training
overseas, spending time in
Australia and Japan to get
ready for the KBO season.
“Just a life experience to be
able to go to different coun-
tries and with a new organi-
zation as well tremendous for
me,” Flexen said.
Where Flexen slots into Se-
attle’s rotation will be worth
watching as Servais figures out
how to break up a group that
includes lefties Marco Gonza-
les, Yusei Kikuchi, James Pax-
ton and Justus Sheffield.
“It’s nice having veteran guys
who have been there, watching
your bullpens and giving you
that feedback, as well as the
pitching coaches and catchers,”
Flexen said. “That’s definitely a
huge impact in a positive way,
and those guys have welcomed
me since Day One.”
New winners
Las Vegas should be the
track that returns some nor-
malcy to victory lane af-
ter three surprise winners
through the first three races.
Michael McDowell and
Christopher Bell scored the
first wins of their careers to
open the season and Byron
earned his second-ever Cup
victory. But the 1.5-mile tra-
ditional intermediate Las Ve-
gas track represents the type
of track the Cup cars frequent
most and the top teams really
pull away from the pack.
Six of the drivers in Sun-
day’s field are previous Las
Vegas winners, including two-
time defending race winner
Joey Logano.
Odds and ends
Harvick is the 5-1 favorite
to win Las Vegas, where he
won in 2016 and 2018. Martin
Truex Jr. is 13-2, while Chase
Elliott and Denny Hamlin
are both 8-1. Team Penske
teammates Brad Keselowski
and Joey Logano are 9-1 and
Logano is the defending race
winner.
Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News/TNS file
Dogs are eager to run before the ceremonial start of the 2013 Iditarod
Sled Dog Race in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. With COVID-19 precau-
tions trimming back the 2021 race, organizers will skip the tradition.
Iditarod
Continued from B1
In years past, mushers would
stop in any number of 24 vil-
lages that serve as checkpoints,
where they could get a hot
meal, maybe a shower and sleep
— albeit “cheek to jowl” — in
a warm building before getting
back to the nearly 1,000-mile
Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
When the race starts Sun-
day north of Anchorage, they
will spend the next week or so
mostly camping in tents out-
side towns, and the only source
of warmth — for comfort or to
heat up frozen food and water
— will come from their camp
cookers.
“It’s a little bit old school,”
said Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach.
This year’s Iditarod will be
marked by pandemic precau-
tions, a route change, no spec-
tators, the smallest field of com-
petitors in decades, the return
of one former champion and
the swan song of a fan favorite,
all against the backdrop of pres-
sure on the race and sponsors
by an animal rights group.
The most noticeable change
this year will be no spectators.
The fan-friendly ceremonial
start in downtown Anchorage,
which draws thousands of peo-
ple, has been canceled, and the
actual start in Willow of the
race is being moved to a boat
dock 7 miles (11 kilometers)
out to help cutdown on fans
who would normally attend
the race start just off a main
highway. Urbach is encourag-
ing fans to watch the race start
and finish live on TV or on the
Internet.
The route has also been
shortened to 860 miles (1,384
kilometers). For the first time
in the race’s 49-year history, the
finish line will not be in Nome.
Instead, mushers will go
from Willow to the mining
ghost towns of Iditarod and
Flat, and then back to Willow
for the finish. This, Urbach
notes, was the original vision
of the race co-founder, the late
Joe Redington.
Howard Farley, 88, of Nome
remembers that well. He dis-
agreed with it in the early 1970s
when Redington proposed it,
and he’s against it now.
He said he told Redington
before the first Iditarod in 1973:
“There’s nobody in Iditarod. It’s
a ghost town. There’s nobody
there to clap. I said, ‘Just bring it
to Nome.’”
The Iditarod could have eas-
ily and safely held the finish in
Nome again this year, too, he
said.
“It just makes me sad that
all of our work and all of our
prayers down through the years
have come to this,” Farley said.
Since the mushers will have
to double back to Willow for
the finish, they will go over the
Alaska Range twice. Mushers
will have to navigate the dan-
gerous Dalzell Gorge and the
Happy River Steps, or a series
of steep switchbacks that rou-
tinely leave competitors bruised
and sleds broken.
In an effort to prevent the
spread of the virus, the Iditarod
will skip most of the communi-
ties to help prevent any trans-
mission, leaving mushers to
sleep in tents specially made
for Alaska’s tough weather or
under the stars in temperatures
that could be well below zero.
Urbach has had challenges
at every turn as he tries to pull
off the second Iditarod during
the coronavirus pandemic. The
virus took its hold on the U.S.
in the middle of last year’s race,
one of the few major sporting
events not to be canceled in
March 2020, when they learned
to deal with the pandemic on
the fly.
This year, they’ve had more
time to prepare. Mushers will
undergo vigorous testing and
anyone with a confirmed pos-
itive COVID-19 test before
the start of the race will not
be allowed to compete. Addi-
tional testing and monitoring
will take place on the trail. Any
musher with a confirmed pos-
itive test during the race will be
withdrawn and isolated.
Defending champion
Thomas Waerner is not the
race, telling The Associated
Press “it is impossible to plan
ahead” during the pandemic.
Last year, he and his dogs were
stranded in Alaska for months
because of travel restrictions
after his win. They only made
it home to Norway after hitch-
ing a ride on an airplane that
was being flown from Anchor-
age to its new home at a mu-
seum in Oslo.
The race will start with 47
mushers, the smallest field in
decades. This year’s field in-
cludes four former champions,
including two four-time win-
ners, Martin Buser and Dallas
Seavey. Buser last won in 2002;
Seavey collected his four titles
over a five year span, ending
with his last championship in
2016.
Seavey last raced the Idi-
tarod when he came in second
in 2017, when Iditarod officials
said four of his dogs tested pos-
itive for a banned opioid pain-
killer. He adamantly denied
giving his dogs the painkillers.
The next year, the Iditarod re-
versed its decision and cleared
Seavey, but he took his dogs to
Norway to race instead.
At only age 34, Seavey is con-
sidered by many to someday
match and perhaps surpass the
win total of the race’s most dec-
orated musher, Rick Swenson
who collected five champion-
ships between 1977-91.
“Five would be awesome,”
Seavey said. “I’m going to do
my best to win this. If I get beat,
which is a pretty likely outcome
... whoever beats me is going to
earn it.”
While Seavey returns, one
of the sport’s most liked mush-
ers is bowing out after this
year’s race. Aliy Zirkle, 50, an-
nounced on her website last
month that it was time to retire.
Zirkle has finished in the top
10 seven times since 2002, and
finished second three years in
a row starting in 2012. She has
never won.
The individual prize money
for the world’s premiere sled
dog race hasn’t been deter-
mined. Waerner picked up
about $50,000 and a new
Dodge pickup for winning last
year’s race. However, Chrysler
through its Anchorage dealer-
ship dropped sponsorship of
the Iditarod after that race.
The animal rights group
People for the Ethical Treat-
ment of Animals has been ap-
plying pressure on national
sponsors, claiming credit for
ExxonMobil announcing it
would end its sponsorship after
this year’s race.
PETA claims the race is cruel
to dogs, and says more than 150
have died during races since
the first in 1973. The Iditarod
disputes that number but has
not provided its count to The
Associated Press despite many
requests over the years.
“PETA absolutely makes it
challenging,” Urbach said.
He said PETA is “inflamma-
tory and grossly inaccurate” in
their approach, but admitted it
creates a difficult dynamic for
the race.
However, Urbach said they
are trying to change the narra-
tive, continuing to promote dog
wellness, nutrition, training and
breeding on its website.
The Iditarod has had two
other financial hits this year.
Because of the pandemic,
fundraisers have been can-
celed, and they have spent
thousands of dollars on per-
sonal protective equipment
and COVID-19 tests. They
also reduced the entry fee in
half and reduced the total prize
purse by 20%, to $400,000.