All Mikaela Shiffrin had been really looking for in her first race back after a six-week injury layoff was “good skiing.”
What she got, though, was even by the American star’s standards “an insane way to return.”
Shiffrin made a triumphant comeback to the World Cup on Sunday, dominating the season’s penultimate slalom for career win No. 96 and locking up her record-equaling eighth season title in the discipline.
Racing for the first time since hurting her left knee in a downhill crash in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion posted the fastest times in both runs to beat Croatian prodigy Zrinka Ljutic by a massive 1.24 seconds and third-placed Michelle Gisin of Switzerland by 1.34.
“It feels like we’re in a dream right now,” Shiffrin said after her sixth slalom win of the season and 59th overall. “There has been so much uncertainty coming into this race. The biggest goal I had was just… good skiing in the final races of the season, so I could sort of prove I have the right pace and the right mentality to close out the season, so next year I start in a better place.”
GOLF
PGA: Scottie Scheffler got hot with the putter and closed with a bogey-free, 6-under 66 to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida, by five shots, the largest margin at Bay Hill since Tiger Woods in 2012.
Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, picked up $4 million for his seventh career victory. He finished at 15-under 273.
Wyndham Clark birdied the final hole for a 70, earning $2.2 million as the runner-up.
• Brice Garnett holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole to win the Puerto Rico Open in his first tournament of the year, sending him to The Players Championship next week and giving him PGA Tour status for the next three years.
Garnett closed with a 3-under 69, while Erik Barnes shot a 68. They finished at 19-under 269.
LPGA: Bailey Tardy picked up her first victory on the LPGA Tour, shooting 7-under 65 in the final round of the Blue Bay tournament on China’s southern island of Hainan to win by four strokes ahead of Sarah Schmelzel.
Tardy had a 19-under 269 total.
Schmelzel closed with a 69. Ayaka Furue finished third, five strokes back after a 65.
LIV: Abraham Ancer beat Cameron Smith and Paul Casey in a playoff to win the LIV Golf tournament in Hong Kong.
Ancer’s five-stroke lead at the start of the final round gradually disappeared, with the Mexican struggling to a 2-over 72.
Casey shot a 64, while Smith secured a place in the playoff with a 66.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Matteo Manassero broke through for his first European tour win in nearly 11 years, shooting a 6-under 66 after a storm delay for a three-stroke victory at the Jonsson Workwear Open in Edenvale, South Africa.
Once a prodigy in European golf, the now 30-year-old Italian picked up his fifth career win by making four birdies in his last four holes to finish at 26 under.
Thriston Lawrence (63), Shaun Norris (68) and Jordan Smith (68) tied for second.
SOCCER
ENGLAND: Liverpool was denied a last-minute penalty after fighting back to draw 1-1 with visiting Manchester City in the final Premier League clash between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola before Liverpool’s German coach steps down at the end of the season.
Alexis Mac Allister struck a 50th-minute spot kick to cancel out John Stones’ first-half goal at Anfield.
Klopp thought his team should have been awarded another penalty after Jeremy Doku’s high challenge on Mac Allister in second-half stoppage time, but VAR dismissed the appeal.
The result left Liverpool in second place, behind Arsenal on goal differential. City is in third place, one point behind Arsenal and Liverpool.
• Visiting Tottenham boosted its bid to qualify for the Champions League by routing 10-man Aston Villa, 4-0.
Fifth-placed Spurs moved to within two points of fourth-place Villa, with a game in hand.
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Iga Swiatek avenged her Australian Open ouster at the hands of Linda Noskova, defeating the Czech teenager 6-4, 6-0 in the third round in Indian Wells, California.
Swiatek advances to the round of 16 against Yulia Putintseva, who ousted American Madison Keys, 6-4, 6-1.
On the men’s side, second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz beat Felix Auger-Aliassime, 6-2, 6-3. Francis Tiafoe of the U.S. lost 6-3, 6-3 to Stefanos Tsitsipas.
AUTO RACING
INDYCAR: Team Penske silenced recent criticism aimed at series leadership by dominating the season-opening race, with Josef Newgarden winning from the pole on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren Racing broke up the Penske rout with a second-place finish, but Penske drivers Scott McLaughlin and Will Power finished third and fourth. The Penske trio finished ahead of every Andretti Global driver, two days after team owner Michael Andretti called on Roger Penske to sell the IndyCar Series if he’s not willing to increase his investments in promotion and marketing.
HOCKEY
NHL: Philadelphia Flyers Coach John Tortorella was suspended for two games and fined $50,000 by the NHL for unprofessional conduct directed at the officials by refusing to leave the bench area after a game misconduct Saturday.
BASKETBALL
NBA: The NBA fined Minnesota center Rudy Gobert $100,000, two days after he implied that referee Scott Foster was not calling games fairly and further suggesting that gambling is having a detrimental impact on the outcome of games.
The fine is the maximum that the NBA could give under terms of the collective bargaining agreement that went into place last year.
Gobert was called for a technical foul in the closing seconds of regulation Friday night in the Timberwolves’ 113-104 overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers when he rubbed his fingers together several times, the so-called money sign that he directed toward Foster.