Mancuso now leads World Cup standings

Julia Mancuso had two long-term goals growing up as a skier - winning an Olympic gold medal and hoisting the overall World Cup trophy.

The Californian accomplished one at last year's Turin Olympics, winning the giant slalom. And on Sunday, in Tarvisio, Italy, the second moved closer to reality.

Mancuso moved atop the overall World Cup standings for the first time by finishing third in a super-giant slalom, her third straight top-three result of the weekend. It was the first time in 24 years that an American woman had led the standings at any time during a season.

"It was always my dream . . . as a kid, maybe that's why it's happening," she said.

Renate Goetschl won her record 17th super-G, by more than a second, to join Mancuso in the overall lead. She skied the 1.2-mile Prampero course in 1 minute, 18.66 seconds. Austrian teammate Nicole Hosp was second, 1.01 behind, and Mancuso was third, 1.22 back.

SUPER MARIO World champion Mario Matt won his second straight World Cup men's slalom and Benjamin Raich finished second to reclaim the lead in the overall standings.

Matt, who trailed Raich after the opening leg by 0.04 seconds, raced down the twisting track in a combined time of 1 minute, 40.64 seconds in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

DAVIS RECORD U.S. speedskater Shani Davis broke his world record in the 1,500 meters at the World Cup final in Calgary, Alberta.

Davis, a silver medalist at the 2006 Turin Games, finished in 1 minute, 42.32 seconds to lower the mark of 1:42.68 he set March 19, 2006, in Calgary.

IDITAROD STARTS Four-time champion Martin Buser led the restart of the Iditarod sled-dog race Sunday from Willow, Alaska, over the a wind-swept, hard-packed trail that means sore muscles, bruises and battered sleds before it all ends in 1,110 miles at Nome, Alaska.

PIPPEN TALKS TO LAKERS Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson says he has talked to 41-year-old Scottie Pippen about making a comeback with the team.

"I did get in touch with Scottie," Jackson said. "But it was just preliminary talk about how he's doing, where he's at and how he feels."

Jackson said Pippen is interested in coming to Los Angeles.

DURANT HONORED Texas forward Kevin Durant was named the Big 12 Conference's player of the year by league coaches, making him the first freshman to receive that honor.

Durant also received the freshman of the year award, while Texas A&M's Billy Gillispie was chosen as coach of the year.

PERRY FIRED Four years after replacing coaching legend Lefty Driesell, Georgia State men's basketball Coach Michael Perry has been fired.

TRAGIC RETURN Players on Bluffton University's baseball team and their parents returned home to Ohio, two days after a bus plunged off a roadway in Georgia and claimed the lives of four players and two others.

CLOSE CALL Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt and his mother escaped injury when the landing gear on their plane collapsed during an emergency landing in Fayetteville, Ark.

HEWITT JACKPOT Lleyton Hewitt won the Tennis Channel Open for the third time in Las Vegas, outlasting fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 7-6 in the final.

BECKHAM HURT English soccer midfielder David Beckham, set to join Major League Soccer's Los Angles Galaxy this summer, will undergo tests today to assess a potentially "serious" knee injury suffered while playing for Spanish club Real Madrid.

BOXING SURGERY Mexican flyweight Victor Burgos had brain surgery after his loss to International Boxing Federation champion Vic Darchinyan on Saturday night, Don King Productions spokesman Juan Gonzalez said Sunday.