Shiffrin wins 1st WC slalom of season

American ski star Mikaela Shiffrin earned her record-extending 98th career World Cup win Saturday to give herself the chance to compete for victory No. 100 in front of a home crowd. Regardless of her result in a slalom in Austria next week, Shiffrin could reach the milestone in two races in Killington, Vermont on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, respectively. The two-time Olympic champion, who is from Colorado, can almost consider Killington a hometown race because she honed her skills nearby at the Burke Mountain Academy as a teenager. On Saturday, Shiffrin dominated the first women’s World Cup slalom of the season for her 98th win. No other skier, male of female, has won more than 86 races. “Amazing way to start the slalom season, I’m super happy,” the American said. Shiffrin built on a big first-run lead with an aggressive yet controlled second run down the Levi Black course to beat 2021 slalom world champion Katharina Liensberger of Austria by 0.79 seconds. Lena Duerr of Germany dropped from second to third, 0.83 behind Shiffrin.

Netflix struggles in live sports debut

Netflix’s first attempt at handling a live sports event did not receive a passing grade. The fight Friday night between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul experienced streaming problems according to many viewers on social media. Many viewers took to Twitter/X and Bluesky to express their frustrations with streaming and buffering problems before and during the fight. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to the fight. The bout was scheduled for eight two-minute rounds, as opposed to the normal three minutes and 10 or 12 rounds for most pro fights. Netflix representatives had no comment via e-mails on the streaming problems viewers experienced leading up to or during the fight. The bout between the YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul, and Tyson, 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, was Netflix’s biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon. It streamed globally to Netflix’s 280 million subscribers at no additional cost. Netflix will broadcast two NFL games on Christmas Day and will begin streaming WWE “Raw” on Jan. 6.

23XI Racing, Front Row will compete

The two teams suing NASCAR over an antitrust complaint said Saturday they will compete in 2025 as “open teams” after the sanctioning body removed anticompetitive release claims that will allow them to race while the legal process continues. 23XI Racing, the team owned by NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, pictured, and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports refused in September to sign take-it-or-leave it revenue sharing offers made by NASCAR, 48 hours before the start of the playoffs. The teams have filed an antitrust suit alleging NASCAR is “monopolistic bullies” and were denied in federal court last week a request to be recognized as “chartered” teams as the suit continues. A charter is essentially a franchise and guarantees prize money, a spot in the field each week, and other protections. Both teams insisted they’d compete as “open” teams, which would require them to qualify their cars for every race. Open teams also do not receive the same benefits as chartered teams, including a fair cut from the financial purses. —AP