SKIING

Vonn earns victory in downhill opener

Lindsey Vonn won the season-opening World Cup downhill Friday for her 16th victory at Lake Louise in Alberta.

The American star finished in 1 minute, 50.5 seconds. She has 13 downhill victories and three super-G wins at the Alberta resort. Vonn has 34 career World Cup downhill victories and 68 overall wins.

Cornelia Huetter of Austria was second in 1:51.08, and teammate Ramona Siebenhofer was third, 1.07 seconds behind Vonn.

MEN: Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway won his third straight World Cup race, holding off teammate Kjetil Jansrud in a demanding downhill at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

Svindal was smooth through a sunny course and finished in 1 minute, 42.34 seconds. He beat Jansrud by 0.30 seconds. Guillermo Fayed of France was third.

Svindal, 32, captured both races in Lake Louise a week ago. He is returning to the World Cup circuit after tearing his Achilles tendon last season.

Starting way back in 34th position, American Andrew Weibrecht tied for fifth.

CYCLING

TESTING: Making good on a pledge he made in winning the Tour de France, Chris Froome released the results of laboratory tests on his body to counter skeptics in France who have repeatedly expressed doubts that he rides clean.

The lab in London measured how efficiently Froome’s body uses oxygen, and his power and endurance.

A test of VO2 max, an indication of how effectively the body transports oxygen from the air to muscles during intense exercise, was “off the charts. We’ve never had anything close to that in the lab,” said one of the lab’s sports scientists, Phillip Bell. “Froome’s values are close to what we believe are the upper limits for VO2 peak in humans.”

The lab also found that Froome can produce up to 525 watts of power when he pedals and can also sustain a very high power output – 419 watts – for 20-40 minutes.

“I’m the only one who can really say 100 percent that I’m clean,” Froome said. “I haven’t broken the rules. I haven’t cheated. I haven’t taken any secret substance that isn’t known of yet.”

SOCCER

FIFA: Facing life bans for corruption, Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are expected to go before the FIFA ethics committee within two weeks.

A person familiar with the cases told The Associated Press the hearings should take place from Dec. 16-18 in Zurich.

OLYMPICS

2016 GAMES: Athletes can throw away the floor fans – Rio de Janeiro Olympic organizers have changed their minds and say athletes will have free air conditioning in their bedrooms at the athletes’ village.

The decision to provide complimentary air conditioning comes after The Associated Press reported this week that about 10,000 Olympic athletes would have to pay for it because of budget cuts.

Rio organizers are making severe cuts to try to balance their operating budget of $1.9 billion. Cuts could reach $520 million, or almost 30 percent of the operating budget.

AUTO RACING

FORMULA ONE: Toro Rosso will return to Ferrari engines next season, using the same power unit its fellow Italian team used in this year’s Formula One championship. Ferrari supplied engines to Toro Rosso from 2007 to 2013, then switched to Renault.

– From news service reports