Lindsey Vonn wins giant slalom, completing discipline sweep

Lindsey Vonn used a blistering finish to win the season-opening World Cup giant slalom at Soelden, Austria, and become the fifth female skier to win a race in all five Alpine disciplines.

The three-time overall champion was fourth after the opening run before an impressive finish and won in a combined time of 2 minutes 24.43 seconds.

Vonn is the second American skier to complete the discipline sweep after Bode Miller.

“I can’t believe this. This is a big dream coming true,” Vonn said. “A win in GS has always been so far out of reach for me. I knew that maybe one day I could win. But I definitely did not plan to do it here.”

Vonn edged Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany by 0.04 of a second, and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria was 0.40 behind in third.

The discipline sweep has been achieved by Austria’s Petra Kronberger, Sweden’s Pernilla Wiberg, Croatia’s Janica Kostelic and Sweden’s Anja Paerson.

GOLF

Leonard, Chappell tied for lead at Disney World

Justin Leonard chipped in three times for birdies in a span of five holes and salvaged a two-under-par 70 that gave him a share of the lead with PGA Tour rookie Kevin Chappell going into the final round of Children’s Miracle Network Classic at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Chappell had only one bogey in his round of 66 and was at 14-under 202 overall. Webb Simpson dodged a bullet in his attempt to win the money title. Luke Donald, who needs to finish at least second to overtake him, got within three shots of the lead until a three-putt double bogey on the 14th hole. Simpson wound up one shot ahead of Donald going to the last day.

Top-ranked Yani Tseng shot a five-under 67 and held a two-shot lead going into the final round of the LPGA Taiwan Championship at Yang Mei.

Tseng’s third round included seven birdies and two bogeys for a 10-under 206 total. The Taiwanese player returned to the top of the leaderboard ahead of Anna Nordqvist (71).

Sergio Garcia shot a seven-under 64, extending his lead to eight shots after the third round of the Castello Masters at Castellon, Spain. Garcia made five birdies on the back nine for a 19-under 194 total. Thongchai Jaidee shot a 66 and was his closest challenger.

ETC.

Angels interview Minaya for GM position

Add Omar Minaya’s name to the growing list of candidates who has interviewed for the Angels’ vacant general manager position.

The former GM of the Montreal Expos, Minaya held the same post with the New York Mets from 2005 to 2010. The Dominican-born Minaya was baseball’s first Latino general manager, and Angels owner Arte Moreno was baseball’s first Hispanic owner.

An Angels spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the team’s interest in Minaya.

Since former GM Tony Reagins resigned at the end of last month, the Angels have reportedly talked with Chicago White Sox vice president and assistant GM Rick Hahn; former Dodgers assistant GM Kim Ng; Jerry DiPoto, a senior vice-president with the Arizona Diamondbacks; and Yankees executives Billy Eppler and Damon Oppenheimer.

— Kevin Baxter

Canada’s Richard Weinberger edged American Arthur Frayler to the line in the 10-kilometer open water swim off the coast of Puerto Vallarta, winning the gold medal in 1 hour 57 minutes 31 seconds. Frayler was next — 0.3 of a second behind.

Although it wasn’t gold, Frayler’s medal still helped the U.S. extend its lead at the top of the medals table on Day 8 of the Pan American Games.

Archery favorite Brady Ellison won the men’s individual title, and Rocky Carson won the men’s singles title in racquetball. In shooting, Emil Milev and Vincent Hancock added two more golds, giving the U.S. 10 gold medals in the sport.

The other two medals came in water skiing, where Andrew Adkison won the men’s wakeboard and Regina Jacquess took the women’s overall title.

The Vancouver Canucks acquired left wing David Booth, center Steve Reinprecht and a third-round draft pick in 2013 from the Florida Panthers for Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm.

Defending champion Vicktor Troicki and top-seeded Janko Tipsarevich advanced to the Kremlin Cup final at Moscow with straight-sets victories. They will meet in the first all-Serbian final on the ATP Tour. Tipsarevic beat three-time Kremlin Cup winner Nikolay Davydenko, 6-2, 7-5, and Troicki defeated Jeremy Chardy, 6-4, 6-4.

In the women’s semifinals, Dominika Cibulkova beat Elena Vesnina, 6-0, 6-2, and Kaia Kanepi defeated Lucie Safarova, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-3.

Top-seeded Gael Monfils defeated Milos Raonic, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-3, setting up a Stockholm Open final against Jarkko Nieminen, who beat James Blake, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-2.

Top-seeded Victoria Azarenka beat Julia Goerges, 6-3, 6-3, and reached the Luxembourg Open final. Azarenka next plays Monica Niculescu, who beat Anne Keothavong, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

American teenager Missy Franklin set a short-course world record in the 200-meter backstroke at a World Cup meet in Berlin. The 16-year-old finished in 2 minutes 0.03 seconds, shaving 0.15 of a second off the mark set by Shiho Sakai of Japan in 2009.

The Times’ Bill Shaikin was elected president of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at the group’s World Series meeting at Arlington, Texas. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was elected vice president, putting her in line to become the first woman to head the organization in its century-plus history.