Briefs | Olympics: BC Place in Vancouver to get roof after Games

Olympics

Vancouver stadium to get new roof after Olympics: The Vancouver, B.C., stadium hosting the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Games will get a roof worth about a half-billion dollars after the Olympics.

A retractable roof for 60,000-seat BC Place is planned for 2011. It will replace the existing air-supported dome.

The design allows for the roof to retract, and be hidden inside a suspended, four-sided electronic video board without compromising sightlines.

Skiing

Women's giant slalom in Soelden opens World Cup season: Winning a medal at the Vancouver Olympics is not the only goal for American Lindsey Vonn this season. She also has three World Cup titles she wants to successfully defend — the overall crown and smaller crystal globes in downhill and Super-G.

"Definitely my biggest goal for the season is to try to win an Olympic medal, but I also would like to defend my overall title and Super-G title and downhill title," Vonn said before the World Cup season begins today with a giant slalom in Soelden, Austria.

Skeleton

Pikus-Pace secures spot on U.S. team: Noelle Pikus-Pace made the U.S. team with one day of qualifying remaining.

Pikus-Pace secured her spot on the World Cup squad by being the fastest woman for the third consecutive qualifying session after finishing Friday's two runs at Utah Olympic Park in Park City 1.49 seconds ahead.

The format allows sliders to throw out their worst day from four days of qualifying. Pikus-Pace hasn't had one yet, also winning twice last week in Lake Placid, N.Y., on the opening days of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton team trials.

A spot on the World Cup team puts Pikus-Pace in position to qualify for the Olympics. She missed out on the 2006 Games after being struck by a bobsled.

The men's skeleton standings were much tighter after Zach Lund finished first in Friday's qualifying, edging John Daly by 0.11 of a second. Matt Antoine, who led qualifying after the Lake Placid races, finished third. Daly had been second entering the day and Lund third.

Although the top three finishers were supposed to make the national team, one spot has already been claimed by Eric Bernotas.

Luge

Sweeney produces a surprise: Emily Sweeney pulled off the first major surprise of USA Luge's national-team trials in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The 17-year-old junior national-team member from Suffield, Conn., won Friday's race-off, the second in a four-event series to determine USA Luge's World Cup roster for the coming season.

Sweeney was last in Wednesday's series opener.

Sweeney is a surprising second in the women's race-off standings, putting her into the next round in Park City, Utah, on Nov. 6. The team for the fall rounds of World Cup racing — and USA Luge's Olympic qualifying series — will be chosen after the final race at the 2010 Olympic track in Whistler, B.C., on Nov. 15.

Former junior world champion Kate Hansen of La Canada, Calif., leads the points standings at the midway mark of the series.

In the men's race-off, Chris Mazdzer of Saranac Lake, N.Y., won for the second consecutive time, beating Trent Matheson of Bountiful, Utah, and Robby Huerbin of Pittsburgh. All three of those sliders advanced to the next round.

Tennis

Soderling advances to semifinals: Top-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden edged Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 in the Stockholm Open quarterfinals.

Soderling, the lone seed to reach the last eight, will play Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus today and Olivier Rochus of Belgium will meet Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil in the other semifinal match.

Kleybanova knocks off Jankovic: Alisa Kleybanova of Russia upset defending champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow.

In today's semifinal round, Kleybanova will play Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Francesca Schiavone of Italy will face Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine in the other semifinal.

Seattle Times news services