Picabo Street 911 call released in assault case

Picabo Street
AP
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Olympic gold-medalist skier Picabo Street told police her father attacked her during a fight that led Utah authorities to charge her with domestic violence and assault, according to a 911 call recording released Thursday.

Picabo Street can be heard on the recording saying the fight started after her dad, Roland Street, bumped his car into her house in snowy weather.

“He got his hands on me and I put him down the stairs,” she tells the dispatcher on Dec. 23.

A woman who she refers to as mom is audible in the background disputing that version of what happened.

“I saw what you did to him,” the woman says.

“Oh my God, are you kidding me? He scratched me on my face,” Picabo Street replies.

Prosecutors say an investigation found Picabo Street was the primary aggressor. She’s accused of throwing her 76-year-old father down the stairs and locking him in the basement.

Picabo Street says on the recording that she tried to help dig out her parents’ car so they could use hers, but he “freaks out on me, he always calls me all kinds of names, whatever, tells me I’m a freak.”

Roland Street has not been charged in the fight near Park City, Utah. Summit County prosecutor Ivy Telles says he’s not under investigation.

“That’s not to say that Mr. Street was not involved in the altercation at all, it’s just to say that she basically started it,” Telles said.

Roland Street told police his daughter got angry and started yelling after he hit the house while trying to leave, documents show. He said the physical altercation broke out after they re-entered the house and she pushed him down two flights of stairs. Police saw cuts on Roland Street’s elbow and neck.

Picabo Street, 44, was arrested and bailed out. She was later charged with three counts of misdemeanor domestic violence in the presence of a child and one count of misdemeanor assault.

Picabo Street’s lawyer says she denies wrongdoing in what she considers a private family matter. She’s hoping to find an “amicable resolution” in the case, attorney Jason Richards said.

Telles said she’s prepared to discuss a possible plea deal, but negotiations haven’t begun. A hearing is set for Feb. 16 in Park City.

Picabo Street had an illustrious skiing career highlighted by a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics in the women’s super-G event. She also won silver in the downhill at the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and competed in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.

She was the first American woman to win the World Cup downhill season title in 1995, and she repeated as champion the next season. She totaled nine downhill victories in World Cup races during her career.

More recently, she worked as an analyst for Fox Sports during the 2014 Winter Games from Sochi, Russia.

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French Open: Sloane Stephens takes out seed Karolina Pliskova

Sloane Stephens
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PARIS — Back on her “favorite court in the world,” Sloane Stephens looked sharp in her opening match at the French Open with a 6-0, 6-4 win over two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova.

While Stephens’ only Grand Slam title came at the 2017 U.S. Open, she’s also had sustained success at Roland Garros, finishing as a runner-up to Simona Halep in 2018 and reaching two quarterfinals on the red clay in Paris — including last year.

“This is my favorite court in the world, so I’m super happy to be back,” Stephens told the crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier. “To start a Slam on your favorite court, your favorite surface, is always incredible.”

She helped American women go 4-0 through the first few hours of play on Day 2 of the tournament after a 1-4 start on Sunday, when the only U.S. victory came in a match between two players from the country: Jessica Pegula beat Danielle Collins.

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Madison Keys, the runner-up to Stephens in New York six years ago and a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2018, beat Kaia Kanepi 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 on Monday to improve her career record in the first round of majors to 35-5.

Keys next plays American qualifier Kayla Day, who eliminated French wild-card entry Kristina Mladenovic 7-5, 6-1.

Also, Croatian-born American Bernarda Pera beat former No. 2-ranked Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (6), 6-2.

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a finalist in Paris in 2021, breezed past Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 6-2; and 22nd-seeded Donna Vekic beat qualifier Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 7-5.

Stephens was down a break in the second set against Pliskova but then won three straight games to close it out.

Stephens had a 19-16 edge in winners and committed only 10 unforced errors to 31 by Pliskova, who lost in the finals of the U.S. Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2021.

“This court is a bit tricky. You have to play on it a lot to understand when the wind is blowing and where it’s coming,” Stephens said. “The more you play on it, the more you understand it. But it’s a very complicated court. But that’s what makes it so amazing.”

Stephens won a small clay-court tournament in Saint Malo, France, at the start of the month and also reached the semifinals of the Morocco Open last week after only playing a total of three matches at bigger clay events in Madrid and Rome.

“Last year, my clay season wasn’t great, but I played amazing at Roland Garros last year,” Stephens said, “and this year, I really wanted to get matches and play a lot and to see where that got me.”

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Canada wins men’s hockey world title; Latvia wins first medal

IIHF Hockey World Championship
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TAMPERE, Finland — Samuel Blais scored two goals to rally Canada to a 5-2 victory over Germany in the final of the world men’s hockey championship on Sunday.

It’s a record 28th world title for Canada, and its second in three years. Russia has 27 while Germany has never won the trophy.

Blais netted with a backhand 4:51 into the final period for a 3-2 lead for Canada, which was playing in its fourth straight final.

“It feels really good,” Blais said. “We’ve been in Europe for a month and we’ve all waited for that moment to play for the gold medal game. And we’re lucky enough to have won it.”

Lawson Crouse, Tyler Toffoli and Scott Laughton also scored for Canada, Peyton Krebs had two assists and goaltender Samuel Montembeault stopped 21 shots.

Toffoli stretched the lead to 4-2 from the left circle with 8:09 remaining and Laughton made it 5-2 with an empty net goal.

Adam Fantilli became only the second Canadian player after Jonathan Toews to win gold at the world juniors and world championship the same year.

Canada had to come back twice in the final.

John Peterka wristed a shot past Montembeault from the left circle 7:44 into the game. It was the sixth goal for the Buffalo Sabres forward at the tournament.

Blais was fed by Krebs to beat goaltender Mathias Niederberger and tie it 1-1 at 10:47.

Daniel Fischbuch put the Germans ahead again with a one-timer with 6:13 to go in the middle period.

Crouse equalized on a power play with 2:32 remaining in the frame.

It was the first medal for Germany since 1953 when it was second behind Sweden.

The two previously met just once in the final with Canada winning 6-1 in 1930.

LATVIA GETS BRONZE

Defenseman Kristian Rubins scored his second goal 1:22 into overtime to lead Latvia to a 4-3 victory over the United States and earn a bronze medal earlier Sunday.

It’s the first top-three finish for Latvia at the tournament. Its previous best was a seventh place it managed three times.

The U.S. lost in the bronze medal game for the second straight year. The U.S. team was cruising through the tournament with eight straight wins until it was defeated by Germany in the semifinal 4-3 in overtime.

Rubins rallied Latvia with his first with 5:39 to go in the final period to tie the game at 3 to force overtime.

Roberts Bukarts and Janis Jaks also scored for Latvia.

Rocco Grimaldi scored twice for the U.S. in the opening period to negate Latvia’s 1-0 and 2-1 leads.

Matt Coronato had put the U.S. 3-2 ahead 6:19 into the final period.

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