Steve Podborski remembers being scared just once, in Kitzbühel, Austria, which makes perfect sense. That course, the Streif, on that mountain, the Hahnenkamm, is a two-minute torture test of will and skill, of fallaway turns and flat light and a hellacious top speed. Podborski, one of the legendary Crazy Canucks, would master the World Cup…

Less than a month ago, the Green Bay Packers were considered Super Bowl contenders. Now, with Aaron Rodgers injured and the team floundering, there are calls that the green-and-gold should tank the rest of 2017 to improve their future prospects. As a heartbroken kid once pleaded to Shoeless Joe Jackson, “Say it ain’t so!” In…

Your midday sports snack. Toast points • Roy Halladay will be remembered at a public celebration of life in Florida this afternoon. Representatives of the Blue Jays are on hand to salute the franchise’s longtime ace, who died last week when the sport plane he was piloting crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. Viewers can…

LOS ANGELES — Three UCLA basketball players detained in China on suspicion of shoplifting are on a plane back to Los Angeles. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Tuesday the matter “has been resolved to the satisfaction of the Chinese authorities.” Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were detained in Hangzhou for questioning following…

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s compliance review committee has recommended to the organization’s leaders that they not recertify Russia — meaning the country would remain noncompliant with global sports’ accepted anti-doping code — according to two people with knowledge of the committee’s ruling. If the agency follows the committee’s counsel, the decision could result in Russia…

Italy will be absent from the World Cup finals for the first time in 60 years after a long, frustrating Monday night ended in an ocean of tears in Milan. Trailing 1-0 from last Friday’s first leg in Stockholm, they were unable to break down a resolute Sweden, who held out magnificently for a 0-0…