NASCAR’s Vickers has the heart to return to seat

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Brian Vickers says he is eager to get back on the racetrack and prove to everyone he still has what it takes to win Sprint Cup races after open heart surgery last month.

Vickers will miss the first two Cup races as part of his recovery process but has been given a clean bill of health to begin racing March 8 at Las Vegas.

Vickers says doctors told him three months is more than enough time for his chest to heal after they were forced to crack open his sternum on Dec. 15 to repair a hole in his heart for a second time.

Golf

Allenby stands by story, says truth will come out

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Robert Allenby is standing by his story of a beating and robbery in Hawaii, even though he has no memory of a part of that night.

Allenby spoke Tuesday at the Phoenix Open, his first tournament since he missed the cut in the Sony Open on Jan. 16. He says he was beaten and robbed, and he posted photos to Facebook of his bloody forehead and swollen eye. Honolulu police are investigating it as second-degree robbery.

Olympics

IOC dismisses idea of a joint Saudi-Bahrain bid

LONDON – The IOC has dismissed a suggestion by a Saudi Arabian official that the ultraconservative nation could seek to co-host the Olympics with neighboring Bahrain and hold men’s and women’s events in separate countries.

Prince Fahad bin Jalawi Al Saud, an international relations consultant to the president of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, told a French Olympic website that resolutions passed by the IOC last month open the door for a potential joint bid with men’s events on Saudi territory and women’s competitions in Bahrain.

But IOC President Thomas Bach says in a statement to The Associated Press that Saudi Arabia would be ineligible to bid unless it complies with rules on non-discrimination against women in sports.

Bach says “a commitment to ‘non-discrimination’ will be mandatory for all countries hoping to bid for the Olympics in the future.”

South Korea’s swimming star fails a doping test

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea’s former Olympic swim champion Park Tae-hwan failed a recent doping test.

Park’s agency Team GMP said Tuesday that Park tested positive for a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that it didn’t immediately identify.

The 25-year-old won a gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

GMP officials blamed the results on an injection administered to the swimmer by a local hospital, which offered him free chiropractic and other treatments last year.

Skiing

Russian skier blows past the slalom competition

SCHLADMING, Austria – Alexander Khoroshilov won a night slalom by a huge margin Tuesday for the first Russian World Cup victory in more than three decades.

Khoroshilov built on his commanding first-run lead to finish in a total time of 1 minute, 46.39 seconds and beat second-place Stefano Gross of Italy by 1.44.

Felix Neureuther of Germany came 1.51 behind in third and extended his lead in the discipline standings.

Overall leader Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who was fourth after the opening run, dropped to 14th after a wild second run.

Tuesday’s slalom was the final World Cup race before the world championships start in Beaver Creek next week.

Associated Press