LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Marco Schwarz has truly arrived back in Alpine skiing’s winners’ circle, less than six weeks before the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Until last week, the Austrian all-rounder hadn’t won a World Cup race for two years following knee and back injuries.
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Austria's Marco Schwarz celebrates on the podium after winning an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt checks his time at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Switzerland's Alexis Monney celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Austria's Marco Schwarz speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Austria's Marco Schwarz celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
On Saturday, he won his second race in seven days, taking a super-G for his eighth career triumph and first in a speed event. He also won a giant slalom last Sunday in another Italian resort, Alta Badia.
“I had a really good run and it feels good to be back in the speed discipline, as well, on the top or on the podium,” Schwarz said.
“To be back on the top spot in Alta Badia, that was like a milestone again. Since (placing 13th in a super-G in Val Gardena last week) I have the feeling back that my speed skiing is good again and that I can compete on the highest level," the Austrian added.
Schwarz defeated the Swiss trio of Alexis Monney, Franjo von Allmen and Marco Odermatt, respectively, who all finished between two and three-tenths behind the Austrian.
Schwarz wasn’t among the fastest starters but stayed clean on a slope that was new to the World Cup.
Livigno was a one-time replacement for classic venue Bormio, which will stage the men’s Alpine skiing events of the Olympics in February.
Livigno will host the Olympic snowboard and freestyle skiing events, but the resort near the Swiss border had not hosted a top-level Alpine ski race before.
Overall World Cup leader Odermatt still extended his lead in the super-G standings, as his closest challengers before the race — Austrians Vincent Kriechmayr and Raphael Haaser — both didn’t finish their runs.
Schwarz and Odermatt had an intriguing battle in the overall standings two years ago. The Austrian was leading when he damaged his knee in a downhill crash and had to end his season in late December 2023, as Odermatt went on to clinch the big crystal globe again.
Livigno's Li Zeta course, with a start at 2,375-meter altitude and a maximum gradient of 47 per cent, contained two jumps that caused many racers troubles.
At the first one, halfway down the track, skiers landed on a bumpy surface but needed to regain balance immediately for a sharp right turn. It's where Odermatt lost considerable time on Schwarz.
The second jump, shortly before the finish, cost Kriechmayr a potential victory. The Austrian had the fastest intermediate time but landed too far to the right and then lost his balance as he tried to get back on the race line and skied out of the course.
Also, Frenchman Matthieu Bailet had a podium finish in sight when he skied out after the final jump.
Czech racer Jan Zabystran, the surprise winner of the previous super-G, finished 0.93 off the lead and outside the top 20.
Saturday’s race was the last speed event until a super-G at Wengen, Switzerland, on January 16. The men’s World Cup remains in Italy for a Jan. 7 night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio.
AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Austria's Marco Schwarz celebrates on the podium after winning an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt checks his time at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Switzerland's Marco Odermatt speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Switzerland's Alexis Monney celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Austria's Marco Schwarz speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Austria's Marco Schwarz celebrates at the finish area of an alpine ski, men's World Cup Super G, in Livigno, Italy, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked Ukraine's capital with missiles and drones early Saturday morning, killing one person and wounding 27, a day before talks between Ukraine and the U.S., authorities said.
Explosions boomed across Kyiv for hours as ballistic missiles and drones hit the city. The attack began in the early morning hours Saturday and was continuing as day broke.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on ending the nearly 4-year-old war. Zelenskyy told reporters he was on a plane en route to Florida on Saturday afternoon, and would stop in Canada on the way to meet Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Zelenskyy said he and Trump plan to discuss issues including security guarantees and territorial issues in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that it carried out a “massive strike” overnight, using “long-range precision-guided weapons from land, air and sea, including Kinzhal hypersonic aeroballistic missiles” and drones. It said it targeted energy infrastructure facilities used by Ukraine's forces and military-industrial enterprises.
The ministry said the strike came in response to Ukraine’s attacks on “civilian objects” in Russia.
Earlier on Saturday, the ministry said its air defenses shot down seven Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Krasnodar and Adygeya overnight.
Poland scrambled fighter jets and closed airports in Lublin and Rzeszow near the border with Ukraine for several hours during the Russian attacks, the country’s armed forces command said on X. There was no violation of Polish airspace, it said. Civil aviation authority Pansa said the two airports had since resumed operations. It was unclear what caused the alert in Poland when the Russian attacks were focused on Kyiv, which is far from the border.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 519 drones and 40 missiles, Ukraine's air force said. The main target was energy and civilian infrastructure in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said. In some districts of the region there is no electricity or heating because of the attacks, he added.
“Today Russia demonstrated how it responds to peace talks between Ukraine and the United States on ending Russia’s war against Ukraine. They carried out massive attacks on Ukraine precisely as we move toward peace negotiations,” said Zelenskyy, speaking to reporters via audio note while traveling. “That is Russia’s response.”
More than 10 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a post on Telegram. People were being evacuated from under the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Olena Karpenko, 52, heard a man as he burned to death in the attack. “His scream is still in my ears. I can’t believe it,” she said, weeping.
Karpenko said they heard a sudden explosion at the nearby thermal power plant, followed by a stronger blast that shook the windows of her home. Then came the hit on her building.
“I saw how the apartment was burning, there was a fire and we heard a man’s screams, begging for help," she said.
Two children were among those wounded in the attack, which hit seven locations across the capital, the head of the Kyiv Military Administration, Tymur Tkachenko, in a statement on Telegram. A body was found under the rubble of one damaged building, he said.
“In fact, the entire center of Kyiv was under attack by drones," he said, adding that Russia was sending a message that “it is raising the stakes in this war.”
A fire broke out in an 18-story residential building in the Dnipro district of the city, and emergency crews rushed to the scene to contain the flames. A 24-story residential building in the Darnytsia district was also hit, Tkachenko said, and more fires broke out in the Obolonskyi and Holosiivsky districts.
In the wider Kyiv region, the strikes hit industrial and residential buildings, according to Ukraine's Emergency Service. In the Vyshhorod area, emergency crews rescued one person found under the rubble of a destroyed house.
Zelenskyy told reporters he would aim to ensure there were “as few unresolved issues as possible” in talks with Trump while respecting Ukraine's red lines.
“I am confident there are compromise proposals — we know the Americans — and, obviously, our enemy also always has its own goals, which we know well,” he said, speaking via audio note in a Whatsapp chat with journalists.
Zelenskyy said he would prioritize discussing security guarantees for Ukraine. The U.S. has committed to providing guarantees that mirror the NATO alliance's Article 5, which means an attack on Ukraine would trigger a collective military response from the U.S. and its allies. But key details need to be worked out.
Territorial concessions are the most sensitive of issues the two leaders will discuss, including the Donetsk region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would never recognize any territory as Russian “under any circumstances."
“But the most important issue I want to stress today is security guarantees. Beyond territorial issues and the ZNPP (nuclear plant), security guarantees are critically important for us,” he said.
Zelenskyy also will speak to European leaders online to brief them on the discussions.
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Associated Press writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A rescue worker climbs onto the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A rescue worker puts out a fire of a house destroyed after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescue workers clear the rubble at the roof of apartment building damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A psychologist of a rescue team helps en elderly woman at the hospice which was damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescuers carry the body of a victim after Russian drone hit a multi-storey apartment building during a massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Rescuers work on the scene of a building damaged by a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
