Shiffrin of U.S. Wins Slalom on Road to Sochi The American Mikaela Shiffrin easily won the World Cup slalom opener in Levi, Finland, on Saturday, beating the Olympic champion Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany by more than a second and sending a message to her rivals ahead of the Winter Games in Sochi. Shiffrin, 18, led by half a second after the first run and raced seamlessly at the top of the hill in the second to extend her advantage, overcoming a mistake near the end to clock a combined time of 1 minute 55.07 seconds. Höfl-Riesch, who was tied for third place after the first run, skied nearly flawlessly in the second but still finished 1.06 seconds behind. Last year's overall World Cup champion Tina Maze of Slovenia, who struggled in the giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, last month, was third, 1.61 seconds back. CHINESE PAIR WINS IN PARIS Pang Qing and Tong Jian of China won the pairs at the Trophée Bompard in Paris for the first time. Qing and Jian, the silver medalists at the 2010 Olympics, had the best score in the free skate to secure a total of 193.86 points. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford of Canada finished second with 190.89. The Americans Caydee Denney and John Coughlin took the bronze medal with 184.01, overtaking Russia's Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov, who were third after the short program. GERMAN TAKES LUGE OPENER Germany's Natalie Geisenberger won the women's World Cup luge season opener in Lillehammer, Norway. Geisenberger's two-run time was 1 minute 35.847 seconds. Russia's Tatyana Ivanova was second in 1:36.031, and Canada's Alex Gough took third in 1:36.233. Erin Hamlin was the top American finisher, placing eighth.