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The most overused word in sports is star. It should be reserved only for the deserving few, those who constantly brighten our horizons with their exploits, who dont wax, wane and flame out in a season or two and, most importantly, who dont cheat, dope, act like idiots and otherwise prove that sports are too quick to build pedestals for athletes.Lindsey Vonn is a bona fide star.In simple numerical terms, its hard to gauge the relative value of the Americans new record in Alpine skiing. Vonns 63rd win in World Cup ski racing, in Italy on Monday, moved her ahead of Annemarie Moser-Proell, the womens previous record-holder from Austria with 62 World Cup victories from 1970-1980.But with fewer races back then, Moser-Proell had fewer opportunities than Vonn to make her mark and she won more frequently and from a younger age than Vonn.The technology of skiing has changed, too. Perhaps not as drastically as in tennis, where Rod Lavers wooden rackets frustrate comparisons with Roger Federer. In winning gold at the 1980 Olympics, Moser-Proell sped downhill as fast as Vonn did 30 years later for her gold in Vancouver in 2010.Still, how would Vonn and Moser-Proell have fared against each other with the same boots and skis? The differing eras make that impossible to answer with certainty.Fairer to both, then, not to play one off against the other. Its how and why Vonn has reached this milestone, not the record alone or eclipsing Moser-Proell, which make her special.TALENTS NOT ENOUGH: Vonns brain is missing the alarm bells that tell the rest of us to slow down or she has learned to ignore them. Speed simply doesnt scare her. Thats why I have so many speeding tickets in my car, she has said. For her, an icy corner on a precipitous mountain slope is an opportunity to go quicker than others who apply the brakes. Not crashing occasionally, she figures, must mean that she isnt pushing hard enough. Im just not afraid.But she also was smart in realizing long ago, early in her career, that natural hard-wiring for speed wouldnt alone be sufficient. She became the dominant woman skier not simply by being quick but by training and working hard enough to exploit that talent.NOT A QUITTER: There were plenty of points along the way when Vonn could have said, enough. At 16, after failing to finish most of her races. At 21, when a back-crunching, cart-wheeling crash in training at the Turin Olympics made her realize, for the first time, that at any second I could be done, not just in skiing, but in life. In 2013, when she tore two right-knee ligaments, the ACL and MCL, that keep our thighbones attached to our shinbones. Or again in November that year, when she re-tore one of those ligaments that had been rebuilt with a graft from her hamstring, eventually forcing her out of the 2014 Sochi Olympics and back into surgery.Pain is as much a part of competitive skiing as snow. What is astounding about Vonn isnt her high tolerance for it but that shes winning again so soon after sweating her way back to health — not once but twice — from surgeries that emaciated her leg muscles. Only in September did her surgeon clear her to ski again. World Cup wins 60, 61, 62 and 63 have come in eight races since December. She has scars on her knee but her confidence and fearlessness seem remarkably intact.Im not dead; Im still here, Vonn says in a forthcoming TV documentary about her recovery. One day, that would make a fitting headstone.OFF-PISTE PERSONA: Given that they have people who manage their public personas, who tweet and post for them, and otherwise make them sound and look good, its silly to assume that the athlete on your cereal box is a model citizen in private, too. Michael Phelps drunken driving, the revelation in 2009 of Tiger Woods serial adultery or Lance Armstrongs doping — to name just those three — showed how success in sports is sometimes only half the story.Vonn does the public side extremely well. All sports could do with more women like her, to balance out and end the undeserved dominance of men. She is articulate about skiing, making the sport easier to understand and so more attractive. She seems to understand and deal graciously with media curiosity about her personal relationship with Woods, helping rehabilitate his image somewhat. Hes a catch. Hes a good boyfriend, Vonn said on the Today show after Woods sprang the surprise of turning up for her 63rd victory.For the most part, shes been remarkably scandal-free for her career, six-time Olympic medallist Bode Miller said this month of Vonn. She does the right stuff all the time. Shes a very clean-cut American superstar and thats an amazing title.A true star.___John Leicester is an international sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jleicester@ap.org or follow him at http://twitter.com/johnleicester Cheap Running Shoes USA . Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes, the bandleader of the beard brigade during Bostons run to the 2013 World Series title, said he will be shaving his off before spring training so that he can file it "in the archive" with his memories of the teams improbable championship. Clearance Running Shoes Online . -- Byron Scott is taking over the Los Angeles Lakers with the vocal support of his fellow Showtime greats. http://www.cheaprunningshoesfreeshipping.com/ . The England international had both goals in TFCs season-opening 2-1 win over the Seattle Sounders on Saturday. Discount Running Shoes . -- All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham and the New Orleans Saints met Tuesday for arbitration on his contract. Authentic Running Shoes Sale .com) - The Denver Nuggets snapped a losing streak last time out and will try to carry that momentum Saturday night when they welcome the Indiana Pacers to the Pepsi Center.Rangana Herath became just the third bowler to pick up five-wicket hauls against all nine Test opponents to earn Sri Lanka a big first-innings lead before Zimbabwe bounced back on the third day of the third Test at Harare Sports Club. Herath recorded figures of 5-89 - his first five-wicket haul against Zimbabwe - to bowl the home side out for 272 and give Sri Lanka a 232-run lead in the first innings.But after the tourists opted not to enforce the follow-on, fast bowler Carl Mumba picked up three wickets to reduce Sri Lanka to 84-4.With opener Dimuth Karunaratne scoring an unbeaten 54 - his third fifty-plus score in four innings - Sri Lanka went to stumps on 102-4, giving them an overall lead of 334 with two days to play.Although Herath had come into the series with 26 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket, he had never played against Zimbabwe in a 17-year career.On Tuesday he joined countryman Muttiah Muralitharan and South Africas Dale Steyn among an elite group of bowlers with five-wicket hauls against all of the other nine Test-playing nations.If you take my career until 2009, I had only taken about 40 wickets with no five-wicket hauls, said Herath.So if you take the last seven or eight years, Ive done a consistent job for the national team. Its a different sort of achievement, which makes me very happy. Sri Lanka batsman Dimuth Karunaratne ended the day unbeaten on 54 Although Zimbabwe reached 134-2 on the third morning in reply to Sri Lankas first innings total of 504, they ultimately succumbed to spin, with off-spinner Dilruwan Perera picking up 3-51 as the hosts lost their last five wickets for just 19 runs.ddddddddddddHowever, it was fast bowler Suranga Lakmal who set Sri Lanka on their way in the morning session when he had Craig Ervine caught at slip for 64 in the eighth over of the day.Herath got in on the action when he bowled Brian Chari for a career-best 80 with a quicker delivery, and then dismissed Malcolm Waller for 18 on the stroke of lunch.Zimbabwe had been rescued by their lower order in the first Test, but after the interval Perera ensured there would be no such recovery as he grabbed three wickets in three overs, including Sean Williams for 58 and Peter Moor for 33.All that was left was for the stand-in captain to pick up a record fifth wicket, as he trapped Carl Mumba lbw.Sri Lanka then tumbled to 44-3 in their second innings, as Zimbabwes bowlers were rewarded for greater consistency.Mumba had Kaushal Silva and Kusal Mendis caught in front of the wicket, while Cremer trapped Upul Tharanga lbw.First-innings centurion Dhananjaya de Silva attempted to rebuild with Karunaratne, but scooped a low full toss straight to extra cover in the final half-hour of the day.Nevertheless, Zimbabwe faced a serious deficit as they look to level the two-match series. Lets be honest, if they put another 100 on it will be a lot, said batting coach Lance Klusener. But at the same time wed like to finish this Test match on our terms. ' ' '