[OlympicsFan 783]

4 minutes ago, NearPup said:

What an upset for Neise. Truly nothing can go wrong for the Germans on this track. This feels like those world championships that are held in Germany where the Germans are entirely unbeatable.

Not sure how you can say that right after Hermann lost bronze despite having a much better run than Bos. With the same material as Bos she would have won a medal. Also Taubitz threw away a safe gold. Germany very well could have two more medals in sliding sports at this point.

[OlympicsFan 783]

Like i said before: Neise clearly has the biggest potential on this track. If she wouldn't contantly make the same mistake, she already would have secured gold. I fear that her inexperience/young age will get to her and that she will maybe even end up without a medal. 2nd place for Neise and 4th place for Hermann (behind Bos) is a very possible scenario.

[OlympicsFan 783]

25 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Given the form in training should easily win at least the monobob and the two-man.

I don't see how the training results make Germany the clear favorite in those events. Also Friedrich didn't look good so far, so Germany might end up without a gold in men's bob.

[OlympicsFan 783]

2 hours ago, Monzanator said:

 

Luge & bobsleigh is heavily dependant on facilities and the only reason Germany doesn't dominate skeleton is the fact their athletes also start late just like most of the other nations involved. And those skeletonists aren't even third-rate lugers who switched events for better results, Grotheer & Jungk are failed ski jumpers of all things. If one day Germany decides to breed designed skeletonists since age 6-7 then it will be all over just like it's the case with luge & bobsleigh.

You are clearly exaggerating. Germany isn’t super dominant in any of those events, especially if you take Francesco Friedrich out of the equation. Without him the German bob team is very ordinary. In the end Germany seems to have had superior material, but it can look completely different in 4 years. Personally I don’t quite understand how GB can have superior material in track cycling but horrible material in sliding sports. If you want to make the competitions more exciting, you could just give everyone the same material.

[OlympicsFan 783]

2 hours ago, Vektor said:

Germany is winning these sliding gold medals so easily, the luge relay was the only event where there was any real suspense. It's honestly a bit silly how one nation can dominate this much, while China just comes in out of nowhere with athletes who didn't even compete a few years ago and takes the bronze. Even speed skating is less boring because at the very least there are always have some non-Dutch stars, like Nils van der Poel this time. 

1) It is much more difficult to dominate speed skating.

2) People who don’t like sliding sports should be happy about German domination.

3) Not sure if Van der Poel is a good example. Isn’t he a Dutch who switched to Sweden because he couldn’t make the Dutch team?

[OlympicsFan 783]

14 minutes ago, Joshi said:

The sunburnt country Australia will win 2 golds okay perhaps 2 medals and one will be 1 gold from sliding events. Who woulda thought???

Pretty smart of Australia to focus on technical sports (snowboard, freestyle skiing, bob, skeleton), seems like they "stole" GB's strategy. I think at some point Germany will have to adapt the same strategy. Interestingly neither GB nor Australia were/are remotely competitive in luge.

[OlympicsFan 783]

If german women don't win gold and silver/bronze, they should all instantly retire. They clearly had superior material today. Neise would have been in the lead without her big mistakes at the end of run 2, she clearly has the highest ceiling on this track. You really have to thank whoever designed this LONG track, it clearly helps athletes who aren't great at the start.

[OlympicsFan 783]

I just looked at who had the fastest training runs:

Men:

Alexander Tretiakov 1:00.33

Wengang Yan 1:00.36

Christopher Grotheer 1:00.42

Axel Jungk 1:00.49

Zheng Yin 1:00.50

 

Women:

Janine Flock 1:01.75

Hannah Neise 1:01.88

Anna Fernstädt 1:01.94

Dan Zhao 1:01.96

Jacqueline Lölling 1:02.03

(Tina Hermann 1:02.08)

 

Would be quite fitting if Germany would have 4 women in the top 6 but no medal, especially if Fernstädt would win gold.

[OlympicsFan 783]

2 hours ago, dcro said:

Not a great fan of Hermann, but a jogger like Loelling losing is always good.

What a surprise ...

1) Are there any German sledding athletes you like?

2) How do you become a fan of a skeleton athlete? They basically have zero TV time ...

[OlympicsFan 783]

3 hours ago, Col_Frost said:

Well, if she has dual citizeship and there is no information in german sites than you should try... the other ones  To be fair, I also was looking first at germans.

1) Still no source ...

2) This might shock you, but not everyone knows czech, so looking at "the other ones" wouldnt really have helped me.

[OlympicsFan 783]

3 hours ago, Col_Frost said:

I didn't say it's strange  

 

She moved to Germany when she was 1 year old. First she was gymnastic than started to train skeleton.

Where did you find that? Couldnt find any german source ... 

[OlympicsFan 783]

3 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Who knows, maybe there was behind the scenes stuff going on that we don't know about but made her want to get away, no idea. And yeah, she could be the best of all Germans, so I don't think her move to the Czechs was very much based on not being able to make the German team (for example in the previous two teams she was quite clearly the third German behind Hermann and Lölling, Griebel only got a chance when Fernstädt didn't start and then was not very impressive).

 

Now I'm curious about something which I can't really find much about: Fernstädt was born in CZE, but when did she/her family go to Germany, any idea?

Cant find anything about that, only the following things:

- Her mother is from the Czech Republic and her father is from Germany

- She started as a gymnast, but when her family moved to Berchtesgaden in 2011 (from Heusenstamm, another german city) there was no good gymnastics club around so she started with skeleton. Apparently she was a gymnast for 8 years, but i couldnt find out whether she was for 8 years in the same club. 

- In 2018 she moved back to the Czech Republic and is studying in Prague

[OlympicsFan 783]

4 hours ago, ahjfcshfghb said:

We didn’t invest in anything. Fernstadtova used to be German but switched to the Czechs (she was born in Prague). I’m pretty sure she’s the only serious skeleton racer in the entire country lol

I wonder if you really didnt "invest" anything. From what i read she used to work for the german police, which of course isnt the case now anymore, so i wonder whether the Czech Republic is financing her in any way.

[OlympicsFan 783]

19 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Dual citizenship or not, competing for your birth country is not strange by any stretch

Interesting thing to say. So if Ashley Wagner or Bernard Tomic would suddenly decide to compete for Germany it wouldnt be strange?

I think once you started for a certain country at senior level, you shouldnt be allowed to change nationality. I also think its a shitty move from her to change nationality, considering how much Germany invested in her. The only thing i agree on is that she easily has enough talent to overtake at least Griebel, possibly also the other 2 girls.

[OlympicsFan 783]

35 minutes ago, Col_Frost said:

Philipp Moelter is not racing anymore? And you have young boy named Timon Drahonovsky (15-16yo).

 

Try Anna Fernstadt

 

Is it really necessary to write such a thing?

It isnt necessary, nothing we write here is necessary. Still its the truth, Czech Republic should be less attractive for athletes, but thats not the case. Who knows? Maybe in a couple of years athletes will prefer representing Burkina Faso or something like that over Germany ...

[OlympicsFan 783]

Just now, ahjfcshfghb said:

We didn’t invest in anything. Fernstadtova used to be German but switched to the Czechs (she was born in Prague). I’m pretty sure she’s the only serious skeleton racer in the entire country lol

Good to know, now even the Czech Republic is more attractive for athletes than Germany, sad times ...

Don't remember a german athlete by that name.

[OlympicsFan 783]

If only germany could be this dominant on the mens side ...

Didnt know the Czech Republic invested in skeleton. Do they even have a track there?

[OlympicsFan 783]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb thepharoah:

2 medals for GB and 1 gold , would this the 1st day without Gold for Germany ?

No, of course not, but certainly the worst day in olympic history for Germany.

[OlympicsFan 783]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb thepharoah:

This's going to be very tight between Germany, Austria and GB , it's wide open from 1-5 

Hopefully gold for Germany, it would only be deserved considering the dominance since the last olympics. I am very surprised how good Fernstädt is here ... would be funny if she would win a medal.

[OlympicsFan 783]

vor 7 Minuten schrieb MHSN:

 

That was my point, I know he is talented and deserves the gold for sure. but I mean why Korea couldn't create someone like him in Alpine or CC or Biathlon or even Ski Jumping. I'm sure they tried them too but eventually forced to buy foreign athletes to be at least a bit competitive.

I think we all agree that in skeleton/bob/luge the material and experience on a certain track is much more important than in other sports. I think that Germany, despite probably having a technical advantage, winning 8 out of 11 golds at the last 3 olympics deserves some credit. In bob and skeleton the home athletes were much more successful.

[OlympicsFan 783]

vor 14 Minuten schrieb dcro:

 

Then you are ignoring the facts... Their doubles haven't been bad at different track in the recent times, and apart from them it's just the German that achieved the unusual result...

 

Most importantly, everyone here has to acknowledge a fact that Yun wouldn't have won a gold medal if these Olympics have been held anywhere else. He is not really an athlete who already had a good career and the home Olympics came as a bonus. No, he was created for the home Olympics. Fact.

I don't think you can call it a fact ...

If the olympics would have been held in north korea, south korea probably also would have "created" him.

Of course giving the olympics to north korea might seem a bit unlikely, but with IOC you never know. South Korea is very good in shorttrack, so they might have thought about giving the olympics to north korea to advance the sport of shorttrack there and to make it a more diverse sport.

[OlympicsFan 783]

What a freaking horrible day for Germany already, this could be an historic disaster.

[OlympicsFan 783]

Wow, great atmosphere at the track! Apparently half of the korean people are currently there.

[OlympicsFan 783]

Top 3 results of the korean guy in 4th ever:

All this season:

7th place in Igls

11th place in Park City

16th place in Whistler

Last year his best results were:

1 x 16th place and 1 x 24th place

 

Interesting information: He began this sport in his second year of university ...

 

[OlympicsFan 783]

vor 44 Minuten schrieb dcro:

Oh come on, no medal for Latvia.

Why do you say that? 2-8 will fight for silver and bronze. I think it will be between Dukurs, the british guy and the russian guy. Not sure whether the british guy can handle the pressure anyway.