website statistics
Jump to content

Alpine Skiing FIS World Championships 2019


hckošice
 Share

Recommended Posts

49 minut temu, Monzanator napisał:

Hadalin probably can't believe his luck

Hadalin is a talented guy. It was not only luck. He won gold in combined at 2016 junior WCh and silver a year before. I think there's bright future for him.

I am unashamed, at getting nothing done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, szy123 said:

Hadalin is a talented guy. It was not only luck. He won gold in combined at 2016 junior WCh and silver a year before. I think there's bright future for him.

 

But then again, he wouldn't be going home with a medal today if he finished 31st this morning...

#banbestmen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, szy123 said:

Hadalin is a talented guy. It was not only luck. He won gold in combined at 2016 junior WCh and silver a year before. I think there's bright future for him.

 

Jessica Depauli beat Shiffrin at the Junior Worlds too. These junior results subject to a massive scrutiny :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Little (or actually not so little) rant about some developments in alpine skiing incoming:

I always really liked the alpine combined as I think it's dramatic in a very unique way. Like people always complained the combined isn't thrilling enough because in the slalom run there are lots of riders without a chance to win between the favorites but really in Slaloms or GS' there isn't a skier with a chance to win before the top 10 or even 5 of the first run start, yet I don't hear anyone wanting to cut the 2nd run to 10 skiers. Moreover it was absolutely unique that bib 1, bib 10 bib 20 and bib 30 of the slalom all could be among the favorites. A slalom doesn't have a 2nd run where the favorites are spread over the whole starting list, a combined usually does.

So in other words, I like this event and I don't want it to die, but if every combined is like todays I'd have a hard time arguing for its existance. I'd say a combined in Are will always favor slalom skiers as the downhill slope there will never generate huge time gaps as it's generally on the easier side, but with it being extremely shortened plus the slalom slope being in a pretty bad condition this race was a joke before it even started. Now unfortunately the success of the combined is always meassured on how good the race at the last world championship or olympics was and as we haven't had a combined at a major event without either a drastically shortened downhill or a slope in an appaling condition since 2014 every single of these combineds was more or less a joke. Now if we look at 2014 and the events prior to that you'll see that the big advantage for slalom specialists everyone talks about now was basically nonexistent. Sandro Viletta despite being a surprise champion surely wasn't a slalom specialist, Ligety in 2013 was a very good slalom skier but he was already 6th after the downhill, in 2011 and 2009 Svindal won, in 2010 Miller, who back then was basically a speed specialist and in 2007 the combined was won by Daniel Albrecht who was a true allrounder. Combineds don't favor the slalom guys by nature. In a different world this championship takes place on a slope where Schwarz, Pinturault and Hadalin lose 3 seconds to Paris instead of 1 and the slalom slope is in great condition and all of a sudden you would get a race dominated by downhillers. The problem is, that wouldn't really be any better. You probably had less complaining about the event if combineds wouldn't always favor the same guys but in a race where everyone is either a slalom specialist or a downhill specialist you are always gonna favor someone. What really made this event off balanced is the lack of allrounders who can beat anyone anyway. Sure there have been specialists being competitive in the combined in the past as well but I'm certain Svindal used to be a much better slalom skier than any downhiller from this year. (I'll never forget that he secured his first overall world cup win by getting 15th in the final slalom of the 2007 season, something that seems completely impossible now) But even when there weren't many allrounders there always were a few. A guy like Natko Zrnsic Dim who was neither a good downhiller nor a good slalom skier got 4 world cup podiums in combineds plus a world championship medal. You can be a true combined specialist, but problematically nobody aims for that if there are only one or two combineds per season. Why should someone like say, Christof Innerhofer add Slalom to his training program if that discipline is relevant for him twice in the whole year. It's just way smarter to concentrate on what you are already good at and that is what gets you Hirscher with 2 or 3 downhill training days a year as an alpine combined world and olympic champion.

Besides the fact that the lack of combineds makes the event less and less competitive I also think the combined should be crucial in the battle for overally world cups. And looking back it actually was. If Benjamin Raich's combined shape hadn't declined as much as it did after 2006 he probably would have won 3 or 4 overall world cups, instead he won one. Of course overall world cup battles were very different before the Hirscher era (it was seen as almost impossible to win the overall world cup with two disciplines only, nowadays there isn't even a single skier who is competitive in 3) but I think if anything this should have led to an increase in combineds not a decrease. Little cycling analogy, if a pure climber dominates the tour de frances despite time trials, the tour de france organizers won't say "okay  time trials are useless now, let's drop them altogether", they will increase time trial kilometers so the dominant climber gets beatable. Hirscher in the shape he has now probably would be unbeatable anyway but there will be an era after Hirscher. You could argue that Hirscher's dominance effectively made allrounders useless and you might be right, but what the fis is doing by killing the combined is making sure allrounders don't come back once Hirscher retires or declines. It's easy to forget a bit over 1000 points used to be enough to be in the battle for the overall world cup an in such a battle, let's say, 5 combineds can have a huge impact. 

I should probably stop writing now as this post is already so long that nobody will read it anyway (right?) but this is just driving me crazy. I really want a return of the times when there were proper allrounders winning overall world cups, downhillers won gs' (little side fact I just noticed, between 2003 and 2009 there were 4 gs world champions who all won at least 3 downhills and a combined number of 40 downhills) and technicans were competitive in super-g's. But to me it feels like the fis is constantly making the wrong responds to changes in the sport. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Latest Posts around Totallympics

    • Violette Braun is the first  woman in a World Cup since 2009. Today she obliterated the NR in the 1500 by 3 seconds (2'04) on a rather slow track. Second 1500 ever for her, first was in Inzell a few weeks back (2'07) with what seemed like very good conditions.   It means a lot of room for improvement and a good sign for the 3000 which is her real strong event at the moment - she lacks basic speed but had one of the fastest final laps today, 10th over Div A and B. Faster last than penultimate lap must be quite unusual too.
    • When? I understand this is a joke about this great job 
    • The same thing happened after Turin 2006. That hall later was never used for skating competitions again, only the Indoor ECH in athletics was organized there once in 2009 and that was it. After that it was only used for commercial fairs etc. It will be the same with Milan. Regarding the indoor arena in Collalbo, it was a great idea to make it an Italian center of skating sports for many years: good location, high altitude, tourist town. Well, but according to the organizers, it`s not worth doing it, but why? Why is`t not worth doing anything here but Germany has a similar track in Inzell and it is possible there? They should hire a good manager who will develop a plan for them to make it worth doing. The same is with the bobsleigh track in Cortina. It was also not worth renovating it and if Salvini's and other big politics and determination hadn`t come into it, the competition would probably have been in Austria or St. Moritz.   The cooperation with the Netherlands is probably only supposed to concern short track. Besides, this cooperation will not do anything if we don`t have at least one indoor track for training in the summer and early autumn. The Dutch Federation isn`t a charity and will not build us infrastructure for free so that we can train on it. There are no miracles. It`s probably more about taking advantage of the opportunity to train with someone like Fontana, who is a legend in short track. After 2026 this cooperation will end, when she leaves.
    • For Ghiotto to win 2 golds at the Olympics, he would have to be the second van der Poel or Sablikova in they pick of form. You have to be a genius to beat this whole coalition of Norwegians, Dutchmen etc. However, I don't see that much talent in him. I'd like to be wrong, but I'm afraid that he'll end up with some silver-bronze in the 10 km and that's it. If he starts losing to Eitrem now, who is 22 years old, it won't bode well for the future, and there's also Roest + maybe another Dutchman will jump out. Generally, our team is poorly prepared for this season and it's not like Ghiotto is on individual training on the moon and has just come down to earth and will now win everything while the rest of the team are in terrible form. Of course, the lack of form of Bosa or Trentini means e.g. 20th place, not 10th, but for Ghiotto it could mean 4/5 place, instead of 1st. It's the same with the team. For today, the only positive performance for us is Lollobrigida's 2nd place in the b category of the women's 1500 meters and Fontana's solid performance in the same event. The rest is terrible.
    • Costantini & Mosaner will back to play together for the frist time since Beijing 2022 Our NOC and Federation do an amazing work.
    • Right now I’m watching Scotland-Switzerland at the European Curling Championships, even though Germany-Norway would probably be a more interesting game… (can’t find any streaming options for it)   At 4:00am Scotland-Italy in the women’s bronze medal match, and at 9:00am TBD-TBD in the men’s bronze medal match   We’ll see if I’ll have enough time for the Davis Cup, Women’s/Men’s Slalom WC Gurgul, Skeleton WC Yanqing, BPT Challenge Chennai, BWF China Masters, WTT Finals Fukuoka, GSOC Kioti National, Freestyle Skiing WC Beijing, Alpine Skiing WC Killington, Moguls WC Ruka   Also will be following along with the Canadian Curling Olympic Mixed Doubles Qualifier, UCI Champions League Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Open Water WC Neom, Luge WC Lillehammer/Cross Country WC Ruka, Ski Jumping WC Ruka   Friday (November 22) 4:30 PM: NBA - Warriors v. Pelicans 8:00 PM: ISU Speed Skating World Cup Nagano - Day 2 10:00 PM: European Curling Championships - Women’s Gold Medal Match   Saturday (November 23) 5:00 AM: European Curling Championships - Men’s Gold Medal Match 4:00 PM: NHL - Canucks v. Senators 8:00 PM: ISU Speed Skating World Cup Nagano - Day 3   Sunday (November 24)   Monday (November 25) 7:00 PM: NBA - Warriors v. Nets   Tuesday (November 26) 4:00 PM: NHL - Canucks v. Bruins   Wednesday (November 27) 4:30 PM: NHL - Canucks v. Penguins 7:00 PM: NBA - Warriors v. Thunder   Thursday (November 28)   Friday (November 29) 1:00 AM: ISU Speed Skating WC Beijing - Day 1 10:00 AM: UCI Track Cycling Nations League Apeldoorn - Day 1 12:00 PM: NHL - Canucks v. Sabres
    • As far as I am concerned, there are two very simple problems: infrastructure and the lack of cooperation between sports federations. Let me explain. The MiCo2026 Olympics will provide virtually no legacy in ice sports, there is still a lack of an indoor hall, there is no federal centre that has been promised for so many years. It could have been an opportunity to make a nice roof in Baselga di Pinè, but instead they preferred to make temporary facilities in Rho.   The second problem is the total lack of cooperation between roller skating and speed skating, we have a huge pool and we are not exploiting it. Fortunately we are doing a few small collegiate events, the technical collaboration with the Netherlands absolutely must be exploited.   I am not so negative however about the current situation, Ghiotto practically on the 10k seems to be off the scale (watch out for the Czech and Norwegian) and he can medal in the 5k and drag the pursuit team. In the mass start you have more cards in both the men's and women's, let's see what Fontana does. And a Fontana-Peveri-Lollobrigida pursuit team can also play for a third place
    • Canada Team Size Prediction for Winter Olympic Games 2026 Milano Cortina   Ski Sports   Alpine Skiing  (13) - That's been the team size the last couple of Olympics so it's a safe bet again. Cross Country Skiing  (10) - Not too familiar with the qualification system. Probably around 6 men and 4 women. Ski Jumping  (5) - Loutitt, Strate and Maurer for sure on the women's side. Possibly a 4th will qualify. On the men's side, if Bowd-Clowes returns, then he should also qualify. Nordic Combined  (0) - Been a nonexistent sport for a while. No athletes competing in the World Cup or Continental Cup. Freestyle Skiing  (32) - Should qualify a team in mixed aerials which means a maximum team size of 32 athletes. Which athletes in which disciplines to be determined. Snowboarding  (24) - Full teams in slopestyle and big air. Then somewhere between 1-4 athletes in the other disciplines. Biathlon  (6) - Based on the Nations Cup last year, the men finished outside the top 20 and wouldn't qualify a relay team (and that's without Russia and Belarus). With Christian Gow's retirement, that makes things even more difficult. Women's relay should still qualify though. Ski Mountaineering  (1) - Gonna be optimistic here and say that one athlete will qualify either through the World Rankings or continental quota.     Skating Sports   Speed Skating  (16) - 7 to 8 men, 8 to 9 women. For now, I'll say 8 of each gender. Short Track Speed Skating  (10) - Full team size. With the current skill level of the team, anything else would be a tragedy. Figure Skating  (12) - Most likely 1 man (I hope) and 1 woman, then 2-3 pairs and 2-3 ice dance couples. For now, let's say 2 in pairs and 3 in ice dance.     Sleigh Sports   Luge  (7) - 2 women + 1 entry in each of the other disciplines Skeleton  (4) - 1 or 2 men + 2 or 3 women Bobsleigh  (14) - 2 men's crews (in both events) and 3 women's crews (in both events)     Team Sports   Curling  (12) - Full team or else you might as well burn the federation to the ground. Ice Hockey  (48) - Both men's and women's teams already qualified       Total Optimistic Prediction  -  (229) Total Pessimistic Prediction  - (184)   Total Realistic Prediction  -  (214)
    • Besides, I think Eitrem will be better than Ghiotto. You can see it after 1500 meters. He is younger. The whole Norwegian team is also in great shape. You just have to look at the team Norway has, how many new and young skaters there are and in our group A there is one Trentini, who takes last place. In every winter sport we invest too little money to be counted.   If Eitrem has the same form over long distances as he does over 1500 metres, he will dominate this season, not Ghiotto or Roest.
    • Looking at last season's 1st World Cup, it's worse for now and it should be the other way around. Bosa out of shape, Trentini weak. Both will drop to a lower group. It's similar to skeleton, i.e. regression instead of progress. I hope this doesn't mean Ghiotto is also in weaker form, because it could end up with 0 podiums this weekend.
×
×
  • Create New...