Alpine Skiing 2020 - 2021 Discussion Thread

[OlympicsFan 858]

Women’s slalom:

Gold: Mathiou (Italy)

Silver: Bostroem Mussener (Sweden)

Bronze: A. J. Hurt (USA)

Mathiou (2002) and Bostroem Mussener (2001) are young enough to come back next year. Very close race, the top 8 were within 0.68 seconds. Not sure if any of the girls can become world class, no one looked like a superior talent.

Sadly another 4th (and 5th) place for Germany. This was the last competition (no downhill/combined/team this year), so here is the final standing of the Marc Hodler Trophy:

 

1) Austria 61 points

2) Italy 43 points

3) Sweden 40 points

4) Switzerland 36 points

5) Norway 35 points

6) Germany/USA 29 points

8) Slovenia 20 points

 

Separated by gender:

Men:

1) Austria 42 points

2) Switzerland 30 points

3) Norway 22 points

4) Italy 19 points

5) USA 16 points

6) Germany 10 points

7) France 8 points

8) Sweden/Slovenia 4 points

 

Women:

1) Sweden 36 points

2) Italy 24 points

3) Austria/Germany 19 points

5) Slovenia 16 points

6) Norway/USA 13 points

8) Switzerland 6 points

 

Biggest surprises for me: 

- Sweden has a lot of very good talents on the women’s side, they could become strong again at senior level in a couple of years.

- The US has some nice talents again (Hurt and Ritchie).

- France did very poorly for their standard, only 9 points overall (1 point better than Finland) and their best results were a 5th place in men’s Super G, a 9th place in men’s giant slalom and a 10th place in women’s slalom.

- Germany and the US were surprisingly close to Norway and Switzerland in the Marc Hodler Trophy.

 

 

[hckošice 14,822]

The end of a great chapter. Petra & Magoni ended their cooperation.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNVb-uWMVzG/

[heywoodu 15,135]

Wow, did not see that coming less than a year before the Olympics  

[Monzanator 4,498]

Look, Petra started out with a bang and then tailed right off to the point she underperformed at the Worlds and had to rely on favorable Lenzerheide to fend off Lara Gut's challenge for the overall. It's obvious she can't handle running all the races physically and she can't risk another poor showing at the Olympics which are the main focus. If Magoni is responsible for pushing her to do the speed races and all that it's no wonder she had enough of him. I suppose she goes back to doing tech races only from next season. She looks so upset with those silver medals in Cortina I think she targets golds & golds only in Beijing.

[Triplecast 156]

4 minutes ago, Monzanator said:

Look, Petra started out with a bang and then tailed right off to the point she underperformed at the Worlds and had to rely on favorable Lenzerheide to fend off Lara Gut's challenge for the overall. It's obvious she can't handle running all the races physically and she can't risk another poor showing at the Olympics which are the main focus. If Magoni is responsible for pushing her to do the speed races and all that it's no wonder she had enough of him. I suppose she goes back to doing tech races only from next season. She looks so upset with those silver medals in Cortina I think she targets golds & golds only in Beijing.

The US State Department today gave its strongest hint yet that they are going to make Petra's path to gold a heck of a lot easier, and she will only have to worry about beating Liensberger. 

 

2022 Beijing Olympics: U.S. considering joining boycott, state department says (cnbc.com)

 

[Monzanator 4,498]

NBC pays a ton of money for the Olympic TV rights. Everyone takes a financial hit during the COVID pandemic and now you want to blow up the TV revenue on purpose? Good luck in depriving Shiffrin, Chloe Kim and whomever else from taking part in these Olympics. Someone tell Joe Biden the Cold War is over. It's laughable that Trump was considered the biggest Chinese enemy and Biden would go ahead with the boycott? He'd get crushed by the sporting community. No way he can be that stupid? The fact this stuff comes out indicates it's a controlled leak therefore they want to know what the public thinks. It's such a stupid decision it's beyond reasonable imagination. The Yalta conference reaps heavy fruit 78 years after it took place indeed!

[hckošice 14,822]

and it is Mauro Pini former Lara Gut-Behrami, Tina Maze and Maria-Jose Contreras coach. Deal for 1 year with option if succeed at the Olympics in Beijing he contract will be prolonged for another Olympic cycle

 

 

 

[phelps 7,670]

this is not good news at all for me...I'm going to lose the best tech tv commentator in the world of alpine skiing (Pini used to work for the Italian speaking channel of the Swiss public TV in the last few years)...

[hckošice 14,822]

btw..fun fact...

 

Pini became Tina Maze coach in 2013/14 Olympic season replacing Magoni. Tina won in Sochi 2 Gold medals..

now 2021/22 Olympic season he replaced Magoni again, now as Petra Vlhová coach, just changed to

 

 

Not sure if the history can repeat, but for some reason in this case, I would not be angry However winning even 2 medals of any color would be absolutely huge and amazing, I mean for Slovakia, not sure if Petra would be satisfied by only "of any color" though

[dcro 10,210]

What an opportunity for some skiing aficionado with a Saudi great-great-grandfather...