Skeleton Discussion | Qualification to Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

[evil betty 89]

44 minutes ago, avlar said:

I suppose it is about the strategy. We saw it in athletics - people calculated what they need to get to qulift and participated in the events where they could get necessary points for sure.

 

Actually don't get it. What would the strategy be? The affected competitors are all the final few qualifiers and in no way impact Canada's chances to qualify two women. They entered two women who were competitive and withdrew others who were not. The result is reduced totals that could give the Latvian or Estonian competitors an advantage. Are they somehow involved with the Canadians in this? 

Should have mentioned it does help the Swiss and Danish competitors even more, but why would Canada care about that?

Edited January 12 by evil betty

[evil betty 89]

Frankly, you could make a case that Canada was boosting the chances of other countries in the Lake Placid races on the 6th and 7th by entering so many uncompetitive sliders. Those are the only two NA cup races that gave 120 points for the winners. Again, completely irrelevant to their own qualifying status.

[avlar 586]

11 minutes ago, evil betty said:

Actually don't get it. What would the strategy be? The affected competitors are all the final few qualifiers and in no way impact Canada's chances to qualify two women. They entered two women who were competitive and withdrew others who were not. The result is reduced totals that could give the Latvian or Estonian competitors an advantage. Are they somehow involved with the Canadians in this? 

I really do not how this startegy works - I hope someone could explain what is going on.

Here you can find the details.
https://www.dw.com/en/cheating-scandal-hits-winter-olympics-skeleton-qualifier/a-75472837

[evil betty 89]

7 minutes ago, avlar said:

I really do not how this startegy works - I hope someone could explain what is going on.

Here you can find the details.
https://www.dw.com/en/cheating-scandal-hits-winter-olympics-skeleton-qualifier/a-75472837

Yeah I read it, the reason that Canadian authorities probably won't even respond is because they know it makes absolutely zero sense. Channel is racing head-to-head with Erlacher of Austria, in the World Cup, to decide the fate of Channel. No racer in the NA cup could possibly have an impact on that. Coaches, and fans, I think will get that pretty quick. The next best 2nd best racer of an NOC is 120 points behind. 

[evil betty 89]

The interesting part of the article is the opening, about Uhlaender. She claims it dashes her hopes for making it to the Olympics? How? The americans have no rational chance of qualifying 3 sleds, so does losing 30 points deprive her of being nominated as one of the two americans ahead of either mystique ro or kelly curtis?

Edited January 12 by evil betty

[Grassmarket 4,318]

17 minutes ago, avlar said:

I really do not how this startegy works - I hope someone could explain what is going on.

Here you can find the details.
https://www.dw.com/en/cheating-scandal-hits-winter-olympics-skeleton-qualifier/a-75472837

OK, the way I see it is this.  Lets say you come 20th in race against Germany, USA, GB.....and then you come 20th in race against the Virgin Islands, Thailand and South Africa.   Which race gets more points?  Obviously, the more difficult race.  So by withdrawing some high value athletes from the race, the Canadians made sure that the other athletes could never get enough points to overcome the Canadian's existing advantage.  

[evil betty 89]

2 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

OK, the way I see it is this.  Lets say you come 20th in race against Germany, USA, GB.....and then you come 20th in race against the Virgin Islands, Thailand and South Africa.   Which race gets more points?  Obviously, the more difficult race.  So by withdrawing some high value athletes from the race, the Canadians made sure that the other athletes could never get enough points to overcome the Canadian's existing advantage.  

Less racers reduced the ranking points of 1st place by 30 points. Canada's 2nd best sled is 120 points ahead of a Latvian sled. No one in the NA cup race has any relevance at all to Canada. Only the Austrain Erlacher matters to them. The racers that could lose out, benefitted greatly by Canada entering many racers in two previous races. All of which are only competing to get one sled to the Olympics. Uhlaender may have been affected personally in her chances to go the Olympics, not sure what the American criteria is naming their team.

[evil betty 89]

To be fair, I did overlook one other possibility; the swiss 2nd best Simmchen, is actually the one who 120 points behind Channel, not the latvian, and she was in the race at Lake Placid. So, I suppose costing the Swiss 25 points so that it was harder for both of them to overtake Channel on the final weekend could have been a factor. Seems completely implausible as they are in life and death struggle to qualify one sled, and if Channel outperforms Erlacher than how good would both Swiss competitors have to be? Seems ludicrous, but maybe Cecchini is a worrier or just bad at math.

[heywoodu 16,475]

Let's not act as if these things never happen before. Serbia's cross-country skiing drama a week before the Olympic qualifying for Beijing ended:

FIS | Cross-Country Results - Zlatibor (SRB) 2021/2022

 

Drndic with a DNF, despite being - on paper at least - the best athlete. She didn't just 'not finish', she stepped out barely 50 meters before the finish, because if finishing, the points for her competitor would have been better due to the way points are calculated. Ended up with lots and lots of yelling and screaming and fighting and cursing, DNS the next day and in the end Serbia sent none of them.

 

This is not a shit move by Canada, this is a fault of the system at most.

[evil betty 89]

Other than the Reuters article it is all pretty badly presented. What I find comical is, if true, the Israeli and Maltese federations were upset. LOL, so far out of contention but mad about five to ten points when they need hundreds.  and  are right on the edge and lose key points so I would understand them being upset, but Uhlaender? All three americans would have to overtake the 3rd best british slider, it would take divine intervention to accomplish. So she is upset, but it is not rational to blame the Canadian coach. It must be very frustrating to not be racing in the World Cup, climb into the top 20 in rankings, and it still not be enough.