Speed Skating ISU World Cup 2024 - 2025

[SalamAkhi 323]

2nd  win of the season. No doubt the best year ever for French speed skating with a women's team building in the same time. 

 

For Loubineaud these things will happen (like Contin) :

1. He'll draw attention to himself in French media. Which is good because at least there is a project. They don't talk about the sport at all, especially with no rink in France, which suffers from a "poor" image like "ah the Dutch sport, they win all the medals, they exist at Winter Games only because of it, too much medals distributed, it's unfair" (like we didn't boost our total thanks to biathlon and its inflated program).

2. With the Olympics around the corner those media will start to evoke a shot at a medal.

3. If he manages to be successful early in the Olympic season, the bubble will inflate. 

4. He won't medal in Milan. The bubble will explode, people will laugh "ah ah all of this for that, typical French Lose mentality".

 

I hope he will. But World Cup and championships are two different beasts. No doubt the Italians will sort a plan out, the Dutch will have to cooperate and appoint a leader, Médard will work for Swings, etc. He won't have an easy way out and I fear he's got no chance if it ends in a massive sprint. 

Edited January 27 by SalamAkhi

[Gianlu33 4,698]

  On 1/27/2025 at 7:52 AM, SalamAkhi said:

 

2. With the Olympics around the corner those media will start to evoke a shot at a medal.

 

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Honestly, I think Loubineaud is a mid-level skater, but so far he has been very lucky. In both victories he started in the very early laps and a breakaway of mediocre skaters arrived. Things you only see in the World Cup and never in competitions with major medals at stake. In the only serious mass start Loubineaud finished 14th, failing to keep up with the lead group in the last two laps.

[SalamAkhi 323]

We agree on the outcome. Now calling Loubineaud mid is a bit of a stretch, 12'44 and 6'07 tell he's definitely no slouch. But he won't be able to fight with Bergsma or Swings in a sprint. 

He was on a downward trajectory in Bejing looking at his 5000 time, so judging his abilities on this mere race isn't really fair. I hope he'll try and change his tactics, which can only lead you so far, in next WC races. He needs to have a back-up plan (and use his teammate, Belloir or an other). 

[copravolley 299]

  On 1/27/2025 at 7:56 AM, Gianlu33 said:

Honestly, I think Loubineaud is a mid-level skater, but so far he has been very lucky. In both victories he started in the very early laps and a breakaway of mediocre skaters arrived. Things you only see in the World Cup and never in competitions with major medals at stake. In the only serious mass start Loubineaud finished 14th, failing to keep up with the lead group in the last two laps.

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I have the impression that even for the World Cup he will not be released earlier or someone from Italy or the Netherlands will simply keep an eye on him.

[Gianlu33 4,698]

Jordan Stolz today won the 500 and the 1500. 22th in a row, with the 500m tomorrow

Edited February 1 by Gianlu33

[copravolley 299]

Lollobrigida has a very good form: yesterday she won the 3000, today she was on the podium in the 1500. I`m a bit disappointed by Ghiotto's performance yesterday in the 5000 - his loss to Eitrem was big: 2 seconds.

[Topicmaster1010 4,379]

  On 2/1/2025 at 9:46 PM, Gianlu33 said:

Jordan Stolz today won the 500 and the 1500. 22th in a row, with the 500m tomorrow

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Also the first person to ever go under 34 seconds in the 500m at sea level

[Gianlu33 4,698]

Stolz lost the 2nd 500m of the week 

[Topicmaster1010 4,379]

He's human after all 

[Gianlu33 4,698]

  On 2/2/2025 at 9:24 PM, Topicmaster1010 said:

He's human after all 

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I am overwhelmingly convinced that if Shinhama had been in a different pair, he would not have seen. The Japanese ran on the man in the final straight and was fantastic by winning the sprint,