Cross-Country Skiing 2021 - 2022 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 16,142]

11 hours ago, ahjfcshfghb said:

I actually don't hate this idea for relays because it would make them more competitive esp. for smaller nations. Mixed team sprint seems unnecessary as hell though. CC already has so many events.

They're already barely ever holding regular relays though, this only seems like something that will cut that down even further.

[heywoodu 16,142]

8 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Like which smaller nations? If they allow Norway B, Russia B and Sweden B to compete (duh) 

Read the articles first though  

 

Quote

For each event, one team per nation will be allowed to be entered. 

 

[Monzanator 4,828]

Rules can alwas be changed on the fly. Who will stop Norway from boosting the team count anyway especially since Russia and Sweden would also be for adding a second or third team if neccessary. Cross country has about three relevant countries left running the show so of course they will get their wish. Anything to further extend Norway's dominance of the sport will be fine.

[Federer91 3,080]

This idea aside, i'm generally speaking.

 

But what is it with all these sport governing bodies, that have constantly the urge to shuffle the events. Is there a ghost at night that haunts them with "More events, new events, more events, new events". Will they not get their salaries, if they don't come up with some new ideas every year?  It can't be the good old saying of "growing the sport", because these changes have never grown an Olympic sport in the last 10 years.

[Monzanator 4,828]

In winter sports there is no growing of the sport. On the contrary even, fewer nations are relevant there year after year. Finland has completely fallen off the cliff, first in ski jumping then in cross country. Germany in alpine skiing and not looking all that great in biathlon either. Canada is gone in alpine skiing too. Czech Republic is gone from ski jumping and we're like one Olympic cycle away from Poland being gone too. The ski jumping struggles to even field 50 jumpers at World Cup level these days if the event is held outside of Europe in Russia for instance.

 

Even if the reason is the growth of freestyle skiing it doesn't explain how former powerhouses are completely irrevelant in certain events. It's been 20 years since the Lahti WC doping fiasco derailed Finnish cross country. That's like two full generations and their answer is a 42 year old RL Roponen?

 

Putting on mixed relays solves nothing. Cross country goes down with inbreeding and will become more irrelevant year by year. Only Norway, Sweden and Russia seem to care about this sport these days and everyone seems to be fine with it. FIS can sell these new ideas but nobody is buying that.

[Monzanator 4,828]

Marit Bjoergen admitted in her autobiography she had a positive test for nandrolone in 2017 but FIS turned a blind eye And you wonder why nobody outside Norway gives a fuck about cross country anymore.

 

https://www.world-today-news.com/bjoergen-used-a-forbidden-measure-the-reaction-of-the-fis-surprised-everyone/

[heywoodu 16,142]

8 hours ago, Monzanator said:

Marit Bjoergen admitted in her autobiography she had a positive test for nandrolone in 2017 but FIS turned a blind eye And you wonder why nobody outside Norway gives a fuck about cross country anymore.

 

https://www.world-today-news.com/bjoergen-used-a-forbidden-measure-the-reaction-of-the-fis-surprised-everyone/

Just some nuance for people not actually clicking the link and only reading the post (if anyone is even still reading a cynical thread like this, hopefully this cynical nonsense will stay out of the actual competition threads once the season gets underway...): there were potentially legitimate explanations for it, related to the menstrual cycle, but those were sadly not investigated further by FIS. Just to clarify that it wasn't like "Oh yeah, you used nandrolone, but whatever".

[Monzanator 4,828]

Yeah, but FIS taking whatever excuse Norway comes up with shows clear intent. If they busted Johaug for the lipstick excuse then why completely ignore looking into Bjoergen's case? Imgaine if those were Russians. FIS would bend over backwards to dig into the case. The Symbicort Empire lives on!

[heywoodu 16,142]

Quite the performance for this young Brazilian in São Carlos  

 

[dcro 10,210]

4 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Quite the performance for this young Brazilian in São Carlos  

 

And yet he only gets 165 FIS points.

 

FIS