OlympicsFan

Yes, especially because in neither of the team sprints all of the top teams competed. Please inform yourself next time before clowning around. Thanks!

Agreed, other than Russia and Norway and the US not performing at their best it was completely expected. A bit like the result in men’s ski jumping, where it was the expected result apart from Granerud and Eisenbichler and Stoch not winning a medal. Also very Good point to bring up earlier results when we only had two previous team sprints and in neither of them all the top teams competed.

Funny to see the German coach and media acting as if the results so far were mostly down to bad luck ... German cross country is in a pathetic state and there are no excuses when even nations like Slovenia or Switzerland can win medals. I have no problem with Germany being bad, but the waste of tax payer money is a disgrace.

Nonsense. The combination of Lanisek, the girl who won a medal in sprint and this medal in team sprint is a far bigger fluke. A medal in women’s ski jumping was not a shock, but the other 3 medals were surprising to say the least. Also crazy that Slovenia has 2 medals in women’s cross country while Russia/Finland have 0 and Norway also only has 2.

They should definitely change the format of this competition, the first couple of legs are super boring. Also not sure why cross-country has two relays for each gender, I think they should either have a mixed relay or a mixed team sprint. Also interesting that Russia has a German coach ...

LOL ... Slovenia might have the biggest fluke performance in the history of sport. Even Steven Bradbury sweeping the gold medals at the 2002 Olympics would have been a smaller fluke. I would bet that they won’t win more than 1 medal at the Olympics in Ski jumping/cross-country.

Not sure if it was a once in a lifetime thing. The girl in the youth competition was pretty slow, so not sure about her chances of doing anything at senior level, but the girl today seemed like a solid talent. I think she isn’t less talented than Vanessa Hinz for example. I could definitely see her becoming someone who regularly finishes top 30 in the World Cup. In the end most talents don’t make it at senior level, so no one really knows. If I would have to bet on one to make it, it would definitely be the girl who won silver today. Edit: I would definitely trade the girl who won silver today for all German girls I have seen so far except Grotian.

Yes, it seems normal. Last year the top 10 in the women’s youth race had 26 misses, while the top 10 in the women’s junior race only had 16 misses. On the men’s side we had 18 misses at junior level and 24 misses at youth level. Sadly the horrible IBU side doesn’t show any older results, so I don’t know if last year was also an outlier.

Hopefully it will change. Looking at the examples you gave (never heard of most of them) it seems quite rare to be trash in one and very good in the other.

Congrats. Unlike the girl in the youth competition, she actually had a good skiing time. On the other hand she was 1 or 2 years older than many of her competitors, so it is difficult to judge where she ranks talentwise.

I think that you have some problems with live timing ... Do you have an official document that states the time this competition ended? On topic: Passler (Italy, 2001), Owren (Norway, 2001) and Bened (France, 2000) are all young enough to come back next year, really nice group of talent. Trabucchi also can come back next year, but she doesn’t seem like a special talent.

Did. you time Travel? According to live timing only 79 out of 90 athletes finished the race. Current ranking: 1) Bened (France) 2) Horvatova (Slovakia) 3) Trabucchi (Italy) Owren from Norway and Goreeva from Russia with superior skiing times. Skiing times: 1) Goreeva 2) Jakiela (Poland) 7.4 seconds behind 3) Owren 17.7 seconds behind

I really wonder how Weidle can be so great in downhill while being that bad in super G. Is it normal for athletes to be that good in one discipline, while being extremely weak in the other?

Slovakia might win another medal ...

Unless something crazy happens, France will win another medal (possibly gold) in the women’s race. Bened with a good skiing time and clean shooting. Owren from Norway with tremendous skiing speed, but already two misses. Sadly Norway „found“ another athlete with superior skiing speed ... Edit: Gold for Bened seems inevitable at this point. Another gold for France ... very exciting ...

Based on the individual events, the result in the mixed team should be: 1) Slovenia 2) Norway 3) Austria 4) Japan 5) Germany I think anything but the first 3 winning the medals would be a surprise at this point. I think World class female athletes are clearly more „valuable“ in the mixed team, since there are far less of them, which is pretty obvious when looking at the gaps in the individual competitions. In the men’s competition the gap between first and 5th was 11.7 points, between first and 10th it was 17.6 points and between first and 15th it was 22.8 points. On the women’s side it was 22.1 points between first and 5th, 37.8 points between first and 10th and 50.3 points between first and 15th. Nations with two world class men and two average women are clearly at an disadvantage compared to nations with two world class women and two average men, not sure if this is fair ...

Interesting that Germany currently has exactly the same medal statistic (1 silver) in the Olympic events as they had 2 years ago.

Thanks. There are just too many medal contenders, you could probably name all Norwegian/Russian athletes too. I think there are just more competitive athletes at this level compared to youth level.

What happened to you? Did a German beat you up when you tried to steal his bike?

Completely random result. Another fluke medal for Slovenia. After this season the 3 medals should have gone to Norway, Poland and Germany. After the trainings I thought that Norway might even sweep this ... Surprising to see that Norway hasn’t won a medal at the last FIVE individual competitions at worlds (since 2015).

Maybe you should talk to a therapist ... ?

Nope. Zyla is an even bigger fluke world champion than Kubacki.

What a random result after the first round ... Would be funny if Slovenia would fluke another medal, somehow I hope that Zyla will win gold. Has he ever won anything individually?

Norway will compete in the junior events tomorrow. Some names to look for: Women: Bened (France), Botet (France), Passler (Italy), Trabucchi (Italy), Gandler (Austria), Baserga (Switzerland) and Shevchenko (Russia, the big favorite) Sadly Skrede from Norway, who would have been the biggest rival for Shevchenko, won’t compete. Men: Claude (France), Mahon (France), Vidmar (Slovenia), Cisar (Slovenia), Hartweg (Switzerland), Zingerle (Italy) and hopefully (from a German perspective) Riethmüller. Sadly Bionaz from Italy (who would have been one of the. Ingest favorites) won’t compete.

So now we already have 5 nations with medals, France with a great start. Belarus narrowly missing a medal again. Impressive skiing time for Wright. Also impressive times for Geny and Betemps, considering that they are both 1 year younger.