OlympicsFan

What a surprising turnaround. I don’t even want to imagine what would have been possible without a roadblock like Hettich. Somehow German coaches always find a way to sabotage their own team, I still have nightmares from the 2010 Olympics ... Norway certainly deserved the gold, but them dominating biathlon is the worst thing that can happen to this sport. They already ruined cross-country. Biathlon relays, especially on the women’s side, are among the most unpredictable team events, much better than pointless events like cross-country/luge/ski jumping/Nordic combined team events.

Sadly women’s slalom has been a joke for quite some time. 5 realistic medal contenders at best, the speed events are clearly more competitive. Really unusual for Germany to win medals in the most competitive events while failing to medal in the joke events (women’s slalom and alpine combined).

I certainly don’t miss Norwegians dominating every single event. I feel like whenever one of the Norwegians declines or retires there are five new ones who are suddenly world class. It still has to be mentioned that the results might have been very different if all the Norwegian guys would have competed. Maybe they don’t like the conditions, but they still won the team competition. Kristoffersen has been pretty trash in the giant slalom all season long, I wouldn’t read anything into it. I don’t know anything about the other athletes you mentioned, but I don’t think that they were considered medal contenders.

I am not talking about the condition of the course. I am talking about the fact that a) Most of the favorites didn’t even bother to show up in the parallel slalom b) A gazillion Norwegian guys who could have medaled are injured c) Many athletes not being in top shape thanks to COVID.

No, certainly not. The parallel event and the combined are joke events. I already wrote a couple days ago that a bronze in the super g for example is more valuable than a gold in the combined, which is infinitely more valuable than a gold in the parallel competition. In the end most of the results here are not relevant thanks to the conditions.

I was only talking about relevant events.

Easily one of the most absurd results in the history of alpine skiing World Championships. None of the top 3 deserved a medal after this season. Fabre probably can‘t believe that he won a single medal here, but him winning gold is completely ridiculous. At least he can now retire in peace. Austria‘s absurd luck sadly also continues. They win gold in every competition where they have a medal chance and bronze in events where they have no business of winning medals (men‘s/women‘s giant slalom). At least Italy finally got it‘s first and probably last medal. Italy wasn’t a good host, but it still would have been sad to see them „leaving“ empty-handed. The guys who won the medals are 17th, 11th and 21st in the giant slalom World Cup. Fabre and Schwarz are easily already among the biggest overperformers in the history of alpine skiing world championships.

Americans must have insane material when one of their random no-names can compete for a medal. Shiffrin not being in too shape is very good for the competition. Italy must be the most disappointed nation at this event, crazy that a nation with one good athlete (USA) can win more medals than a nation with so many world-class athletes.

Really crazy that they can win this with such a trash team. Not a good sign for this event.

Cool, here is a list of women who had a better time today: Erin Mielzynski Gabriela Capova Thea Stjernesund Kristina Riis-Johannessen Erika Pykalainen Sara Hector Andreja Slokar Estelle Alphand Ana Bucik Wendy Holdener Cassidy Gray Paula Moltzan Katharina Liensberger

Yes, everyone (except the German coach) realized that about an hour ago. In the end it probably wouldn’t have mattered because the German women were absurdly slow. Too bad Rebensburg retired. I wouldn’t really call this a team competition, you only need one fast man and one fast woman.

I remember her doing the same at junior level. I am not sure whether she will ever be able to fix her shooting. Some years ago there was a girl from Kazakhstan who was in a similar position but never fixed her shooting. Also very weird to see someone from Bulgaria skiing that fast, considering that they are completely nonexistent in cross-country.

It is very unlikely that the race will unfold like that.

Not sure how the medals for Germany were luck, please inform me. Also a bronze medal in an Olympic event (combined excluded) is worth ten times more than a gold in an event were the favorites didn’t even bother to show up.

I kind of like this result. Davidova is one of my favorite athletes in biathlon. A medal for Öberg was pretty much a guarantee. German athletes consistent as usual, but always with one miss too much. Who would have thought before this season that Preuß would beat Herrmann in an individual with the same number of misses. Just shows how horrible Herrmann is this season. Personally I would prefer it if biathlon world championships would only take place every 2 years. Having them every year makes the results pretty much meaningless. Mironova could still win a medal sadly.

Sure, why not ... Germany doesn’t have a medal chance anyways and apart from Dürr, all German girls are on an equally low level, so you might as well give her a shot.

Thanks, I thought that the combined got eliminated? Sad to hear that this event will still be Olympic. I think 4 individual events are enough for alpine skiing, but at the same time alpine skiing definitely should have more Events than speed skating/shorttrack/freestyle skiing, so you would probably have to reduce the number of events there as well.

If she has the same material as your ski/snowboard cross athletes, she should easily win a medal.

The fact that 3 German men finished top 8 clearly is all you need to know to judge this event. On the other hand it is nice to see that 17 yo Emma Aicher did quite well today. Would be nice to see a talented German in the slalom for a change.

It isn’t an Olympic event? Won’t there be 11 events in alpine skiing at the Olympics? What will be the 5th individual event?

1) I won’t tell you what you should find entertaining, but are you sure that you meant men’s downhill and not men’s super G? I found men’s super g far less entertaining than men’s downhill. Also with everything I know about entertainment, I find it hard to believe that many people would agree with you. Thanks to the starting order in the combined, the whole suspense was basically gone after the first 5 or 6 racers and the rest was plain boring. Also when I look at the points in the prediction contest it looks as if the results were more predictable than in most speed races and usually less predictable results mean more entertainment. 2) Did you watch the men’s super g today? The course was a joke, it is no coincidence that someone like Schwarz looked so good today. I very much doubt that this is the usual level of difficulty for the speed part of a combined. I think the original idea of the combined is that both speed and slalom specialists have about the same likelihood of winning this event. When you look at the results of recent years that certainly wasn’t the case. Over the past few years slalom specialists (Shiffrin/Pinturault/Vlhova) did far better in speed World Cup races than the other way round, which indicates that it is easier for them to do well in speed events than the other way round. I think the solution to make it fairer would be to make the speed part longer/the slalom part shorter (time wise). I just looked at the results of the men’s combined at the last 2 Olympics and in 2014 when the speed part was 1:54 and the slalom part was 51 seconds the medalists were Viletta-Kostelic-Innerhofer. In 2018 when the speed part was 1:20 and the slalom part was 46 seconds the medalists were Hirscher-Pinturault-Muffat. I think the speed part should last roughly 2.5 times as Long as the slalom part.

1) There is a difference between having no depth and being non-existent (which is what you said). Also they have other good athletes (Hynne, Moen, Grovdal, Henriksen, Guttormsen). Norway could realistically win as many medals at the Olympics as Poland and more medals than France. 2) It is difficult to develope 2 world-class players, they have more/as many world-class players than Poland/ItalyTurkey/Russia/Nigeria/Mexico/Colombia/Chile. We will see how they will do in the future once Haaland and Ödegaard are more mature. 3) Not sure if you are kidding ... you mostly named joke sports. Norway also is good in handball (which is probably the 4th or 5th most popular summer team sport) and chess ... It is obvious that Norway can’t have the same depth as bigger nations, but they are amazing at developing special talents.

Why? Also it would be absurd to consider his performance suspicious.

Wiklund won gold? Seems like an absurd result for someone who doesn’t really follow speed skating. Was she even considered a medal contender? Also the only in the top 20 to set a PB ... Maybe she is on the Ingebrigtsen/Johaug/Sundby „diet“ ...

1) Norway non-existent in athletics? 2) Norway has 2 amazing football players, I think they could qualify for some tournaments in the future. Also i think it is difficult to be good at football when you can barely ever play it outside ... (although Iceland has done an amazing job) 3) There are a lot of other „comparable“ countries that aren’t (much) better than Norway while being much worse in winter sports (Portugal, Israel, Ireland, Singapore, Belgium, Greece). I think for their size Norway is actually doing a good job in summer sports.