Gigs

Benoot finally gets his first professional victory, after I think over 60 top tens. Anyway, great race, possibly already the most exciting race of the season?

So Austria slips back to 10th place, one silver medal behind France. I wonder if there was any event today where someone could have won that medal

Not that it mattered anyway

Good by guys. Gonna participate at the mass suicide event for all Austrian xc skiing fans

Valgren wins the real first race of the season I missed most of the race but considering how big the group was at the end it seems like this was a really disappointing edition of the Omloop. Also, why the hell did they change the course. The old Omloop route was great and basically always led to great racing. No reason to include the crucial points of the Ronde in every single cobbles classic only because they are now not crucial in the Ronde anymore.

You really have to feel sad for alpine snowboarders nowadays. They just want to participate in a competitive sport but get mistreated by the ioc, the rules are ridiculous and the jury makes political decisions. Why does every sport get more and more events but instead of making the logical step to include a snowboard team event they scratch a discipline? Why the hell would anyone think a parallel event without reruns is a good idea? That whole concept has "unfair" written all over it. And if you think there is still any dignity to safe for this event don't make the decision who gets into the final a political one. These olympics have simply been a disaster for parallel snowboarding.

Well, both Liensberger and gallhuber were a lot better than expected, but I admit, my predictions were a bit pessimistic, although I still think sweden was the clear favorite in that duel. Anyway, my point that one of the best teams was eliminated early because of a bad bracket stands.

Time to write history

I get it, every freakin sport needs a team event nowadays so alpine skiing needs one too. But at one point the fis has to decide whether they want to make a team event which represents the strength of the whole alpine skiing team, or a team event which represents the strength of the nations slalom (or rather parallel slalom) team. Because right now the fis behaves as if the former was the case while everyone with a brain sees in fact the latter is. This leeds to the stupid situation that for the 2nd year in a row one quarter final of the team event will be Austria vs Sweden, or said differently a duel between two of the top favorites while one of the other quarter finals will probably be Italy vs France. Those two teams might have great alpine skiing teams, but their slalom teams this year are simply nowhere near the ones of Austria and Sweden. I actually calculated what a slalom nation world cup would look like and it would be 1.) Austria 2.) Switzerland 3.) Norway and 4.) Sweden. However Norway would only be in front of Sweden because of Jansrud's 15 points which he got at a city event just for starting which brings up the question why the hell points like that are taken into consideration for making the bracket for this event too. Still taking this order to determine the duels for the team event would be so much fairer. I really think Austria has a team with medal potential, but I just don't see how on earth they could beat Sweden as long as no Swedish skier makes a huge mistake. Btw, I don't want to behave as if this problem only exists for Austria. Ofc Sweden is unlucky too to have such a strong opponent early on (although it's imo not as bad for them since I think no team other than Switzerland has a half decent chance of beating them anyway) and Switzerland will also have a pretty strong opponent in Germany or maybe even Slovakia. Talking of Slovakia, too bad for them Vlhova won two races, cause without those 200 points they swap places with Canada and all of a sudden Slovakia has a good chance to get into the semi final. (at least if Velez Zuzulova is in a half decent shape now, otherwise they don't have a chance anyway) I know the fis is currently trying to renew alpine skiing but why the hell can't they use their brain for once. They are making so many stupid things it's unbelievable. Can't wait for the first major championships where we'll have a slalom, a parallel slalom, and a parallel slalom team event, but no super-g and no combined.

I recorded the race and WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH. Ofc this result doesn't represent the strength of the teams but still it was hilarious. Wierer going from first to tenth and back to first, Finland for a moment looked like they could end makarainen's olympic nightmare, freakin poland leads at the last exchange, Öberg wins silver after Sweden completely fucked up the first 3/4 of their race. Domracheva almost gives away gold but rescues it with her three final shots. This race had so many crazy moments it's unbelievable

I'm curious how much time vonn will lose. She used to be a really good slalom skier so who knows. A medal is certainly realistic

Yeah

And there seriously were some wannabe experts thinking matt's run wouldn't be enough for a medal. Pfffff

Two gold medals for sweden in the slalom events. I seriously cannot believe that

No way

Before today Austria dien' win a medal for three days in a row. It's not like we have perfect olympics. Also for matt to win a medal myhrer or kristoffersen would have to choke big time. anyway, congrats doppelmeter

Man, not winning a medal in the slalom hurts. Even when hirscher doesn't finish, if you had told me feller and matt will finish both runs I would have predicted at least one of them would win a medal anyway

Not enogh from Matt. He needed a bigger advantage for a medal

I'm so happy gasser won. The pressure on her was huge, everyone in Austria expected this medal which makes this even more impressive

You know what I meant Btw, seeing dopfer, hargin and khoroshilov so early in a 2nd slalom run is almost tragic

Might have hoped for a good moguls result although he forgot to make a 2nd trick

And is only 3 thirds behind brown. Not bad

Yeah in 2015 kristoffersen's winning margins in both gs and slalom were smaller. That said he won those two races by 1 and 1.5 seconds and that was already one year after his first world cup win and winning the bronze medal in Sochi. So let's just say, both were impressive

I wouldn't be surprised. Noël is one of the best young skiers right now and might be the guy who'll challange kristoffersen when hirscher has retired. I know it's probably too early to tell but I was incredibly impressed by his performances in the last world cup slaloms. You're talking about a top ten, but I actually think he could cause a huge upset and win a medal. I wouldn't be more surprised than about Gallhuber winning bronze

What you are saying is basically "all medals which weren't almost completely certain are surprises". There are events in which you don't have three clear favorites and in some of those you'll make a medal, in some of those you won't. It's not surprising the Italian men's ski team didn't win a medal in the speed events but it also wouldn't have been surprising if they had won one. Same for the women in the gs. Seriously, calling brignone's medal a surprise is just ridiculous. Btw, Arndt Peiffer's gold medal is not a surprise to you but Windisch winning any medal is?