Alpine Skiing

[Gigs_98]

Looks as if Miller wants to make another comeback
Right now he has problems with "head" since he wants to use new skis but has a contract with head that he has to make another comeback with head skis, but if they reach an agreement, Miller will probably return

[Gigs_98]

Did anyone watch the Val d'Isere Slalom? Kristoffersens run must be one of the sickest runs I've ever seen.

[Mayomaniac]

Yes, Manfred Mölgg just won a race after 8 years!
Here's the obligatory video of him climbing the Giau with Cassani:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpV94L0q7Cs

[Gigs_98]

After the races in Beaver Creek were moved to Val d'Isere and the downhill in Santa Catarina was cancelled the 3rd great downhill of the season in Wengen was cancelled as well. So the only two downhills of the season so far were on the boring slope in Val d'Isere and the spectacular but also really flat slope of Gröden. Only good news of the downhill season so far is that Lake Louise was also cancelled.
But seriously, thats just incredibly lame. Wengen is IMO the coolest race of the whole season and even if they make up for the cancelled races, there can't be a real replacement for a unique downhill like Wengen. Anyway the plan right now is to make an additional racing weekend before the world cup finale in Aspen, which would be in Beaver Creek. (because the finale is in Aspen this year they wanted to make a pause for one week since the first training in Aspen is on a Monday and due to the time difference they can't make a race on the day before that. However if the race on the day before is also in the US the time difference wouldn't be a big problem anymore)

[Mayomaniac]

Glad to see that someone from Austria admits that Wengen is better than Kitzbühl.
They should have cancelled the Slalom, so you could still try to have a race tomorrow. You can have a Slalom pretty much everywhere and we have too many Slaloms, the whole overall WC is heavily biased towards Slalom and GS specialists, they have way more races than the speed specialists.

[Gigs_98]

Glad to see that someone from Austria admits that Wengen is better than Kitzbühl.
They should have cancelled the Slalom, so you could still try to have a race tomorrow. You can have a Slalom pretty much everywhere and we have too many Slaloms, the whole overall WC is heavily biased towards Slalom and GS specialists, they have way more races than the speed specialists.

There are more, but not way more. There are both 10 downhills and slaloms, 9 giant slaloms and 8 super g's scheduled for this season, + a parallel slalom which favors slalom skiers, + a parallel giant slalom, which funnily doesn't really favor gs skiers. Moreover there are two combines which you can normally leave out of the equation but since one of them is foolishly raced with a super-g instead of a downhill that event also slightly favors slalom skiers.
Therefore there are two more races which favor slalom/gs skiers and another one which favors them slightly. However considering that there are all in all 41 races that advantage isn't extremely big (it definitely exists though). The bigger problem is that there are hardly any seasons in which all speed events can be raced. For example people tend to forget that the overall world cup 2013 was really close but Hirscher won easily because the downhill and the super-g of the wc finale were cancelled. So the advantage of skiers like Hirscher gets even bigger.

Edit: Okay I just noticed that I made a stupid mistake since I just counted the races which are and were scheduled for the season so for example I counted the downhill in Lake Louise because it was scheduled, as well as the 2nd downhill in Kvitfjell because it is scheduled right now. Thats nonsense though because the 2nd Kvitfjell downhill is the replacement for the cancelled Lake Louise downhill so I actually only should have counted one. Therefore only 9 downhills and 7 super-g's were scheduled for this year and the advantage for Hirscher gets even bigger. Generally he has basically already won the world cup again. He has an advantage of 378 points over Jansrud and even in the best case scenario for Jansrud which would be that there will be an additional wc weekend in Beaver Creek with two downhills, Jansrud only has 9 races left which favor him over Hirscher, which is the same number of races Hirscher has left. Okay I admit Mayo was right, the slalom/gs specialists have way more races

[Brullnux]

Paris wins the downhill at Kitzbuehel, the first run on the proper full course since 2013 - when, incidentally, Paris also won. He had an awesome end to the race, despite his (quite big) mistake coming into the Hausberg, but wouldn't have won without Beat Fuez crashing out on the traverse. It was a fun race nonetheless, and nice to see Paris who seems like a really nice person win again.

[Gigs_98]

Yeah, the downhill in Kitzbühel was great. I'm a bit sad about Reichelts mistake after the Mausefalle, otherwise he might have won. Then again Feuz would have been even faster if he hadn't crashed.
The Slalom today was great as well. Unfortunately Kristoffersen fell, otherwise the duel between him and Hirscher would have been great but anyway Hirscher's 2nd run was a run I'll remember for a very long time.

[Brullnux]

Also great stuff from Dave Ryding, 2nd is an amazing result for a Brit. He has got a few top 10s before and I think it just all came together for him (helped by two of the best three slalom racers crashing in the first run, but still awesome)

[Gigs_98]

Today was a perfect display of all reasons why I dislike the team event in Alpine skiing.

[Mayomaniac]

Yes, the team event kinda sucks.
Alpine Sking is such a brutal sport, the wear and tear and the injuries are just nasty.
Just look at the two downhill WCs, Feuz already had 8 knee surgeries and Stuhec 5 (all of them on her right knee an she's only 26 years old).

[Tricycle Rider]

Yes, the team event kinda sucks.
Alpine Sking is such a brutal sport, the wear and tear and the injuries are just nasty.
Just look at the two downhill WCs, Feuz already had 8 knee surgeries and Stuhec 5 (all of them on her right knee an she's only 26 years old).

Ain't that the truth, Ruth!

My dad (he was a part-time ski instructor way back when) threw me on some skis when I was something like 6yr. old, pushed me down the mountain, and I suppose he hoped for the best.

Never had a major wipe-out (though, there were plenty of small ones, which can be kinda fun), or even broke a bone. But there was that one time my cousin stupidly decided to step on the back of my skis to where I fell forwards and overextended my knees. (That **** hurt so bad, but all my grandma had on hand at the time was aspirin.)

So anyhoo, YES! Alpine skiing is extremely hard on the knees one way or another!


KInda miss hitting the slopes, btw., but it's such an expensive sport to pursue here in the States.

[Mayomaniac]

Yes, I medial collateral ligament when I was 12 or 13 years old, I got up and I had to walk back home with my Ski boots still on, that hurt like hell.
The wear and tear i just brutal, so many of the pros have bad knees or back problems and there are a ton of people who didn't make it because of injuries, I know a girl who used to be pretty good, but she had to deal with spinal disc problems in her lower back since her teens.
If we ignore combat sports and other sports that involve a ton of potential head trauma like American Football Alpine Skiing is probably the one sport that I wouldn't want my kids to take pursuit a career in, way too many injuries.

[Tricycle Rider]

Yes, I medial collateral ligament when I was 12 or 13 years old, I got up and I had to walk back home with my Ski boots still on, that hurt like hell.
The wear and tear i just brutal, so many of the pros have bad knees or back problems and there are a ton of people who didn't make it because of injuries, I know a girl who used to be pretty good, but she had to deal with spinal disc problems in her lower back since her teens.
If we ignore combat sports and other sports that involve a ton of potential head trauma like American Football Alpine Skiing is probably the one sport that I wouldn't want my kids to take pursuit a career in, way too many injuries.

Agreed.

I think most sports are fine on a recreational and fun level. But once you get into the pro levels (where money talks and bullshit walks), things can get a bit reckless and ruthless.

[Brullnux]

Congrats to Goggia who out of everyone of the WC tour this season most deserved a victory. She takes two in the same weekend which bodes well for next year.

The olympic track though seems really boring. I understand Sochi was maybe a bit too much but there's no need to go to the other extreme.

[Gigs_98]

So, the season already started this weekend and it really seems like the it's last year all over again since in one race the slope was shortened and the 2nd race was cancelled completely
Anyway, the women's even was quite good. The slope looked brutal, hardly anyone could really carve on the steepest sections. It's a bit sad that Mölgg couldn't win but Rebensburg is a worthy winner who could have won by a way bigger margin anyway, if she hadn't made big mistakes on the lower part of the slope in the first run.

Meanwhile the most interesting thing about the cancelled mens even was Ligety's not overly smart comment that he thinks the race wasn't actually cancelled due to bad weather but due to the fact that the Austrian organizers wanted to give Hirscher an advantage for the world cup since he wouldn't have started due to a fractured ancle but might return to the world cup in december. Ofc the cancellation is indeed an advantage for Hirscher but still I think it's quite obvious a race can't take place with wind with guts of over 100kph.

[Mayomaniac]

So, the season already started this weekend and it really seems like the it's last year all over again since in one race the slope was shortened and the 2nd race was cancelled completely
Anyway, the women's even was quite good. The slope looked brutal, hardly anyone could really carve on the steepest sections. It's a bit sad that Mölgg couldn't win but Rebensburg is a worthy winner who could have won by a way bigger margin anyway, if she hadn't made big mistakes on the lower part of the slope in the first run.

Meanwhile the most interesting thing about the cancelled mens even was Ligety's not overly smart comment that he thinks the race wasn't actually cancelled due to bad weather but due to the fact that the Austrian organizers wanted to give Hirscher an advantage for the world cup since he wouldn't have started due to a fractured ancle but might return to the world cup in december. Ofc the cancellation is indeed an advantage for Hirscher but still I think it's quite obvious a race can't take place with wind with guts of over 100kph.

Ligety's comment isn't exactly smart.
Yeah, you can't have a race with that kind of weather, but the rule that you can't postpone the last (ok, I get the reasoning behind that) and the first race of the season (WTF?), that rule is just stupid, the next race will take place in 2 weeks, so having the race today would have been fine and also better for the race organizers.

[Gigs_98]

So, the season already started this weekend and it really seems like the it's last year all over again since in one race the slope was shortened and the 2nd race was cancelled completely
Anyway, the women's even was quite good. The slope looked brutal, hardly anyone could really carve on the steepest sections. It's a bit sad that Mölgg couldn't win but Rebensburg is a worthy winner who could have won by a way bigger margin anyway, if she hadn't made big mistakes on the lower part of the slope in the first run.

Meanwhile the most interesting thing about the cancelled mens even was Ligety's not overly smart comment that he thinks the race wasn't actually cancelled due to bad weather but due to the fact that the Austrian organizers wanted to give Hirscher an advantage for the world cup since he wouldn't have started due to a fractured ancle but might return to the world cup in december. Ofc the cancellation is indeed an advantage for Hirscher but still I think it's quite obvious a race can't take place with wind with guts of over 100kph.

Ligety's comment isn't exactly smart.
Yeah, you can't have a race with that kind of weather, but the rule that you can't postpone the last (ok, I get the reasoning behind that) and the first race of the season (WTF?), that rule is just stupid, the next race will take place in 2 weeks, so having the race today would have been fine and also better for the race organizers.

Well, those rules might be stupid, but they have existed before the incident, so it's not like the organizers invented the rule to support Hirscher, which is what Ligety implied. Generally I agree though, the season opening which could easily be postponed has to get completely cancelled, but a race one week before the season finale should by rule not get cancelled but postponed. WTF?

[Tyre Byter]

BBC is reporting David Poisson died in a training accident today! Few details available at present.
http://m.bbc.com/sport/winter-sports/41977328
Such awful news! Heartfelt condolences to his family and friends as well as the French ski team and basically the whole 'white circus.'
This is NOT the way I was expecting the speed season to commence. Very shocking! Very sad!

[Gigs_98]

I just cannot believe how unlucky Kristoffersen is. This year it seems like absolutely everything goes in Hirschers favor, who now btw has as many world cup wins as Alberto Tomba and is therefore joined number 3, only behind Maier and Stenmark in the mens all time ranking. With 54 wins Maier also only has 4 more wins than Hirscher so Hirscher could already become number two this season.

Anyway, all those numbers won't look that impressive anymore after Shifrin will reach 100 wins in around 5 years