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2018 Winter Olympics, PyeongChang

Page 4 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Tricycle Rider said:
[quote="Gigs_98":2ez2jq7r]I really hope the weather in pyeongchang finally gets better. Only one alpine skiing event has taken place so far, and all ski jumping and nordic combined even have been heavily influenced by the wind
Speaking of alpine - is it true the Olympic combined may be on the chopping block because skiers are so highly specialized now that they don't care to do both? Slalom and downhill I mean. (Apologies, I'm a bit out of the loop.)[/quote]
Yeah, unfortunately that's true. Over the last decade basically all male alpine combined specialists have retired. Kostelic, Miller, Raich, Zurbriggen, a few other decent skiers for this discipline like walchhofer, schönfelder,... are also all gone and guys like ligety and svindal are still skiing but have specialized. The only one who still cares for combineds outside of major events is alexis pinturault but he despite caring for the discipline isn't very good at it. Hirscher basically only participates at combineds at major events and the only three times he did that he always beat pinturault.
It's kind of logical they don't want to make events nobody cares about. The problem is that the women have to pay for the men not caring about the discipline, since on the womens side there are still more then enough skiers who would be great in combineds. Shiffrin, holdener, gisin to only name a few.

Maybe you could add ester ledecka to the list however she would have to make the slalom with her snowboard.
 
Does anyone know why Weng didn't race? i know she wasn't in top form but i refuse to accept she couldn't have done better than that.

Having said that, if Haga gets them back into this the 4 leading teams could all handover at roughly the same time making for an excellent finale.
 
Re:

Singer01 said:
Does anyone know why Weng didn't race? i know she wasn't in top form but i refuse to accept she couldn't have done better than that.

Having said that, if Haga gets them back into this the 4 leading teams could all handover at roughly the same time making for an excellent finale.
Simply a gamble, Astrid's not had much racing and they thought a fresh Astrid would be better than a tired Heidi on bad form. And also maybe to keep Heidi fresh for the 30k and given the form Ragnhild has been on they thought they could overturn any deficit, and given what Haga is doing it's not a bad thought...
 
Phew that was close. Norwegian dominance or rather superiority for this year too. If Weng and Østberg don't figure out how to peak in the next championship it's Swedens time to rule. I doubt we will have Bjørgen for much longer. But the Swedes better take that opportunity since the Russians look to be just around the corner.

The Norwegian classic skis might be a tiny bit poorer than average, however their skate skis seem to be unbelievable.

If this continues the team sprint looks red white and blue, but the 30k classic doesn't look so good from a Norwegian perspective.

Shame Caldwell didn't have her day/skis, the others looked good for a medal.
 
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ToreBear said:
Phew that was close. Norwegian dominance or rather superiority for this year too. If Weng and Østberg don't figure out how to peak in the next championship it's Swedens time to rule. I doubt we will have Bjørgen for much longer. But the Swedes better take that opportunity since the Russians look to be just around the corner.

The Norwegian classic skis might be a tiny bit poorer than average, however their skate skis seem to be unbelievable.

If this continues the team sprint looks red white and blue, but the 30k classic doesn't look so good from a Norwegian perspective.

Shame Caldwell didn't have her day/skis, the others looked good for a medal.
Although Norway lose bjorgen they get johaug back so it's no real reduction in quality. But totally agree 're weng, she Does not look like the world no 1, or even the top 10.
 
Re: Re:

Singer01 said:
ToreBear said:
Phew that was close. Norwegian dominance or rather superiority for this year too. If Weng and Østberg don't figure out how to peak in the next championship it's Swedens time to rule. I doubt we will have Bjørgen for much longer. But the Swedes better take that opportunity since the Russians look to be just around the corner.

The Norwegian classic skis might be a tiny bit poorer than average, however their skate skis seem to be unbelievable.

If this continues the team sprint looks red white and blue, but the 30k classic doesn't look so good from a Norwegian perspective.

Shame Caldwell didn't have her day/skis, the others looked good for a medal.
Although Norway lose bjorgen they get johaug back so it's no real reduction in quality. But totally agree 're weng, she Does not look like the world no 1, or even the top 10.


I forgot about Johaug. :eek: Yes I think Weng might have been racing too much. Also she didn't do any altitude training either. Østberg did have altitude training though. So she might stabilize. Anyway perhaps Weng just needs some rest.
 
Apr 22, 2012
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Ledecká's win in super-G most likely the biggest surprise of Olympics so far. Great. IOC was already congratulating Veith for the win, I'm not quite sure but Veith looked to be already celebrating and then...bam!!! Right in their faces.
 
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Kokoso said:
Ledecká's win in super-G most likely the biggest surprise of Olympics so far. Great. IOC was already congratulating Veith for the win, I'm not quite sure but Veith looked to be already celebrating and then...bam!!! Right in their faces.
In Austrian TV she made an interview prior to Ledecka's run and she already called it her most beautiful win. Ouch.
I ofc didn't watch most alpine skiing races in the history of the olympics but still I think this might be the biggest upset in olympics alpine skiing races ever. Because Ledecka is also a snowboarder she has attracted quite a lot of media attention in Austria despite not having very good results in Alpine skiing, which is why Ester Ledecka was already a known name prior to today. But imagine someone else whose best world cup result has been a 7th place and whose best Super-G result has been a 19th place pulls that off. I probably would have been shocked even more.

Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.
 
Re:

ToreBear said:
Phew that was close. Norwegian dominance or rather superiority for this year too. If Weng and Østberg don't figure out how to peak in the next championship it's Swedens time to rule. I doubt we will have Bjørgen for much longer. But the Swedes better take that opportunity since the Russians look to be just around the corner.

The Norwegian classic skis might be a tiny bit poorer than average, however their skate skis seem to be unbelievable.

If this continues the team sprint looks red white and blue, but the 30k classic doesn't look so good from a Norwegian perspective.

It even took Bjørgen some time to figure out how to peak in Championships. I'd be a bit surprised if Sweden would rule in the coming years. Yes, they have some fantastic skiers in Kalla and Stina. But Norway still has their ground troops of recruits (just counting the Weng-cousins there are plenty to choose from). Haga has the best free style technique among the world class skiers today and she will only grow better with more experience .... and then there is Johaug -who has been pissed off for 18 months and will come back with a vengeance.

Russia however. Now they look like they are building something to recon with - Their youngsters were even ahead of Kalla and Sweden on the second exchange.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
Kokoso said:
Ledecká's win in super-G most likely the biggest surprise of Olympics so far. Great. IOC was already congratulating Veith for the win, I'm not quite sure but Veith looked to be already celebrating and then...bam!!! Right in their faces.


Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.

Great story. I am sure there are plenty of great stories in Winter Olympics if one starts to look.

Here is one: Laila Schou Nilsen (Norway) won a medal in alpine skiing in 1936, just 16 years old, when she wasn't allowed to compete in her main event (skating). Just like Ledecka she was super talented in different sports. She held world records on 500m, 1k, 3k and 5k in skating, two times all round world champion and she was a national champion in slalom, giant slalom, down hill and in the combined events. She had good results in xc-skiing and ski jumping. She won 85 National titles in tennis :surprised: She also played on the National team in handball and did the Rally Monte Carlo four times :lol:
 
Re: Re:

Norbea said:
Gigs_98 said:
Kokoso said:
Ledecká's win in super-G most likely the biggest surprise of Olympics so far. Great. IOC was already congratulating Veith for the win, I'm not quite sure but Veith looked to be already celebrating and then...bam!!! Right in their faces.


Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.

Great story. I am sure there are plenty of great stories in Winter Olympics if one starts to look.

Here is one: Laila Schou Nilsen (Norway) won a medal in alpine skiing in 1936, just 16 years old, when she wasn't allowed to compete in her main event (skating). Just like Ledecka she was super talented in different sports. She held world records on 500m, 1k, 3k and 5k in skating, two times all round world champion and she was a national champion in slalom, giant slalom, down hill and in the combined events. She had good results in xc-skiing and ski jumping. She won 85 National titles in tennis :surprised: She also played on the National team in handball and did the Rally Monte Carlo four times :lol:
That surely is impressive, but that's just a different era. In the modern era winning gold in two pretty different sports in one olympic games is something unheard of.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
In Austrian TV she made an interview prior to Ledecka's run and she already called it her most beautiful win. Ouch.
I ofc didn't watch most alpine skiing races in the history of the olympics but still I think this might be the biggest upset in olympics alpine skiing races ever. Because Ledecka is also a snowboarder she has attracted quite a lot of media attention in Austria despite not having very good results in Alpine skiing, which is why Ester Ledecka was already a known name prior to today. But imagine someone else whose best world cup result has been a 7th place and whose best Super-G result has been a 19th place pulls that off. I probably would have been shocked even more.

Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.

Ester's coach said that he was a bit surprised when he saw all the then-medallists giving interviews and congratulating each other. "I wouldn't do that if there were someone up above who was beating me last two days in training."
 
Re: Re:

TomasC said:
Gigs_98 said:
In Austrian TV she made an interview prior to Ledecka's run and she already called it her most beautiful win. Ouch.
I ofc didn't watch most alpine skiing races in the history of the olympics but still I think this might be the biggest upset in olympics alpine skiing races ever. Because Ledecka is also a snowboarder she has attracted quite a lot of media attention in Austria despite not having very good results in Alpine skiing, which is why Ester Ledecka was already a known name prior to today. But imagine someone else whose best world cup result has been a 7th place and whose best Super-G result has been a 19th place pulls that off. I probably would have been shocked even more.

Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.

Ester's coach said that he was a bit surprised when he saw all the then-medallists giving interviews and congratulating each other. "I wouldn't do that if there were someone up above who was beating me last two days in training."
I don't understand it either. In another forum I raged a bit after the Austrian TV broadcaster already celebrated Matthias Mayer's gold medal after the first 20 skiers. It's also a mindset I simply don't like. You don't celebrate till it's over, period. Someone like Marcel Hirscher for example would never do that.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
TomasC said:
Gigs_98 said:
In Austrian TV she made an interview prior to Ledecka's run and she already called it her most beautiful win. Ouch.
I ofc didn't watch most alpine skiing races in the history of the olympics but still I think this might be the biggest upset in olympics alpine skiing races ever. Because Ledecka is also a snowboarder she has attracted quite a lot of media attention in Austria despite not having very good results in Alpine skiing, which is why Ester Ledecka was already a known name prior to today. But imagine someone else whose best world cup result has been a 7th place and whose best Super-G result has been a 19th place pulls that off. I probably would have been shocked even more.

Anyway now that Ledecka has won the Super-G I hope she'll also win the snowboard parallel giant slalom, just because that would be one hell of a story, possibly the biggest story in the history of olympic winter games.

Ester's coach said that he was a bit surprised when he saw all the then-medallists giving interviews and congratulating each other. "I wouldn't do that if there were someone up above who was beating me last two days in training."
I don't understand it either. In another forum I raged a bit after the Austrian TV broadcaster already celebrated Matthias Mayer's gold medal after the first 20 skiers. It's also a mindset I simply don't like. You don't celebrate till it's over, period. Someone like Marcel Hirscher for example would never do that.

Maybe, but that's in part because in slalom the leader goes last.

The first few times I watched downhill/Super G I remember being very surprised that they started celebrating when there was still over half the racers left to start. I got used to it after a while, but it really bit back here.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
That surely is impressive, but that's just a different era. In the modern era winning gold in two pretty different sports in one olympic games is something unheard of.
This one is really impressive. Victor Chukarin from Soviet Union fought in an artillery unit in 1941. He was wounded and got into nazi concentration camps for 4 years. In 1945 he returned home weighting 40 kg at 24 years. He got 11 Olympic medals including 7 golds in 1952 and 1956.
 

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