Cortina d'Ampezzo-Milan Winter Olympics

[kingjr]

The sprint is an unholy abomination that has nothing to do with real ski mountaineering and should have been drowned at birth!
It's a circus act with artificial obstacles

Now I get that they didn't want to put in the long Individual event (at leat 3 longer climbs and downhills with a max of 1900m of altitude gain, no single climb have more the 50% of the total altitude gain), but the Vertical, an uphill mass start race with usually around 700m of altitude gain would have been perfect.

But the IOC probably heared the sprint being described as "short, explosive and action packed" and creamed their pants thinking that the young folk will love it...

When an ageing CC journeyman like Bellingham makes it to the semifinals, then probably every single athlete who qualified for the CC sprint heats would have managed to win at least a medal.

 

[Sciatic]

Yeah, I'm wondering which demographic this sprint format was aimed at, I'm guessing not at seasoned XC ski followers. I'd like to give this sport a chance, but not if it's going to be just a short and sweet sprint with obstacles that look pretty out of place in a mountain setting.

Of course we know why IOC money grubbers and media try to turn any sport into something to sell. But some sports just aren’t about racing. I don’t know about in Europe, but in the mountain ranges here—like the Cascades and Sierras—ski mountaineering means anssessing weather conditions, avalanche beacons, shovels, probes, and other emergency gear. You could call it a competition (although better to think of it as a collaboration) against nature. And as we learned yesterday in California, sometimes nature wins.

 

[BigCoward]

Also, the ski section is obviously too short and too easy, it's almost impossible to overtake or make up meaningful time.
It should be 10 mins up, 10 mins down.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I am just happy that Tatjana Paller is now an Olympian.

 

[Red Rick]

Crazy level in the 1500m, four athletes under OR pace and two more just outside it.

Based on the 1000 times I had thought Stolz would be way faster on the 1500

I wonder if there's something about the large amount of days between events that made this more difficult for him.

 

[search]

Based on the 1000 times I had thought Stolz would be way faster on the 1500

I wonder if there's something about the large amount of days between events that made this more difficult for him.

maybe, but the American speed skaters didn't really look great in general so far. And neither did Stolz, despite winning two golds.

But he obviously still shouldn't finish a second behind