Discgear said:
So, did you enjoy the race? Quit interested to hear about your holistic approach to Kalla and why you find her suspicious, or is she suspicious because she's the only one with some competitive edge against the red army? Quite amazing race today. To see Johaug smash all competition with her horrible energy wasting technique, challenged by nobody except another lady with a body like an American male sprinter.
I found her suspicious mainly because of the team she is on. She was one of those I was least suspicious of.
You see the Swedish team peaking every four years, their incredible performance at altitude etc all made me very concerned last year. With Kalla on another level at the start of last year I wanted to rule her out first. Her performance in the 30k was more or less similar to last year at Holmenkollen. Although a bit better, which is to be expected from a year of training.
Why suspecting the Swedes? I have no suspicions on the younger members of the team eg(Calle and Stina). My suspicion is in part based on some snippets of information.
Fis anti doping and it's predecessor had a Swede at the helm from the early nineties until 2006.
When Saltins suspicion list came out without a Swede with some type of illness giving weird numbers wich some say was not possible with this Ilness I raised an eyebrow. When this Norwegian skier is on the list, but his increase in hgb seems to correlate exactly with the competition altitiude, and knowing that recently the UCI said they avoided testing at altitude because of measurement reliability problems, and not the above mentioned skier, my mind starts to churn. Add that to the lackluster financing of Anti Doping in Sweden. I'm not a believer in conspiracies, but I have to rule them out. I haven't proceeded much in my theorizing since I'm more focused on gathering more information.
Johaug did not have a horrible energy wasting technique on the 30k. Could it be you don't like people questioning Swedes?
As I said before, today I'm totally convinced that the Norwegian success during the 90s was due to illegal medical use. I have always refused to think that doping is a part of their current success. But what really ****es me off, is the constant questioning from Norwegian media as soon as anyone else seem to be competitive. Swedes excluded of course, since they are untouchables.
You must have read quite a bit of this since it ****es you off. I can not remember the Norwegian media questioning other nations performances. Could you provide some links, or is this some kind of straw man argumentation because you are annoyed about something?
The Swedes got away with two golds but both of those wins was very much due to weather, starting numbers and extremely good material. Today, visibly superior skis for Kalla didn't help much against a Johaug with endless energy resources.
I think Kalla would have won the 10k either way. As for her skis. I suspect you were misled by the glide you saw on the downhill into the stadium. Also skis deteriorate and they change skis. Eg Bj?rgens first skis were bad, but the second pair were good.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram