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Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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ToreBear said:
Yes poor Miri, shes needed everywhere.:D

But you are right she could do both.

I hope she focuses more on XC. I think she would benefit from a more steady progression than the ups or downs of hits and misses. But thats just my opinion.
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I hope she sticks with biathlon and continues to use XC as a side-project, because I've been following her progress for three seasons, and it would make all that work seem a complete waste to semi-abandon it as soon as she gets to the point where she is competing for wins. And for what, so that the Norwegian girls can bully somebody other than Kowalczyk with the numbers game? And her shooting is waaaaay better this season. Far quicker as well as being a bit more accurate. By the end of the season her career hit rate in standing might surpass Lars'.

Also, she has the potential to compete for the win in every biathlon race she enters. Can we really say that of XC? Hell no. Relays, for one thing.
 
ToreBear

ToreBear

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Libertine Seguros said:
I hope she sticks with biathlon and continues to use XC as a side-project, because I've been following her progress for three seasons, and it would make all that work seem a complete waste to semi-abandon it as soon as she gets to the point where she is competing for wins. And for what, so that the Norwegian girls can bully somebody other than Kowalczyk with the numbers game? And her shooting is waaaaay better this season. Far quicker as well as being a bit more accurate. By the end of the season her career hit rate in standing might surpass Lars'.

Also, she has the potential to compete for the win in every biathlon race she enters. Can we really say that of XC? Hell no. Relays, for one thing.
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I don't think she would loose much of her shooting skills. They might even improve after a few years of not focusing on shooting.

And the Norwegian girls don't bully, they play fair. As for winning, that would take time, but thats part of being an athlete. Training and improving step by step and slowly improving.

Don't worry XC will take care of her, you can have her back for cristhmas and in the summer.:D
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

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ToreBear said:
I don't think she would loose much of her shooting skills. They might even improve after a few years of not focusing on shooting.

And the Norwegian girls don't bully, they play fair. As for winning, that would take time, but thats part of being an athlete. Training and improving step by step and slowly improving.

Don't worry XC will take care of her, you can have her back for cristhmas and in the summer.:D
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So why get to the point where you can compete for the win in one sport... to give up before you've achieved anything near your potential, to then have to go through the same slow improvement procedure in another? As long as she's happy with biathlon, she should remain a biathlete first and foremost. It also takes the pressure off her on her forays into XC, because she doesn't have to go in with the weight of expectation of carrying German hopes (at the moment she does have that to some extent in biathlon, but Andrea Henkel will continue to rack up good results to bail the team out thanks to consistency). You could say that she performs better without that huge pressure, but at the same time if she was to make the jump to XC, she would instantly become the top dog on the German team and have just traded one form of pressure to perform with another, which comes with less exposure and less chance of success in the present day.

I see it as the German cross-country team needing her more than she needs to be a cross-country skier. She has more than enough skills to make it as a biathlete and she's broken through in the sport she has professed to preferring this season, why would you give that up before you've really taken it anywhere? Seems counterproductive to me.

edit: especially bearing in mind the Olympic XC program doesn't look the most friendly to her either.
 
Bavarianrider

Bavarianrider

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Libertine Seguros said:
Is she not world class in biathlon? I mean, she's in the top 10 of the World Rankings and has won 3 races. Biathlon is much bigger than XC skiing in Germany, which lest we forget, is where she's from (unless you're a total Bavarian nationalist nut of course). It is true that there is more money to be made in winnings on the XC world circuit... but there might be more endorsements, appearance fees etc to gain from biathlon.

And plus, we've already learnt in the past: she chose to go back to biathlon rather than stay in the cross country team for 2010-11 because she likes biathlon more.

You yourself said she's more of a Lars Berger, and always will be... but there's a hell of a lot of cross-country skiers who'd love to have his cross-country palmarès.

Plus, you defend XC skiing as a 'real' sport as opposed to biathlon, but this comes on the back of several pages of your complaining (with my support it must be added) that XC skiing is killing itself by moving away from real skiing events and in favour of short, crappy sprint events and long, crappy mass start events where the sprint is the important thing. In addition to that, biathlon seems to be slightly marginalising the Individual, which is the least suited format for Gössner, in favour of events that do not penalise inaccuracy as much, which is ideal for Miri.

78 women started today (with one DNS). 114 women started the sprint in Nové Město two weeks ago (with one DNS). The number of realistic potential winners was far higher too. Is XC skiing really that much bigger than biathlon?

I like the idea of her being a cross-sport athlete. Biathlon keeps her happy, Cross-country keeps the specialists honest. It's good to see a measure of where the top biathletes are at, skiing-wise, as well. It does put a bit more pressure on Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle to perform in Oslo though, since it's her third chance at the World Cup level as a biathlete, and she's really struggled for ski speed at the other events.
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The number of people who activaley particicpate in cross country skiing ist at least ca 25 times higher then in biathlon.
Biathlon is almost only a media sport with no base at all.
Frankly spoken, biathlon is a bit like wrestling or something. IT's a show, not a sport in the very first sense.
 
Bavarianrider

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maltiv said:
Both sports are small.

Today there was about 2000 spectators for the XC WC. In Biathlon Worlds there was an average of 30 000 spectators on the stadium!

Biathlon is sent by more TV stations, viewed by significantly more people, and has more active athletes. I can't see how you can possible argue that XC skiing is bigger.
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Sorry but that is ridicilous.

There are no spectators because Val di Fiemme is an horrible place for a world championchip.
 
Bavarianrider

Bavarianrider

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MrRoboto said:
The organizers for the championship in Oslo 2 years ago tried pushing through similar things (making it closer to the classic Holmenkollen 50 km), but wasn't allowed to. Can't really see it happening in Falun then.
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What i heared is that the Norwegians were split on that topic in Oslo.
Some wanted the 50km to be an individual race but there were also many who wanted it to be a mass start. Simply for the reason that it suited Northug a lot better, of course.
Therefore Norway did not really push that hard to make it an individual race. IF they really wanted, they could have had an individual start.
 
ToreBear

ToreBear

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Bavarianrider said:
What i heared is that the Norwegians were split on that topic in Oslo.
Some wanted the 50km to be an individual race but there were also many who wanted it to be a mass start. Simply for the reason that it suited Northug a lot better, of course.
Therefore Norway did not really push that hard to make it an individual race. IF they really wanted, they could have had an individual start.
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Yep, he is horrible in Individual start.:p



Yehaa!!!!!!! I knew he had a chance.:D

He started hard. Followed on the second lap, and then fought through the last round. I think alot of guys were mentally discourage by the strong early times he showed.
 
python

python

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petter made me eeat my words...:eek:

trink11.gif


and watching great skiing was still fun (much better than the guy below) :)

338.gif
 
Bavarianrider

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Vino attacks everyone said:
Great race from the last couple of years best male skier!
Now I am looking forward to watch the kazakh superman Poltaranin crush everyone in the 50km
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Every single classic 50km mass start has been a horrible horrible borefest. Even worse then in freestyle.
I'd love to see Poltoraninen light up the race, but i am 99% sure it will again come down to a 2km sprint of a 40 guys bunch:eek:
 
ToreBear

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Today is on paper going to be a very open race except for who wins. Bar accidents Norway is the favorites. But the fight for the other placings will be interesting.

Candidates:
Finnland
Sweden
Germany
USA

Possibly Russia, Italy and France might be able to pull something off if the field stays together.
 
python

python

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ToreBear said:
Today is on paper going to be a very open race except for who wins. Bar accidents Norway is the favorites. But the fight for the other placings will be interesting.

Candidates:
Finnland
Sweden
Germany
USA

Possibly Russia, Italy and France might be able to pull something off if the field stays together.
Click to expand...
the only consolation for other nations is that norway can't take the entire podium today :)
 
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