Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Singer01]

Norway going with JTB on leg 3 and Christiansen on 4, weird. Also would have put Eckhoff 1st. Wonder why Terjei isn't racing after his good form last week.

 

[zarnack]

Switzerland and Czech Republic can be medal contenders too if stars align.

I agree that overall Norway is probably the quickest in skiing. But you never know, how shooting goes, so that's the exciting part.

 

[Singer01]

Re:

I feel that it will be between Germany and France. Norway has the strongest team regarding skiing but Eckhoff will probably go into the penalty loop, perhaps more than once. Italy might be a good pick for third if Windisch and Hofer have a good day in the range.

No Dahlmeier, but as long as Herman doesn't hit the penalty loop they should be ok.

 

[kingjr]

Looking at Olsbu now, I fear the worst for the 3rd leg

 

[Singer01]

Re:

Looking at Olsbu now, I fear the worst for the 3rd leg

Fear the worst in that JTB will just ski off into the distance?

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Looking at Olsbu now, I fear the worst for the 3rd leg

Fear the worst in that JTB will just ski off into the distance?

Yeah

 

[zarnack]

Do the French have poor skis? They have dropped way off, and without any penalty loops.

 

[Singer01]

Re: Re:

Looking at Olsbu now, I fear the worst for the 3rd leg

Fear the worst in that JTB will just ski off into the distance?

Yeah

Fear not my friend, Tiril is about to do her standing shoot.

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

Looking at Olsbu now, I fear the worst for the 3rd leg

Fear the worst in that JTB will just ski off into the distance?

Yeah

Fear not my friend, Tiril is about to do her standing shoot.

And that's that.. well, it has been a nice 30 min

 

[Singer01]

awesome, by the end of the womens legs there will be 4 teams within 10 seconds probably, assuming Herrmann does her normal ski over the last 2km.

 

[zarnack]

The ski speed of Herrmann is incredible. She just needs to shoot clean in individual distances and she will be up there.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Herrmann was very impressive there, also quite impressed with Eckhoff who shot well by her standards.

 

[WKA311]

Peiffer is holding up against JTB pretty good

 

[Singer01]

Germany keeping it interesting. Probably about 20-25 second defecit at final changeover (edit, only 15). Christiansen has been rapid recently but he has limited big championship experience. Then again EHS did and he used to choke from time to time.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Great race between Norway and Germany, cannot call it. Italy holding on for bronze.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Christiansen wow! Great shooting. Doll’s standing shoot once again let’s him down. Can Doll pull back 18s?

 

[KZD]

Watch out for Christiansen in the individual races. If he continues like this he may even win an individual gold.

The French really had an off day, but Martin Fourcade seemed in good shape.

 

[zarnack]

So Norwegians hit the targets and first gold for them. But shooting is going to mix it up and unlikely these championships would be as complete victory to them as in XC.

By the way, just as a fun fact. In Pyeongchang olympics Norway achieved 14 golds, which was considered a great achievement. In 2019 Nordic Ski championships they won already 13. Now in biathlon they have matched up to the olympic score, and that is without counting alpine skiing and other winter sports! 20 virtual olympic golds this year?

 

[Singer01]

Re:

By the way, just as a fun fact. In Pyeongchang olympics Norway achieved 14 golds, which was considered a great achievement. In 2019 Nordic Ski championships they won already 13. Now in biathlon they have matched up to the olympic score, and that is without counting alpine skiing and other winter sports! 20 virtual olympic golds this year?

The won 2 holds at the alpine WC as well. Are alpine, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon and XC not where they win all their medals though?

 

[DenisMenchov]

Re: Re:

By the way, just as a fun fact. In Pyeongchang olympics Norway achieved 14 golds, which was considered a great achievement. In 2019 Nordic Ski championships they won already 13. Now in biathlon they have matched up to the olympic score, and that is without counting alpine skiing and other winter sports! 20 virtual olympic golds this year?

The won 2 holds at the alpine WC as well. Are alpine, ski jumping, Nordic combined and biathlon and XC not where they win all their medals though?

Speed skating, curling and some freestyle skiing too I think.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Speaking of medals, Olympics have that system where every medal counts the same, so you have an example where Serbia had 53 (out of 103) athletes coming home with a medal, none of them a multiple medalist but in the final rankings they only had 8 counted medals. It is because they won medals in both basketball competitions and also women's volleyball and men's waterpolo.
In the total rankings they would be beaten by Katie Ledecky alone only due to the fact that she can compete in multiple events because of her sport that makes ridiculous amount of disciplines and variations of swimming. Those guys in team sports only have one chance per Games.

 

[search]

if anyone was wondering why the 50k race in Olso starts that early this time (10 in the morning, instead of in the afternoon): last year people were so drunk, that the police & volunteers at the track could barely hold the crowds under control

 

[Singer01]

Re:

if anyone was wondering why the 50k race in Olso starts that early this time (10 in the morning, instead of in the afternoon): last year people were so drunk, that the police & volunteers at the track could barely hold the crowds under control

I've been to Oslo. I'm amazed anyone can afford to get that drunk there.
Earlier discussion about how well they are doing at world championships this year, is there a chance that because they have so much money they fund world championships cycles as highly as Olympics, while others don't have that option?
Today I'm going with Vitozzi, though Oeberg would be nice to get the home crowd going.

 

[Singer01]

Re:

The French really had an off day, but Martin Fourcade seemed in good shape.

His shooting was dogshit, and he was nearly a minute slower than JTB despite only missing 1 shot more. Commentators were saying he historically shoots poorly in ostersund, true or not?

 

[search]

no idea, Vitozzi looked fairly slow yesterday though, Öberg even more so. (Wind) conditions seem to be a bit worse today, so that may play into their hands, but I'd tend to say Olsbu is the favourite