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If you think this relay was like watching paint dry then I don't think biathlon is the sport for you.QFM would probably have been beaten by Sjåstad if he had shot clear anyway, but still a Norwegian win is like watching paint dry.
Oh boy, someone booked his ticket to the Gulag.
There is an unnecessary amount of hate on here for the Norwegians. Like there is for the British in the cycling forum.If you think this relay was like watching paint dry then I don't think biathlon is the sport for you.
If you think this relay was like watching paint dry then I don't think biathlon is the sport for you.
They have a big lobby that`s all. It is a joke really. Every competition is basically the same. It totally devalues the results.Is there a reason why there are so many biathlon events at the Olympics? Usually the same people win medals in both men's and women's events. So I guess there's not much variable between the events.
Disagree on the former. Sprint and Pursuit should pay one set of medals as the Sprint sets the grid for the Pursuit.They have a big lobby that`s all. It is a joke really. Every competition is basically the same. It totally devalues the results.
Sprint
Individual
Mass Start
Relay
Pursuit and Mixed relay really should not be at the Olympics.
Or reduce the gaps for the pursuit so nobody loses more than a minuteDisagree on the former. Sprint and Pursuit should pay one set of medals as the Sprint sets the grid for the Pursuit.
On the regular world cup it does - 60 people start the pursuit whereas only 30 start the Mass Start. Since in a regular World Cup, 25 of the Mass Start places are set by World Cup overall points, it would quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy who its entrants are because they get to do more races because of qualifying for the Mass Start. Also, fewer pursuits and more mass starts would make it less worthwhile for smaller teams to send athletes to the World Cup to contest the sprint because for some of them just qualifying for the pursuit is a win. You can frequently see exciting races where World Cup contenders are way down the field after a bad sprint, or people who've never done so well in a sprint suddenly have to deal with pressure shoots that they've never faced before. At the Olympics and World Championships, however, where only the medals count, it's a bit of a misnomer, and it is of course somewhat exacerbated here by a combination of altitude and time gaps from the sprint meaning that in the women's race Røiseland had enough of a lead that she could have made more mistakes than she did and still won comfortably, and in the men's race the field was essentially reduced to about five very early on and the rest, because these races don't count for the overall World Cup and they weren't in the hunt for medals, were competing over little more than pride and maybe trying to forge a case for relay selection. But then that applies to the majority of the field in XC too.I don't think the pursuit makes sense. It just gives the guys who did a good sprint an added advantage in a race that is similar to the mass start.
Very good point. I suggest the starting list for the mass start should be the top 20 in the world cup + the 10 best performers besides those 20 in the last competition.
On the regular world cup it does - 60 people start the pursuit whereas only 30 start the Mass Start. Since in a regular World Cup, 25 of the Mass Start places are set by World Cup overall points, it would quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy who its entrants are because they get to do more races because of qualifying for the Mass Start. Also, fewer pursuits and more mass starts would make it less worthwhile for smaller teams to send athletes to the World Cup to contest the sprint because for some of them just qualifying for the pursuit is a win. You can frequently see exciting races where World Cup contenders are way down the field after a bad sprint, or people who've never done so well in a sprint suddenly have to deal with pressure shoots that they've never faced before. At the Olympics and World Championships, however, where only the medals count, it's a bit of a misnomer, and it is of course somewhat exacerbated here by a combination of altitude and time gaps from the sprint meaning that in the women's race Røiseland had enough of a lead that she could have made more mistakes than she did and still won comfortably, and in the men's race the field was essentially reduced to about five very early on and the rest, because these races don't count for the overall World Cup and they weren't in the hunt for medals, were competing over little more than pride and maybe trying to forge a case for relay selection. But then that applies to the majority of the field in XC too.
they have big audience figures.
All wintersports are niche sports. Even hockey, which in the US is a distant 4th of the 'big four' leagues. Biathlon is a very big TV sport in the winter in much of central Europe and a few years ago was even the #3 TV sport on major channels after football and F1 in Germany, though it may have tailed off a bit now that Germany aren't so prominent at the head of the field. It draws huge crowds throughout central Europe and Russia however and is much bigger in terms of TV audience than XC in recent years, which has really been hurt by the loss without replacement of various nations' ageing vets as countries like Germany, Czech Republic, Canada and Poland become also-rans.I thought it was a niche sport and the casual viewer doesn't really find it interesting because in the end someone always wins by a big margin. But I guess it attracts well paying sponsors as wealthier countries like Germany and Norway have had success in this sport.
Riiber is a freak. 44 second gap without any practice. But surely if anything has suffered with his quarantine, it will be his ski speed.
Though the people at 45-90 seconds aren't particularly strong skiers.