Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

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Nov 28, 2021
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They need to be separate enough from the biathlon though, putting this two weeks after the biathlon, you know that people that can only afford one event in such a short span of time will always pick biathlon over XC. They'd probably be better served serving a different area of the country, like going to Notschrei or Oberwiesenthal, or if they are going to go to Oberhof, do it in late February or something so it's clearly separated out from the biathlon and people may be more willing to do both. They've only ever done it just before the biathlon (at the TDS) or just after (as in today) previously, which doesn't seem beneficial.

Most of the bigger venues that could accommodate the World Cup are shared with biathlon venues such as Notschrei and Altenberg, but there's also the NoCo that is held at Schonach or Klingenthal. I think Oberwiesenthal would probably be best use, they are at a decent level of altitude to guarantee snow, in a part of the country that isn't served by any World Cups since Eric Frenzel retired and Klingenthal lost its NoCo World Cup round to Oberstdorf, and Katharina Hennig would be the local star, being from the area.
Maybe they could do a combined weekend with NoCo in one of those venues. I think that could bring more spectators. But maybe its problem with accommodation, I know Oberstdorf pulled out of the Tour because they were to host women’s ski Jumping.
 
Aug 29, 2009
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Girls relay tomorrow looks like the weakest of all time. Only Sweden sends 2 strong teams and Germany has 1 strong team. The United States hasn't bothered to enter a team.

Could Sweden 2 beat Norway 1?
there's lots of wind on the forecast for tomorrow, much more than today. So the teams could stay a bit more bunched up than usual, I guess.

Not that this is any problem for Sweden, though.
 
Jul 13, 2012
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Bear Valley, the Frenchman, and highly likely JT…
I'd imagine that's a pretty easy consensus, although order of the 3 gets tough. Poiree is probably the only one who can crash it but him having his peak at the same as Bjoerndalen and a strong set of Germans meant he never really won as much as his talent deserved
 
Jun 22, 2010
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I'd imagine that's a pretty easy consensus, although order of the 3 gets tough. Poiree is probably the only one who can crash it but him having his peak at the same as Bjoerndalen and a strong set of Germans meant he never really won as much as his talent deserved

And between Fischer, Groß, Luck, Angerer you have tough task of picking the best German. My opinion is that Fischer edges out in that one.

Svendsen looked at one point headed in goat conversation.
 
Aug 29, 2009
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Heidi Weng is a DNS now and will be replaced by Myhrvold. This also means NOR II is down to three and can't compete.
 
Mar 16, 2021
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Heidi Weng is a DNS now and will be replaced by Myhrvold. This also means NOR II is down to three and can't compete.
How the mighty have fallen. I'm sure about 10 years ago there was a relay where Norway 1 came 1st, Norway 2 came 2nd, Norway 3 came 3rd and Norway 4 came 5th.
 
Aug 29, 2009
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How the mighty have fallen. I'm sure about 10 years ago there was a relay where Norway 1 came 1st, Norway 2 came 2nd, Norway 3 came 3rd and Norway 4 came 5th.
it'll be interesting to see how the men's race unfolds. Norway I remains the favourite, of course, but Klaebo said himself that he would have preferred not to start last, as his shape just isn't good enough. If the wind leads to a bunched up race, there could be a chance that they'll get beaten, I guess.
 
Jun 22, 2010
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And the Americans didn’t even field a team. Likely giving Brennan and Diggins a ‘breather’ before the next set of races in Goms. Kind of strange, because the last two years you get WC points going to your individual ranking and the nations cup.
 
Sep 26, 2020
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Out of curiosity, how do people rank the top 3 biathletes of all time?

Bjørndalen, Fourcade, Forsberg. Due to his influence as a national coach, I'm putting Frank Ullrich ahead of any other male German biathlete, but Sven Fischer is a close second.

My own completely biased ranking is Neuner, Fourcade, Greis.
 
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Jul 10, 2009
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I love the Swedish skiers but this is just unwatchable. It doesn't help that Norway is unbelievably bad right now and the Americans didn't start a team, but the fact is there is just little to no depth right now in women's skiing; if I was FIS I frankly wouldn't even schedule relays at this point, championships only. This is awful
 

KZD

Feb 21, 2019
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I love the Swedish skiers but this is just unwatchable. It doesn't help that Norway is unbelievably bad right now and the Americans didn't start a team, but the fact is there is just little to no depth right now in women's skiing; if I was FIS I frankly wouldn't even schedule relays at this point, championships only. This is awful

I am not the biggest FIS or relay fan but in their defense they couldn't predict that Norway has 6 or their 8 best distance skiers unavailable to race today.

As for the Americans, they would likely be fighting for second today.
 
Feb 20, 2010
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I love the Swedish skiers but this is just unwatchable. It doesn't help that Norway is unbelievably bad right now and the Americans didn't start a team, but the fact is there is just little to no depth right now in women's skiing; if I was FIS I frankly wouldn't even schedule relays at this point, championships only. This is awful
They'd probably include more Team Sprints instead, and that would be even worse.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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As for the Americans, they would likely be fighting for second today.
I don't know if I agree with this; Julia Kern has been struggling all year with her endurance and based on results this season would more likely cough up at least a minute+ on whomever she was skiing against; Novi McCabe isn't here, so that would leave only 18 year old Sammie Smith as their last leg.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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I am not the biggest FIS or relay fan but in their defense they couldn't predict that Norway has 6 or their 8 best distance skiers unavailable to race today.

As for the Americans, they would likely be fighting for second today.
Even with Norway fielding a viable team this would still not be compelling viewing outside of the people who still actually care about nordic skiing... imho anyway.
 
Jun 22, 2010
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Well, the Swedes put the best possible quartet for their 1st team, and so did the Germans. Everyone else is missing at least one top skier. This is the weakest relay squad that Norway has ever had in a women’s relay that I can think of.
 
Jul 10, 2009
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Neither race yesterday would have been either, it's just a different type of boring.
I can't disagree with that, but even if the finales of the races were only a couple of K's at least there was more than one athlete in the mix for the win. Today is a special kind of unwatchable; it's the first nordic race all year where I just turned off the TV and got on with my morning...
 
Feb 20, 2010
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I can't disagree with that, but even if the finales of the races were only a couple of K's at least there was more than one athlete in the mix for the win. Today is a special kind of unwatchable; it's the first nordic race all year where I just turned off the TV and got on with my morning...
Well, Vicky's trying her best, but it's rather forlorn.