Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Bavarianrider]

Duhhh, Hermann was done, Bronze ist still great, though.

Kalla absolutely stunning!

Norway

 

[python]

Who cares? As long as Sweden have 0 gold medals everything is fine here...

please eat your own dish and don't forget to share with the other norwegian losers


kalla phenomenal !

 

[Libertine Seguros]

What a finish. Amazing from Charlotte Kalla. Amazing.

 

[kanari]

please eat your own dish and don't forget to share with the other norwegian losers


kalla phenomenal !

I will, that was a fantastic race by Kalla and a well deserved gold medal. Congrats!

 

[jens_attacks]

ok, this was just beautiful.

 

[python]

i am sure that the norwegians will analyse what happened rationally and will be back on the top.

but when i was reading the norwegian pre-olympic media with all the medal counts and the over-confident hype, i will admit, i wished for a lesson, for a more cool-headed assessment characteristic of nordic people.

let's see if another lesson will be delivered tomorrow. something tells me, it may

 

[maltiv]

i am sure that the norwegians will analyse what happened rationally and will be back on the top.

but when i was reading the norwegian pre-olympic media with all the medal counts and the over-confident hype, i will admit, i wished for a lesson, for a more cool-headed assessment characteristic of nordic people.

let's see if another lesson will be delivered tomorrow. something tells me, it may

I wouldn't say it's over-confident to expect gold in the relay when we have won every (!) relay since 2009, mostly with a huge gap.

And the girls who did the relay today are 1-2-3-4 in the world cup overall...

 

[MrRoboto]

Norway probably has best XC squad since ever right now. No problem aiming high.

 

[Bavarianrider]

I hope tomorrows race will be done on a different loop? Surely they include the long climb?

 

[Bavarianrider]

I've gotta say Nystads performance is what suprises me most today. Only 9 seconds slower as Kalla

 

[kingjr]

I've gotta say Nystads performance is what suprises me most today. Only 9 seconds slower as Kalla

Nystad is always reliable in the relays

 

[jsem94]

I loved this so much. That race was interesting from the get-go. That lap from Kalla was one of the gods, completely insane. I could not believe my eyes.

Norwegian skis were obviously not on par, and the waxers are getting lynched in the Norwegian press. This is labeled a fiasco of epic proportions, as it should be. For Norway to not even make the podium was completely unthinkable barring someone breaking their leg or having a cardiac arrest during the race, but it happened.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Feel sorry for the Norwegian ladies. Not that I enjoy the Norwegian dominance to much, but they have been clearly the best team the last years and deserved to show it in the olympic relay. oh well. Kalla was flipping awesome!

 

[Bavarianrider]

Let's not forget Niskanen. She had a similar performance to Kalla.

Herman and Lahetmaki were not that fast.

It won't be that warm tomorrow. Some 3 degrees cooler. Should help the norwegian waxers.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Let's not forget Niskanen. She had a similar performance to Kalla.

Herman and Lahetmaki were not that fast.

It won't be that warm tomorrow. Some 3 degrees cooler. Should help the norwegian waxers.

doesnt Norway use like 10 times more money on their waxing team than anyone else?

 

[MrRoboto]

The ironic part is that Norway usually have been the best on these kind of conditions. It's pretty incredible that they fail so spectacularly.

 

[python]

not only it will be cooler, but the loops are relatively easier than anything they've raced on so far. so, the norwegian men imo are almost certain to have a better showing than their ladies today...

but my point is different. i acknowledge that their skis weren't the best today. but we now have witnessed something like 3-4 races in a row (including the biathlon) were the explanation was simplistically the same - bad skis. i have followed the complex sport for too long buy it as the ONLY reason.

i did follow the weather... though predominantly warm, it has varied from day to day. some courses were melted by sun, some were more shady...plus, having one expert waxing team fail so consistently from day to day while other teams seamed to have found the solution - is again too simple. if so simple, it could only be explained by the incompetence or a sabotage. neither apply.

we should not exclude mistakes with peaking, altitude timing and perhaps something else that i can not mention here.

 

[Bavarianrider]

not only it will be cooler, but the loops are relatively easier than anything they've raced on so far. so, the norwegian men imo are almost certain to have a better showing than their ladies today...

but my point is different. i acknowledge that their skis weren't the best today. but we now have witnessed something like 3-4 races in a row (including the biathlon) were the explanation was simplistically the same - bad skis. i have followed the complex sport for too long buy it as the ONLY reason.

i did follow the weather... though predominantly warm, it has varied from day to day. some courses were melted by sun, some were more shady...plus, having one expert waxing team fail so consistently from day to day while other teams seamed to have found the solution - is again too simple. if so simple, it could only be explained by the incompetence or a sabotage. neither apply.

we should not exclude mistakes with peaking, altitude timing and perhaps something else that i can not mention here.

So they don't use the long climb tomorrow That sucks. The ladies loop is too easy for the men. It'll be a borefest that comes down to the last 500m

 

[MrRoboto]

not only it will be cooler, but the loops are relatively easier than anything they've raced on so far. so, the norwegian men imo are almost certain to have a better showing than their ladies today...

but my point is different. i acknowledge that their skis weren't the best today. but we now have witnessed something like 3-4 races in a row (including the biathlon) were the explanation was simplistically the same - bad skis. i have followed the complex sport for too long buy it as the ONLY reason.

i did follow the weather... though predominantly warm, it has varied from day to day. some courses were melted by sun, some were more shady...plus, having one expert waxing team fail so consistently from day to day while other teams seamed to have found the solution - is again too simple. if so simple, it could only be explained by the incompetence or a sabotage. neither apply.

we should not exclude mistakes with peaking, altitude timing and perhaps something else that i can not mention here.

Well..It is probably more complex than that. But you only have to go back to 2011 where Sweden failed their waxing throughout most of the championship to find something similar.

Norway didn't have the best skis in the beginning of the 2010 olympics either, but they got better after a few races.

 

[Bavarianrider]

So Norway has spent 5 million Euros on a programm called "Best Skies in Sochi"

 

[python]

Well..It is probably more complex than that. But you only have to go back to 2011 where Sweden failed their waxing throughout most of the championship to find something similar.

Norway didn't have the best skis in the beginning of the 2010 olympics either, but they got better after a few races.

but you still explain everything with the ski prep, which i clearly don't buy.

i posted above several times that in some instances norwegians were OUT-SKIED by stronger skiers...

why others were stronger is up to your coaches to discover.

 

[kanari]

Looks like a combination of bad skis and not hitting peak form to me.

 

[MrRoboto]

but you still explain everything with the ski prep, which i clearly don't buy.

No, I said that you don't have to go far back to see a top notch waxing team consistently fail throughout a championship. I didn't explain anything but comment what you said.

So Norway has spent 5 million Euros on a programm called "Best Skies in Sochi"

Sure it wasn't 10?

 

[python]

I didn't explain anything but comment what you said.


Sure it wasn't 10?

i said a lot more than just about waxing. you chose to comment ONLY on waxing...

sure it is absolutely fine to comment on what you feel, but again, imo, it is too simplistic NOT seeing the superform of others (like cologna, kalla...) and the relative lack of form (like northug, roenning...)

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Let's not forget Niskanen. She had a similar performance to Kalla.

Herman and Lahetmaki were not that fast.

It won't be that warm tomorrow. Some 3 degrees cooler. Should help the norwegian waxers.

Through the whole of that last leg I was thinking Denise was going to ride Lahteenmäki's coat-tails all the way to the finish and try and make as short a period decisive as possible to play to her strengths. I think that however Kalla's being so strong caused Denise to go to the front earlier than she would have liked, and as a result she didn't have enough left in the final sprint. A shame for them to only get bronze, but you'd say that 1) Kalla deserved that gold medal, she was absolutely sensational today; 2) Saarinen and Niskanen having made so much of the race with their legs, the Finns are more than good enough value for silver, and 3) if you'd offered the four of them bronze this morning, they'd have taken it without a second thought.

i said a lot more than just about waxing. you chose to comment ONLY on waxing...

sure it is absolutely fine to comment on what you feel, but again, imo, it is too simplistic NOT seeing the superform of others (like cologna, kalla...) and the relative lack of form (like northug, roenning...)

Definitely there's more than just waxing in it, form not being perfect definitely has to be taken into account, plus we must also consider the psychological effect on the squad that Astrid Jacobsen's bereavement will have had.

However, it was clear as day from the first kilometre of the race that Heidi Weng's skis were awful, she was getting next to no glide off them, and if anything Johaug's were even worse. It was also clear that Kikkan Randall had ski problems, she was slipping all over the place trying to climb the first hill, and once she fell into the pack she was nowhere to be seen again. Obviously we never saw the Americans at all between Sadie Bjornsen tagging in and Jess Diggins coming to the line so I can't comment on the rest of the team, but Randall's skis were not good either.