Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Silhouette]

Karlsson was the only one who really managed to ski well under these conditions.

 

[dobrien]

Karlsson was the only one who really managed to ski well under these conditions.

She skied great, and that was a deserved win, but that one really did come down to skis speed;. Far superior to the Norwegian boards and over 50k that's pretty huge.

edit: Hell of a ski from Sundling; in firmer conditions I'm not so sure she wouldn't have been in this one.. Really gutted for Ebba but she kind of did that to herself.

 

[Mayomaniac]

No more Silver Frida!
Karlsson going troll hunting in a long distance race in Norway, business as usual.

 

[KZD]

Dramatic finish, Andersson tried to pass on the inside but Karlsson didn't let her which led to her fall, first time that she wins an individual gold medal.

Big fiasco for Johaug, incredible how she doesn't manage to win a single gold medal at her home Championships, maybe this will convince her to race the Olympics next year.

Great races from Weng and Sundling too.

 

[Norbea]

Frida deserved the win. No-one was able to match her technique in these conditions. Therese did her best and I would have thought that she would handle the conditions better, but this isn´t Johaug in her prime. She has lost a little and Ebba and Frida are better now than two years ago.

 

[dobrien]

Rough day for Astrid; anything less than an A-game today was going to be very tough.

 

[dobrien]

Dramatic finish, Andersson tried to pass on the inside but Karlsson didn't let her which led to her fall, first time that she wins an individual gold medal.

Big fiasco for Johaug, incredible how she doesn't manage to win a single gold medal at her home Championships, maybe this will convince her to race the Olympics next year.

Great races from Weng and Sundling too.

How is this a fiasco for Johaug? Just shaking my head; after being gone for two years and having a child, she reached a really incredible level and won 3 medals. She just ran into a Swedish team who were super fit and absolutely killed the skis the whole championship. She can hold her head high imho; certainly she didn't achieve her stated goal but to say it's a fiasco is absolutely silly.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Frida is legitimately the best the longer the race goes I feel. She had 3 consecutive medals at the 30k at the Worlds before this, won the Holmenkollen 30k in 2020, won the Holmenkollen 50k last year, and now won the 50k here. In several of those she was losing time before regaining it, or was clinging on only to be the strongest later on.

Maybe a few are exacerbated or slightly illusory given Johaug's tendency to run a tactic of "drop everybody then keep on to the finish" meaning that she may have tired in some of those races, at least more than she would in the usual diet of the time of 10ks and 15ks on the World Cup, but it always seemed like Karlsson would finish strongest in those races.

 

[DonAragona]

Johaug is 5 seconds from 4 Gold, savage Championships. She's just appeared on tv2, she's had a good cry in the back first.

 

[Mayomaniac]

How is this a fiasco for Johaug? Just shaking my head; after being gone for two years and having a child, she reached a really incredible level and won 3 medals. She just ran into a Swedish team who were super fit and absolutely killed the skis the whole championship. She can hold her head high imho; certainly she didn't achieve her stated goal but to say it's a fiasco is absolutely silly.

Norway got more gold medals without her in Planica, so her coming back and also not winning everything left and right was a nice reality check.

 

[dobrien]

Frida is legitimately the best the longer the race goes I feel. She had 3 consecutive medals at the 30k at the Worlds before this, won the Holmenkollen 30k in 2020, won the Holmenkollen 50k last year, and now won the 50k here. In several of those she was losing time before regaining it, or was clinging on only to be the strongest later on.

Maybe a few are exacerbated or slightly illusory given Johaug's tendency to run a tactic of "drop everybody then keep on to the finish" meaning that she may have tired in some of those races, at least more than she would in the usual diet of the time of 10ks and 15ks on the World Cup, but it always seemed like Karlsson would finish strongest in those races.

Frida really does look like a natural the longer it gets; would love to see her at the Vasaloppet someday.

 

[dobrien]

Norway got more gold medals without her in Planica, so her coming back and also not winning everything left and right was a nice reality check.

This makes no sense whatsoever, and has nothing at all to do with whether or not one considers the results at THESE worlds a fiasco for Therese. A 'fiasco' for Johaug would have been getting crushed in all her races; as a previous poster pointed out, she was a grand total of 5 seconds out from FOUR gold medals, That is not remotely a fiasco. Silly.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Gismondi 16th, ahead of all the Americans. Good result for a first year senior skier in her first really long race.

 

[dobrien]

Anyone who finished that today has my admiration, regardless of place. What a grinder that was; nowhere to hide.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Johaug is 5 seconds from 4 Gold, savage Championships. She's just appeared on tv2, she's had a good cry in the back first.

Terrible form. Heidi Weng would have had a good cry in the finish area, had a good cry in the back, and then still cried in the interview.

I did fear that she would be the one that got taken out in the finale, after the skiathlon and her long history of finding ways to not win, but in a sprint to the line, she was always favourite to beat Johaug. And Andersson for that matter. In a straight sprint you might also back her against Karlsson but I don't think anybody was beating Karlsson today.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Johaug not being able to come back and just roflstomp everyone is good for the sport. Also good for the Norwegian women, who were often critizised for not being Johaug or Björgen and not training as hard as those 2..
Plus her "I didn't train that hard" comments after obliterating everyone at the NC last year, things are no longer like that once she has to deal with the same standards as every other world cup athlete.

 

[Silhouette]

On the first lap I thought Sundling was going to retire from the race, she looked completely uncomfortable with the conditions.

Then she changed skis and immediately started skiing faster than everybody for a while, and at the end finished in 5th position.

 

[BigCoward]

Norway got more gold medals without her in Planica, so her coming back and also not winning everything left and right was a nice reality check.

They should have won a gold in the relay that they would have got nowhere near without her.

 

[Discgear]

How is this a fiasco for Johaug? Just shaking my head; after being gone for two years and having a child, she reached a really incredible level and won 3 medals. She just ran into a Swedish team who were super fit and absolutely killed the skis the whole championship. She can hold her head high imho; certainly she didn't achieve her stated goal but to say it's a fiasco is absolutely silly.

But then, there's (therese's) history...

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

How is this a fiasco for Johaug?

i think it’s fairly simple: She made the comeback purely to win the 50 km and didn’t management to do it. Given how she smashed everyone in Lillehammer and won the Tour im pretty sure she felt comfortable that she could do it. But she didn’t.

That’s a fiasco in my eyes, given her previous results, but it doesn’t mean she did is bad or did horrible in the races. But the concept of the comeback turned out a fiasco.

 

[dobrien]

i think it’s fairly simple: She made the comeback purely to win the 50 km and didn’t management to do it. Given how she smashed everyone in Lillehammer and won the Tour im pretty sure she felt comfortable that she could do it. But she didn’t.

That’s a fiasco in my eyes, given her previous results, but it doesn’t mean she did is bad or did horrible in the races. But the concept of the comeback turned out a fiasco.

Well, I will have to respectfully disagree. As I said earlier, to me a fiasco is getting beaten by 3 minutes.

For what it's worth, I'm not even that big a Johaug fan and wasn't particularly excited about seeing her come back, I just think calling it a fiasco is a little too strong imho.

 

[OJRvE]

What a performance from Frida! Her excellent technique really paid off in these difficult conditions.

Ebbas maneuver was really stupid, he would never forgive her if something had happened to Frida.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

The Norwegian Ski Jumper boss confesses that they cheated and that they (at least some of the staff) knew it was against the rules, but claims it is only about two suits and that it’s not been done before. There might be more things coming up when FIS are going to look more into it.

 

[Mayomaniac]

i think it’s fairly simple: She made the comeback purely to win the 50 km and didn’t management to do it. Given how she smashed everyone in Lillehammer and won the Tour im pretty sure she felt comfortable that she could do it. But she didn’t.

That’s a fiasco in my eyes, given her previous results, but it doesn’t mean she did is bad or did horrible in the races. But the concept of the comeback turned out a fiasco.

Fiasco is a big word, but for her personally it's probably a failure.

 

[Silhouette]

but claims it is only about two suits and that it’s not been done before

I am inclined to believe that this is what he has been told by the coach and staff.

I am not inclined to believe that this is the truth.