Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Dazed and Confused]

Mens team sprint. Loved the drama. Congrats to Finland.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Well that was a bit of a heartbreaker from a German perspective.

At least Norwegian men failed again.

 

[python]

Well that was a bit of a heartbreaker from a German perspective.

At least Norwegian men failed again.

germany probably launched a protest, but the fall happened when the finn was already in front - not likely it will be satisfied. the 2nd biggest loser was kriukov, who would likely win the double poling against the finn, but the russians should consider themselves lucky that he managed to stay on his feet. still the young finn is the biggest surprise of this olympics.

also, vyleg looked superb, being quiet in the first 2 legs.

did the norge men fail ? more, they sucked. what else was new ?

i've been yelling from the roof tops that people start looking beyond their spin. yes, there were problems with skis, yes it slowed some, but it was also absolutely obvious to me and others with an analytical approach, that the whole team has likely peaked too early. northug fought well today, but there was no hiding that his shape was no match for the fastest.

emil disappointed too. i think he sunk in the flood of his own adrenalin but it was enough to move up due to continued fighting.

 

[Bavarianrider]

germany probably launched a protest, but the fall happened when the finn was already in front - not likely it will be satisfied. the 2nd biggest loser was kriukov, who would likely win the double poling against the finn, but the russians should consider themselves lucky that he managed to stay on his feet. still the young finn is the biggest surprise of this olympics.

also, vyleg looked superb, being quiet in the first 2 legs.

did the norge men fail ? more, they sucked. what else was new ?

i've been yelling from the roof tops that people start looking beyond their spin. yes, there were problems with skis, yes it slowed some, but it was also absolutely obvious to me and others with an analytical approach, that the whole team has likely peaked too early. northug fought well today, but there was no hiding that his shape was no match for the fastest.

emil disappointed too. i think he sunk in the flood of his own adrenalin but it was enough to move up due to continued fighting.

The protest is a big shame. There's nothing to achieve anyway. I don't know why they are protesting. that's just stupid and not a portsmanship behavior

 

[kingjr]

The protest is a big shame. There's nothing to achieve anyway. I don't know why they are protesting. that's just stupid and not a portsmanship behavior

Lolwat, but cutting the line of another athlete is sportsmanship or what. Or it's ok if you just stare in front so you can say afterwards you didn't see him. It's ridiculous really.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Lolwat, but cutting the line of another athlete is sportsmanship or what. Or it's ok if you just stare in front so you can say afterwards you didn't see him. It's ridiculous really.

I don't say it was totally clean. But there's nothing to win by protesting. So why proteste at all?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Nice crowds at the Biathlon and a solid win by Norway. Not a lot of drama, but sometimes a clean win is also nice.

 

[jens_attacks]

chapeau to ole!

 

[kingjr]

I don't say it was totally clean. But there's nothing to win by protesting. So why proteste at all?

Satisfaction.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Nice crowds at the Biathlon and a solid win by Norway. Not a lot of drama, but sometimes a clean win is also nice.

Yes not too exciting, but terrific result. Czech team did what was expected of them, so did Norway. France, as expected, didn't have the depth to compete at top level all legs, but still they were candidates for bronze before the race, so this must be disappointing. Hopefully Mfourcade will consider this a lesson, before he decides to tell the rest of the World that he is unbeatable and expects to get 5gold medals. As expected he made a "Northug" on the last lap. Russia also disappointing. Italians were a positive surprise to me. Hadn't seen that coming, considering that Hofer is their only top level biathlete.

 

[William H]

I wouldn't say only missing 2 shots the whole race is expected of Norway. They're supposed to do an early penalty loop to keep it interesting.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

I wouldn't say only missing 2 shots the whole race is expected of Norway. They're supposed to do an early penalty loop to keep it interesting.

They won, that was expected. And, yes, admittedly they made few mistakes, but Berger did miss 2 on her first round. Only Bjørndalen surprised by making absolutely no mistakes combined with fastest overall course time for the men today.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes not too exciting, but terrific result. Czech team did what was expected of them, so did Norway. France, as expected, didn't have the depth to compete at top level all legs, but still they were candidates for bronze before the race, so this must be disappointing. Hopefully Mfourcade will consider this a lesson, before he decides to tell the rest of the World that he is unbeatable and expects to get 5gold medals. As expected he made a "Northug" on the last lap. Russia also disappointing. Italians were a positive surprise to me. Hadn't seen that coming, considering that Hofer is their only top level biathlete.

Their women podiumed the World Championships relay last year though, and the 2km loop is flatter and easier than the 2,5 and 3,3km loops which enables them to stay in better contention. Wierer on leg 1 helps because the conservative skiing at first + her being the fastest in the world on the range means her lack of ski speed can be hidden. The men, despite only having the one star, did win a race a couple of years ago too with more or less the same lineup as now.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Bjoerndalen is probably my favourite biathlete, will miss him when he retires.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Bjoerndalen is probably my favourite biathlete, will miss him when he retires.

Mine are Miriam Gossner and Gabriella Soukalova, but that's for completely different reasons!

 

[Kokoso]

Martin is a faster skier, Svendsen has historically been the better in the sprint. I don't really think they were cowardly tactics; he won cos he shot 20/20.

Ok, again for you - you can't quite compare guy who had to chase down some seconds with fresher guy in sprint. Obviously the fresher one has advantage and should be faster. And that's exactly Fourcade's and Svendsen's case.

Cowardly was that he didn't want to on the front neither Moravec, nor Martin.

 

[Bubban]

Lolwat, but cutting the line of another athlete is sportsmanship or what. Or it's ok if you just stare in front so you can say afterwards you didn't see him. It's ridiculous really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoMdmS_xgNw

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Bjoerndalen is probably my favourite biathlete, will miss him when he retires.

The sport will forever be changed when he's gone. Hopefully new norwegians like JTBoe can take over the crown instead of MFourcade in the long term. Until then, it's up to Svendsen and TBoe to save the sport (men's biathlon).

 

[Nastyy]

The look on Tscharnke's face was darn priceless when he fell. He should've just kept on going and Germany would've finished third but he just stayed there looking stupid. It was all his fault anyway.

 

[jsem94]

Oh my, Marie Laure Brunet. Hoping it's nothing severe.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Oh my, Marie Laure Brunet. Hoping it's nothing severe.

That didn't look too good. The face burried in the snow - she crashed?

Exciting race though. Soukalova on fire, gaining 50sec despite a bad 2nd shooting :O

 

[Flamin]

I feel sorry for Soukalova.

Race is pretty much over now.

 

[Flamin]

Or not. Bad shooting by the Ukrainians.

edit: and now Pidrushina aces the final shooting.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Germany +3:41

Guess we missed our chinese food

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Germany +3:41

Guess we missed our chinese food

They got a hopeless start as you'd have noticed if you watched the race. Preuss crashed, got snow in the sight and totally blew up the shooting, losing 2min on the first of 4 legs... The german team must have been very shocked by the news to deliver a performance this bad.