Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[BullsFan22]

This sounds like an insane prediction, but its only like 7 decent teams in this field, so with a bit of luck it could happen.

That’s why I put it down. Not many competitive teams and if one of them has bad skis and/or poor form/crash, that already opens things up for Italy.

 

[search]

So Fossesholm was only selected for the 50km?

as far as I understood, Sanness will likely do (and imo podium) the 50k. So Fossesholm would not race at all then.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I completely forgot the competitions in Nové Město started this evening, and then of course Jacquelin ends up winning as a result. Not a great day for Lægreid and QFM still can't hit 5/5 in prone.

 

[search]

In the biathlon, the start order was changed today due to high temperatures. Not really sure if I like it or not.

Would Nelin have won otherwise?! Probably not, but I kinda like those outsiders getting a chance. And it's not his fault that the IBU came up with the new starting group regulations this season.

 

[KZD]

Sad to see Finland only 10th in the relay, without Niskanen they are really bad. Huge podium for Switzerland.

I think not putting Johaug in a classic leg is going to cost Norway gold tomorrow.

 

[search]

Finlands race was basically over after the early crash though, to be fair. The way it unfolded afterwards, they otherwise may have competed for the podium, seeing that even Canada was able to hang on. Although that also only happened due to the crash of the Swede.

Apparently Johaug herself said that she feels more comfortable in freestyle currently, but yeah, I also think that they should have gone for a more aggressive approach.

 

[BullsFan22]

as far as I understood, Sanness will likely do (and imo podium) the 50k. So Fossesholm would not race at all then.

What’s the point of bringing her there? She qualified straight up, not as an alternate. Theodorsen raced the 10km. So it’s going to be Johaug, Weng, Slind, and Sanness for the 50km?

 

[DenisMenchov]

Switzerland was building towards these good results for a couple of seasons now. I think they'll be really strong next year at the Olympics. Female team is very young and has a lot of talent. Hopefully they find a new Cologna or two among them. We really need another powerful team in XC skiiing.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

What’s the point of bringing her there? She qualified straight up, not as an alternate. Theodorsen raced the 10km. So it’s going to be Johaug, Weng, Slind, and Sanness for the 50km?

I dont quite understand what you mean with "she qualified straight up". None of her results this seasons puts her ahead of Fosnæs, Theodorsen or Sanness for the skiathlon, 10k or 20k.

Norway often have athletes in the World Champs squad that are there only as reserves if everything goes as planned (no injuries and athletes out of form). This year they have Fossesholm and Kalvå as reserves in the womens side and on the mens side Evensen was supposed to only be a reserve, and it is not given that Fjorden Ree will get to start the 50k either. I think the plan has been Klæbo, Nyenget, Amundsen and Kruger as the 4 together with Golberg. Now with Krugers issues I think he will get a start, but it is still open.

 

[BullsFan22]

I dont quite understand what you mean with "she qualified straight up". None of her results this seasons puts her ahead of Fosnæs, Theodorsen or Sanness for the skiathlon, 10k or 20k.

Norway often have athletes in the World Champs squad that are there only as reserves if everything goes as planned (no injuries and athletes out of form). This year they have Fossesholm and Kalvå as reserves in the womens side and on the mens side Evensen was supposed to only be a reserve, and it is not given that Fjorden Ree will get to start the 50k either. I think the plan has been Klæbo, Nyenget, Amundsen and Kruger as the 4 together with Golberg. Now with Krugers issues I think he will get a start, but it is still open.

Straight up, meaning she wasn't an alternate.

 

[Eddy Evenepoel]

Straight up, meaning she wasn't an alternate.

Well i don’t know what that change anyway. She was never selected to any specific distance and like Kalvå and Evensen their only would get a shot if something happened with any of the others. Norway does it like this basically every year, bringing reserves as a part of the squad if there are space (it can be 12+12 for World Champs).

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In the biathlon, the start order was changed today due to high temperatures. Not really sure if I like it or not.

Would Nelin have won otherwise?! Probably not, but I kinda like those outsiders getting a chance. And it's not his fault that the IBU came up with the new starting group regulations this season.

TBF this is exactly how the race would have panned out in any year before this year anyway, since it's only this season the startlist rules changed and the rules make provisions for redrawing the startlist if significant changes to conditions are expected.

This is the first evening-start individual start race of the season, as all the previous evening start races this season have been mass start, relay or pursuit; however given the way conditions were it is highly likely that anytime previously all of the big guns would have chosen pot 1 for this kind of start time unless there was significant reason to believe ahead of time that icing would make the tracks faster later on.

 

[search]

TBF this is exactly how the race would have panned out in any year before this year anyway, since it's only this season the startlist rules changed

well, yes and no. Last year the rules only allowed 3 athletes per nation in every start group, so guys like Stroemsheim or maybe even Jacquelin would have missed out.

But yeah, it's not the new rule in general which cost Nelin the win, but the provision.

 

[DonAragona]

Straight up, meaning she wasn't an alternate.

She was brought in as an alternate in the sprint

 

[BigCoward]

Norway looking pretty good in the nordic combined so far. Having 3 of the best 5 or 6 skiiers obviously helps to remove some of the pressure for the jumps (Riiber is clearly better than his ranking).

 

[search]

any idea what the conditions are like today? Any chance they are saving all their salt for tomorrow?

edit: Kershaw just said that they used very little salt indeed. Conditions are more on the soft side.

 

[Mayomaniac]

any idea what the conditions are like today? Any chance they are saving all their salt for tomorrow?

edit: Kershaw just said that they used very little salt indeed. Conditions are more on the soft side.

They did, to quote Luis Stadlober: "and typically for Norway, they used very little salt today to help Johaug"

They are pretty indeed shameless when it comes to stacking the deck in their favour...

 

[BullsFan22]

Unbelievably fast skis for the Swiss. Again.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Looks like the ski differences are quite large, Finnish skis not looking too great.

 

[search]

Weng has a gap already. Let's see how much of it she loses again on the descent.

 

[DenisMenchov]

RIP Ribom

 

[BigCoward]

I'm watching via live tracker. How did Sweden lose 23 seconds in 1.2km?

 

[search]

Fink going so strong may help Norway a lot. Slind and Hennig can pull away together.

 

[DenisMenchov]

I'm watching via live tracker. How did Sweden lose 23 seconds in 1.2km?

Ribom blew up like fireworks. She looks like an amateur right now

 

[BullsFan22]

Linn Svahn not being there may have just lost them the gold.