Nordic Skiing/Biathlon Thread

[Samu Cuenca]

I thought Jacquelin was dead, but he did have a final sprint in him unlike Nelin.

 

[kingjr]

You rarely make such decisions last minute. The order is often pretty set.

That doesn't answer the question, but it's ok.

Meanwhile, Jacquelin was 35 seconds faster on his leg than everybody else.

 

[Brullnux]

Did the Italians forget to wax their skis

 

[Samu Cuenca]

How can Italy be so far behind without a penalty loop and with only four misses?

 

[Salvarani]

That doesn't answer the question, but it's ok.

How does it not?

Often there is a certain hierarchy and an order in a close-knit team like Sweden, has had the same for a long time. You just dont change the order.

Relay is still something different, then when one rides individually and being the last man is a lot of pressure. You usually want your most reliable and maybe one with more experience at that position. Samuelsson has often been ahead of Ponsi in that regard.

And you just dont change that order last minute, no matter what really.

 

[Salvarani]

Medals look pretty settled now goin into the last shooting

 

[Bavarianrider]

Absolutely brutal when you compare the xc skiing relays to biathlon. Same distance, lightyears in difference in terms of fiele, competition and Atmosphere.

 

[kingjr]

How does it not?

Often there is a certain hierarchy and an order in a close-knit team like Sweden, has had the same for a long time. You just dont change the order.

Relay is still something different, then when one rides individually and being the last man is a lot of pressure. You usually want your most reliable and maybe one with more experience at that position. Samuelsson has often been ahead of Ponsi in that regard.

And you just dont change that order last minute, no matter what really.

It's one of those conventional wisdom things that no one has the balls to challenge you mean

 

[kingjr]

Botn took 1:08 min for his prone shooting, loses 24 seconds to Jacquelin on the tracks, so there are your 2 penalty loops for Norway x)

 

[YavorD]

Seriously ,with IOC being on the brink of banning Nordic Combined, because of a lack of International competition, XC skiing would not be far off that discussion either.They don't really care about competition level

They don't really care about the competition itself.
All they care about is having more nations participate.
You may have a good battle in the Nordic combined between Norway, Austria, Germany, Finland and France, but if you have only 10-15 nations participating, the sport isn't interesting for them.
In the same time Norway may win each gold every Olympics with close to no competition, but since you have XC skiers rom all over the world starting, the competition is great and it's all good.

 

[KZD]

Pantani's earring came in handy today. Crazy skiing performance from Jacquelin with Perrot and Fillon Maillet great too.

5th Olympic gold medal for Fillon Maillet, he often doesn't get a lot praise but he has now as many Olympic gold medals as Johannes Bø. In fact I think the latter's decision of stopping biathlon last year was what ultimately decided this relay.

Italy finishing more than 4 minutes down, terrible day for them.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Pantani's earring came in handy today. Crazy skiing performance from Jacquelin with Perrot and Fillon Maillet great too.

5th Olympic gold medal for Fillon Maillet, he often doesn't get a lot praise but he has now as many Olympic gold medals as Johannes Bø. In fact I think the latter's decision of stopping biathlon last year was what ultimately decided this relay.

Italy finishing more than 4 minutes down, terrible day for them.

Inexcusable to get the skies so wro g on your Hometurf.

 

[Brullnux]

Inexcusable to get the skies so wro g on your Hometurf.

One of the worst ski performances I've ever seen in a relay. All four of them skiing 1 minute behind the best, none of them bad enough to justify it at all.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

One of the worst ski performances I've ever seen in a relay. All four of them skiing 1 minute behind the best, none of them bad enough to justify it at all.

2014 Sochi Norwegian women is still the absolute dirt worst ski prep I've seen, but this was baaad nonetheless.

 

[search]

Teams of interest for the team sprint:

NOR Slind - Drivenes
SWE Sundling - Dahlqvist
USA Diggins - Kern
SUI N. Kälin - Fähndrich
FIN Joensuu - Kahara
GER Gimmler - Rydzek
ITA Ganz - De Martin Pinter
FRA Perry - Gal
CAN Mackie - Gagnon
CZE Schuetzova - Janatova
POL Marcicz - Skinder

NOR Hedegart - Klaebo
USA Odgen - Schumacher
ITA Barp - Pellegrino
FRA Desloges - Chappaz
SWE Häggström - Anger
CZE Tuz - Novak
FIN Vuorinen - Maki
SUI Riebli - Grond
GBR Musgrave - Clugnet
CZE Cyr - McKeever
AUT Föttinger - Moser
GER J. Moch - Stölben

Pretty long course, so they come with quite a lot of distance runners. Skistad headed home a couple of days ago already.

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Teams of interest for the team sprint:

NOR Slind - Drivenes
SWE Sundling - Dahlqvist
USA Diggins - Kern
SUI N. Kälin - Fähndrich
FIN Joensuu - Kahara
GER Gimmler - Rydzek
ITA Ganz - De Martin Pinter
FRA Perry - Gal
CAN Mackie - Gagnon
CZE Schuetzova - Janatova
POL Marcicz - Skinder

NOR Hedegart - Klaebo
USA Odgen - Schumacher
ITA Barp - Pellegrino
FRA Desloges - Chappaz
SWE Häggström - Anger
CZE Tuz - Novak
FIN Vuorinen - Maki
SUI Riebli - Grond
GBR Musgrave - Clugnet
CZE Cyr - McKeever
AUT Föttinger - Moser
GER J. Moch - Stölben

Pretty long course, so they come with quite a lot of distance runners. Skistad headed home a couple of days ago already.

What happened to Svahn?

 

[KZD]

What happened to Svahn?

She got sick.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Teams of interest for the team sprint:

NOR Slind - Drivenes
SWE Sundling - Dahlqvist
USA Diggins - Kern
SUI N. Kälin - Fähndrich
FIN Joensuu - Kahara
GER Gimmler - Rydzek
ITA Ganz - De Martin Pinter
FRA Perry - Gal
CAN Mackie - Gagnon
CZE Schuetzova - Janatova
POL Marcicz - Skinder

NOR Hedegart - Klaebo
USA Odgen - Schumacher
ITA Barp - Pellegrino
FRA Desloges - Chappaz
SWE Häggström - Anger
CZE Tuz - Novak
FIN Vuorinen - Maki
SUI Riebli - Grond
GBR Musgrave - Clugnet
CZE Cyr - McKeever
AUT Föttinger - Moser
GER J. Moch - Stölben

Pretty long course, so they come with quite a lot of distance runners. Skistad headed home a couple of days ago already.

If Schumacher is in good shape, I actually do think that the American men are a top 4 team.

Honestly, should the American women gamble and put Diggins in the 2nd lap, trying to crack the sprinters before the final lap? Or is it just hoping that Diggins can stay with Sundling and then Kern tries to hold on for dear life to get a medal?

 

[dobrien]

If Schumacher is in good shape, I actually do think that the American men are a top 4 team.

Fully agree. Gold seems a foregone conclusion obviously, but the other two medals are up for grabs and US is in the hunt if Schumacher can find his mojo. The battle for Silver and Bronze in both races actually looks really interesting, regardless of what one might think of Team Sprint as a format. Looking forward to these.

 

[search]

Kern is a bit of team sprint specialist, and pretty durable, so I guess that's the plan, yeah. I'd be more worried about Diggins after her bad showing in the relay.

edit: having another look, it seems like the Americans struggled a bit in general so far when conditions got deeper. Hard to say what it's going to be like tomorrow. Not too warm, but sunny.

 

[kingjr]

How in the name of God do you put Tannheimer on the 1st leg and Voigt on the 4th...

 

[search]

How in the name of God do you put Tannheimer on the 1st leg and Voigt on the 4th...

it's not easy, to be fair, with Preuß currently sucking so hard under pressure. Tannheimer imo is not up for an Olympic anchor leg yet.

Voigt isn't really suited for that position either, of course, but this way you at least don't waste your best athlete in position 1.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Hettich-Walz would be the solution imo if she could be guaranteed to be healthy - she was skiing well in the Individual and is usually fairly reliable in the range. However she missed the sprint/pursuit due to illness so whether she's able to deliver on that I don't know.

With Grotian in terrible form as well, it's really a tough spot for the Germans, they've been reliant on Preuß as anchor for a long time now, but she's never been clutch, and at the current time appears to have got the yips. Feel sad for Anna Weidel to have once again qualified for a major championships and not got a start, but her lack of speed and durability always hurts her, she always starts the season well and is practically unusable by this point in the year at the World Cup level.

A last lap chasedown situation with Vanessa Voigt is not going to be an ideal situation either, but it's at least something different to respond to the changes to circumstance. And who knows, with Franzi retiring after this season, they probably need somebody to take that role over and Voigt is the most established on the team for it. Tannheimer or Grotian are probably the long-term solution but they aren't ready for it yet, at least in a pressure cauldron like the Olympics. Remember that both are still Junior World Championships-eligible and have been fast-tracked through the system due to their potential, the same way Neuner, Gössner, Dahlmeier and Preuß before them were.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Do you think the dog team has a chance in this team sprint?

 

[dobrien]

Kern is a bit of team sprint specialist, and pretty durable, so I guess that's the plan, yeah. I'd be more worried about Diggins after her bad showing in the relay.

edit: having another look, it seems like the Americans struggled a bit in general so far when conditions got deeper. Hard to say what it's going to be like tomorrow. Not too warm, but sunny.

I think DIggins went pretty deep in the 10k and those ribs (histrionics aside) were still and issue; her qualifier today was good, we shall see. Kern worryingly slow; we shall see how the actual race unfolds.

Ogden and Schumi looking formidable enough in their qualifiers...this could be fun!