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aqua blue color lines on Olympic snow

SSSdave

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Maybe one of you ski racing fans can explain what they are doing with the laid down aqua blue lines on the Olympic downhill course? Watching training runs right now on NBCSP. Obviously to help visuals both for racers and tv viewers but what else? Note have not had cable tv for years so am looking at much that may have been around awhile. Saw same color lines about the snowboard slopeside course earlier this morning that just highlighted the edges of all the features. On the downhill course there seems to be a system of short lines perpendicular to the course trail edges. Are those distance measurement points or do they have to do with indications of points on the course say with turns? Are such lines on courses for World Cup skiing events also?
 

pchewn

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The blue is to give skiers a visual reference. It is also used on the lip of the jumps and 1/2 pipe so you can easily see where the lip/transition is. The tree boughs are also used in a similar manner on the jumping hill to line the track of the run-in, at the lip of the jump, and in the landing zone.

It gives the eyes something easy to focus on -- for depth perception and speed feedback.
 

Rudi Riet

AKA songfta AKA randomduck - a USSS coach, as well
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The red lines are the split times or speed trap zoes?

Yup: red is the split time line, as well as the finish line and the line before which you can't remove a ski to flash your sponsor's brand name.

And blue isn't the only color used. There have been experiments with green (a darker, almost British racing green) and purple, as blue can blend in under certain lighting conditions.
 

pchewn

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Each slalom pole will also have a small circle of dye where it is placed in the snow. Red dye for the red poles and blue dye for the blue poles. The poles are often displaced when the racers hit them. So the dye indicates the exact position to re-place the pole.

When I used to set courses for the high-school race team, we would mark them using red or blue Gator Aid drink .....
 

Rudi Riet

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Each slalom pole will also have a small circle of dye where it is placed in the snow. Red dye for the red poles and blue dye for the blue poles. The poles are often displaced when the racers hit them. So the dye indicates the exact position to re-place the pole.

It's pretty much all blue (or whatever color they use for the race lines) for the gate markers these days. It's easy to figure out which color gate to put back in 99.9% of the time.

What I liked last night was the aerial shots of the DH course, where you could see the regular (solid line) and wind (dotted/hashed line) lines marked on the snow. The athletes needed to inspect each line in the morning to know where to point 'em during the race.
 

pchewn

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It's pretty much all blue (or whatever color they use for the race lines) for the gate markers these days. It's easy to figure out which color gate to put back in 99.9% of the time.

We had very many newbie gatekeepers. We HAD to mark them blue/red if we wanted the right pole placed back in the right spot.
 

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