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Tricia

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Sitting at our garage sale watching the Women's WC now. Kinda gets you in the mood for snow time.
 

4ster

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Sitting at our garage sale watching the Women's WC now. Kinda gets you in the mood for snow time.
I know what you mean. First time I've really had the itch & it's not for powder. I really just want to slap on the short boards & rip some groomers!
 

Muleski

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Ski Racing reports the course setters for this weekend:

Women's: Giovanni Luca Rulfi (Italy) & Alois Prenn (Switzerland)

I like this new rule where course setters are selected 5 days before the actual race v. at the start of the season. Adds another layer of pre-race info and intrigue!

Skiracing.com had this wrong. Rulfi and Prenn set the GS at Soelden.

The course setters for the women at Levi were Hannes Zochling of Austria on the first run, and Denis Steharnik of Slovenia in the second.

Course setting actually may have played a factor today. I almost never say that. Easy hill. Second run set was about as easy as you would dare set, IMO.

First run sure worked out for the Austrian women, coming from way back to score. Really impressive. If you get to set, it should be a plus for your athletes, truth be told. Rarely happens, though. 53rd to 8th and 42nd to 12th is great. Wow.

Gotta watch some more video. GREAT skiing by the winner. Flawless. Really went for it. want to want again.

Won't get into more, yet. Won't mention results.

Feels like the race season is upon us! Fun.
 

Swede

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Austrian who set 1st didn’t do his country women any favors. Perhaps they just didn’t like the hill?
 

Swede

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Thing is, the austrians didn’t do very well in 1st, it was in 2nd they caught up (set by Slovenian).
 

Muleski

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Austrian who set 1st didn’t do his country women any favors. Perhaps they just didn’t like the hill?

I just watched a better feed of the first run, with the whole field. I stand corrected and agree. Brunner and Huber skied well enough to get a second run. With bibs 53 and 42......serious breakthrough days. They had a third in bib 41 who just missed finishing 31st. And their best two women DNF'd in the first.So let's say great skiing by two of them to move up and have big days. No windfall first run for team AUT.

Probably overthinking it at my end. Course setting should be a big advantage for your athletes. Even at this level. That IS why they changed the rule, I believe. At least trying to eliminate that potential advantage.

Yeah, the second set was "pretty darn quick." I personally think it was really a good set for the winner. And good for her to be so smooth, and on her skis....hammer down. Those who were a bit conservative and didn't realize how much heat you could build up top, and carry on the way down, and paid for it. Once again....such a big spread in the results, time wise. Surface also looked pretty nice.

The hill is quite gentle. Very predictable in most years. Biggest challenge is often getting used to the visibility for most, not getting tired with the lack of daylight, etc.

I'll be really interested to see the men's sets tomorrow.

This was a good day. Fun race. Hope for another tomorrow.
 
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4ster

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Agree with @Muleski on 2nd run set. Bruner who in my eyes has great GS technique was allowed to take advantage of that in a faster more open set along with having an earlier start in run 2. Taking nothing away though moving up from 53 in run 1.

The hill & less techy 2nd run does not allow Shiffrin to separate herself as much as she might. Still 2nd fastest running 30th! The winner... won!

Hope to get to watch run 1 this evening.
 

Chris Walker

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I'm a little disappointed in Olympic TV's coverage. Only an hour and I only got to see Shiffrin's first run, and they skipped quite a few of the early runners in the second. It seems last year the UHD coverage showed most of the first runs that qualified and all 30 second runs. Hmph.
 

4ster

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I'm a little disappointed in Olympic TV's coverage. Only an hour and I only got to see Shiffrin's first run, and they skipped quite a few of the early runners in the second. It seems last year the UHD coverage showed most of the first runs that qualified and all 30 second runs. Hmph.

Lol, I agree. See my post #40 page 2.
I wish they’d ask us how to do it :D!
 

SkiSpeed

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I'm a little disappointed in Olympic TV's coverage. Only an hour and I only got to see Shiffrin's first run, and they skipped quite a few of the early runners in the second. It seems last year the UHD coverage showed most of the first runs that qualified and all 30 second runs. Hmph.
Agreed. Too many commercials and they don’t show all the racers. Argh.
 

Muleski

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Yeah, the coverage that we can get in this country, through NBC's various options is "better than nothing," but not much better. We have four family friends among the six USST starters tomorrow, and we will likely not see any of their runs. I'm hoping for a couple of second runs among them. I would like to have seen Megan McJames ski today.

I'm sure that NBC's research tells their sports folks, and the producers, that "Nobody in the US cares about ski racing." Yes, with the half-assed job that is done to make it available to the general public, nobody even knows about it. Is it the chicken or the egg?

I would gladly pay a very fair, even generous amount to be able to access the Euro feed and see the complete first and second runs of all WC races. The more tedious it becomes to watch what we can, and the lousier the coverage, the more I am am willing to pay.

Perhaps the USST should get creative, and find a way to license it and offer it. Sell the access, or maybe throw it in with a $500 contribution?

I watched it on NBCSports. The commentary is done from the studio outside of Denver. That's where Porino and Will Brandenberg were, I believe. I could be wrong, but they normally do it that way. I like both of those guys. They are really GOOD people. Willy B has developed into a solid coach. But I though the commentary was not great. No Bode, shall we say. Then again, it may be exactly what the producers want. Talking about people looking aggressive, "being closer to the pole," etc.

With the coverage, or lack of it, it might be kind of a frustrating season. I'll take whatever we can get, but I'd like more. Have to remind ourselves that we're not "average or normal" when it comes to our interest!
 
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TS
K2 Rat

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I am late to the party and actually can't join the party yet as I have not seen the race. Was on the hill early this morning for the earliest east coast Mount Snow Academy training session ever and could not watch. Heard results ( not here !!), but look forward to watching anyway.

Eileen Shiffrin did warn us in that Denver Post article about " She who shall not be named " was skiing fast ...
 

Swede

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Not to take anything away from Vlova, but Shiffrin ”lost” because she made a mistake going into the steep section. Otherwise she’d been up there with Höffl-Reisch, taking 3 concecutive wins. Frida wasn’t close today.
 

Muleski

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Well, I think it was a good day for Women's WC SL skiing. Things are looking tighter!

I am presuming that MS is not pleased, but not all worked up, over being beaten by Peter Vlhova. That seems to be a plan fr the year. To enjoy it. One thing is clear to me. The days of 3 second winning margins are probably long, long gone. Petra Vhlova is fit, tall, strong and she skis really well. I absolutely believe the talk that her coaches have modeled her SL skiing after MS {which I presume is not unique}. Wendy H had a good day, and a really fast second run. She also is great with her knees ankles, and movement. All three women keep the skis on the snow, and don't "grind" them much.

The hill is not a tough one, and the second run set was a "gift." This is probably going to be good learning opportunity for MS, 2017-2018. The field has made great gains. I hear different things about her training this fall. I know that she puts in more on snow volume than anybody. I hear that she has, relatively speaking, trained more GS and SG which would mean less SL. I presume no SG for some time.

Swede is right, MS's "bobble" was at the top of the steep. She was faster than Petra on the top flat, and on the bottom flat. She was not as clean and as "quick" as she can be on the steep, particularly after that. Meanwhile, Petra skied it better than anybody. Looking just like a clean MS run to me.

At any rate, it looks like we might have a nice SL "race" this season. I still think that when MS is at her very best, on a tough hill, she still smokes the rest. What I'm interested to see is how her sports psychologist {as she says, her "mental coach"} plays into this. No doubt she was wrapped very tight last year. People were talking about how miserable she looked....often. And it was normally race day observations, before she skied. No smiling, not looking confident. Etc. BUT, then again, she sure as heck skied well.

So we'll see how this piece works. Way to early to tell at all. I've seen sports psychologists in the sport work really well. REALLY well for some athletes and no so well for others. All depends on the relationship, IMO, and on what they are specifically working on. I've seen some situations where it did not work that well. It's not my field, so I'm just thinking about the results that I have seen. I'm hoping that this helps MS, makes her less anxious and maybe more calmly confident, but doesn't change her competitive edge at all.

We all know that she has, yet again, a chance to make history, by being the first American to medal in four events at these Olympics. I'm hoping that there is not too much pressure building there. I'd still rather see her maintain her SL, and get her GS a bit more consistent and faster before making SG a regular part of the program. That last piece is really hard. Schedule wise as such as anything.

This is probably heresy on a board like this, but getting herself to the top of the heap in GS is not that simple. There are a lot of good women GS skiers on the circuit. MS is a thinker, and her skiing is not totally "natural". She does not have the natural touch that you might think she does. She is not the best athlete in that group. So, there may be a LOT on her plate. Keep the SL pedal down in the face of more competitors. Work hard to make gains in GS consistency and speed. Become a threat in SG....All while being calmer, less anxious, etc. That sounds like a lot to me.

Season is so early. There was some good skiing today. I agree that if that second run set had been a bit "harder", we might have seen a different result. It wasn't and we didn't. All good. Some good skiers had tough days. Some young skiers had really good ones. Melanie Meillard, the Swiss 19 year old, was 5th. Melanie is really one watch. Keep an eye on her.

Re the other North Americans, Resi had the kind of day we sort of expect, and that she was not happy with. 4.15 seconds out in 21st. Megan McJames was 48th in the first run.

Among the Canadians, Mitch Gagnon was 10th. Erin Mielzynski was 27th. For those NCAA fans, UVM's Laurence St-Germain skied to 17th from bib 47. Pretty neat stuff. Perhaps we won't see her skiing so much for the Cats.

It's a LONG season. Looking forward to Killington.
 

4ster

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Just watched the first run, beginning to like Russian. Shiffrin stuck it down the hill top to bottom. Vlhova is not as quick as Shiffrin but seems a little more solid to the outside ski & perhaps has a little safer stance. Both are skiing great & like @Swede said, Shiffrin let it get a little skiddy on the pitch in run 2 or it could’ve easily been a different outcome. Huge confidence boost for Vlhova but I don’t think Shiffrin should be shattered by any means. It should just keep her honest ogwink. I like seeing the competition.

From the also rans, I was really impressed with Deurr & Meillard’s 1st runs. Except for one big mistake young Meillard was slicing & dicing.

Never did see Brunner’s 1st run but I did get to see all of her 2nd run. She took a lot of speed onto the pitch but only jammed a little bit, stayed calm & let it roll all the way to the finish. If she can stay consistent her skill will have her scoring good points in both SL & GS... Super G?

& yes @Muleski a tougher course on a tougher hill will separate the girls from the women. Maybe one of those 4 gate diagonal flushes :eek: .
 
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