Spoiler: PyeongChang 2018 Olympics

[ted]

Anyone know why Anna Veith didn't run downhill?
Tried a search ad only thing I could find was superG info.

 

[Started at 53]

Ski Cross is awesome

 

[Philpug]

#17 Schmidhofer was on some old Fischers...at least 3-4 years old.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Anyone know why Anna Veith didn't run downhill?
Tried a search ad only thing I could find was superG info.

Apparently, she did not qualify in the DH training.

This is from Google translate:


The silver medalist in the Super-G does not start on the downhill. Fly home as soon as possible.

The names Venier, Siebenhofer and Schmidhofer are now next to Fixtarterin Cornelia Hütter on the starting list of ÖSV-Damen-Rennsportleiter Jürgen Kriechbaum. The name Veith does not appear anymore.

"Anna was up for debate, but after her great Super-G-Silver but a little struck and needs regeneration time for the next World Cup races and a good end of the season and will therefore fly home as soon as possible," says ÖSV-Damen-Rennsportleiter Jürgen Kriechbaum ORF interview.

The efforts of the last days were the silver medal winner in the Super-G but then too much. With place 21 in the downhill training Veith missed, like teammate Tamara Tippler (rank 23) the qualification clearly.

Stephanie Venier solved the ticket for the Olympic Downhill Team on Monday in Jeongseon with a training best time. Ramona Siebenhofer in fourth and Nicole Schmidhofer after place 8 and a coaching decision also start in the downhill on Wednesday (11 am local time / 3 am CET). Cornelia Hütter (15th) already had her place safe from that.

 

[Muleski]

Edit: was typing while somebody else was already responding! Not quite fast enough in their time trial.

 

[Stephen]

USA Men’s hockey loses in shootout and will not advance to medal round.

 

[fatbob]

Can't say I'm gutted about Vonn. Wonder how long she'll stick at it now once she hits WC wins target.

Pleased for Goggia and Bullwinkle

 

[LKLA]

Snowboarder Ester Ledecka came to the PyeongChang Games planning to make history as the first person to compete at the Olympics in both skiing and snowboarding. Instead, she shocked the world, and herself, with an astonishing upset victory in the women’s super-G.

“I thought they were going to put a couple more seconds on my time,” Ledecka later said, laughing and well aware that the race would be decided by hundredths of a second. “I was waiting for it.”

Ledecka, currently ranked 43rd in the women’s World Cup super-G standings, outpaced a field that included Lindsey Vonn, who was favorite for the gold medal. Ledecka’s time of 1 minute 21.11 seconds was one-hundredth of a second faster, the narrowest margin of victory possible in Alpine racing, than silver medalist Anna Veith, the defending champion in the event.

Ledecka is an Olympian from the Czech Republic who is known more for her snowboarding world championships than her ski racing accolades. Her obvious athleticism shined through, a fact that’s even more surprising knowing that she raced on someone else’s skis. That ski benefactor just so happened to be Mikaela Shiffrin.

Vonn said although she wishes she’d finished with a medal, she wasn’t disappointed, noting Ledecka’s incredible versatility:

“I wish I had as much athleticism as she has that I could just hop from sport to sport and just, like, win everything. But unfortunately, I’m only good at ski racing – and she still beat me.”

Ester Ledecka will switch disciplines for her next event, competing in the snowboarding parallel giant slalom on Thursday.

 

[Choucas]

Ledecka's Super G win should open some eyes. It may be a bit of a fluke, but watching her ski earlier this season and seeing how strong, balanced, aggressive, and athletic she was, it becomes less of a shocker than it might seem on the surface. It should also serve to legitimatize what athletes are doing on snowbards both in a race course and in half pipe and slopestyle. Amazing athletes who are not afraid to fail. Being topped by a part time ski racer should make racers take note of what she's doing, and question some of their training and preparation. Alpine ski racers (along with their coaches and nation team organizations) tend to be off in an inbred world of their own. Probably a good idea to take the blinders off every now and then and see what can be learned from athletes in other sports. I'm also a fan of playing other sports. Doing one sport year round is a recipe for staleness and injury.

 

[dustyfog]

Lindsey Vonn is a delight! Her indefatigable spirit, and most simple grace (her tongue-in-cheek remark "no snowboarders running today.."), and gracious acknowledgement of being beaten, she is the best of the best. Inspires legions of kids and adults. All about the 'Never say die..", "Can-do" ethos, fearless persona - always exciting. In fact, her run seemed almost downright tame compared to her usual 'going hell for leather' all out blasting on her skis. She will be sorely missed, when she decides to hang up her skis. She still medaled at 33+, incredible. Her skiing was cleaner to these amateur eyes, than anyone else including the winner, Sofia Goggia, who put down a scorching pace with her line in the second half of the course. Great race, and Ragnild M.'s run, what can one say ! Bravo...love it when the unexpected happens, and the unknown (sort of...she is known..) comes through.
First the Super G and now the Downhill, incredibly entertaining, exciting races.
Slalom was the surprise, since Mikhaela did not win, but to this , admittedly again amateur viewer, she looked like the most elegant technically sound skier., just slower that day, which can happen to the best of them, where she happens to be one of 'them' for sure.
Sad the Alpine is slowly ending. Men's Slalom and Women's combined (this should be fun, MS vs LV from my point of view is going to be fun, the 'old' (pardon me Ms. Vonn, no offence intended) vs the New 'Blood', Shiffrin, the mantle may pass here...)

 

[trailtrimmer]

Finally, the US nordic team gets it done!

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetor...m-usa-just-won-a-gold-medal-in-her-last-event

 

[Seldomski]

I am wondering if the downhill course last night (and the men's) is especially vulnerable to wind vs. those run on the WC? What I mean is, it seemed that variable winds played a significant part in the results. It seemed pretty flat to me compared to others on the WC. On the plus side, the chance for injury seemed much less than some of the WC runs. But, it also seems as though being flat meant wind plays a huge part in the results.

If instead the course had a series of steep and flat areas and a course that wraps around the mountain more, it seems like that kind of course would downplay the effects of wind more. Steep sections to regain speed lost to wind. Wrapping around the mountain may help blunt the impact of wind by making it beneficial in areas and a brake in others.

Wind also seemed to play a part in the men's combined. Seemed to benefit the early runners a good deal, with MH beating some true 'downhillers' that he may not have if winds were identical.

Any thoughts? I will admit to not following downhill over the years nearly as closely as SL or GS. I find the latter 2 more appealing.

 

[fatbob]

Lindsey Vonn is a delight! Her indefatigable spirit, and most simple grace In fact, her run seemed almost downright tame compared to her usual 'going hell for leather' all out blasting on her skis.

D'ya think she's mellowing in her old age or did her skis still get the wrong end of a claw hammer in the locker room ?

 

[Franzz]

Me think LV should go.., before she hurt herself again and cripple her retirement from skiing.

 

[Dwight]

I am wondering if the downhill course last night (and the men's) is especially vulnerable to wind vs. those run on the WC? What I mean is, it seemed that variable winds played a significant part in the results. It seemed pretty flat to me compared to others on the WC. On the plus side, the chance for injury seemed much less than some of the WC runs. But, it also seems as though being flat meant wind plays a huge part in the results.

If instead the course had a series of steep and flat areas and a course that wraps around the mountain more, it seems like that kind of course would downplay the effects of wind more. Steep sections to regain speed lost to wind. Wrapping around the mountain may help blunt the impact of wind by making it beneficial in areas and a brake in others.

Wind also seemed to play a part in the men's combined. Seemed to benefit the early runners a good deal, with MH beating some true 'downhillers' that he may not have if winds were identical.

Any thoughts? I will admit to not following downhill over the years nearly as closely as SL or GS. I find the latter 2 more appealing.

I believe the courses are not as tough as WC courses, because the talent pool includes more people that are not running WC.

 

[Ohioskier]

This was a great finish

 

[dustyfog]

D'ya think she's mellowing in her old age or did her skis still get the wrong end of a claw hammer in the locker room ?

Cracked me up...wouldn't put it past the FSB to get some of Putin's praetorian guards in there with that claw hammer !-)

No, got to be wisdom of the years, finishing was likely more important, a DNF was a definite no-go, so has to have made her ever-so slightly conservative, again, two-cents worth but call it an educated, experienced (i.e. am old so to speak) guess, and why :

1. Super-G just her split times tell you she was ahead of the field by about 0.5 seconds, and she side-d out on her skis and hips, and well we know the result, fairy tale ending with the snowboarder (note Vonn did not once take anything away from that remarkable Ledecka performance though she almost certainly knew, if she had not slid, she was way ahead of the field!) . Got to have been on her mind before she got into the starting block
2. DNF would be a heart-breaker for her and the world.

Though, think about how good she is even now, she sort of did not 'go for it' and still came within a whisper of winning. (Maybe slowing down in practice run...was her strategy all along , just kidding)
Olympic story is good, that she and Goggia are such good pals..This was one heck of a great race..in more ways than speed..
From the Washington Post today: https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...nn-10am:homepage/story&utm_term=.921a0b6e778b
“Really, are you asking me to commentate [on] the greatest skier?” said Wednesday’s gold medalist, Sofia Goggia of Italy.

Yes, Sofia. Yes, we are.

“It speaks for itself,” Goggia said. “She has 140 or 130 [World Cup] podiums. Me, I have 20. She has 81 victories. I have four.”"
.

 

[S.H.]

Super-G just her split times tell you she was ahead of the field by about 0.5 seconds, and she side-d out on her skis and hips, and well we know the result, fairy tale ending with the snowboarder (note Vonn did not once take anything away from that remarkable Ledecka performance though she almost certainly knew, if she had not slid, she was way ahead of the field!)

That's ... not what the split times show. Her major mistake came after the last intermediate timing (I3).

Vonn was slow between I1 and I2 (17th) and, of course, also between I3 and the finish (14th). She won the other two intervals (start to I1 [6 sec] and I2 to I3). She didn't have the lead on the field at any of the splits except the first one.

She was T1 over the first interval (tied w/ Rebensberg), and 0.01 ahead of Gisin in 3rd. She won the I2 to I3 interval by 0.02 over Veith and 0.16 over Ledecka.

She was 5th in the field at the last split, before the major mistake. Even with a clean last section, a medal wasn't a guarantee.

Let's not put the SG effort on a pedestal. It was certainly good, but it wasn't a world-beater.

Splits: http://medias3.fis-ski.com/pdf/2018/AL/5212/2018AL5212.pdf

 

[Dwight]

I like what the NY Times has been doing for the races.


https://www.nytimes.com/interactive...mpics/downhill-lindsey-vonn-sofia-goggia.html

 

[dustyfog]

That's ... not what the split times show. Her major mistake came after the last intermediate timing (I3).

Vonn was slow between I1 and I2 (17th) and, of course, also between I3 and the finish (14th). She won the other two intervals (start to I1 [6 sec] and I2 to I3). She didn't have the lead on the field at any of the splits except the first one.

She was T1 over the first interval (tied w/ Rebensberg), and 0.01 ahead of Gisin in 3rd. She won the I2 to I3 interval by 0.02 over Veith and 0.16 over Ledecka.

She was 5th in the field at the last split, before the major mistake. Even with a clean last section, a medal wasn't a guarantee.

Let's not put the SG effort on a pedestal. It was certainly good, but it wasn't a world-beater.

Splits: http://medias3.fis-ski.com/pdf/2018/AL/5212/2018AL5212.pdf

Correction noted, thanks. My faulty memory suggested the same listening to Mr. Miller and Mr. Hicks, but that is my error. On the other hand, she is on that pedestal, hard earned pedestal.