[Closed] how good are the ski and board cross events?

Or like 4X with absolutely massive jumps.

Its immense best Olympic sport ever

tradition has it in this house we all empty our penny jars on the table and bet like we are in vegas. working too hard this year so just catching up now. totally brilliant and nail biting to the finish still though

Sheer brilliance!

I used to race moutainboard borderX when I was younger brilliant fun. Not good enough on a bike but would love to race 4x

its got everything racing should be...slipstream, line choice, bravery, flair and skill. pure brilliance as a spectator sport

And no stupid disqualifications for breathing on someone like in the speed skating

^too right. the rules seem to be 'give the guy/girl you tumbled (crashed) over the line with a hug and its all gravy baby' 8)

Fantastic to watch. The ski cross yesterday was superb; three skiers crashing over the finishing line. How big did some of them go on the final kicker, immense. I'm afraid I was unable to watch the curling....snooze.

+1

Boardercross and skicross are the best things about the winter olympics. Excellent stuff 🙂

Love it.

Size of the jumps the skiers were doing off that final kicker was amazing! Graham Bell said it was a similar distance to the ski jumping (not sure if that's true but if it is 😯 ) Awesome skillz.

Not impressed with the beeb hiding it on the red button while showing HOURS of curling, but hey ho.

The ski jump guys go over twice as far in competition (in fact, world record is something like 240m!). I think Graham's reference to ski jumping was connected to the slope profile - he referenced 'the k point', the point at which the hill flattens out again.

Some mad hucks from the ski cross guys!

Graham's reference to ski jumping was that on the final slope, many guys were landing at 55-57 metres, which was further than the distance Eddie The Eagle jumped on the "normal" hill at the Calgary Olympics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain_at_the_1988_Winter_Olympics#Ski_jumping

This is how all finish lines should look.

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EPIC !

Build a track out of dirt that big and steep, throw 4 blokes on full on DH bikes at it and suddenly BMX looks very pedestrian.

I suspect it may hurt slightly more when it goes wrong on a bike though!

Really need those berm step down things on a huge 4x track

its got everything racing should be...slipstream, line choice, bravery, flair and skill. pure brilliance as a spectator sport

and most importantly, no judges (or refs/commissaires). So much as I liked the other freestyle events I can't comprehend some of the judging decisions which does detract (however it's often obvious who's 'the best'). The cross events on the other hand are simply first past the post. Pure and simple racing.

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One of the early winter x games had biker cross!!! MTB's on the boarder cross track, steve peat raced, that was mental

Always loved Boardercross, and even by normal competition standards the Olympic course was huge and a lottery. I've riden an FIS track and whilst that was big, the speed needed for the Sochi course was just immense. Proper test of nerve for the riders, loved seeing the different lines and choice of doubles / triples that it threw up.
Shame for Zoe Gillings as she could have podiumed if the dice had gone her way, hopefully she'll be back for Pyongyang. Loved Ed Leighs comment that the competitors need the "crazy gene"
Its also motivated me enough to look into rebuilding a 4X bike for the summer...

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The thing the photo finish camera doesn't show is how close the guy in the green bib came to being part of the carnage. Can't stop watching him on the gif swerving out of the way every time!

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One of the early winter x games had biker cross!!! MTB's on the boarder cross track, steve peat raced, that was mental

It was 1999 and Peaty won it! Rather freakishly the only pic I could find linked back to a previous P+P thread!

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Why did the ski cross only have 4 per race? Snowboard cross was madder and better but both excellent.
Can you imagine Winter Olympics without boards??

Attrition

They need more boarders cos they fall over more easily.

I actually wrote that as a joke but the more I think about it it sounds sensible. It's easier to stay on your feet with skis and poles and also easier to pickup speed again in the event of a wobble. Note I said easier, not easy. Nothing's easy in the cross events.

Wish this stuff was on all't time.
So much better than Trad sports...

My son does these things in U16. He opened the senior Val Tho' European championship course so is familiar with big courses and reckons that most times a fall means a non finish even on skis because once you lose speed you can't clear the big doubles safely. There's no pootling down trying to get a feel for the course in training either, the only way it can be skied safely is flat out. You may have noticed all the mattresses and air bags after the kickers to catch anyone that falls, loses speed and topples over the edge.

🙂

Wish this stuff was on all't time.
So much better than Trad sports...

If only we could have crosss events - all year - without snow - perhaps on wheels...

I guess part of what makes Olympic ' cross events so fun to watch is that the course has blanket camera coverage - I can't see anybody putting on that kind of setup for 4x (unfortunately)

[b]Wish this stuff was on all't time.
So much better than Trad sports...[/b]
If only we could have crosss events - all year - without snow - perhaps on wheels...

I know what you're implying, but I mean on television. I regularly watch and ride 4x, it's never on telly though. Football however...