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Amusing to see the reations here to the ski mountaineering. They're touring skis with skins rather than x-c skis BTW.
We did ski alpinisme/ski mountaineering races for 20 years. It was all very amateur at the time apart from the Pierra Menta. We got on a podium in a team of three once or twice a year beaten by local specialists, the Gendarmes and sometimes ESF. It was great fun. Skin most of the way up a mountain, leave/carry the skis and kick up the last few metres then back down without taking time to look at the view hoping we could hold off ESF on the off-piste descent.
So I watched the Olympic version with interest. It was all very familiar but in a controlled environment. No verglas, crusted snow, heavy powder or soup, no trying to haul up a rope with slipping feet, no avalanche risk. But hey, the speed skating doesn't take place on ice covered canals with a biting wind and lumps of ice to skate around.
I enjoyed watching.
Ski mountaineering is apparently one of the oldest alpine events. BBC Sport have a short loop of Chemmy explaining it. I hadn't got the skins aspect with the skis earlier
Yes!!
That was soooo exciting.
Zoe Atkin and the Team GB curling on Saturday. Whoop, whoop.
Patate de Canape, moi? Qui :0)
Ski mountaineering is apparently one of the oldest alpine events.
I bet it wasn't a 3 minute sprint on a groomed piste though.
^^ Thank you Google translate.lol 😁
Yes, that was really tense wasn't it, all on that final stone.
Why is Britain oddly good at Skeleton? Seems a weird sport to be the best medal opportunity of the last few games. Is it down to posh folk messing about at expensive Swiss resorts
No, they’ve got a really good training setup at Bath University, basically a wheeled trolly on grooves that gives the athletes the opportunity to practice the initial run over and over again, which is the bit that’s most important to get a fast start and get settled on the sled.
I think there's a centre of excellence at Bath Uni. No slope but...
Here in the BBC Points West area, we get to see the Bath University training setup before events like this. They’ve had great results, which means there’s lots of demand from people wanting to compete in the sports they cover, which in turn gets more money and coverage.
so you know for Saturday night - a steal is when you score but you didn’t have the last stone in that end. You can usually expect (if you are sufficiently skilled) to be able to get your final stone in a scoring position unless the opposition have managed to block you (or sliding 20kg of granite to a precise spot 40m away turns out to be tricky!). Preferred strategy is to score at least 2 when your team have the last stone in that end (called having the hammer). Sometimes is better to get zero (blanking) than only score 1 when you have the hammer because when you score, the opposition then get the hammer which gives them the advantage.Come on Switzerland! Now 6-6. They need a steal now... Not sure what that is but they need it! 😁
Skimo actually made better TV than I expected. It might not be true ski mountaineering - but it seemed more eligible as a “sport” than many of the other things where people do stunts and get scored for it - and certainly easier to see who is winning. Might only last 3 minutes but there’s heats/semifinals/final all in the same day so seems like it’s a fairly athletic test too.
The short track speed skating 3 man relay races!
Wow the changeovers were SO skillfully done with a push as well.
Skimo actually made better TV than I expected
On the flip side, is it just me or is the ski/board cross track really crap this year? Technical to be fast with the number of rollers involved, but not as spectacular as previous editions?
I think the course isn't as steep as previous years. Also the big snow falls have made going a bit slower. I've enjoyed it, but agree it's not a gnarly :0)
Might only last 3 minutes but there’s heats/semifinals/final all in the same day so seems like it’s a fairly athletic test too.
Ski Mo mixed relay currently on, seems to be a longer course, sort of double the sprint course. They are looking dead on the second set of stairs
Who knew there was a velodrome style points race in speed skating?
Anyone watching the curling? Weve not won a men's gold since 1924 so the beeb says.
I think the course isn't as steep as previous years. Also the big snow falls have made going a bit slower. I've enjoyed it, but agree it's not a gnarly :0)
Agreed, I think it needed a longer, steeper ramp out of the gate so the racers could build some speed right from the off. Definitely looked slow on the TV, probably doesn't feel like that when you have 3 other racers breathing down your neck though!
Anyone watching the curling? Weve not won a men's gold since 1924 so the beeb says.
I don't pretend to understand the tactics, but it's a fascinating match
Skimo actually made better TV than I expected. It might not be true ski mountaineering - but it seemed more eligible as a “sport” than many of the other things where people do stunts and get scored for it - and certainly easier to see who is winning. Might only last 3 minutes but there’s heats/semifinals/final all in the same day so seems like it’s a fairly athletic test too.
I was disappointed in it. So fake and artificial. I was expecting it to take them a couple of hours like a marathon or some of the longer xc races. None of them looked very good in the skis. It seemed to be all about who could run up fastest
^^ Ditto, I'm only understanding about 20% of what the hell is going on but it's genuinely tense to watch sometimes.
Never watched it before this Olympics and even in this one, missed the earlier matches. The tactics mixed with the vagaries of kinetics make it very compulsive viewing somehow.
Damn, so nearly.
Great stuff though and well done Canada.
Skimo actually made better TV than I expected. It might not be true ski mountaineering - but it seemed more eligible as a “sport” than many of the other things where people do stunts and get scored for it - and certainly easier to see who is winning. Might only last 3 minutes but there’s heats/semifinals/final all in the same day so seems like it’s a fairly athletic test too.
I was disappointed in it. So fake and artificial. I was expecting it to take them a couple of hours like a marathon or some of the longer xc races. None of them looked very good in the skis. It seemed to be all about who could run up fastest
On that note, the girl in the American team only started 6 months ago. Was a decorated cross country runner before…. Don’t think snow skills are the important part.
agree with you that it seemed very contrived, like trying to smash xc skiing and skier cross together.
a note on the skier / boarder cross. Definitely less steep / fast than previous years, new snow didn’t help. Least there was scope for plenty of overtaking which isn’t always the case.
the golden age of boardercross was the Palmer x games era though.
agree with you that it seemed very contrived, like trying to smash xc skiing and skier cross together.
Or cross country skiing and rifle shooting. Or cross country skiing and ski jumping.
As is the case for many sports, there's actually roots in real life. Biathlon is (like many many things such as javelin, hammer, most running events and so on) an army thing, only winter based: can you get there and shoot the enemy. Skimo, as Graham Bell explained, is based on what you do when actually mountaineering on skis: get as high as you can on skis, take them off for the bits that are too steep, ski down a bit, repeat as required. I enjoyed the team relay even more than the sprint, personally
On that note, the girl in the American team only started 6 months ago. Was a decorated cross country runner before…. Don’t think snow skills are the important part.
Except she grew up in Jackson Hole, one of the premier ski areas in the USA and where you'd expect most kids to learn to ski shortly after they learn to walk. In fact wikipedia back this up
She was a multi-sport athlete, participating in track, cross country, and Nordic skiing, and won 17 overall Wyoming state titles.
What I expected was them to have to climb upto a fixed point on any route they chose and ski down off piste
The contrived version for the olympics was to at least have to climb upto the top of a decent red run and then ski down.
"It's like winding the windows down, on a Messerschmitdt bubblecar" - Commentary from Eddie and Timmy (Women's half pipe).
What I expected was them to have to climb upto a fixed point on any route they chose and ski down off piste
Yes - disappointed. Hadn't done my research and wasn't expecting what we got. The skimo I have seen in the flesh was of the marathon length event style, and basically skin/run up to a col and ski down the other side. Maybe repeated over multiple col/descents or a run along a ridge line before a descent. Much more like an alpine tdf road stage. I think it would have made much more interesting telly and given the host nation a real chance to show off their geography.
I'dguess they put in skimo sprint as the big version is a bit expensive to organise and present a good, long course, and it's a taster to see if they expand it.
I'd agree that given the location it's a shame they disn't go for a big course but I'm sure they had their reasons
Maybe but given anywhere that hosts a Winter Olympics will have a big mountain host the alpine skiing on it all seems a bit poor. They could at least make them skin up to the start of the dh course and ski down
If you haven’t seen it, the men’s mass start speed skating final doesn’t quite go to plan, great race
So next Winter Olympics is going to include freeride events as per the freeride world tour. If you haven’t seen one of these, the skiing especially is bonkers.
Broadly speaking the competitors get to study a mountain face via photos etc then are dropped off at the top and ski / board to the bottom. Judged on risk, speed and flow of line as well as what tricks they chuck off cliffs along the way. It’s not a fully controlled environment- one of the competitors got avalanched during his run at the recent Serre Chevalier stop!
it will be worth watching.
it will be worth watching
I'm afraid I'm in the "if it involves tricks it's not a sport" camp.
well that’s a whole different discussion. Was more making the point that it’s not going to be sanitized like skimo and it is going to showcase the French alps in a way that snow parks / ski cross courses don’t
Or cross country skiing and rifle shooting. Or cross country skiing and ski jumping.
Those two are not comparable.
What a great games. Plenty of excitement and medals for Team GB.
I really hope that the US american medal winners decide to boycott any invitation from Trump to the Whitehouse (especially the women).
Great ice hockey final, low on goals but high on action. Wrong result I suppose, but as stories go a young lad who's just had his front teeth removed by a high stick offence scoring the overtime winner and then the team celebrating with the kids of their lost team mate is a decent one.
Of course, you know who addressed it with his customary class
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/2025604750608040191
So, paralympics.
Just watching the seated Men's downhill. Just looks brilliant.
So, paralympics.
Just watching the seated Men's downhill. Just looks brilliant.
Just watched the last bit of it.... much kudos to those guys.... a battle of attrition with so many not finishing,