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The Men's combined is happening right now and there's no thread for alpine racing events so here's a hastily thrown together OP which I may or may not update later with more info. Alpine ski racing is the dorkiest and oldest version of skiing in the Olympics. It is the swimming of the winter games and IMO is more watchable. There are four disciplines and five events. In order from smallest turns and most technical to longest turns and most speed they are Slalom, Giant Slalom (aka GS), Super G, Downhill. Most skiers at this level tend to be best at one range of this spectrum, or perhaps just one discipline. But the very best are competitive in them all. The fifth event is a very creatively named Alpine Combined and is a combination of a Downhill run and an Slalom run in the same day. (This is happening right now as I'm wasting time typing this OP!) 'Murican Athletes to watch: There are some men that are excellent skiers and Ted Ligety aka TED SHRED is still a zen master of GS but the medal contenders are the women. LINDSEY VONN You already know about her presumably. This is probably her last Olympics. Vonn is well embedded in the American pop/celebrity cultural awareness (she dated Tiger Woods for some strange reason) but she is pretty clearly the greatest American ski racer of all time and we should appreciate her talents here one last time. I mean this in an objective sense, she's won more World Cup races and overall titles than any other American. She has had really bad injury luck in Olympic years so it would be cool if she had a good week this time around. Vonn's best events have always been speed, look for her in Downhill and Super G but mostly it's all about the Downhill. But fret not America, there is another ridiculously talented blonde women ready to become the symbol of elite achievement in The Whitest Sport... MIKAELA SHIFFRIN Shiffrin's specialty is at the other end of the spectrum. She dominates slalom (and is the reigning gold medalist in that discipline) but now as a seasoned veteran at the ripe age of 22 (she snagged her first World Cup podium at 16) she is a force across the board. Shiffrin won her first World Cup Overall title last year (points across all five races over the course of the whole season), something Vonn has done an American-record 4 times. Mikaela currently holds a commanding lead on the World Cup Overall standings for this season. Look for her in slalom obviously, but she could podium in anything cause she is THE BEST. Here's a cool multimedia feature on her from the NYT that also does an excellent job of breaking down the differences between the disciplines. edit: Here are excellent write ups of the competitors to know from Hookshot, who is our resident goon ski racer, and also follows the World Cup much more closely than I do. Broken into two categories, speed events and technical events. Hookshot posted:
Hookshot posted:Men's Giant Slalom bawfuls fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Feb 13, 2018 |
# ? Feb 13, 2018 04:38 |
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# ? Apr 25, 2024 07:36 |
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u jerk I just opened a general ski chat for this (seriously though I can close it, specialized threads are way better)
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 04:49 |
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Chokes McGee posted:u jerk I just opened a general ski chat for this
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 05:07 |
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This is pretty cool. Have you guys seen the NYT stuff? https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/08/sports/olympics/mikaela-shiffrin-alpine-skiing.html There's some other disciplines too, whatever
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 05:27 |
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pork never goes bad posted:This is pretty cool. Have you guys seen the NYT stuff?
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 05:29 |
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Downhill skiing is the coolest and best sport in the Olympics, summer or winter.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 06:00 |
If anyone has any questions about the sport please ask away. I've been a ski racer for a few years now, I compete in every discipline, and I actually know a handful of the athletes at the games. I've trained with two of them, one of them is from Alberta (competing for Eritrea) so I see him at basically every competition, and I've trained next to a ton of world cup athletes in New Zealand. Mikaela Shiffrin is seriously the nicest person. She also waits her turn in the lift line, whereas Lindsey Vonn cuts in front of everyone. edit: and if anyone wants to know what the best ski racing instagram account to follow is, it's hands down @slalomtokyodrift HookShot fucked around with this message at 06:43 on Feb 13, 2018 |
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 06:41 |
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HookShot posted:Mikaela Shiffrin is seriously the nicest person. She also waits her turn in the lift line, whereas Lindsey Vonn cuts in front of everyone.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 06:43 |
bawfuls posted:I should just replace the OP with this honestly It's the most important metric as to whether or not someone is a gigantic douchebag.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 06:47 |
Also I didn't do a writeup about the Alpine Combined because the first run is already over, but there is no loving way Hirscher doesn't win it. Only 1.3 seconds back after the downhill, Pinturault is behind him, not a chance. He'd have to straddle and DNF to lose. I'm putting Pinturault for silver and Innerhoffer for bronze. 10pm PST (in 5 minutes) to watch the greatest slalom skier in the world destroy a bunch of downhillers. HookShot fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Feb 13, 2018 |
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 06:50 |
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Bode miller is a good commenter.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 07:23 |
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Kazak_Hstan posted:Bode miller is a good commenter.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 07:37 |
Women's Slalom - Run 1 at 9:15pm EST, Run 2 at 12:45am (14th) EST If you're on the east coast and just want a glimpse at the best female skier in the world right now, tune in to run 1. Shiffrin has bib three, in slalom in the first run the best go first, so the ladies with the first 7 bibs are the 7 best slalom skiers (bibs among them are picked by random draw). In the second run, the top 30 go in reverse order, so the 30th person to go was the winner of the first run. It makes the end of the race very exciting, and I definitely recommend watching if you're willing/able to stay up that late.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 16:39 |
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I have to defend Vonn because she has been really awesome to one of our young ski racers on our local team who has been battling brain cancer.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 17:16 |
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bawfuls posted:It's ok cause no one cares about alpine ski racing anyway I care, OP. I care.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 17:37 |
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HookShot posted:Mikaela Shiffrin is seriously the nicest person. She also waits her turn in the lift line, whereas Lindsey Vonn cuts in front of everyone. if this is true im bummed as hell. god dammit lindsey
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 17:48 |
OMGVBFLOL posted:if this is true im bummed as hell. god dammit lindsey Its literallt first hand experience, I spent two of the last three summers in NZ at the same time as the US team. Mikaela actually joined me on the tbar one time too instead of always going up with her coach/team which is just so super nice/humble compared to what she could do. No one would blame her for not wanting to go up the tbar with randoms, but she definitely did it constantly. But yeah Lindsey cut the line every single time. She was nice enough to forerun one of our races though a couple years back.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 19:35 |
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when i become a world famous ski racer i will wait in line like a civilized person
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 19:39 |
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When do I get to watch the guy from
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 19:42 |
bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:When do I get to watch the guy from
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 21:39 |
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I begrudge no one who wants to skip lift lines, most of my days on the mountain are spent planning how to minimize my time in them Also Vonn spent a bunch of her life skiing in Vail so I especially understand wanting to skip lift lines
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 21:48 |
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shes a professional she can just go on weekdays
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 21:53 |
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i lived in breckenridge for two seasons and i never cared about waiting in line because i never rode on weekends while the gapers and their families were there
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 21:54 |
Also when I say "lift line" I'm talking like 10 people max waiting for a t-bar, all of whom are ski racers and so know what they're doing and aren't going to fall over and need to try again.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 22:09 |
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Cutting a 10-person t-bar line on a race training course in New Zealand is some peak privileged poo poo. It's not even saving her much time, it's just a "gently caress you I'm a Big Deal" move.
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# ? Feb 13, 2018 22:54 |
I swear they must have changed the time because I cannot have been dumb enough to read :45 as :15, but the women's slalom run 1 is now at 8:45pm EST and run 2 is at 11:45pm EST
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 01:47 |
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HookShot posted:I swear they must have changed the time because I cannot have been dumb enough to read :45 as :15, but the women's slalom run 1 is now at 8:45pm EST and run 2 is at 11:45pm EST You're not losing your eyesight. They've pushed the times back because of the weather again. God willingly, the FIS will actually loving listen to the goddamned athletes this time and not make people compete in bullshit conditions again. e: and would you look at that, now they're not starting until 2145 EST Argus Zant fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Feb 14, 2018 |
# ? Feb 14, 2018 02:13 |
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Can't wait. Don't ski out Shiffrin. And Vonn was fast this season, I think she's got a good chance. And oh man was Hirsher's slalom run last night good. I suppose it stood out more because he was mixed in with a bunch of DH racers but he ripped the poo poo out of that course. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHhGSPVtKJQ jamal fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Feb 14, 2018 |
# ? Feb 14, 2018 02:29 |
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https://twitter.com/DanHicksNBC/status/963597897521614848 they just can't catch a break
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 03:17 |
The wind is supposed to die out tonight for good, so this should hopefully be the last event postponed.
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 03:24 |
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Just watching people try to ski these courses and the slopestyle event on snowboard has given me mad respect from anybody from the ice coast who has to ski manmade snow all year.
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 03:28 |
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HookShot posted:The wind is supposed to die out tonight for good, so this should hopefully be the last event postponed.
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 03:37 |
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bvj191jgl7bBsqF5m posted:Just watching people try to ski these courses and the slopestyle event on snowboard has given me mad respect from anybody from the ice coast who has to ski manmade snow all year. We appreciate that. Although we still pine for powder.
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 03:37 |
Men's downhill and women's giant slalom is on today and will likely actually happen. Women's GS Run 1 starts at 8pm EST. Men's Downhill begins at 9:30pm EST Women's GS Run 2 starts at 11:45pm EST Run 2 will be run in reverse order for the top 30, so the 30th person on course will have been the winner of the first run. The women's GS is, IMO, going to be the most exciting event, as unlike every single other event, doesn't actually have one real favourite, but three solid medal favourites, any of whom could end up on the top step of the podium. HookShot fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Feb 14, 2018 |
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# ? Feb 14, 2018 22:22 |
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That aerial shot of the giant slalom, literally sliding down a mountain
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 02:03 |
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is bode miiller showing jay cutler levels of care
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 02:13 |
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HookShot posted:Men's downhill and women's giant slalom is on today and will likely actually happen. How do you feel about this GS course, you werent wild about the diwnhill.
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 02:18 |
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I just want to throw it out there, it might be her husbands fault lol bode
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 02:33 |
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I think I can hear the weird north korean cheersquad in the background of the commentary.
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 02:40 |
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# ? Apr 25, 2024 07:36 |
Kazak_Hstan posted:How do you feel about this GS course, you werent wild about the diwnhill. It's actually super good. There's a ton of microterrain that they really would have needed to catch in inspection, that's really catching a few of them out, it's got a good steep section, and some flats. It's everything a good, challenging GS course should be.
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# ? Feb 15, 2018 03:09 |