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WhiteHowler
Apr 3, 2001

I'M HUGE!

frankenfreak posted:

Oh my god, Ledecka just standing there not able to grasp what she just did.

Did they say she's primarily a snowboarder?

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wyoak
Feb 14, 2005

a glass case of emotion

Fallen Rib

HookShot posted:

In a word, yes.

In speed events (it's slightly different in tech) the people ranked 1-10 in the world all get to choose the odd-numbered bibs between 1 and 19.

Then, the people ranked 11-20 in the world are all put into a random draw to get the odd numbered bibs between 2 and 20.

The people ranked 20 to 30 are then drawn with those bib numbers, and then it goes in order based on world ranking (ie. bib 31 is the 31st ranked, 32 is 32nd ranked, etc). So when you get back there, it becomes a lot less likely. They're just not as good.

Super G and downhill are basically the only events where you will ever see this sort of thing happen, and it's still actually quite rare, especially for the win. In tech it's almost impossible because it's a two-run race and everything that comes with (getting into your own head, ruts, it just being more technical, that sort of thing). Dustin Cook for Canada came 2nd at World Champs in 2015 from bib 28, Lara Gut came second in a downhill in 2008 from a bib number in the 30s in one of her first world cup (and would have won if she didn't eat it just before the finish line), but I'm actually really hard pressed to remember any other times when it's happened in recent memory. I think Sofia Goggia came from a high bib number to get 4th at World Champs in 2013. But it seriously is so super rare.
Makes sense thanks!

And as I type this apparently number 26 came out and is in first!

DC Murderverse
Nov 10, 2016

"Tell that to Zod's snapped neck!"

it's the sequel to Like Mike

Like Mick: This Time The Shoes Are Skis

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

WhiteHowler posted:

Did they say she's primarily a snowboarder?

She does both - she splits her training up into three week blocks of skiing/three week blocks of snowboarding, and does select competitions in both sports.

It's also not like she just suddenly decided to take up skiing, she's been racing for years and years. Commentators often seem to imply that she just took it up last year.

But yeah she's insanely impressive.

wyoak
Feb 14, 2005

a glass case of emotion

Fallen Rib
Haha her reaction was amazing

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

wyoak posted:

Makes sense thanks!

And as I type this apparently number 26 came out and is in first!

Yeah, I edited my post after that to add that it's even more impressive because she's actually ranked 43rd in the world, and only has that low a bib number because some countries couldn't send all their competitors who were better than her because of quota spots.

Kazak_Hstan
Apr 28, 2014

Grimey Drawer
Ha that owns.

Serves them right for annointing someone the gold medal winner with a bunch of skiers left.

jamal
Apr 15, 2003

I'll set the building on fire
Holy poo poo i had to go back and watch that run twice more (starts at 2:41 on the nbc standard feed).

I love that the camera man is telling her she won and she can't believe it

jamal fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Feb 17, 2018

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Haven't seen the clip yet, looking forward to it. It has annoyed me that they just openly assume the lower ranked races will fail to podium. I suppose the TV-monster needs to be fed its timely spectacle, but it is unsportsmanlike and respectless to declare the winners when people are waiting to start. It's not often this attitude gets its comeuppance (which explains why it's there), glad it did now.


e: Saw the clip now, that disbelief! :3: And Veith was sitting in the leader box and waiting, so that's fine.

Ola fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Feb 17, 2018

Synthetic Hermit
Apr 4, 2012

mega survoltage!!!
Grimey Drawer
I've seen late (after 25) numbers do well before, but never win. And Anna Veith was the defending champion to boot.

This may be the first time I've seen a true underdog win any Olympic event. She looked stunned all the way to the podium.



And Czech Republic beat Canada in hockey today too!

:tipshat::tipshat::tipshat:

Synthetic Hermit
Apr 4, 2012

mega survoltage!!!
Grimey Drawer
Czech commentary:

https://streamable.com/ao0uy

:keke:

Vertical Lime
Dec 11, 2004

Kazak_Hstan posted:

Ha that owns.

Serves them right for annointing someone the gold medal winner with a bunch of skiers left.

or to act like vonn is the only woman that exists on earth

ewe2
Jul 1, 2009


Haha she looked like "did i screw something up? what's everyone yelling about?"

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



"OK, any moment the alarm clock will go off and I have to go ski for real"

Hands down one of the best sports moments in this Olympics. The other was the group skiers (including the winner) waiting for the Mexican athlete to finish in cross-country, cheering him on.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


What happens during an inspection? Skiing the Super-G without being able to try the track seems dangerous.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



Josh Lyman posted:

What happens during an inspection? Skiing the Super-G without being able to try the track seems dangerous.

My understanding is they literally walk the course. So the person going first is at a huge disadvantage.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Basically, inspection is (at WC level) 90 minutes where they get to learn the course. So they go down the track, and they memorize not only where the gates are, but also things like terrain changes, what kind of direction they need to have off jumps and blind rollers (what we call rollers where you can't see the next gate until you're over it), and what line they're going to want to run.

A lot of the time, especially with blind rollers and stuff, you'll go up to one gate, have a look, see where the next gate is, then hike back up the hill and figure out your line from there.

Super G is actually an incredibly hard discipline because there are no training runs, and you're often adapting on the fly because of the speeds you're travelling at - sometimes a roller that you'd be able to absorb while going 90kph you're going to fly off at 100kph, and go 15 meters, so your line coming into the roller and afterwards has to change.

The person going first is at a little bit of a disadvantage, you'll notice that most of the best yesterday tended to pick the odd numbers in the 5-15 range. When you do go first though you have the advantage that the course is perfect and pristine. There are no ruts or holes to worry about yet. So for someone who's confident that they can inspect a course well, it can be a good choice. But yeah, you don't get to see what fuckups the person in front of you made.

At the women's Super G in Russia four years ago something like 6 of the first 10 women DNFed because it was a tricky course, and it took that long for the coaches to get all the info to the racers in the start enough for them all to adjust their lines enough that they made it down to the finish.

Josh Lyman
May 24, 2009


Is there any logical reason why there's no training run in Super G?

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Men's GS Run 1 8:15pm EST
Run 2 11:45pm EST


Marcel Hirscher goes for his second gold of the Olympics. I think he'll win it, personally. And frankly, the dude with six crystal globes in a row probably wants to add a bit of slightly different coloured bling to his trophy cabinet.

I'm calling Pinturault second and Manuel Feller third.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Josh Lyman posted:

Is there any logical reason why there's no training run in Super G?

The whole point of it is to judge the ability to ski technically (none of the tech events have training runs) at higher speeds - it's actually short for Super Giant Slalom - and being able to adjust on the fly is a huge part of that.

Plus the speeds aren't high enough to really justify it. You'll rarely see a Super G where you break over 110kph.

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



110 skiers for Giant Slalom?

110 seems like a lot. Is that a lot?

Acquilae
May 15, 2013

that crash :ohdear:

McStabby
Jun 26, 2007

LANA!!! CRUUUUUSH!
RIP that guy's leg

Komet
Apr 4, 2003

That's a knee surgery

wyoak
Feb 14, 2005

a glass case of emotion

Fallen Rib
Rip ligament and Ligety

McStabby
Jun 26, 2007

LANA!!! CRUUUUUSH!

Komet posted:

That's a knee surgery

One of the announcers seems to think it's his Achilles.

Komet
Apr 4, 2003

Thinking about Achilles tendon tears makes me want to puke

McStabby
Jun 26, 2007

LANA!!! CRUUUUUSH!
I wonder who thought sticking the photographers there was a good idea?

Especially behind an air mattress.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Proteus Jones posted:

110 skiers for Giant Slalom?

110 seems like a lot. Is that a lot?

Not especially; FIS max is 140 and I’ve seen multiple races with that number.


McStabby posted:

I wonder who thought sticking the photographers there was a good idea?

Especially behind an air mattress.

They’re also not the normal WC photographers who know how/when to get the gently caress out of the way. You never see this in World Cup because they all scatter as soon as they see someone coming. These guys have no idea.

Synthetic Hermit
Apr 4, 2012

mega survoltage!!!
Grimey Drawer

Acquilae posted:

that crash :ohdear:

Who?

Acquilae
May 15, 2013

https://www.nbcolympics.com/video/manuel-feller-and-luca-de-aliprandini-crash-giant-slalom

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
Luca deAliprandini has said he doesn't think his injury in his crash was serious. Of course, athletes are known morons, so it might not end up being true, but generally ski racers have a pretty good idea if they've blown their knees straight away.

Lindsey Vonn won the first women's downhill training run. Here are where the results will be posted for anyone who wants to keep up with them:

TR Run 1: https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=AL&raceid=91466

TR Run 2: https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=AL&raceid=91468

TR Run 3: https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/results.html?sector=AL&raceid=91469

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
In the women's downhill Ramona Siebenhofer is not a bad dark horse pick; she won the training run yesterday but was a PDQ (potential disqualification - meaning she got the fastest time but didn't go around all the gates, which is fine in a training run because it's training, but also can mean that they gained some speed somewhere they wouldn't have normally had because of it) but today is sitting in 3rd, 0.70 back, and she went around all the gates the right way. See if she can do the same on race day.

MikShiff went from 23rd in the first training run to 18th today, if she can get it down to around 10th in tomorrow's training run she'll be a podium threat. At Lake Louise in the training runs she went from 20th to 12th, then 3rd on race 1 and 1st on race 2. She learns ridiculously fast.

Komet
Apr 4, 2003

Her form is way different than Vonn though. Hard to see Vonn losing to anyone if she skis cleanly

DC Murderverse
Nov 10, 2016

"Tell that to Zod's snapped neck!"

Komet posted:

Her form is way different than Vonn though. Hard to see Vonn losing to anyone if she skis cleanly

all she'll have to do to Shiffren is say "good luck, don't crash!" before the race and it will spook her

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Komet posted:

Her form is way different than Vonn though. Hard to see Vonn losing to anyone if she skis cleanly

Shiffrin is technically superior to Vonn (especially when it comes to outside ski pressure, where Vonn often falters, and if anything will cost her the race it'll be that), where Vonn gets her is in pure edge control and feel of the snow, which she does absolutely beautifully, better than anyone else in the world, which is why she's so good at speed, and in risk-taking. Vonn knows exactly where to risk, and how much, and can make that decision on the fly, whereas Shiffrin obviously isn't quite as good at that part of things yet. However, that's also more important in Super G than in downhill. Vonn is also incredible in the air, but so is Shiffrin.

One thing Shiffrin is phenomenal at is her movement in and out of her tuck, which is so smooth and seamless it's hard to believe she's new to speed.

Vonn is one of the best gliders in the world as well, and this track has almost no gliding. I think the track actually does suit Shiffrin's strengths, which are, funnily enough, a lot of Vonn's strengths as well. I don't think it was a coincidence that Shiffrin's first speed podium came at "Lake Lindsey", the two of them have a very similar skillset, really.

Obviously Vonn is more experienced and I think it would take a big mistake from Vonn for Shiffrin to actually beat her on race day, but I absolutely wouldn't count her out of a podium spot.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
I watched a handful of the runs from the second training run. Thoughts:

- If Shiffrin can grab her tuck and fix up her jumps on the top section of the course, she's definitely in it with a shot. There were 2-3 around 10-second spots where I think she could make up a LOT of time, and most of her deficit came in that top half. Her bottom half was really good.

- Vonn looks really good as well, and she's definitely not skiing at 100% aggression. Expect her to go faster than she's doing in training on race day.

- This course is allllll about aerodynamics for the women, whereas it was very much a technical course for the men. Whoever has the balls to hold their tuck the longest and the skills to also hold an edge at the same time on race day is going to win. The course is basically tailor-made for all of Vonn's strengths and it really will be a huge upset if she loses.

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

The schedule has been moved around, so Shiffrin pulled out of the downhill. Is there a reserve who will take her place?

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005

Ola posted:

The schedule has been moved around, so Shiffrin pulled out of the downhill. Is there a reserve who will take her place?

Ugh. So annoying, I would have loved to see Shiffrin do the downhill.

Anyway, the answer to your question is yes. In Alpine events at the Olympics every country is allowed to enter four athletes on competition day, but they're also allowed to enter more in the training runs. Shiffrin and Vonn were the only two Americans who met the "yes you are 100% part of our quota" level so the US Ski Team had to guarantee them both a spot if they wanted it, no matter how badly they skied in the training runs.

There are five other Americans who were doing the training runs, so if Shiffrin has pulled out, three of them will be selected to race instead of two.

It's a fairly common way to do the downhill selection, using the training runs. In 2014, Dominique Gisin, who eventually won the gold medal (along with Tina Maze in a tie) was only actually selected for the Swiss team because of her training run results; she was their very last pick.

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Ola
Jul 19, 2004

Got it, thanks. It would have sucked to leave a spot empty. And thanks in general for your extremely informed, enlightening posts on the subject!

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