2018 Olympic Predictions

[Muleski]

Melanie Meillard's injury is a torn ACL. Meniscus as well.

Hope it goes smoothly. All the best to her.

On another note, Ilka Stuhec was back on snow this week. Hope she'll be able to have a good training this summer. She adds a lot to the WC tour.

 

[UGASkiDawg]

Speed skating, hockey, alpine racing, nordic skiing...the rest who cares

Any "sport" that is judged is not a sport. A competition amongst great athletes but not sport.

 

[markojp]

Melanie Meillard's injury is a torn ACL. Meniscus as well.

Hope it goes smoothly. All the best to her.

On another note, Ilka Stuhec was back on snow this week. Hope she'll be able to have a good training this summer. She adds a lot to the WC tour.

That's a bummer... 19 y.o. and in the mix. She's got a bright future.

 

[Muleski]

That's a bummer... 19 y.o. and in the mix. She's got a bright future.

As we say, "Melanie is VERY legit." Huge future. I'm sure this will be a speed bump.

This Swiss team is loaded with young talent, BTW. Anybody been watching Junior Worlds which just won up in Davos?

Two years ago, a coach told me that three skiers at World Jr's., three younger guys were going to be the real deal. One was Celemnt, Noel, the Frenchman. He's been top 10 in two of the toughest WC SL's this season {better than any of our finishes}. He won the SL at JW's yesterday by almost 3 seconds. Wow.

Another was Marco Odrmatt, the Swiss. Word was that he skis everything well. Two years later, he's won a record five golds. He won every event, and didn't ski the SL. Also, Wow.

The other was Sam Morse, who was top 10 in the DH. Last winter he won the DH, was 5th in the SG, and 6th in the combined. He's for real.

You see a lot of the future WC stars at this event. And kids already on the WC. more so with the women.

Article from ski racing.com:

https://www.skiracing.com/premium/lie-ends-wjcs-with-womens-downhill-title-hurt-seventh

Take a look. Not sure that I agree with JJ's comments about progress versus where we were two years ago. In 2016, in the men's DH, we were 1,4,7, and 10. Not bad.

Some nice showings by some of team USA. Also some familiar last names in the various results. Children and younger siblings of WCers.

Felix McGraths son skis for the Norwegians. Mom is Norwegian and they have lived there for a long time.

Congrats to all racing! Big accomplishment just to get there!

 

[crgildart]

Whoever has the most Holmenkohl blue will win..

 

[4ster]

I'll go with the emotional picks

Women's
DH
Shiffrin
Vonn
Breezy Johnson
US sweep!

SG
Shiffrin
Vonn
Gut, Veith or Goggia

GS
Shiffrin
Rebensberg
Brunner

SL
Shiffrin
Holdener
Vlhova

Combined
Shiffrin
Gisin
Holdener

Mens DH
Svindal
Feuz
Bennet

SG
Hirscher
Svindal
Jansrud

GS
Hirscher
Ligety
Muffat-Jandet or Luca De Aliprandini (just cuz I like saying his name)

SL
Hirscher
Kristofferson
Ryding

Combined
Hirscher
Pintarault
Caviezel


Womens Halfpipe
Maddie Bowman

Womens Aerials
Danielle Scott
Laura Kate Peel
Samantha Wells

 

[Muleski]

My prediction is US TV will show way to much figure skating and not enough skiing.

Holding up that standard perfectly tonight. Whole lotta skating.....

 

[Snowfan]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/team-usa-wins-mixed-doubles-curling-opener-over-oar

 

[hbear]

Agree, have never endorsed the team event.....at all. Why? The best skiers rarely are skiing it either.

Kids reminds me of somethings as stupid as the Kombi event, when that was recently part of the slate even at U16 Nationals. Not "Combined".....Kombi. A run with a combination of GS gates and GS size turns as well as SL. So....so....dumb.

Agree Kombi in North America has got to be one of the dumbest events....lets setup GS gates.....but then throw in some SL, so not only are we having athletes run GS in SL skis (and with pole guards), we are also going to ask them to dump piles of speed somewhere in the transition from GS to SL (winner is the one that doesn't dump too much, but also not too little).....and let's have them do this at least a couple times in the run.....
It's stupid as it actually penalizes the fastest and best GS skiers as they have a more difficult time getting the transition right.

My understanding was Kombi was originally designed as a SG/GS combination which makes more sense.....why GS/SL in North America I have NO idea....

 

[fatbob]

I've set up at tipping pool on Superbru

Fun only - really simple to get the hang of. you can't configure exact events so will have to depend on everyone only tipping in my defined categories. Please just pick the first person on the list alphabetically for all non qualifying events otherwise it won't let you save your picks and that should even out. Cheats will be named and shamed.

Alpine Skiing
Freestyle Skiing
All Snowboarding
Hockey (just cos I like Hockey)


https://www.superbru.com/wintergames/pool.php?p=11803836

Pool name: Snowheads - Pugski

Pool code: slimdoer

So as 10 Feb is all non qualifying events your picks should be Braisaz, Dahl Johansen, Ammann, Blondin

 

[Wilhelmson]

Holding up that standard perfectly tonight. Whole lotta skating.....

What time did they start broadcasting skiing? I had to re-validate the NBC app to watch luge, then watched some Celtics and Mad Max.

 

[crgildart]

Speed skating, hockey, alpine racing, nordic skiing...the rest who cares

Any "sport" that is judged is not a sport. A competition amongst great athletes but not sport.

I'll pass on the cross country skiing, even biathalon. To me that's like bowling, fun to do but I'd rather watch paint dry than watch other people do it. Biathalon does come with a high level of appreciation to me though. It's really impressive to hold a gun steady when your heart and lungs are pumping that hard from the cardio stuff. Nordic jumping is a big but there are also style points subjectively added there just like slopestyle and big air and moguls..

I'm pretty interested in mogul skiing but liked the old natural bumps format better. Way more exciting to see folks trying different lines than all skiing the same one..

Slopestyle and big air are really more of a popularity contest and sponsor influenced though indirectly..

 

[Monique]

Speed skating, hockey, alpine racing, nordic skiing...the rest who cares

Any "sport" that is judged is not a sport. A competition amongst great athletes but not sport.

Let's not have a "let's define what sport means" subthread.

By your definition, bump competitions may not be a sport, but I LOVE watching the competitors.

 

[scott43]

Let's not have a "let's define what sport means" subthread.

By your definition, bump competitions may not be a sport, but I LOVE watching the competitors.

But doesn't that make it entertainment if you love watching it??? *DUCKS*

 

[Monique]

But doesn't that make it entertainment if you love watching it??? *DUCKS*

Sure, just like racing!

 

[Bart Parnell]

I'm pretty interested in mogul skiing but liked the old natural bumps format better. Way more exciting to see folks trying different lines than all skiing the same one..

I've tried watching modern freestyle skiing and it just doesn't connect but that's why, the perfectly consistent mechanical moguls are so off-putting. The original 70s magic of Jack Taylor going fast as Hell straight down a terrifying slope is gone. They "cleaned it up" so it was more fair and codified to judge but they removed all the crazy charm in the process.

Likewise I can appreciate the pipe and slopestyle events but I also think it's the ski industry trying to adapt skis to snowboard terrain... and why watch both when the snowboarders invented and perfected park terrain? Skiers copying snowboard moves, so what? At least with the big air it's such a separate and alien event that recycled gymnasts from China can win it, even if they've never take a full length ski run.

I respect all the athletes but I prefer the events that link back to a longer tradition and have some history and lore.

Basically I think that the pure alpine and pure snowboarding events would be occurring organically regardless of the USST, FIS, or Olympics but a lot of the other stuff is limited lifespan RedBull X-Games marketing hype fast food that will fade away once the next snow biking or snow roller blading trend comes along.

Let me know when they start running Masters Slopestyle events for pure fun and I'll reverse my opinion ;-p

 

[jack97]

Speed skating, hockey, alpine racing, nordic skiing...the rest who cares

Any "sport" that is judged is not a sport. A competition amongst great athletes but not sport.

I would say any sport where a ref or linemen has to make calls on rule infractions are a judged event. Rules can change over the course of the years as well as interpretation

Offisides

Boarding calls

.

and the Crosby flop

At least the NHL has some replay and a camera at the back of the net to minimize the judgment mistakes. Still doesn't compensate for the blown calls tho.

 

[jack97]

btw.... US national pastime imo is a judge sport.

Umpire's strike zone differs from each other and has change the strategies and outcomes of games.

 

[crgildart]

I've tried watching modern freestyle skiing and it just doesn't connect but that's why, the perfectly consistent mechanical moguls are so off-putting. The original 70s magic of Jack Taylor going fast as Hell straight down a terrifying slope is gone. They "cleaned it up" so it was more fair and codified to judge but they removed all the crazy charm in the process.

Likewise I can appreciate the pipe and slopestyle events but I also think it's the ski industry trying to adapt skis to snowboard terrain... and why watch both when the snowboarders invented and perfected park terrain? Skiers copying snowboard moves, so what? At least with the big air it's such a separate and alien event that recycled gymnasts from China can win it, even if they've never take a full length ski run.

I respect all the athletes but I prefer the events that link back to a longer tradition and have some history and lore.

Basically I think that the pure alpine and pure snowboarding events would be occurring organically regardless of the USST, FIS, or Olympics but a lot of the other stuff is limited lifespan RedBull X-Games marketing hype fast food that will fade away once the next snow biking or snow roller blading trend comes along.

Let me know when they start running Masters Slopestyle events for pure fun and I'll reverse my opinion ;-p

I think you might be confusing "big air" with "aerials" Big air is the x-games free ski event where the slopestyle skiers and boarders go for one big trick. Aerials is the older freestyle event that now involves more gymnasts than skiers. What killed FIS Freestyle skiing more than ditching ballet was also ditching the combined championship as the biggest money prize for each event. I think they should combine free ski big air and freestyle aerials then have that along with slopestyle, halfpipe AND moguls to crown a combined disciplines champion at each event.

 

[Started at 53]

When is the first Alpine race?