Kind of interesting. Our "kids" are either side of thirty, both were "pretty high level" alpine racers. They have many friends dating back to their early teens who have gone on to compete professionally, and at the WC level in every one of these disciplines. EVERY single one. On skis and on snowboards. In the Olympics, at the X games, the Dew tour, blah, blah. I know a lot of them.
And it's impossible for me to keep this stuff straight. Too damn consuming. Slopestyle, freestyle, big air, halfpipe. I can keep skiercross and boarder cross straight. What do they call "alpine" racing on a board? Does that exist? Who governs all of this stuff? That confuses me, too. Seems like ESPN owns the X Games {they do....}. Where does RedBull, Monster, Mountain Dew, etc. fit in.
As somebody who pretty much loves to watch any snow sport or snow competition, and has watch A LOT, it's all over the place. My kids have friends who are and were household names in this stuff....I can't tell you what the correct name of the discipline is.
BTW, many of them refer to their competitions as "contests." Kind of interesting. Every heard of the DH contest at Kitz? Nor have I. Nor does it matter, really.
Somebody above asked about moguls on the NBC network coverage last night. The five men were shown at abut 10:50PM EST. I think the five women were shown at about 9:00PM. Not much coverage. Wanted to watch as we know a few of them.
On the judging thing.......we could get very carried away. OK? Every alpine ski race has the group called a jury. Every race has a referee. And whenever a skier is DQ'd for missing a gate, or a straddle.....it's a judgement call. At least there is video these days to back up the decisions. Was not always that way. You get thrown out for being 0.5mm too high on stand height, and somebody has made that call. Cancelling a race after many have run, but not enough? Ask AJ Kitt about that one.
Karl Schranz certainly maintains that he was screwed with his DQ in the fog almost exactly 50 years ago in the SL at the Grenoble games. Judgement call.
At least we don't seem to have lawsuits over those calls.....like the sailboat racing world has at times.
Back to the games.
And it's impossible for me to keep this stuff straight. Too damn consuming. Slopestyle, freestyle, big air, halfpipe. I can keep skiercross and boarder cross straight. What do they call "alpine" racing on a board? Does that exist? Who governs all of this stuff? That confuses me, too. Seems like ESPN owns the X Games {they do....}. Where does RedBull, Monster, Mountain Dew, etc. fit in.
As somebody who pretty much loves to watch any snow sport or snow competition, and has watch A LOT, it's all over the place. My kids have friends who are and were household names in this stuff....I can't tell you what the correct name of the discipline is.
BTW, many of them refer to their competitions as "contests." Kind of interesting. Every heard of the DH contest at Kitz? Nor have I. Nor does it matter, really.
Somebody above asked about moguls on the NBC network coverage last night. The five men were shown at abut 10:50PM EST. I think the five women were shown at about 9:00PM. Not much coverage. Wanted to watch as we know a few of them.
On the judging thing.......we could get very carried away. OK? Every alpine ski race has the group called a jury. Every race has a referee. And whenever a skier is DQ'd for missing a gate, or a straddle.....it's a judgement call. At least there is video these days to back up the decisions. Was not always that way. You get thrown out for being 0.5mm too high on stand height, and somebody has made that call. Cancelling a race after many have run, but not enough? Ask AJ Kitt about that one.
Karl Schranz certainly maintains that he was screwed with his DQ in the fog almost exactly 50 years ago in the SL at the Grenoble games. Judgement call.
At least we don't seem to have lawsuits over those calls.....like the sailboat racing world has at times.
Back to the games.
Maybe the greens will be steep & slippery.
