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Kranjsga GS and SG in C Montana
- Thread starter Swede
- Start date
I'm happy race was not last weekend, as then it would be -20c, but today was quite nice. It's getting warmer down here in last 2 days and looks like cold wave is over. But fog looked really bad still some 30min before start, but got much much better later on. Now just waiting for someone to comment on Eisath crash 
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- Dec 8, 2016
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I'm happy race was not last weekend, as then it would be -20c, but today was quite nice. It's getting warmer down here in last 2 days and looks like cold wave is over. But fog looked really bad still some 30min before start, but got much much better later on. Now just waiting for someone to comment on Eisath crash
You mean YOU were the guy that got hit by Eisath flying into the nets?
Hehe nope. But I was actually on video... calmly watching what's happening few meters below like nothing would happen But thing is, noone was actually hit, even though it was all over the place Eisath crashed into photographer. That guy who fall, fall when trying to move away (he didn't needed to), and then I guess everything went from there as netting was flying around
But thing is, noone was actually hit, even though it was all over the place Eisath crashed into photographer. That guy who fall, fall when trying to move away (he didn't needed to), and then I guess everything went from there as netting was flying around - Joined
- Dec 8, 2016
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It really looked like E. rashed into him but it was also like nothing happened.
Kranjska Gora demanding as usual. I have always liked those 442 m of tough slope, a race for real top alpine racers. Hirscher was a genius (not only) there. The 12th guy 5.15 s behind and the last full 7 s are almost oldschool margins. But it was selective as hell.
Btw, NOR with 2nd, 4th, 8th, 20th and 15th, but only two Frenchmen, two Swiss, three Austrians. And 9th, 10th and 14th Americans even without Ted - respect!
The girls had another shortened SG with Vonn, Shiffrin, Worley and Rebensburg absent. And another surprise by an outsider: Wendy Holdener in her 7th WC SG ever and only second this season with bib 31 finished 3rd. And Scheyer, not good enough for the Olympics, bib 28, in the lead but she lost .66 on the last 12 seconds to the finish.
A talked almost an hour with Ester´s coach Tomas Bank on Friday night. He confirmed most of what I thought, supposed and partially wrote (not boasting, just a technical remark), added some interesting details, I´ll post them later.
Ester snatched the PGS globe today and she practically has the overall as well. The plan works beautifully, next Saturday the final PGS in Switzerland and then the Alpine Finals - DH and SG. (And then some GS till April, Tomas said, "she´l be racing like mad".)
Kranjska Gora demanding as usual. I have always liked those 442 m of tough slope, a race for real top alpine racers. Hirscher was a genius (not only) there. The 12th guy 5.15 s behind and the last full 7 s are almost oldschool margins. But it was selective as hell.
Btw, NOR with 2nd, 4th, 8th, 20th and 15th, but only two Frenchmen, two Swiss, three Austrians. And 9th, 10th and 14th Americans even without Ted - respect!
The girls had another shortened SG with Vonn, Shiffrin, Worley and Rebensburg absent. And another surprise by an outsider: Wendy Holdener in her 7th WC SG ever and only second this season with bib 31 finished 3rd. And Scheyer, not good enough for the Olympics, bib 28, in the lead but she lost .66 on the last 12 seconds to the finish.
A talked almost an hour with Ester´s coach Tomas Bank on Friday night. He confirmed most of what I thought, supposed and partially wrote (not boasting, just a technical remark), added some interesting details, I´ll post them later.
Ester snatched the PGS globe today and she practically has the overall as well. The plan works beautifully, next Saturday the final PGS in Switzerland and then the Alpine Finals - DH and SG. (And then some GS till April, Tomas said, "she´l be racing like mad".)
I think Marcel has been working out !
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The ladies´combined – a joke?
Actually, I´d rather say “a farce” but I don´t want to hurt the hardworking girls.
Is the event and globe still justified with just two races? The combined used to be the climax, officially till 1948. It´s been dying since the Killy generation quit. Still, there were the Kandahar, Lauberhorn, Hahnenkamm combineds with full-bore DH and SL. Later, a simplified DH and a one-run-SL – well, a compromise but still a two-skill event.
Now, often a SG and a simple SL (two “slaloms” making up a combined?) appear. And a shortened 1:03.17 SG and a 41.27 SL, half-deciding about the globe – a joke?
A good SL racer surviving a decent SG on soft spring snow and delivering a standard SL run = (almost) the Worldcup champion? Someone without DH points, not racing DH regularly?
If we can´t motivate the racers to race both events regularly wouldn´t it be better to cancel the combined? I´d feel sorry for the tradition but the things they are a´changin´, right?
Yes, Gisin is versatile by today´s means, Holdener can ski a good combined DH and I like Fede Brignone not only because I know her mother from ski tests, but I don´t like the globe degraded.
Actually, I´d rather say “a farce” but I don´t want to hurt the hardworking girls.
Is the event and globe still justified with just two races? The combined used to be the climax, officially till 1948. It´s been dying since the Killy generation quit. Still, there were the Kandahar, Lauberhorn, Hahnenkamm combineds with full-bore DH and SL. Later, a simplified DH and a one-run-SL – well, a compromise but still a two-skill event.
Now, often a SG and a simple SL (two “slaloms” making up a combined?) appear. And a shortened 1:03.17 SG and a 41.27 SL, half-deciding about the globe – a joke?
A good SL racer surviving a decent SG on soft spring snow and delivering a standard SL run = (almost) the Worldcup champion? Someone without DH points, not racing DH regularly?
If we can´t motivate the racers to race both events regularly wouldn´t it be better to cancel the combined? I´d feel sorry for the tradition but the things they are a´changin´, right?
Yes, Gisin is versatile by today´s means, Holdener can ski a good combined DH and I like Fede Brignone not only because I know her mother from ski tests, but I don´t like the globe degraded.
Well, FIS is pounding the nails into the combined coffin. Scheduled to go away after the 2020 season, I believe. If they didn't vote on the calendar so far in advance it could be sooner. Word is that the traditionalists at the IOC would like to keep it. Why?
It's going to take me a lot of time to warm up to the city events, parallel SL, and such that FIS is increasing on the calendar. Interesting that Hirscher and HK HATE them.......Good enough for me. I'm a traditionalist.
Hirscher.....absolutely incredible. Best technical skier, perhaps ever. Best competitor. Incredibly consistent. Enjoy while we can. I suspect this career lasts one more season.
I'm getting so used to seeing MH torch this field that I almost take it for granted. That's absolutely wrong. Going to miss him a ton when he's retired.
It's going to take me a lot of time to warm up to the city events, parallel SL, and such that FIS is increasing on the calendar. Interesting that Hirscher and HK HATE them.......Good enough for me. I'm a traditionalist.
Hirscher.....absolutely incredible. Best technical skier, perhaps ever. Best competitor. Incredibly consistent. Enjoy while we can. I suspect this career lasts one more season.
I'm getting so used to seeing MH torch this field that I almost take it for granted. That's absolutely wrong. Going to miss him a ton when he's retired.
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Yup, Marcel’s definitely been working out... WTF!
He never said anything about going on or finishing his career, but I have feeling he will still be around for a year or two. Thing is, he doesn't care about records, or anything similar, so he certainly won't be pushing stuff like Vonn is doing, but for now, skiing is still fun for him, as well as winning. When you look at Shiffrin in finish area she's like "oh well I just won another race, fu**ing boring, let's get over this stupid medal ceremony, so I can go". But then you have Hirscher, who just won his 57th WC race and he's celebrating like little kid who won his first ever medal. And he's doing this every single time, and you can see he's really having fun, even though it's sort of normal that he wins. For me, he's actually the only skier (men or women) with real personality, and without huge ego problem. Vonn and her need for publicity is something what won't keep her in minds of fans next second she will quit, regardless if she beats Stenmark record for 50 wins or for one, or if she won't at all, Shiffrin is just way too boring to be real deal, Kristoffersen will need to change a lot, and I mean A LOT if he will want to be star, while Hirscher is legend. Result vise as well as status vise.
So it's not going to be just you @Muleski who will miss him, but whole alpine skiing will miss him, as currently there's just no substitution for him. I don't mean based on results, as I'm sure Kristoffersen will be new Hirscher result vise, but as person. Hirscher is like Tomba or Bode were in past, magnet for people from all countries not just his home country and he really behaves like legend, something what everyone else on top are currently missing.
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I´m a traditionalist, too, as probably most skiers of our generation. I also don´t like the CE and skiers´ PGS. Otoh, as traditionalists we should´t use cellular phones and how about internet? The world is changing unprecedentally and even we ski traditionalists shouldn´t become Rip Van Winkels of the 21st century.
Might be a “tradition vs. changes” thread?
As to MH. He´s a lucky guy born as late as 1989. The Austrians killed so many non-standard racers before not corresponding to their team system. The guys who found their luck in US pro races like Andre Arnold and Bernard Knauss. And many more including names you never knew or don´t remember anymore. Who were given up by the system like Stephan Eberharter, world champion with a later comeback, or Mario Reiter, Olympic champ 1998.
In the 1990s there were more and more examples of individuals having success outside of the official system or with special treatment: Girardelli, Tomba with Thoeni, Compagnoni with Pietrogovanna, Hermann Maier. Maier taught the Austrians the final lesson winning the first alpine overall 28 years after another non-standard guy (Schranz) did. The Kostelic lesson followed with a poor family from a non-skiing country of a handball coach and his two children who conquered the traditional Alpine ski world (already shaken by Stenmark, also a loner with his ex-Italian coach Nogler).
A daredevill Miller and, maybe, also a Czech girl Sarka Zahrobska, a product of a non-skier dad outside of the system, SL world champion over the best 2007 skier Marlies Schild, contributed to the change of view in the Austrian Federation. The Hirscher duo, Ferdinand and Marcel, were accepted within the strict Austrian system – something impossible a few years ago.
Now MH has its own team within OESV and his wish seems to be a word of command both for Atomic and federation people. This unique combination of Austrian and Dutch genes and mentality is writing ski history.
Let´s be happy to witness both the Stenmark and the Hirscher era.
As to Ingemar: he was the SL and GS genius in years when GS came very close to SL. Lots of complaints about the way GS developed in the 1970s in the FIS but the “Italian ski mafia” lead by the Cotteli brothers successfully torpedoed GS comeback to the original race positioned between the “straight race” aka DH and SL. Sets of 17 % or even more were common, Stenmark won his 1st overall on a pair of 205 cm SL skis and it took much effort to convince him to race GS on 210s.
With all the respect he deserves, the event development helped him considerably. Hirscher, otoh, could win on 13m SL skis as well as on 35m GS.
Otoh, the whole OESV stands behind MH, their goose laying golden eggs, as well as his sponsors. Girardelli, a loner with 5 overalls, as a young guy had just his dad and some money the good old Helmut invested in his son. Papa Gira puffing at his cigar and the junior dragging the poles and setting his courses – the hero of his time as well.
They are all big champs - including Annemarie (cf the Lins the biggest? thread) starting her WC carrier in mittens knitted personally at school with no Shiffrin (nor Ledecky) team around...
Might be a “tradition vs. changes” thread?
As to MH. He´s a lucky guy born as late as 1989. The Austrians killed so many non-standard racers before not corresponding to their team system. The guys who found their luck in US pro races like Andre Arnold and Bernard Knauss. And many more including names you never knew or don´t remember anymore. Who were given up by the system like Stephan Eberharter, world champion with a later comeback, or Mario Reiter, Olympic champ 1998.
In the 1990s there were more and more examples of individuals having success outside of the official system or with special treatment: Girardelli, Tomba with Thoeni, Compagnoni with Pietrogovanna, Hermann Maier. Maier taught the Austrians the final lesson winning the first alpine overall 28 years after another non-standard guy (Schranz) did. The Kostelic lesson followed with a poor family from a non-skiing country of a handball coach and his two children who conquered the traditional Alpine ski world (already shaken by Stenmark, also a loner with his ex-Italian coach Nogler).
A daredevill Miller and, maybe, also a Czech girl Sarka Zahrobska, a product of a non-skier dad outside of the system, SL world champion over the best 2007 skier Marlies Schild, contributed to the change of view in the Austrian Federation. The Hirscher duo, Ferdinand and Marcel, were accepted within the strict Austrian system – something impossible a few years ago.
Now MH has its own team within OESV and his wish seems to be a word of command both for Atomic and federation people. This unique combination of Austrian and Dutch genes and mentality is writing ski history.
Let´s be happy to witness both the Stenmark and the Hirscher era.
As to Ingemar: he was the SL and GS genius in years when GS came very close to SL. Lots of complaints about the way GS developed in the 1970s in the FIS but the “Italian ski mafia” lead by the Cotteli brothers successfully torpedoed GS comeback to the original race positioned between the “straight race” aka DH and SL. Sets of 17 % or even more were common, Stenmark won his 1st overall on a pair of 205 cm SL skis and it took much effort to convince him to race GS on 210s.
With all the respect he deserves, the event development helped him considerably. Hirscher, otoh, could win on 13m SL skis as well as on 35m GS.
Otoh, the whole OESV stands behind MH, their goose laying golden eggs, as well as his sponsors. Girardelli, a loner with 5 overalls, as a young guy had just his dad and some money the good old Helmut invested in his son. Papa Gira puffing at his cigar and the junior dragging the poles and setting his courses – the hero of his time as well.
They are all big champs - including Annemarie (cf the Lins the biggest? thread) starting her WC carrier in mittens knitted personally at school with no Shiffrin (nor Ledecky) team around...
