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Darn

In the parking lot (formerly "At the base lodge")
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Interesting, would love to hear comments.

Wish we could brainstorm and test several alternative disciplines. It'd be great to figure out some new way to challenge all around skiers while hopefully minimizing the dangers of have four fast skiers jumping next to each other. Making the events easier and less expensive to host would also be important, something current ski cross fails at.

Also rule changes such as limiting the number of skis or even standardizing skis could possibly help make the sport more affordable and fair.

Frankly I think the sport is too rigid and conservative, perhaps a handicap system could be developed, maybe events could be simplified into hybrid turn or speed courses where the emphasis is on make clean carving turns and control over gorilla like brute force?

Post Covid the sport is going to take a hit regardless so it could also be an opportunity to make structural changes.
 
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oldschoolskier

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Great idea, add spikes to the protective gear, body contact allowed, throw a ball down the course and call it ski balls. First skier to make it down ahead off the ball wins, no make it down ahead of the ball they all lose.

Reminds me of roller ball and death race 2000.

ogwink:duck:
 

Jim McDonald

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Chinese Downhill!
 

SSSdave

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No.

Too many contests currently, for all sport categories both winter and summer games.
 

Loki1

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Reality is it should be moved from free skiing. Alpine woud be a good option but in Aamerica the funding might be a challenge. I think the emphasis is on clean turns now. But start matters incredibly and contact needs to be controlled.
 

Primoz

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I admit, I didn't went to read article, but just on subject of this thread... I don't think anyone at FIS wants this, and I think noone from racers wants this. Why? It's simple. There's limited number of disciplines that can be at Olympics. Adding ski cross into alpine calendar means there's (at least) one discipline flying out of Olympics program. Who would want this? Noone. Ski cross is already in Olympics program, all current alpine disciplines are there, so doing this would actually mean losing one spot. And that's lot of money for FIS, lot of money for racers, and lot of missed opportunities for Olympic medals for racers (and some extra lost money for those 3 who would get those medals).
 

Average Joe

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Chinese Downhill!
That’s fundamentally the definition of Skiercross.
Surprised the IOC hasn’t used the Alpine Downhill track for a Death Race 2000 type event already!
When you’re signing billion dollar TV contracts, the definition of “sport” is “how can we pay for this?”
 

Average Joe

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Reality is it should be moved from free skiing. Alpine woud be a good option but in Aamerica the funding might be a challenge. I think the emphasis is on clean turns now. But start matters incredibly and contact needs to be controlled.
Funding flows from high revenue/low cost sports to low revenue/high cost sports.
I’ll take a WAG that the revenue from Olympic and WC snowboarding and skiercross is a positive in the USSS budget.
The change from the US Ski Association, with its US Ski Team alpine focus, to a US Ski and Snowboard, with its “one team” collective approach, is a revenue based strategy.
 

crgildart

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Same argument for side by side moguls. Probably best kept as an X-Games event but I'd also like to see moguls added to X-Games. Merge aerials with big air. Also USSA/FIS Freestyle and X-Games could all be rolled in to one at the highest level.

Bring back more ballet moves and incorporate them in to slopestyle rails boxes etc..
 

fatbob

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No - politics of the worst kind.

The article is kinda sad in the first place - really you couldn't offer kids something beyond pure gate bashing without bringing it under the Alpine banner? That speaks much more to coaches and ski teams with no imagination than it does to the sport at all.

If the question was does Ski Cross deserve an Olympic spot on the basis of low actual grassroots participation then I can see there might be a point? But you could say the same about snowboard slalom, aerials, skeleton etc
 

crgildart

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If the question was does Ski Cross deserve an Olympic spot on the basis of low actual grassroots participation then I can see there might be a point? But you could say the same about snowboard slalom, aerials, skeleton etc
It is was an event in Sochi and Korea. Did they cut it?

+1 to keeping it with Freestyle and/or X
 
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Darn

In the parking lot (formerly "At the base lodge")
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Wow a little broth and more fiber would help you fellas.
 

QueueCT

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The argument in the article is that alpine skiers should train on a ski cross course to develop skills that are beneficial to traditional alpine events. Secondary is that it may prevent burnout in some athletes by shifting them to the ski cross discipline. Last point was that there are medals sitting on the table that could be won by giving the event more attention.

Frankly, I don't think a structural change would affect any of these things. Alpine programs can build ski cross courses to train their athletes on how to handle terrain. Clubs at large mountains with existing ski cross infrastructure can surely borrow some time there. Regarding burnout, athletes are free to try out different disciplines. I have found most clubs are very welcoming to guests interested in trying out a new discipline (just can't formally race). The chasing of more medals is really an indictment of the existing USSS free ski program. Focus on that rather than pulling out a discipline.

The FIS discussion is completely separate from this national program structure discussion. I don't think anyone is seriously arguing that ski cross should be folded into the overall alpine standings calculation.
 

Rudi Riet

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^^^^ This.

Basically, it's being thought of more from a skills development angle. Especially here in the States, ski cross would offer junior racers better opportunities to learn balance, how to handle air, and the like than current speed camps do. Look at it this way:

Two-day Speed (SG) Camp:

4 x drill stations (4-5 skills in total) = 2 runs done in small sections
4 x controlled free ski runs on the entire hill
2-4 x timed runs on course

Two-day Ski Cross camp:

15-18 x running sections of the course
10-20 x running the full course

There's a lot more volume and repetition of the skills in a ski cross camp than in a traditional speed camp. Sure, use the speed camps for the older athletes who have already developed the balance and are strong enough to ski a proper SG ski. But for basic skills development? Ski cross is ideal.

And ski cross has a culture of safety that is amazing. Even though there is quite a bit of crashing involved, the injuries sustained are often less severe than in alpine competitions. The design of their competition field of play balances safety and risk/challenge very, very well.

Yes, it would be adding another lump to the FIS Alpine grouping, and I'm sure the ski cross purists are wary of being assimilated. But the skills are so complementary and symbiotic, there's little reason to block ski cross from being part of the alpine development curriculum.

Just my $0.02.
 

Rudi Riet

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There's a vibrant short track scene in the DC area that actively feeds athletes onto the U.S. national team. And being able to use hockey rinks does lower barriers to entry as it's easy to setup development teams almost anywhere in the U.S. or Canada.

Long tracks are more rare outside of the traditional speed skating nations. Here in North America, most of the long track skaters end up relocating to where the rinks are (i.e. Salt Lake City and Milwaukee in the U.S., Calgary and Vancouver in Canada). In fact, there are only 20 indoor or outdoor long tracks in use for competition worldwide these days, all of them in the northern hemisphere, a majority of them in Europe. There are a handful of other tracks (e.g. Lake Placid's outdoor track), but they are no longer homologated for competition.

I'll admit to being a bigger fan of long track. Short track can devolve into "roller derby on ice" to my eyes. Also, I'm part Dutch, so...
 

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