Spoiler: PyeongChang 2018 Olympics

[Primoz]

There's quite few of those who won medals in two different sports. Mainly it's speed skating in winter and cycling in summer, but I doubt there's many (if any at all), who would won two medals in two different sports at same Olympics. For summer I'm sure there are few who won medals at 100m sprint and long jump, but for winter, I really doubt there's any.

 

[hbear]

Track and Field I’d suggest have so many events that have shared skills. E.g. sprints and long jump....yes one needs to get airborne but speed on the runway is absolutely critical to jump far.

100m sprint and 110 hurdles are pretty close when you look at the biomechanics. Different events sure but quite similar.

For track, I’d say something like a sprinter also winning throws (shot put, hammer, javelin, discus) would be clearly different skills. Or winning high jump and sprints as they do not link to one another at all. (But that’s a different discussion)

What Ester accomplished was unreal and the story of the games for sure.

Looking forward to see how her career continues to develop. I don’t think anybody has her pegged to win a crystal globe right now, but she does have an interesting trajectory developing.

 

[Muleski]

Looking forward to see how her career continues to develop. I don’t think anybody has her pegged to win a crystal globe right now, but she does have an interesting trajectory developing.

Agree 110% with this. Absolutely. I'm hearing a lot of people saying that she is an absolutely incredible athlete.

Shocking as it may be some of our best skiers are NOT great athletes. She sounds really special. Pretty neat.

 

[Muleski]

@Primoz's post made me think about Eric Heiden. I'm pretty sure that he never rode in the Olympics, and went right into professional cycling afterwards {before Stanford Med School?}. But he was a two sport star. Real slouch, haha.

Just one that I thought of. Another is Taylor Phinney's Mom, Connie Carpenter Phinney. Gold medals in both......

 

[scott43]

Clara Hughes

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

This squirrel had a good run

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

She is the first woman to win Winter Olympic golds in different sports. More than that, she's the third athlete to ever do so, and the first since 1932 for cross-country skiing and Nordic combined.

The last man to win medals in different sports at one Winter games was Heikki Hasu of Finland.

Also at this games:
Speedskater Jorien ter Mors became the first woman to win Olympic medals in different sports at the same Winter games.

She earned gold in long track speedskating and bronze in short track arena.

Sure enough, found a list on Wikipedia
List of athletes with Olympic medals in different disciplines (some are combo of winter and summer)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_athletes_with_Olympic_medals_in_different_disciplines

 

[hbear]

Clara Hughes

I forget did she just medal in speed skating and cycling? Or did she win in both, I think she had a speed skating gold?

Just saw the wiki page, one 1 gold. She is a great lady however. Very reserved but very nice.

 

[Muleski]

A lot of alpine ski racers transition to road cycling. If you had seen Tyler Hamilton on skis at 14-15, you would have thought "ski racing." He really picked up on road biking while at CU after a ski racing injury. Dropped the skiing. He was an Olympic gold medalist....for a while.

Levi Leipheimer was a very good junior ski racer. "Legit" as they say.

One of the top young ski racers in the country, a U19/FIS superstar, Colby Lange, who was also at the same level on a bike made the decision this summer or fall to go all in on the bike. I suspect that a lot factored into it. One piece was likely the financial picture.

Actually many of our best young racers have big potential on the bike........

 

[Snowfan]

The mass speed skating is awesome...
South Korea wins the GOLD!!!

 

[RNZ]

And our ski-cross boys got gold medals for getting piss drunk and stealing a car...woo!!

Not to mention, of all the coaches it had to be that one. Don't think Mum and Dad are going to be very pleased.

 

[HardDaysNight]

And our ski-cross boys got gold medals for getting piss drunk and stealing a car...woo!!

Apparently the car they stole was a large pink Hummer so at least they were trying to fly under the radar.

 

[S.H.]

One of the top young ski racers in the country, a U19/FIS superstar, Colby Lange, who was also at the same level on a bike made the decision this summer or fall to go all in on the bike.

I was wondering why I wasn't seeing his name on results sheets this year ...

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

Thanks, good point. I don't mean to slight anybody. I'm making the comment is respect to CEO Tiger Shaw's repeated comments about being measured by medals, specific to the alpine world. Where NO other countries "in the mix" look at it that way. It's all about the WC, WC globes, and for the true "best" the nation's cup. That irks a lot of alpine "folks."

Tiger IS the CEO of the USSSA, and has to pay attention to every discipline. As a former USST alpine skier, father of alpine skiers, and from a big alpine family, I know that he's got a lot of alpine folks on his board, and elsewhere "in his grill."

The snowboarding and freestyle medals are awesome, and the XC relay, wow!

But to be honest, one of these four has been part of my life all of my 60+ years, parents, grandparents and now adult children all alpine racers. Or four event "skimeisters." So I get too focused at times!!

But wow, the other athletes just "send it."

I know you're not slighting anyway. Although I started out as a racer, and adored the Mahre brothers, Cindy Nelson, Stenmark, Tamara McKinney, and all the 80s racers, my sister started doing freestyle. I was give the option to do freestyle or nothing--so I did freestyle and competed until the late 80s. I just happen to view things from a freestyle-centric view.

I've listened to a few of Tiger's videos and he spoke at a reunion, and he's Alpine-centric. It would be awfully difficult to not have that mindset with his past.

I'm old school so I like the distinction between Alpine, Freestyle, Freeskiing, Cross Country, and Snowboarding. Ironically, under the new structure, freestyle falls under the "US Ski Team" umbrella and Freeskiing is it's own discipline; however, in the FIS world, freeskiing falls under the freestyle umbrella.

However, right now, snowboarding is the star at the Olympics and will allow US Ski and Snowboarding to claim 15 medals as "One Team". "Freestyle" looks really good due to the freeskiing medals, yet moguls and aerials yielded incredible performances but no medals. The Alpine medals are nothing to sneeze at and I'm thrilled with the Cross Country medal. Yet, I still wonder if anything from this Olympics will help US Ski and Snowboarding bring in more sponsorship dollars? To sponsors, medals equate to air time (the TV kind) and if there are no medals, then there is no exposure. I just don't know how we break the cycle.

 

[Franzz]

i've seen it with my own eyes
The Ski Team That Sleeps Together Wins a Lot of Gold Medals Together

 

[eok]

Alpine ascent-decent races sound interesting to me. Could even do a relay: one racer skins up, tags, and the other races down.

 

[Christy]

Lindsey should get a medal just for so patiently answering the same damn questions over and over. Here we are on the last day and she's still getting, "what did it mean to you..."

 

[mdf]

Lindsey should get a medal just for so patiently answering the same damn questions over and over. Here we are on the last day and she's still getting, "what did it mean to you..."

I really hate these new-style sports interviews (last 5 years or so?) where the reporter answers the question while asking it, "How special was it to ...". I mean, sports interviews have always been insipid, but it just keeps getting worse and worse.





Just once I'd like to hear
"what do you need to do to win the game?"
"Score more points. Didn't they tell you anything about this sport?"

 

[markojp]

A lot of alpine ski racers transition to road cycling. If you had seen Tyler Hamilton on skis at 14-15, you would have thought "ski racing." He really picked up on road biking while at CU after a ski racing injury. Dropped the skiing. He was an Olympic gold medalist....for a while.

Levi Leipheimer was a very good junior ski racer. "Legit" as they say.

One of the top young ski racers in the country, a U19/FIS superstar, Colby Lange, who was also at the same level on a bike made the decision this summer or fall to go all in on the bike. I suspect that a lot factored into it. One piece was likely the financial picture.

Actually many of our best young racers have big potential on the bike........

I believe Chris Davenport as well... (cycling)

 

[Tricia]

Caught this tweet and had to chuckle.