MEN'S World Cup 2021-2022

[dbostedo]

Foss-Solevaag
Noel
HK

 

[jimtransition]

I am stoked to see small nations send athletes, the Olympics should be a bit different to a regular WC, but only if they are genuinely at the level. 160 points is also not very tough, I guess it must be more demanding for DH? Maybe no one is silly enough to try and game the system in the speed events.

Very hard to regulate athletes skiing slow to give their points away though. I would be interested to know the names/nationalities of the competitors referenced in that article, anyone know?

 

[Primoz]

So the question becomes: which of the non-traditional skiing nations get to send athletes and are they at least capable of doing the job better than us mere mortals?

It depends what you mean with "mere mortals". While Olympics and WCH are easier courses then hardest WC races, it's still not blue run. So to be honest, most of mere mortals wouldn't even make down the course alive and well. But then again, I'm sure for myself (and few others here) that we wouldn't finish last in that race. I have never been on Olympics, but I have seen several WCH qualification races, and real women races or men races before they started to use qualifications for men GS an SL, and that is... well.. .hilarious on one side and super sad on the other side. And based on that, I could easily dare to bet, I wouldn't finish last on such races.
As for who can go goes, you need to get low enough FIS points, but limit is set so high that with a little bit of proper planning and picking right races, I could probably get that low even if I would ski that race on xc skis That's pretty much it already, as every country have right for one representative, so if you manage to get right passport for country where noone is skiing, and you convince countries OC, to send you, you are good to go. All what you need then is some luck to survive that course

 

[geepers]

I am stoked to see small nations send athletes, the Olympics should be a bit different to a regular WC, but only if they are genuinely at the level. 160 points is also not very tough, I guess it must be more demanding for DH? Maybe no one is silly enough to try and game the system in the speed events.

Very hard to regulate athletes skiing slow to give their points away though. I would be interested to know the names/nationalities of the competitors referenced in that article, anyone know?

If you are IOC then, yes, getting more nations to participate in future has to be part of it. As well as building participation for tier 2 ski nations like GB and Australia. Dave Ryding's Kitz win is probably going to see an influx of GB youngsters onto dry hills. Hope their thumbs are good for it.

If you read through the comments on that article they name people.

It depends what you mean with "mere mortals". While Olympics and WCH are easier courses then hardest WC races, it's still not blue run. So to be honest, most of mere mortals wouldn't even make down the course alive and well. But then again, I'm sure for myself (and few others here) that we wouldn't finish last in that race. I have never been on Olympics, but I have seen several WCH qualification races, and real women races or men races before they started to use qualifications for men GS an SL, and that is... well.. .hilarious on one side and super sad on the other side. And based on that, I could easily dare to bet, I wouldn't finish last on such races.
As for who can go goes, you need to get low enough FIS points, but limit is set so high that with a little bit of proper planning and picking right races, I could probably get that low even if I would ski that race on xc skis That's pretty much it already, as every country have right for one representative, so if you manage to get right passport for country where noone is skiing, and you convince countries OC, to send you, you are good to go. All what you need then is some luck to survive that course

Recall many years ago seeing one event where this competitor set off with some very pretty intermediate level turns that had nothing to do with the course.

And, not alpine but...




Anyway I've posted more than enough for something of vague passing interested.


Back to Men's World Cup. Going for Noel. Yet again.... Highest bib to qual: around 50?

 

[jimtransition]

It depends what you mean with "mere mortals". While Olympics and WCH are easier courses then hardest WC races, it's still not blue run. So to be honest, most of mere mortals wouldn't even make down the course alive and well. But then again, I'm sure for myself (and few others here) that we wouldn't finish last in that race. I have never been on Olympics, but I have seen several WCH qualification races, and real women races or men races before they started to use qualifications for men GS an SL, and that is... well.. .hilarious on one side and super sad on the other side. And based on that, I could easily dare to bet, I wouldn't finish last on such races.
As for who can go goes, you need to get low enough FIS points, but limit is set so high that with a little bit of proper planning and picking right races, I could probably get that low even if I would ski that race on xc skis That's pretty much it already, as every country have right for one representative, so if you manage to get right passport for country where noone is skiing, and you convince countries OC, to send you, you are good to go. All what you need then is some luck to survive that course

I guess what people are pissed off about is races being specifically organised to give away points to racers who can't even meet the already low standards. I wonder whether those racers still feel satisfied knowing they cheated their way in.

As for the night slalom, Ryding is obviously going to back it up with another win

 

[wnyskier]

With the men's SL season producing such great racing and so many contenders on any given day predicting the top three is at best a crapshoot.

So here it goes anyway:

Feller
HK
Braathen

 

[James]

If you are IOC then, yes, getting more nations to participate in future has to be part of it. As well as building participation for tier 2 ski nations like GB and Australia. Dave Ryding's Kitz win is probably going to see an influx of GB youngsters onto dry hills. Hope their thumbs are good for it.

If you read through the comments on that article they name people.



Recall many years ago seeing one event where this competitor set off with some very pretty intermediate level turns that had nothing to do with the course.

And, not alpine but...




Anyway I've posted more than enough for something of vague passing interested.


Back to Men's World Cup. Going for Noel. Yet again.... Highest bib to qual: around 50?

Yeah, I could do that, even on a super pipe, 22ft high walls, which is pretty intimidating. We had an alleged super pipe for a couple seasons many years ago. Turns out, it was only 20ft high.
(Half pipes sre becoming rarer and rarer, they’re very expensive to make with the water and energy, plus like two weeks of grooming/shaping. A few years ago a freestyle trainer told me he thought they would disappear.)

Back in 2002 or 3 I went to the US Nationals in snowboarding half pipe at Mammoth, as a friend’s sister was in it. The women at that time were way behind the men in skill. At that time I had maybe 5 days on a snowboard total, was pretty bad, and had never been in a half pipe with one. I think with another 5 days of training I could’ve done middle of the pack. You didn’t really have to do tricks. Those days are gone though, the level is much, much, higher. In skiing Sarah Burke gets the credit for greatly raising women’s half pipe level, don’t know about snowboarding.

 

[Primoz]

@jimtransition I'm pretty sure someone like Vanessa Mae doesn't really care about the way she came in. She was "racing" at Olympics, something what I never managed to come even close to. Well her "racing" doesn't really impress me, and even though I never had any decent results (maybe my standards for "decent results" are slightly high, and maybe my results were not so bad, but I never won any WC race, I never make to Olympics to win medal there, so I sucked), I still think I did better at racing then she did, even if she was "competing" at Olympics and I never was. But for normal people, it is something to brag about if you were racing there.
()

As for cheating, I don't know if she cheated or not. I mean ok with her in particular it could actually be quite clear she was cheating, as unfortunately her Sochi qualification norm was done in my local hill, so I know story behind that. And that story had some consequences for few people (TD, chief of competition and few others), who were banned from FIS races for few years, so if they were banned for "staging race" for her, then I guess it's safe to say she was cheating, even though she was never accused of anything. But for most of other people like that, it's not legally cheating, it's just playing rules the way it suits their needs.

 

[fatbob]

Back in 2002 or 3 I went to the US Nationals in snowboarding half pipe at Mammoth, as a friend’s sister was in it. The women at that time were way behind the men in skill. At that time I had maybe 5 days on a snowboard total, was pretty bad, and had never been in a half pipe with one. I think with another 5 days of training I could’ve done middle of the pack. You didn’t really have to do tricks. Those days are gone though, the level is much, much, higher. In skiing Sarah Burke gets the credit for greatly raising women’s half pipe level, don’t know about snowboarding.

Chloe Kim and some of the Japanese & Chinese girls are that next level in snowboarding.

 

[James]

Chloe Kim and some of the Japanese & Chinese girls are that next level in snowboarding.

Yeah but Chloe Kim was born in 2000!
People way before her pushed it.


Why hasn’t Rancho entered the Olympics before? He’d certainly smoke the Mexican “team” of one now 62 yr old guy who’s really Swiss, and goes faster sliding on the snow after falling.

Rancho did “ok” on the Face Bellevarde in Val d’Isere. Was he + 20 secs for one run on a real wcup course? Mikaela would probably be +8 ?

Wcup racing is really another sport. It’s like comparing playing on a small high school football team (US) to the NFL. The forces and speed involved are just so much greater that it’s another world.

 

[Moose32]

Eyes are off today...Feller ran bullet (#1), thought he looked fast, and will just make the flip to run 2.
The last racer, from Isreal, was on track to get a second run and DNF'd near the end. That would have been interesting.

 

[Primoz]

Looking good for Sweden today. First Hector, now Jakobsen. But it's still long way down the hill before him.

 

[James]

Second run start list. Start at 20:45.
2:45pm Eastern.

 

[jimtransition]

Yeah but Chloe Kim was born in 2000!
People way before her pushed it.


Why hasn’t Rancho entered the Olympics before? He’d certainly smoke the Mexican “team” of one now 62 yr old guy who’s really Swiss, and goes faster sliding on the snow after falling.

Rancho did “ok” on the Face Bellevarde in Val d’Isere. Was he + 20 secs for one run on a real wcup course? Mikaela would probably be +8 ?

Wcup racing is really another sport. It’s like comparing playing on a small high school football team (US) to the NFL. The forces and speed involved are just so much greater that it’s another world.

He competed in 2010 in skiercross.

 

[Swede]

I was going to say: for fucks sake, it’s Saalbach! Krille is driving everyone crazy over here. We know he’s fast, perhaps the fastest. But the straddles, the hooplas … One more run to go. 60 chances to mess it up…

 

[S.H.]

Second run start list. Start at 20:45.
2:45pm Eastern.

View attachment 156782

Only 1 from the top seed making the final 8 is pretty interesting.

 

[Swede]

They made the cut (exept Pintu) but to my eye, they were too passive. This is a hill you need to go, go, go…

 

[James]

Krille is driving everyone crazy over here.

That means Kristoffer Jakobsen?

Over here Krill :



No Krille though.

Yeah it’s take the top 34 bibs and randomly pull a number out of a hat for top 8 finishers run 1.

 

[Swede]

Taking previous races in to account, Khoroshilov, Tangey and Atle McGrath a little random … but men’s SL is up in the air atm.

 

[Moose32]

Rudi Riet just got called out by the broadcasters on Peacock as they started coverage for Run 2 at Schladming.
Announcers were welcoming their North American viewers. "Rudy Riet in SLC". Said name twice as he looked for the correct pronunciation.
Pretty cool
How did you do that?

(edited for context)