I would have never imagined Mikaela not being on this podium.
After MS-show in Levi, a bit surprising, I agree. Did she struggle with the surface, perhaps?
I would have never imagined Mikaela not being on this podium.
After MS-show in Levi, a bit surprising, I agree. Did she struggle with the surface, perhaps?
That CO and UT have better early season snowmaking windows than VT is a given, but these attendance numbers are a big factor in scheduling decisions. Killington replaced Aspen as the Women's opening North American venue in 2016, when their attendance was somewhere around 3,000 per day.Yes, the crowd was thick - having to wade through it to get to and from the media locations was certainly a task. Also challenging: the firm surface on Superstar, which warranted wearing traction devices on your shoes if you didn't want to crash. The penguin shuffle became the MO on Saturday if you valued your footing.
The only reason FIS would reconsider: climate. Killington managed to pull off a miracle this year because the weather cooperated in precisely the right way. Had the race been one week earlier or later? Probably a failed snow control (certainly the case for one week earlier and possibly the case had the races been scheduled for next weekend - yesterday's rains were torrential and warm). I'm thinking 3 year contracts will be the norm with (hopefully) honest reassessments of the climate situation as things change.
To wit: resorts in Utah or Colorado could have easily hosted tech races as early as the beginning of the month - at least this year. It used to be that FIS awarded the opening races to Park City because they had the climate and snowmaking to pull off early events - they still do, though new mountain ownership has moved the focus away from hosting international competitions. But Utah Olympic Park, Copper Mountain, Loveland, or even Aspen Highland or Ajax could've hosted events this season.
Crowds are special. How far is it from the big cities?
That CO and UT have better early season snowmaking windows than VT is a given, but these attendance numbers are a big factor in scheduling decisions. Killington replaced Aspen as the Women's opening North American venue in 2016, when their attendance was somewhere around 3,000 per day.
As far as the weather goes (climate is not weather), any early season (October-November) WC race not held on a glacier with snowmaking is going to be touch and go. The Zermatt race is a big gamble, (snow control by October 25th?) and even Levi, Finland, has been cancelled (2015) due to warm weather.
Before the era of snowmaking, the FIS did not schedule many (any?) races before December , and even then the races were in high altitude Alps resorts, often with the Austrian or Swiss Army shoveling snow from the woods onto the race trail (often during the race!).
To pass FIS snow control today you have a higher threshold than the 70's and 80's so comparison is not apples to apples.
Killington historically has never missed a November opening since I can recall (1970's) and with the new snowmaking equipment I'll bet that they can pull off this race 9 out of 10 years, which I think is a good average for a November race.
I think the big difference is the amount of equipment and infrastructure put in place in each venue. The cost and logistics are exponentially higher than 20, 30, 40 years ago, and so the consequences of a weather related cancellation is much higher. The tradeoff: 21,000 spectators in a low elevation venue with higher risk, or 3,000 spectators where early season conditions are more assured.
I am surprised. LL is usually good for her and I think speed is good for her happiness too.BREAKING: Mikaela Shiffrin is not going to Lake Louise.
She told me so not 10 minutes ago. She will return to Europe to train.
The question has been asked: wait another month to start the season and then let it run a little longer. There are pros and cons.
Killington is about a 4 hr drive from Boston and 5 from NYC. Maybe 3 from Montreal.Crowds are special. How far is it from the big cities?
It’s pretty far 3 1/2 - 4hrs, possibly hellish hours. Could be 5.How far is it from the big cities?
It seemed a lot of the racers were skiing a very wide line. Because of ruts?To my eyes she over-skied the surface: too much pressure, too much precision. The deteriorating conditions for run two called for more improvisation in the athletes' approach. Both ASL and Holdener skied for the conditions, whereas Shiffrin and Vlhova didn't. They both used their standard approach - power - and it didn't work.
It seemed a lot of the racers were skiing a very wide line. Because of ruts?
It would be interesting to see any difference in line in 2nd run times.
The FIS mobile app has some nice ways to display split times for the leaders, but just tabular total run data for the field. ScreenshotBefore the official PDFs were posted the FIS website had the second run results as their own tab. Suffice it to say: Gritsch won the run by a full second. Shiffrin was over 3 seconds slower and was the second-slowest on the run.
ASL was 17th for the run, +2.07 behind Gritsch. Holdener was 21st at +2.24. Truppe was 7th, +1.64.
You can get some dynamic info here, though the interface is a bit clunky.
Most of racers and coaches are for this, but they and their opinion don't matter in this planning, which, before someone jumps on bad bad FIS, is quite normal. Racers and coaches don't pay the bills, industry does. And for industry there's no use of having races in March, even less in late March or beginning of April. Winter is long gone by then, and there's probably 7 pairs of skis sold worldwide in that timeframe (end of season sales for 80% off are excluded from this). They need races in October and November to start sale of equipment, not in March or April, so I doubt things will change much in this part.The question has been asked: wait another month to start the season and then let it run a little longer. There are pros and cons.
They get a hell of a lot of free advertising. For instance, the Washington Post and NYTs both had big articles about Shiffrin racing there.Even with the huge crowds, Killington reports a net loss of $1 million to host the WC races each year. Lots of costs to put the together the village at the base and they have to pay for housing for all the teams including racers and coaches. It will be up to POWDR corporate to see if they will host again. This was the last year of the contract.
It would probably be for the better, at the athlete personal level, if American ski racers stuck to North America and maybe the very best go to some international championship for a couple of weeks at the end of the season.
Rather see grassroots skiing that middle class families could afford, let the ski academies and the crazy Vail billionaire parents fade back into the murk