71 replies to this topic

[glenn__davis]

American Ben Ogden takes silver in the Men's Cross-country Sprint.  First male American to earn any medal in cross-country skiing in 50 years.

 

Sweden swept the female event.

[Mackus]

Why don't they have a Ski Decathalon (or some other number of events).

 

Downhill, slalom, ski jump, slopestyle, moguls, cross country,half pipe.  Hell lets even see who can both ski and snowboard!

[glenn__davis]

Why don't they have a Ski Decathalon (or some other number of events).

 

Downhill, slalom, ski jump, slopestyle, moguls, cross country,half pipe.  Hell lets even see who can both ski and snowboard!

 

I'd get rid of the trick-based events there.  They do have some lesser formations of what you describe above, like Nordic Combined (ski jumping and cross-country).  But I think some combination of cross-country, alpine, and ski-jumping would be pretty cool.  Just make the ski-jumping based solely on distance.

 

As to the 2nd questions, Ester Ledecka is primarily a snowboarder who competes in some skiing events.  There may be others as well, but she famously and very unexpedtedly won gold in the Super-G in skiing in Pyongchang.  If I recall, she didn't even have her own skis and borrowed someone else's because she is mainly a snowboarder.  The way most of these events work, the real contenders go earlier in the run, and at some point it's assumed the rest of the athletes are just also-rans.  An Austrian athlete whose name I can't recall had basically already been declared the winner, and then Ledecka beat her by 0.01 seconds.

 

Here's a very cool video that summarizes it:

 

[BSLChrisStoner]

• U.S. men's hockey dominates Latvia in opener

[ivanbalt]

Sure looked like the future Gold medal game will be US vs Canada.

 

Caught some skeleton last night.  I guess people decided luge isn't hardcore enough and we need to go face first.

[glenn__davis]

Tough Olympics so far for the bigger-named US stars.

 

Lindsay Vonn crashes out early in the downhill.

 

Mikaela Shiffrin is given a lead in the team combined and fails to even medal.

 

Ilia Malinin, the heavy gold medal favorite in figure skating, falls multiple times and finishes in 8th.

 

Chloe Kim does come through with a silver in halfpipe.

 

All in all though, not a great 1st week for team USA.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Tough Olympics so far for the bigger-named US stars.

Lindsay Vonn crashes out early in the downhill.

Mikaela Shiffrin is given a lead in the team combined and fails to even medal.

Ilia Malinin, the heavy gold medal favorite in figure skating, falls multiple times and finishes in 8th.

Chloe Kim does come through with a silver in halfpipe.

All in all though, not a great 1st week for team USA.

Bet their under 13.5 gold medals a week ago. Im gonna assume Im in a good place with everything youve mentioned

[glenn__davis]

Bet their under 13.5 gold medals a week ago. Im gonna assume Im in a good place with everything youve mentioned

 

Right now they've only got 4 golds.  Tough for me to see them getting 10 more with the events that are left so I think you're looking good, but respectfully I hope you lose your bet

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Its never personal. With a US based sportsbook and American pride it just makes sense that line is inflated. Not like I put anything significant on it. Still rooting for USA athletes

[glenn__davis]

Its never personal. With a US based sportsbook and American pride it just makes sense that line is inflated. Not like I put anything significant on it. Still rooting for USA athletes

Of course. Probably a smart bet.

Jordan Stolz carrying the weight for the US so far. Gold in speed skating at both 500m and 1000m so far.

[Dupin]

Who else but Tom Wilson could pull off a Gordie Howe hat trick with the first Olympic fight since 1998.

[Pedro Cerrano]

So Norway apparently is amazing at everything except hockey

[You Play to Win the Game]

Shades of Gordon Bombay in Italy… 3-0.

[glenn__davis]

So Norway apparently is amazing at everything except hockey

 

My understanding, and I absolutely could be wrong about this, is that for many of those European athletes there are two advantages:

 

• In certain sports which are more glamor sports over there (like cross-country skiing or biathlon) the athletes are compensated to the point that being an athlete is essentially a full-time job.  Unlike here, where many/most of the athletes have full-time jobs to help pay for their athletics training because they don't make enough money/funding to not do so.
• Particularly in the biathlon, many of the athletes are legitimately professional soldiers, police officers, etc., so the state is essentially paying for their training.  

Ultimately a lot of these winter sports have a much bigger following in Europe, so bigger following = more funding = better results.

[glenn__davis]

Welp, I tried to avoid spoilers today because I knew Shiffrin was skiing the slalom and didn't even make it to lunch before I saw it.  She gets redemptions and gets gold in her last event of these Games.

 

Still just 7 golds for the US.

 

Amazingly, if Wikipedia is to be believed, the US has won 9 golds in each of the past 5 winter Games, all the way back to 2006.  And in 2002, while hosting at Salt Lake, they won 10.

 

So 2035's bet of under 13.5 seems to be a very smart bet based on past performance.

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Welp, I tried to avoid spoilers today because I knew Shiffrin was skiing the slalom and didn't even make it to lunch before I saw it.  She gets redemptions and gets gold in her last event of these Games.

 

Still just 7 golds for the US.

 

Amazingly, if Wikipedia is to be believed, the US has won 9 golds in each of the past 5 winter Games, all the way back to 2006.  And in 2002, while hosting at Salt Lake, they won 10.

 

So 2035's bet of under 13.5 seems to be a very smart bet based on past performance.

I shoulda done this research before I made a bet. I may have put more on it. Lol. It just felt like it was too high, but I had heard somewhere that there was a lot of buzz about this USA group. The opportunity for more golds and medals than normal

[TwentyThirtyFive]

Realistically could win two more golds in hockey. Any other where they got a good shot?

[Pedro Cerrano]

It helped that some of our best athletes choked

[TwentyThirtyFive]

It helped that some of our best athletes choked

Apparently some french judge screwed us out of a gold in a skating event. As glen said, anything that is judged is kinda weak. And some of these other countries judges want to screw over USA

[glenn__davis]

Realistically could win two more golds in hockey. Any other where they got a good shot?

 

Jordan Stolz is 2-2 in speed skating so far and has 2 more events, so those might be a possibility.

 

I'm not going to pretend to know who the favorites might be in most of these trick-based skiing and snowboarding events though I think those are mostly wrapping up anyway.  Can't imagine the US is favored for gold in any of the remaining bobsled events, cross-country skiing, etc.

 

If both hockey teams come through and Stolz continues to skate well it might be pretty close....