Jump to content

Olympics: Vancouver 2010 OFFICIAL THREAD


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 511
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

QUOTE (Felix @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 07:20 PM)
Epic fail, US Curling.

 

Seriously, he blows three GW throws in two days, ridiculous. Glad to see curling back on TV though, really enjoyed it despite the ending.

 

Anybody know what makes one person (Ohno) better at short-track speedskating, while another person (Shani) is better at the regular speedskating? They both go the same distances.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 17, 2010 -> 03:30 PM)
I am so over the Lindsey's. (Vonn/Jacobellis)

 

First, Vonn's camp is going out of their way to tell us that her "shin was throbbing" after a practice run. Guess what! You're not the only skier who has injuries!! Stop it!!

 

Then there's Jacobellis. I'm really supposed to feel bad for her because she wrecked while being a poor sport and showboating with a huge lead 4 years ago? I was so happy when she hit that gate yesterday. But she's got good spirit! She made a HUGE deal about how she went out and won the consolation race even though she normally wouldn't have bothered trying. She said her coach gave her "props" for going out and trying to win that race instead of sulking.

 

Give me a break. Enjoy your endorsements, but these two can take a hike for all I care, and I love the Olympics.

kinda harsh dude. She was injured...it's a story...just like when any athlete is hurt and performs anyway. She did appear to be favoring that leg in her run...so not sure why it upsets you so much. It isn't a 'made up' injury. And she had even more pressure to push harder and faster cause of Mancuso's run. As someone who doesn't watch much skiing(evidenced by the fact I had to look up how to spell "skiing" just now cause it doesn't look right), it certainly looked like a great olympic moment.

 

As for Jacobellis...I never got the impression from her that she wants anyone to feel bad for her. 4 years ago or now.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There were some wicked crashes in that women's downhill last night. The best I think was a French chick, who made it barely 40 feet out of the gates, lost her balance and fell over to the right and crashed. You train four years for this moment, and you can't even make it down the first part of the hill. :lolhitting

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 10:47 AM)
Vonn uses men's skiis which make her go faster.

I have zero idea about skiing, so I ask this question completely seriously, why don't other women use them then? Does she have the skill to handle them why other women don't? Or do other women use them too?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 06:13 PM)
I have zero idea about skiing, so I ask this question completely seriously, why don't other women use them then? Does she have the skill to handle them why other women don't? Or do other women use them too?

 

"I'm taller and maybe a little bit heavier than most of the other girls," Vonn said after winning the third super-combined of her career. "So for me, the men's skis are more stable. It's harder to turn, of course, it takes more strength. But I'm able to generate a lot of speed from the turns."

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-12-19/spor...-vonn-world-cup

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 11:13 AM)
I have zero idea about skiing, so I ask this question completely seriously, why don't other women use them then? Does she have the skill to handle them why other women don't? Or do other women use them too?

 

Found this article on it.

 

Vonn pushes limits on men's skis

375348_M23.jpg

 

Two-time overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn is shaking things up this season in her fight to stay on top of the Alpine skiing world for a third straight year. Last weekend at Val d'Isere, France, she snagged her 25th World Cup victory using a pair of men's downhill skis, a move that is pushing the envelope in the conventional ski industry.

 

By Steve Porino, Special to Universal Sports | Posted: Dec 23, 8:12a ET | Updated: Dec 23, 10:12a ET

Dec. 18, 2009:

 

Conventional wisdom tells us it’s easier to get to the top, than to stay there. The gist is that no one pays you much mind when you’re coming up from behind. When in front, the competition sees, tracks, copies (if they can) everything.

 

Chalk one up for the heavily marked American Lindsey Vonn, who just won the 25th World Cup of her career in Val d’Isere, France, a super combined, with the help of men’s downhill skis. That’s a first on the women’s circuit to my knowledge, and a secret she and her husband Thomas managed to keep from cameras and curious eyes since testing men’s downhill skis (about 5 cm longer than women’s) and men’s super-G skis (7 to 10 cm longer) this summer.

 

At first blush, given the 1.5-seconds margin Vonn held over the field in the downhill portion of the super combined, it might seem like an unfair advantage. Conventional wisdom, however, has always held that men’s skis are too hard to turn for women. That’s why women don’t use them, and that’s probably why they didn’t think to try them. If you ask Lindsey's husband Thomas, a former U.S. Ski Team member and an incurable tinkerer, he’ll tell you the ski community is a slave to convention.

 

When Lindsey started testing men’s slalom skis (10 cm longer than women’s 155 cm) the previous summer, “Everyone laughed at us,” he said then. Months later, she won the first slalom of her career, and the laughing turned a flurry of mid-season testing.

 

They were too little and too late. Vonn is bigger (5’10”) and stronger than most, if not all of her competitors. Most who tried them found them a detriment. Others, and rightly so, were reluctant to switch mid-season. This year, almost all women’s slalom skis have grown, in no small part because Vonn shirked convention.

 

Here we are a year later and it’s happening all over again. Whether or not it’s a measurable advantage is hard to say. This is not a corked bat, or Dennis Connor sailing a catamaran to victory in a race full of mono-hulls. This is Vonn taking a risk to push the limits of the sport in an effort to stay on top. I saw Vonn struggle to manage the men’s super-G skis on Sunday in sharp turns and finished third. But it was not lost on anyone that she crushed the field where the course straightened. Indeed, the bigger blow here might just be psychological.

 

Friend and rival Maria Riesch, of Germany, stands 6'1". It’s reasonable to believe she could handle a men’s ski. But she made it very clear to German online ski magazine Ski2B she was NOT going to jump on that grenade. "To me [the stiffer, longer ski] is too dangerous," Riesch told them. "I will not get bogged down [with switching] in the Olympic season." She added that Vonn had never been seriously injured whereas Riesch has suffered two serious knee injuries, and a dislocated shoulder.

 

Of further impact to the 2009 World Cup overall runner-up has to be that Vonn switched to Riesch’s brand, Head, essentially demoting the German to second in command. Here’s where it gets interesting. Vonn came aboard when U.S. star Bode Miller, a Head athlete, was uncertain to return to skiing. So, Vonn acquired Miller’s serviceman Heinz Hemmerle, who is widely regarded as one of the best in the business, ever. The skis servicemen prepare belong to them as much as to their athletes. So guess what: Some of Vonn’s skis once belonged to Miller. I like the idea that Vonn is chasing Miller’s American record 31 victories on his skis. If in fact, that’s what she’s racing on. When I asked Thomas this very question he said only this: “You can apply common sense to that one.”

 

Notice he did not say conventional wisdom.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Feb 18, 2010 -> 02:53 PM)
What's up with Roenick and Milbury? It seems like they constatnly go at it? Is there a history there or something?

I'm not sure either, I noticed it too and then Deadspin put a link up to an on air exchange about Ovechkin. I guess Milbury always takes shots at him and he and Roenick got into it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...