Official Winter Olympics sports thread
grassmarket
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Winter is Coming, so here is our thread for all the Winter Olympic sports that don't have a thread of their own - ie everything except Curling, basically.
Two sports begin this weekend
Alpine skiing
Saturday 08:30 & 11:30 Eurosport - Women's Giant Slalom from Solden, Austria
Sunday 08:15 & 11:30 Eurosport - Men's Giant Slalom from Solden
Figure Skating
Saturday and Sunday, various times Eurosport and Eurosport 2, the Skate America Grand Prix from Chicago.
Two sports begin this weekend
Alpine skiing
Saturday 08:30 & 11:30 Eurosport - Women's Giant Slalom from Solden, Austria
Sunday 08:15 & 11:30 Eurosport - Men's Giant Slalom from Solden
Figure Skating
Saturday and Sunday, various times Eurosport and Eurosport 2, the Skate America Grand Prix from Chicago.
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Alpine Skiing: Axel Lund Svindal, the many times World and Olympic champion from Norway will miss the entire season after injuring himself in a football match last week. Lindsay Vonn is hoping to make her return from injury in December.
Skeleton and Bob: The British teams are all in Lillehammer at the moment for pre-season practice and selection races for the first round of the World Cup. Olympic skeleton champion Lizzy Yarnold will start the season as clear world number one after the retirement of the American Noelle Picus-Pace, who was the only person who could beat her last year. Shelly Rudman is having a baby year off, so there will be a place to fill as British Number 2. In Bob, Olympic 4th placer John Jackson will also miss the early races after a recurrence of his Achilles injury.
Short Track Speed Skating also in action already - Elise Christie won all three races she competed in last weekend in a warm-up meeting in Heerenveen, Holland last weekend.
http://www.teamgb.com/news/victorious-christie-looking-push-season-opener
All the events must be happening early afternoon over there, because they are all on Eurosport at sensible mid-evening times on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The opening round of the Short Track World Cup is from Salt Lake City - Britain is sending our full team. Qualifiers are tomorrow, then good quality live streaming of the finals is available on the ISU web site on Saturday and Sunday at 10.00pm, but also available for later viewing.
http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-sports/29942329
Laura Deas and Dominic Parsons came out on top in the trials (details here and here).
Despite pre-selection, Yarnold did 4 runs there anyway, and her times suggest she's in good nick (on average slightly slower than what she did in Olympic season). Early days though - even without Pikus-Pace, the likes of Elena Nikitina will keep her honest.
Since women's skeleton joined the WCh/Olympics in 2000/2002 respectively, only Maya Pedersen has done the double (05/06), and only Marion Thees has won back-to-back (09/11) world titles.
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On another note, it appears that the Junior World Championships are open to competitors under 24. (Yarnold herself won it at 23 years of age in 2012)
Next round is in Montreal next week.
http://www.teamgb.com/news/olympic-round-week-review-0
Lizzie Yarnold and Laura Deas are confirmed for the World Cup team. Rose McGrandle and Donna Creighton will compete for the third place at the Intercontinental Cup races staring next week - there are 4 Intercontinental Cup races before the World Cup starts in December.
For the men, Dom Parsons is also confirmed for the WC team, and David Swift and Ed Smith will also race off for the second place at the IC.
http://www.teamgb.com/news/deas-and-parsons-join-yarnold-world-cup-squad
Any news on an appeal?
Damn, and I had a tenner on her for Pyeongchang.
No, but there may be an encore...
I always thought it was a bit of a fiddle....
Alpine Skiing: Women's and Men's slalom from Levi, Finland. Live on Eurosport Saturday and Sunday mornings at 08:45 and 11:45 each day.
Figure Skating: Figure Skating Grand Prix series moves on to Moscow, many showings on Eurosport all weekend.
Short Track Speed Skating: From Montreal. Live streaming on the ISU's website starting at 17:45 Saturday and Sunday
http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html
Long Track Skating World Cup from Obihiro Japan, also live streamed on the ISU, but at silly o'clock in the morning, UK time
http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html
And the special event is the O'Neill Pleasure Jam from Dachstein, Austria for Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle, starting on Friday. Lots of Brits involved. There's a YouTube Channel, so presumably some streaming coverage.
http://www.pleasurejam.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsB-UA97KRwpF-tdC2Vr6LA
http://www.teamgb.com/news/buckland-and-coomes-skate-grand-prix-bronze-russia
Faith!
Women's Race 1: 9th for Olaoye & Kiddle
Women's Race 2: 2nd for McNeill & Huxtable & 9th for Olaoye & Kiddle
2-Men Race 1: 8th for Deen and Oro-Campos
2-Men Race 2: 8th for Deen and McLaughlin
4-Men Race 1: 3rd for Deen
4-Men Race 2: 1st for Deen
There were skeleton races on the programme, but we didn't enter anyone for those.
These races also saw the first ever mixed 4-man races (ie, a female pilot and three male pushers) - Elana Meyers for USA and Kaillie Humphreys for Canada both competed, but neither did better than 8th and each were beaten by their nations' second or third-ranked men, so if sporting achievement, rather than political correctness were the criterion, I doubt they'd be good enough to be picked for the World Cup.
There was also a European Cup bobsleigh only competition at Igls - German squads won all 6 races.
Unfortunately, our only World Cup Alpine skier, Dave Ryding, was a DNF in the first round of the Levi slalom after his early splits indicated he was heading for good top-20 place.
In the O'Neill Slopestyle Pleasure Jam at Dachstein, Aimee Fuller was 5th and Jenny Jones had to withdraw at the SF stage. Rowan Coultas was 6th in the men's final.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/30013030
Lots of money being paid by the Lottery people, implicitly it is all going on the (able-bodied) blazers, not on the athletes.
The start of the Ski Jumping Season from Klingenthal, Germany, all on Eurosport
Qualifying on Friday
Men's Team Comp on Saturday
Men's Solo Comp on Sunday
Grand Prix Figure Skating from Paris continues on Eurosport all weekend
Long Track Speed Skating from Seoul, South Korea
http://livemanager.eurovision.edgesuite.net/isu/index.html
And other non televised events in pre-season Cross Country from Norway, Sweden and Russia, presumably with Brits competing.
Brits will also be trying to qualify for the Bob and Skeleton World Cups in the European and North American Cup events in Lillehammer and Calgary.
And the Curling European Champs in their own thread.
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Mica McNeill got a 3rd and a 7th in the womens' race, and Victoria Olaoye got a 7th and 4th.