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Official Winter Olympics sports thread
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ATNotts
08-03-2016
Originally Posted by grassmarket:
“Maybe so, but he deserves the credit for transforming the sport from what was still, back in the late 90s when I started watching, basically a part-time soldiers sport (OK, who were obviously extremely fit people) into a full time professional sport with the subsequent rise in standards and pay for the athletes. All the rest of the athletes had to raise their standards to compete with him, which is why Rafael Poiree and the French team did so much to raise the speed of shooting.

Unfortunately one of the consequences of that is that we in GB have been left way behind...”

Yes, as I said, I really think it was modesty as much as anything else that drove his comments - he was / is a fantastic athlete and really would like to see him extend his career towards the next olympics - if Noriaki Kasai can, then surely there's room for another fit, talented old geezer on the plane to Korea.

On a separate note, I feel another thing holding back UK biathlon is our restrictive gun laws, especially since the shootings at Dunblane which make life hard for gun clubs and sports to store weapons and train. I can't believe that we can't manage to have roller ski facilities in UK, outside of Huntley, and attendant shooting ranges so that younger people could have a go, not just at biathlon, but also cross country skiing. Surely if firearms were an issue, then laser rifles are a possibility these days.

Then all we need is sponsorship. UK companies seem very hard to convince to sponsor sport, unless it's football, rugby or cricket - apart from snooker and darts which are darlings of the online betting industry.
grassmarket
09-03-2016
If you, like me, got home to find NO BIATHLON!!! on your recorder, they had to bring the race forward a couple of hours because of a bad weather forecast. The whole thing with full commentary is on the eurovision website

http://www.eurovisionsports.tv/ibu/
ATNotts
10-03-2016
Managed to catch it live, more by chance than anything else! It was I good race, especially for the individual which generally I find the least gripping of all the events. the French certainly appear to have the edge on the competition this year.

What I have found annoying about the Eurosport coverage is that there appears to be a 3-4 second delay on the voice track, so you see a shot missed, then an irritating 3-4 seconds later Patrick Winterton or Mike Dixon announces the miss. I haven't watched ARD coverage so can't say if the same is happening with other channels - and I can't remember it happening before.

I'm guessing that it has something to do with the commentary coming direct from the venue, rather than from a box in London or Paris, but I can't see why. surely there's an easy "fix" to stop it happening.
grassmarket
10-03-2016
This weekend's action

Biathlon - World Championships continue.

Friday - Women's relay
Saturday - Men's Relay
Sunday - Men & Women Mass Start

Cross Country - Tour of Canada continues, the final events of the season

Friday - Women's 10K Time Trial, Men's 15K TT
Saturday - Women's pursuit, men's pursuit

Ski Jumping - A landmark event scheduled for Sunday. Weather permitting, it should be Noriaki Kasai's 500th World Cup event, in his 27th year of top flight competition. And still in the World's Top 10! He made his debut in December 1988. Probably one of these records that will never be approached, let alone beaten.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noriaki_Kasai

Saturday - Men's Individual
Sunday - Men's Individual
grassmarket
10-03-2016
Short Track Speed Skating World Championships from South Korea - Several good British medal hopes, but strongest of all is Elise Christie, obviously. It's going to be geo-blocked live on Eurovision Sports, but there will be extended highlights of the medal races on Eurosport on both Saturday and Sunday.

Alpine skiing - Last weekend of the full World Cup season, with the elite World Cup Final race round coming next week. Women are in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, men in Kvitfjell, Norway

Saturday
Women - Super G
Men - Downhill

Sunday
Women - Alpine combined
Men - Super G
Edward_Sloley
10-03-2016
Originally Posted by grassmarket:
“Ski Jumping - A landmark event scheduled for Sunday. Weather permitting, it should be Noriaki Kasai's 500th World Cup event, in his 27th year of top flight competition. And still in the World's Top 10! He made his debut in December 1988.”

Wait...he started competing against the world's best before the Soviet Union was dissolved?! **** me sideways.
grassmarket
11-03-2016
Elise Christie interview here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/35781084
grassmarket
12-03-2016
Bronze!! for Elise Christie in the 1500m in Korea, but knocked out early in the 500m. Decent results for Jack Whelbourne in the men's - 6th in the 1500, 5th in the 500m.
Edward_Sloley
12-03-2016
I felt she was perhaps the favourite over 500m, so that's a shame. That said, winning a 1,500m medal is a bit of a surprise, and there's still the 1,000m tomorrow (plus the 3,000m 'Super Final' if she qualifies for that).
grassmarket
13-03-2016
SILVER!!! for Elise Christie in the 1000m.
BRONZE!!! for Elise Christie in the 3000m
BRONZE!!! for Elise Christie as she finishes third in the overall.
Edward_Sloley
13-03-2016
I'd say that's her best WCh to date (4 medals is unprecedented, as is a medal for the women's overall), albeit somewhat bittersweet as the 500m was a missed opportunity.

Including this year, she has won medals in the past four WCh.
grassmarket
13-03-2016
Ski Jumping in Titisee is cancelled due to high winds, so Kasai is left on 499 World Cups....final weekend of the season in Planica next week, so two more chances.
ATNotts
13-03-2016
Fantastic finish today to the Men's Mass Start, with a sprint for first place, with Johannes Thingnes Boe just nicking the win from Martin Fourcade, and another amazing performance from Ole Einar Bjoerndalen coming third.

I really would like to Ole Einar carry one next season, as I feel sure he's got another couple of wins in him, even if only as part of the Norwegian relay team - then who know, he could conceivably carry on to the 2018 Olympics - and he is tantalisingly close to achieving 100 wins. I'm sure sponsors would dearly love him to continue as he is, rather like Phil Taylor and Tiger Woods, pure box office.

It is really quite sad that FTA broadcasters don't show at least some biathlon in UK, as despite the dearth of UK talent, it really is hard not to watch formats likes the mass start, they really make excellent, exciting TV - and the the sport could really do with a boost in UK.

What is more, it probably wouldn't cost the BBC too much to show the occasional mass start!
grassmarket
15-03-2016
Final week of the main season is upon us again... Just a few things to be cleared up. Here are the midweek races

Alpine Skiing - World Cup finals from St Moritz, Switzerland. Specially selected races involving the top 25 in the World in each of the main disciplines. Unfortunately the season has been dominated by injuries to the early leaders in three of the four disciplines so it's not quite as exciting as it could have been.

Wednesday - Men's downhill, women's downhill
Thursday - Women's Super-G, Men's Super-G.

Biathlon - Off to Khanty Mansiisk, way over in Siberia

Thursday - Women's sprint
grassmarket
18-03-2016
Here we go, final weekend of the World Cup season. There are actually a few more non-WC events after this weekend, but coverage likely to be web-based only.

Alpine skiing World Cup finals from St Moritz. Must say that Switzerland has been looking particularly gorgeous this last few weeks, seemingly with many yards of snow everywhere. even in the valleys. Great if you are looking for an extremely expensive Easter break.

Friday - Team event
Saturday - Women's slalom, men's giant slalom
Sunday - Men's slalom, women's giant slalom

Biathlon from Khatny Mansiisk

Friday - Men's sprint
Saturday - Men and women pursuit
Sunday - Men and women mass start

Ski Jumping Mega giant hill Ski Flying competition from Planica, Slovenia.

Saturday - Team event
Sunday - Men's individual

Freestyle snowboard - Another sport badly affected by the weather all season, but conditions seem to be perfect now.

Sunday - Snowboard cross from La Molina, Spain.
Sunday - Snowboard slopestyle from Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic.
JohnW
19-03-2016
Find it a bit bizarre in today's Eurosport Biathlon coverage that the women's pursuit is live, then repeated about 5 times, but the men's pursuit is not on at all until highlights at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Have to hope the full race will be on Eurosport player.
grassmarket
19-03-2016
Originally Posted by JohnW:
“Find it a bit bizarre in today's Eurosport Biathlon coverage that the women's pursuit is live, then repeated about 5 times, but the men's pursuit is not on at all until highlights at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Have to hope the full race will be on Eurosport player.”

Watched it on the Eurovision Sports web stream, it had English commentary, so look there.
grassmarket
20-03-2016
Dave Ryding finishes 15th in the Slalom World Cup final, lifts himself up to 22nd in the slalom rankings, so guaranteed top-30 starts next year.
grassmarket
20-03-2016
No biathlon today - extreme high winds in Khanty-Mansiisk
ATNotts
20-03-2016
Originally Posted by grassmarket:
“No biathlon today - extreme high winds in Khanty-Mansiisk”

Amazing pictures on ZDF this morning of one of the floodlight gantries toppling over across the far end of the shooting range. I'm no met. man, but I guess these extremely strong winds which caused the cancellation of both races are the same ones that had such tragic consequences on Rostov na Don yesterday.

A disappointing end to the Biathlon season. Thought Eurosport's coverage of both pursuits yesterday was lamentable. Discovery appear to have brought to the channel the US adage that "you shouldn't let a good sporting event get in the way of the commercials"!

The fantastic (unusually calm) conditions at Planica, by contrast produced one of the very best season finale weekends that I can remember. Peter Prevc has clearly eclipsed Primoz Peterka as best every Slovenian jumper.

Anyone know what is up with David Goldstrom? I can't believe he would have missed commentating on Planica unless he really is pretty ill. Poor Simon Golding was well out of his depth, but clearly enthusiastic.
grassmarket
20-03-2016
And the very last event of the whole World Cup season is the best for Team GB! At the Snowboard Slopestyle World Cup Final in Spinleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic

GOLD!!!!! for Jamie Nicholls
SILVER!!! for Katie Summerhayes
BRONZE!!! for Billie Morgan
grassmarket
28-03-2016
ISU Figure Skating World Championships start today in Boston, Mass. and run through to the weekend.

http://worlds2016.com/

Live Eurosport coverage starts on Wednesday night, BBC have some live and recorded coverage at the weekend.

Britain's best hopes are Buckland and Coombes, again

https://www.teamgb.com/news/team-gb-...-season-gamble
Tiger Rose
01-04-2016
The Figure Skating worlds started on Wednesday. The reigning World & Olympic champions Papadakis/Cizeron are leading after the Short Dance with Coomes & Buckland in 8th place - that's about as good as they could have expected & they got a PB on their Short Dance so all good. Just watching the start of the Free Dance now.

World Champion Hanyu is leading the Men's after the Short by a massive 12 points so realistically he will win unless he has a massive mare in the Free which he is unlikely to do. Philip Harris of Britain has qualified for the Free skate after a PB score which is the first time in some years that a British man has qualified for the Free skate at the Worlds.

Also watched the Women's Short earlier which was fantastic. Apart from Mao Asada all the top women skated really well. All the Americans skated really well with Gracie Gold leading which of course thrilled the home crowd. It's been a while since the US had a top female skater & they would love to beat the Russians et al on home soil. 15 year old Kristen Spours achieved a PB score making her debut at this level but didn't qualify for the Free Skate.
CarlLewis
01-04-2016
I have doubts about Gold's ability to hold it together in the Free. I would still make Medvedeva favourite.
yellowlabbie
01-04-2016
Papadakis and Cizeron were sublime, streets ahead of everyone else. They are a joy to behold and I could watch them all day.

I want hanyu to win the men's event and Radianova to win the ladies but I doubt she will. I just hope it isn't one of the Americans, they all skate the same, put a bag on their head and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between them, whereas the Russians all have their own individuality.

Well done to Coombes and Buckland, I am so happy for them, they are a delightful couple.

I would like Volososhar and Trankov to win the pairs but I think it will be the Canadians.
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