Winter Sports - Alpine Skiing, Cross-Country, Biathlon and more

[JamieBrown]

It doesn't matter what Wellinger does, Stefan Kraft will always beat him. Where's the "I'm not even mad"-Meme when you need it?

But seriously, what has Wellinger done in the first half of the season? It looks like Stefan Kraft will also win the World Cup, unless Kamil Stoch get's back into his amazing shape of January. Congrats also to Markus Eisenbichler. This medal is the first real sensation of the Championships to me, especially since he's more into flying hills than the small ones. With three medalists, and another three Top 10 results in both ski jumping competitions, I think that one more gold medal tomorrow in the mixed is most likely

 

[JamieBrown]

The combined team ranking would give us this outcome






Let's see if Germany and Austria can do better. I hope Freitag steps up or Geiger shows in the training he can replace him

 

[JamieBrown]

It looks like Stefan Kraft will also win the World Cup, unless Kamil Stoch get's back into his amazing shape of January.

See you next winter

 

[lavieenrose]

Ashley Wagner has recently announced that she's ditched her La La Land-related plans for her Worlds silver-winning music from Moulin Rouge. I'm usually not a fan of repeating programs, but...

Come on.

 

[ShoeFlo]

Today the first final of the 4 hills tournament takes place and I feel that finally THIS WILL BE OUR BREAKTHROUGH

Richard Freitag is strong af... 4 Germans in the top 10 in the qualifying although our second world class athlete Wellinger struggled ... and now imagine Freund wouldnt be injured for such a long time. We could be as dominant as Austrian team was like 7-10 years ago

Áfram Deutschland!

 

[EscGeek]

well i'm glad that austrian domination is over and the teams are more even...

 

[JamieBrown]

The top teams maybe are, but the minor are even more far away than ever. In a team competition there are 6 teams saved for the 2nd round. And once you're down, it seems hardly possible to come back (see Finland, but also Korea, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands or Sweden were further involved and had regular scoring jumpers). Lucky for Norway and Germany they came back early enough

 

[EscGeek]

Netherlands had ski jumpers? I didn't know that

 

[ShoeFlo]

Yes, fair point.
Russia and Czech Republic are in decline, too. Its not like Russia has ever been big in ski jumping but I remember the time when Vassiljev was a Top-10-contender, and there were still jumpers like Ipatov and Kornilov who regularly made it to the Top 30. Nowadays there is only Klimov who can now and then get some world cup points and that"s it.
Czech Republic lost Jakub Janda who decided to end his career. They apparently have an A-squad of 5 jumpers but the only guy I know is Kuodelka who is far beyond his peak
Switzerland is desperately trying to build up a team for years but it doesnt really work. Ammann is 36-years old now. He will probably leave too, and then there is only Deschwanden and Peier, who are average at best.

Italy can usually appoint a team to team events, but none of their jumpers is competitive. They lack quality.

The French use to have gifted jumpers (and now they have a 17-years old guy coming up who already qualified for the final in Oberstdorf) but they never had more than 2-3 jumpers at best. They lack quantity.

Id love to see more jumpers from minor nations. Anybody remember Wladimir Sografski? Extremely talented athlete with some impressive results a few years ago. But he has one problem: He is Bulgarian... So he only has one coach, no proper training conditions, no money, no structures. And I didnt hear about him lately... Sad story.

I like Mac-Kenzie Boyd Clowes from Canada. He gathered 52 points world cup points last year. Hope he can keep it up.

Other than that, it more and more looks like there are only 6 nations ruling this sport. Germany, Norway and Poland have Austrian coaches so ironically the Austrians themselves built up their rivals at the expense of their own dominance. Werner Schuster has made in amazing job here in Germany and he saved us from insignifance.

Conclusion: We need more Austrian coaches!

 

[JamieBrown]

 

[JamieBrown]

Spreading much negativity right now. Ski jumping is still one of the best sports, but like Flo I wished for more diversity and balance, especially in the team competitions. Nonetheless there are far less interesting sports in that matter, like luge racing or speed skating. Or the long distance runs in summer

 

[blue00eyes]

So proud of Kamil Stoch today

 

[JamieBrown]

He's probably the best of this era. But so humble, that one can easily forget this, so he's at least the best sportsmen these days

 

[esc87fan]

News from

At the Canadian Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir registered perfect scores for their Moulin Rouge free dance to win their 7th national title and challenge French rivals Papidakis and Cizeron for the gold medal in Pyeongchang. On the ladies' side, Gabrielle Daleman celebrated her 20th birthday today by winning her second Canadian title over Kaetlyn Osmond. Men and pairs go later today

The complete Canadian Olympic team will be revealed tomorrow

 

[Preuss]

So season's starting today!

Tip:

1. V. Rebensburg
2. M. Shiffrin
3. R Mowinckel

 

[Morty]

Great start of the winter sports season for

Ragnhild Mowinckel 5th, Kristin Lysdahl 8th, Thea Louise Stjernesund 9th (in her World Cup debut!), and Kristine Gjelsten Haugen 10th. 4 in the top 10!

 

[EscGeek]

Mowinckel's new picture is far better than the previous one

 

[Preuss]

Lundby in ski jumping and now the alpine girls - our women are on the rise!

 

[Himan]

Skating; the Dutch win. The end.

 

[ShoeFlo]

Four Hills Tournament 2018/19 is starting today with the qualifying in Oberstdorf.

Are here still people who care about this? And if so, who do you think will win it this time? My gut tells me Stoch will make it once again. Not 4 out of 4 again, though. His countrymate Zyla is obviously not negligable either, he looked pretty consistent so far. Other than that, the big favorite is the world cup leader, the younger Kobayashi brother. Let's see if he keeps his nerves!
Would love to have a shock winner again for a change... preferarbly a German guy Andreas Wellinger has all the skills he need to make it but his form lately got worse with every event....