107 replies to this topic

[drleather2001]

Not a pretty sight

Well, Vonn is from Minnesota.

[Hendu's Gait]

The casualty rate at the Men's Slalom is astonishing -- the Whistler course is taking plenty of casualties. No injuries so far, but plenty of tumbles, missed gates, and heavy fog.

The gates are coming at them like a bamboo forest.

Just in case NBC is doing another retrospective broadcast, I'll spoil this:

Bode Miller is one of the casualties: he won't be getting another medal to add to his collection.

I realize that navigating the gates (pun not intended) is part of the slalom experience, but jeez, if so many skiers are DNF'ing, is it time to consider either postponing until fog/rain/bad conditions aren't as big of a part of the race, or doing a best of 2 runs, a la halfpipe. Very good skiers (Vonn/Miller but also others) not doing anything that particularly risky DNF'ing doesn't seem right.

(This is coming from someone who admittedly doesn't know too much about skiing/slalom, and has watched under 200 Slalom/GS runs post-1998)

[Maalox]

Crans Montana starts tomorrow. Last chicks' race before the finals. Vonn was third in the DH training today.

[Maalox]

Vonn won the Super G and the overall title today. Won the downhill title on Wednesday after finishing 2d.

[Seven Costanza]

I believe Vonn has now won more WC races than any other American skier- male or female.

[Maalox]

I think so.

Vonn did not ski the slalom final today. Maria Riesch took a very safe line to finish third and win the season slalom title, so with the two Olympic golds she had a great year that deserved much more attention than it got.

I expect a lot more women to catch up to and maybe pass Vonn next season, when basically the entire women's tour goes over to men's skis, at least for the speed events. I particularly expect a lot from Riesch, as she seems to handle speed well without it affecting her technique. I would also look out for Gisin, Suter, Maze and Mancuso. Also Pjaerson if she comes back next year - her thighs are bigger than my gut.

I'm very interested to see what Goergl does on men's skis, because she is very aggressive and skis out a fair bit already. Interested to see if she can handle the speed. Mancuso too although she is a bit more calculating than Goergl so I think she should be OK.

The Fanchini sisters will probably kill themselves.

[dolomite133]

The answer is yes. She beat Bode Miller's record of 32 WC wins. It's funny how she amassed so many wins under the radar (while Bode got a lot more press). It seemed like she only emerged a couple of years ago. Yet she's actually been winning WC races since 2005. BTW I'm betting Lara Gut will be the one to watch. She missed the Olympics with an injury but she is legit awesome. She already has a World Cup win to her credit and she's just 18 years old. Vonn didn't win her first WC race until she was 20.

[Maalox]

BTW I'm betting Lara Gut will be the one to watch.

That's a good call. And she is big like Vonn too. Not hard to look at either.