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[Tickdoc]

Originally Posted by sfscott

Do you actually follow ski racing regularly?

Not sweeping the medals like everyone predicted, but I'm not counting her out. Imagine the work she'll put in over the next four years to master the downhill.

Still a fan.

[paredown]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

Not sweeping the medals like everyone predicted, but I'm not counting her out. Imagine the work she'll put in over the next four years to master the downhill.

Still a fan.

To be fair--because of the weather delays and the compressed schedule, she had to race the slalom without a rest day (and you could see she was just not as sharp as her typical self). And the new delays compress the schedule again, so that if she raced the downhill she would be trashed for her next event where she has a reasonable chance of medalling.

Who knows how she would have done if she could have started racing right away with the more open schedule they originally planned. (She seems to be someone who needs to get down to it--I know for me, the worst thing in the world when racing was a delayed start...)

[echelon_john]

From Mikaela Shiffrin's Instagram after the slalom. I found this really inspirational:

mikaelashiffrin I’ve gone over it a thousand times in my head, and I don’t think I could have done it differently even if I got a second chance. I keep thinking that maybe if I was able to control my emotions more after the Giant Slalom, I would have had more energy for the Slalom and maybe I could have put more into that race, maybe I would have had better control of my nerves, maybe... But after 5 days of schedule changes and waiting to race, and without the day between those races to reset and recharge, I wasn’t able to manage it. And you know what? I wouldn’t change that for the world. It’s the Olympics, and for me that’s about showing heart and passion as much as it is about medals. So I wouldn’t take back my emotions or excitement after the GS in order to have better shot at a SL medal too. You know, it’s not necessarily the medalists who get the most out of the Olympics. It’s those who are willing to strip down to nothing and bear their soul for their love of the game. That is so much greater than Gold, Silver, or Bronze.

We all want a medal, but not everyone will get one. Some are going to leave here feeling like heroes, some will leave heartbroken, and some will have had moments when the felt both- because we care. That is real. That is life. It’s amazing and terrifying and wonderful and brutal and exciting and nerve racking and beautiful. And honestly, I’m just so grateful to be part of that.

[likebikes]

Originally Posted by sfscott

Do you actually follow ski racing regularly?

nope, and i'm only talking about the olympics.

[veloduffer]

Originally Posted by likebikes

mikaela shiffrin: biggest olympic letdown ever?

I think you missed the mark here, considering she already has a medal from this and 2014. How about Marcel Hirschner who didn’t medal in 2010 and 2014, and has been one of the most dominant skiers and one of the all time best with 55 World Cup wins? He won two golds this Olympics but coming to this Olympics he had resigned himself to never medaling.

Others “busts” could be Dan Jansen, who dominated speed skating for several years and got only one gold, in probably his least likely event. The list could go own but I think you bought into the hype.

For many sports, the Olympics is not the pinnacle event of the sport.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Buzz]

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/knapp/...ic-2503372.php

In 2006 Bode Miller was the biggest bust of all time...This topic comes up every Olympics.

Schiffren is doing well in her relatively young career. Pressure to win is greatest on her perhaps of all athletes at Olympics this year given her dominance.

Millers tv analysis is detailed but hard to overcome his flat low energy delivery.

To his credit my nephew raced against him during their teenage years and said he was a genuine guy "a humble champion" who even though he was head and shoulders above every racer would purposefully take it easy so as to make the races fun and competitive for everyone else. Hard to imagine say Armstrong doing that.

Hopefully Schiffren won't become sidetracked by the limelight in her career. That will be her biggest opponent.

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[Tickdoc]

Originally Posted by Buzz

https://www.sfgate.com/sports/knapp/...ic-2503372.php

In 2006 Bode Miller was the biggest bust of all time...This topic comes up every Olympics.

Schiffren is doing well in her relatively young career. Pressure to win is greatest on her perhaps of all athletes at Olympics this year given her dominance.

Millers tv analysis is detailed but hard to overcome his flat low energy delivery.

To his credit my nephew raced against him during their teenage years and said he was a genuine guy "a humble champion" who even though he was head and shoulders above every racer would purposefully take it easy so as to make the races fun and competitive for everyone else. Hard to imagine say Armstrong doing that.

Hopefully Schiffren won't become sidetracked by the limelight in her career. That will be her biggest opponent.

I gotta say I am really enjoying the technical analysis Bode gives. I always thought him a dufus but have learned alot just listening to him break down the racers.

Mikaela has youth and health on her side. So fun to watch.

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by Tickdoc

I gotta say I am really enjoying the technical analysis Bode gives. I always thought him a dufus but have learned alot just listening to him break down the racers.

Mikaela has youth and health on her side. So fun to watch.

I don't know anything about high-level skiing and he has made it much more enjoyable as I have learned what it is I am looking at to the point I can almost "see" some of the skills and variations at that high level. I was just saying it would be nice if they had someone like him to provide the same succinct details on some of the other event coverage

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[buddybikes]

I'm in "love" with this woman, class act!

PS: my wife approves me saying this

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[chrisroph]

Each of them is among the greatest alpine skiers in history. We are fortunate to live in an era where we get to see these tremendous athletes perform. While they have had stints of incredible dominance, including Shifrin's slalom skiing earlier this year, they are only human and competing in high risk sports against incredible athletes. Nobody wins everything. Shifrin's Olympic record is fantastic.

Look at what happed to marcel hirscher in the slalom. Does anybody want to label him a failure??

[redir]

Vonn's run last night was pretty awesome I thought. It's amazing to watch these events. After a while of watching it you start to kind of 'get it.' And you can see something that a skier did that is going to cost them just a fraction of a second. Vonn's run just stood out like a bright light compared to the other ones and these are only very subtly but crucially important things.

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