Olympic Womens Mogul Skiing

I watched the men's moguls yesterday. What stood out to me was just how much I hate subjectively judged events. Skating, gymnastics, bumps, diving and the like. Too much athletic politics.

OK, I'm no judging expert, but I thought Kingsbury won the gold based mostly on reputation. I've seen him ski much better in the past. The Australian kid Graham skied the run of his life and I thought he should have won.

I am amazed at the level of difficulty of the tricks these bumpers perform. One kid did an inverted 1080 with a double tip grab and he nailed it. Stellar!

JimG. said:

OK, I'm no judging expert, but I thought Kingsbury won the gold based mostly on reputation. I've seen him ski much better in the past. The Australian kid Graham skied the run of his life and I thought he should have won.

Click to expand...

That was definitely the case in 2014 when they gave Hannah Kearney the bronze for just showing up. I only saw Kingsbury's run in replays and missed everyone else, but he looked great in the middle section, where most of the points are earned. Usually the top bumpers aren't very innovative when it comes to jumps (Moseley being an exception).

Domeskier said:

That was definitely the case in 2014 when they gave Hannah Kearney the bronze for just showing up. I only saw Kingsbury's run in replays and missed everyone else, but he looked great in the middle section, where most of the points are earned. Usually the top bumpers aren't very innovative when it comes to jumps (Moseley being an exception).

Click to expand...

Graham nailed the middle section, his turns were all clean, and I believe he was faster than Kingsbury.
His aerials were definitely more difficult and they were also cleanly done.

JimG. said:

Graham nailed the middle section, his turns were all clean, and I believe he was faster than Kingsbury.
His aerials were definitely more difficult and they were also cleanly done.

Click to expand...

Huh - guess there's a reason NBC is making it so hard to play reruns!

JimG. said:

Graham nailed the middle section, his turns were all clean, and I believe he was faster than Kingsbury.
His aerials were definitely more difficult and they were also cleanly done.

Click to expand...

Kingsbury crossed the finish line in 24.83 seconds, the fastest time of the day. Source: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/mikael-kingsbury-dominates-mens-moguls-win-gold

I loved the footage from the camera that ran along the side of the course, keeping up with the skier. Really gave a good sense of the speed (and the punishment their knees take), which sometimes doesn’t come across on TV.

WJenness said:

Oh, I wasn't implying you were saying they were bad... sorry if I gave that impression.

Yes, the women got absolutely hosed, the change in format because of the conditions plus the conditions meant that everyone was not able to show their true potential anywhere on that course.

It sucks for them to have worked so hard to get on that stage, and then not be able to show what they're actually capable of, through no fault of their own, and poor decisions of others.

-w

Click to expand...

I didn't think so, just wanted to make sure I put it out there. Those chicks ripped! I wouldn't even think about attempting any of what they were doing.

I agree, very disappointing for the competitors.

BenedictGomez said:

It was ridiculous, and I think, political. My guess is, had literally every other ski event to that point not already been postponed, they would have postponed it, but the organizers probably didnt want to cancel yet another skiing even due to weather.

Reducing the event by 1/3, and then essentially having some women eliminated solely due to "wind" was ridiculous. Four years training for that? Reprehensible.

Click to expand...

Absolutely political... well, maybe more money-driven, but also sport-politics driven. Many snowboarders straight up boycott the Olympics because the snowboarders do not have a voice. Their competitions and everything they are required to do is driven by the skiing federation (FIS), which seems like it should be fine. However, in practice, the snowboarders get the short end of the stick. For example - the women's slopestyle competition. The ski events had already been cancelled for the safety of the athletes. What about the snowboarders who are sending themselves airborne, what, 50+ feet easily? Some of those girls had 0 chance of landing the jumps safely. Its just physics... you have a small person who weighs 85 pounds going 50 or 75 feet through the air into wind gusts, its just not going to end well.

What they should have done is postponed. What they did do is disregard the safety of the riders involved and basically threw away years of training these athletes go through.

EDIT:
Forgot to include a couple of links...

Women's Slopestyle weather - https://sports.yahoo.com/moral-abom...v-put-womens-snowboarders-risk-110100587.html
The Olympic Issue - Terje Haakonsen explains the FIS running things, etc.,
this one is an interesting read - https://snowboardmag.com/stories/the-olympic-issue-terje-haakonsen-interview

urungus said:

Kingsbury crossed the finish line in 24.83 seconds, the fastest time of the day. Source: http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/mikael-kingsbury-dominates-mens-moguls-win-gold

I loved the footage from the camera that ran along the side of the course, keeping up with the skier. Really gave a good sense of the speed (and the punishment their knees take), which sometimes doesn’t come across on TV.

Click to expand...

I misremembered. Still thought Graham had the better run.

Probably just so used to Kingsbury blowing everyone away I'm just not impressed anymore.

Okay, I'll say it. The difference between men's and women's snowboard halfpipe is embarrassing.

The gap seems so much larger than most other sports.

JimG. said:

Graham nailed the middle section, his turns were all clean, and I believe he was faster than Kingsbury.
His aerials were definitely more difficult and they were also cleanly done.

Click to expand...

My understanding is that these days there's a degree of difficulty point system assigned to all aerials.

I wonder if the skiers have to announce what they are going to do before their runs?

With how fast they are flipping, spinning and grabbing in real time it must be really difficult to score the jumps accurately even with a predetermined point system. I guess that's where reputation probably works in a skiers favor.

I'd love to see a throwback professional competition. No set jumps, no seeded line, just rip what's in front of you and catch air where you can.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

The air the men were getting in the snowboarding half pipe competition last night was a amazing.

Glenn said:

The air the men were getting in the snowboarding half pipe competition last night was a amazing.

Click to expand...

The contest itself was quite entertaining also. Shaun White is a beast.

Agreed. Some really good competitors in that field. It could have gone either way at the end.

Glenn said:

Agreed. Some really good competitors in that field. It could have gone either way at the end.

Click to expand...

Agreed, unlike with the women's half-pipe or women's slopestyle where Chloe Kim and Jamie Anderson were far and away better than any of the other competitors. In both of the men's competitions, they were close and there were 3-4 guys who could have won it.

Totally crazy sick the air they get now.I have a problem pulling for a contestant in any judged sport for obvious reasons but it seemed about right last night.I much prefer a time,length,or head to head race to decide competition but iiwii.