Can't wait to see how the BMW bobsleds do for us.
Posted on 02/10/2014 2:51:38 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Lowering his head, then crouching in a corner, Bode Miller lingered in the finish area after his slower-than-expected Olympic downhill run, contemplating where things might have gone wrong.
Most everyone, Miller included, thought he was the man to beat entering Sunday’s race.
Most everyone, the 36-year-old New Hampshire native included, thought he had a realistic shot at becoming the oldest Alpine gold medalist in Winter Games history.
He didn’t even come close. Failing to produce the sort of near-perfect performance he came up with in practice, Miller finished eighth in the downhill, more than a half-second slower than champion Matthias Mayer of Austria, who charged down the course in 2 minutes, 6.23 seconds.
‘‘This can be a tough one to swallow today, having skied so well in the training runs, and then come in and be way out of the medals,’’ said Miller, who is based in California.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
The fact is Bode Miller is past his prime. He is getting old. The number one downhill skier in the world was not in the top 10 of the downhill this year. Miller was in the lead on the top of the mountain and lost time on the bottom. It literally could be the line he took around one gate or getting too much air off a jump. Again I stress the difference was less than 1 second. The guy from Austria who won, was not even considered to be in the running. That is what makes the Men's Downhill the most exciting event to watch. It is typically the guy who ALMOST kills himself that wins. You never know who will win.
Nothing will ever top Franz Klammer in '76.
Those Norweigan snowboard gals are babes.
“Nothing will ever top Franz Klammer in ‘76.”
Yep! An amazing “heart-in-your-mouth” save! It’s a video that I will never ignore when it gets played.
Especially long-suffering Red Sox fans. ;)
Can't wait to see how the BMW bobsleds do for us.
And that difference can be caused by a straighter line between gates, a small skid of the downhill/outside ski in a turn which kills off a touch of speed, maintaining or losing tuck position while airborne...
I agree with your basic sentiment but I feel the snowboard events are nothing but gimmicky, hokey and nothing but an attempt to garner viewership from the snowboard population.
The whole history and basis of the winter games were based on speed, strength and endurance, thus the alpine, nordic, sledding and individual skating events.......Figure skating was the only event that required judges.
Like another poster mentioned in a similar thread, is the IOC going to add skateboarding in a pool into the summer games? If they keep this crap up, it will be nothing more than a 4 year exhibition of the annual "X-GAMES"..........
The irony is that with this explosion of events the Olympics could self-destruct from the impossibility of putting it all together, scheduling, housing/venues and security nightmares.
Injuries are an unfortunate fact of life in athletics. So are bad calls. So is questionable judging. The appropriate response is "get 'em next time/next season." But in the Olympics or World Cup, that's not a possibility. When all the top performers are competing against each other all the time on a professional circuit, as in skiing or skating, for example, it is ridiculous to attach exaggerated importance to once event every four years. In team sports, an annual championship is appropriate.
In the Olympic format, "wait till next year" doesn't work. Most athletes don't have another four years at peak levels. My point is simply that a World Championship in non-Olympic years is as great an achievement as a World Championship in the Olympic year. But the media uses the Olympics to artificially create superstars (not to mention the financial windfall of being turned into the media darling of the current games). The arbitrariness of it has turned me off.
-PJ
Can that timing possibly be correct? Miller finished eight so this would mean that six skiers finished between Mayer and Miller and they were all bunched together within 1/2 second or so. That seems awfully close to me!
LMAO!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.