No love for Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins this morning? WTF??

Heard it this morning on the radio. Then read it online. Really happy for them. Was it the same announcers that did the other XC races and the biathlon? They are the best.

Could not take my eyes off the TV. Unreal sprint to the finish. THE highlight of these Olympics for Team USA!

One of the greatest races you will ever see in any sport.

I just the last 30 seconds on twitter. The call was like that from '64 with the announcer screaming "Here comes Diggins! Here comes Diggins!"

this should be a link to the highlight

https://twitter.com/402Hatch/status/966346328392585217

Best Deal in Internet Video, I could watch people play cribbage in 1080P on Zwei and the Swiss came in fourth which always has them up there at the edge of their seats.

I really liked their slopestyle guys too. I barely speak a lick of German and with the uniform vocabulary of slopestyle it didn't matter a bit.

Also BBC 1 and red Button and after that Netherlands for in depth speedskating. So far I've been completely shut down with Eurosport and NBCSN over the Internet but I really haven't tried too hard.

Also congratulation to the US wax coaches. I never had an appreciation for how critical they can be in an event that short and fast before today and our women were absolutely flying. Never in danger of being dropped and of the three medalists Diggins did by far the least work coming down the last hill. Still to have the confidence to go head to head with the sprint champ in the final straightaway like that? (Kalla was gracious in defeat and said that the Americans were the strongest all through the race and deserved to win.)

Norway has the best wax techs. But you do know that it's more than about the waxing and ski preparation. Moreover, Diggins and Randall won the team sprint at World Championships in 2013, and both medaled in the sprint last year. They are world class skiers, but why do you try to downplay it? Explain yourself. And what's your background with skiing?

Wow that is a massive, massive achievement.

There was some chatter on a lengthy nordic skiing thread that I think wejo started at the beginning of the games.

Presidents Athletic Conference wrote:

I was lucky enough to see it live on Swiss TV at 3:00 AM and it was every bit as inspiring as the women's steeplechase last summer. You don't have to appreciate skiing, just people performing over their heads in a unique relay format to love this competition and it will certainly be on YouTube forever.

First ever Olympic Gold Medal in Nordic, only the second medal period (first was Koch's silver at Innsbruck.) Diggins had to come around the sprint race champion in the last 50 meters to prevail, she was also the one who had also split the race apart earlier. Randall held onto Kalla and Boergen after things got serious although the skiing boards are saying this morning that it was absolutely perfect conditions for her. Congratulations to both of them for believing in themselves.

Not when there are political rants to be made, silly doping accusations to be cast out, disparaging remarks on one of our most consistent milers to be expressed, or the love life of a psycho to be broadcast. Should change the name of the board to keep people from getting their hopes up.

Jessie is such a cutie

http://www.nbcolympics.com/gallery/model-olympian-jessie-diggins-cross-country-skiing-team-usa

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

Norway has the best wax techs. But you do know that it's more than about the waxing and ski preparation. Moreover, Diggins and Randall won the team sprint at World Championships in 2013, and both medaled in the sprint last year. They are world class skiers, but why do you try to downplay it? Explain yourself. And what's your background with skiing?

Outside of the one stage race they have every year I hardly follow the sport at all. I guess just I took the American announcers seriously when they said all along that Diggins in the 10K was our best chance for a medal. My "background" is listening to that same noise every four years probably longer than you have been alive, including people that I had competed against like Josh Thompson and then this morning it finally came true.

Sorry if you found it offensive. If I'm not mistaken he had some pretty credible results outside of the Olympics as well?

That's cool, sorry if I took offence. Hard to see who's trolling or not these days.

The women's race today was a surprise, not because they don't belong up there, but because they hadn't been quite there this time (and in Sochi when Randall didn't have such a good Games, when she'd been near dominant on the World Cup scene--she just hit a bad patch in Sochi).

. You competed against Josh Thompson? In running? He was a good runner too, although that was not well known. Thompson won the silver medal in the world championships in biathlon and also was a podium finisher at some US Nordic championships (no shooting) in 30K and I think 50K. He missed 4 targets in the Olympics and that ended his dream for a medal.

Excellent. Congrats!

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

You competed against Josh Thompson? In running? He was a good runner too, although that was not well known. Thompson won the silver medal in the world championships in biathlon and also was a podium finisher at some US Nordic championships (no shooting) in 30K and I think 50K. He missed 4 targets in the Olympics and that ended his dream for a medal.

I'm pretty sure that I beat him in every cycling race and absolutely sure that he beat me in every ski race. I know I beat him once because I won it and he's down there in the results. Although it's quite possible that I might have dropped out of a bike race that he would have finished, most likely when he was still a junior, (insofar as I never kept those results.) I don't think he ever raced on the road again after mountain biking got established in the late 1980s and I certainly wouldn't have either in his place myself. Gunnison isn't exactly the Garden of Eden for road bike training but it's just 30 miles down the road from it when it comes to mountain biking.

With respect to skiing I was thoroughly dusted by Mike Devecka and Pete Vordenburg as well; the latter when he was still in high school and running cross country for his school team. For what it's worth Devecka was no slouch whatsoever on a bike. Some of this was in the halcyon era when we were still "skating" on Fischer RCS Candy Canes with the flimsy yellow low top SNS boots and I ended up with two holes in each meniscus that the Boulder-riffic knee surgeon had never seen anywhere before as a direct result. (Although he blamed it on cycling at the time )

Back to the matter at hand, the Norwegians have famously missed the wax once or twice in major competitions now as well and I really thought our guys nailed it last night. Also I think good wax means more in this event than any other skating event, but I could be quite wrong about that aspect. My own waxing expertise ends just about when SWIX yielded to Start. You sound like you would know this; has anyone ever come back from 10-15 seconds down in a single sprint relay leg at this level?

Beyond that if we go to splitting hairs maybe it was all about six races in ten days last night which is why I find Tour de Ski so compelling?

If I can rewind my thinking from 3:00 AM last night, it occurred to me (sequentially) that:

A. You only have to have 5KMs worth of glide wax. Thinner was always faster in my day.

B. It was contested after dark but under lights so bright that all the competitors wore sunglasses. You certainly don't have to target the expected median conditions like in a longer morning time race under clear skies.

C. The snow looked extremely firm and fast. The faster you are going the more difference it should make.

I certainly didn't mean to imply that the wax was the entire story, and I would agree that the Norwegians don't get skunked often in that department very often. but from the outset I was pretty certain that the USA was not at any kind of disadvantage for once either.

Shoutout to Kikkan from here in Alaska. Awesome.

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

Norway has the best-funded wax techs.

Fixed that for you.

Not sure if I ever raced Mike Devecka, but he was US Biathlon team at one time (?), a legendary rider, and I think had some good running times (2:2X marathon maybe). A friend of mine said that I should look him up for coaching/mentoring. Met him at a clinic a few years later. And I also got beat by Vordenberg (and a young Luke Bodensteiner) at US team trials when they were trying to qualify for world juniors and what not. Didn't know that Thompson also bike raced.

Ski prep is now as or more important than waxing itself. And yes the Norwegians have seemed to have missed it at some key events like World or Olympic relays. Nevertheless, they have something like 20 full time wax technicians, a huge bus for the World Cup, and they select their race skis out of a pool of some 600 pairs that they get from the factory. According to the Eurosport broadcast they sent 3-4 techs to Peyongchang for a whole month last year to test waxes and skis. But agree, US Nordic and alpine waxers/ski techs are also among the best in the world and they may well have nailed today. Haven't seen the video yet.

skier wrote:

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

Norway has the best-funded wax techs.

Fixed that for you.

ha yeah! you might be right.