Of course an event taking three minutes is not a pure sprint, but when the very same athletes are competing in a range of events up to almost three hours, it is mostly a semantic difference.
Setting aside that you're wrong about the details of both events, his point wasn't that there are no "pure sprint" skiers in the sense of people who specialize in a nonexistent 10-40 second event. The point is that there are no skiers who truly specialize in the nordic sprint event. To be a professional nordic skier, you have to be an all-arounder. There could theoretically be athletes who have an ideal muscle fiber distribution for the nordic sprint event, but they aren't competing at an elite level because there's no career for them if they can't do distance.
It's a little bit like how the top cycling sprinters in a grand tour don't hold a candle to top track sprinters. The green jersey isn't an award for the best sprinter; it's an award for the best sprinter who can also survive the tour.
I was wrong that the women normally compete 50K, but I was correct that the "sprint" event is about three minutes. That said, I appreciate your analogy of bike sprinting. I am familiar with the aspects of competitive road and track cycling.
Clearly, a fast-twitch winter athlete is going to end up in hockey, speed skating or downhill. Horses for courses.
Although I have done a bit of each type of skiing, I am new as a spectator to the sport, but my friend's daughter, Movie McCabe, is an up-and-coming star on the scene, first nationally, and now internationally. Her story is remarkable, and she is part of a special lineage of family and ski culture.
Grover shared, “Jessie had food poisoning 36 hours ago and had a really rough night, she didn’t ski the last few days. You could see out there, her body language, for the last two laps she did not look fresh and for her to hang on like that for those two laps was an unbelievable athletic and mental performance. [Diggins] asked Matt in the feed zone what lap she was on and we had to tell her she was in the third lap, she had one more to go and then when she needed to go to the finish.”
This woman is so mentally strong. I only got to read about this race since it started 4am Swedish time. But i just caught the video and her finish was pure brutality. The look on her face after crossing the line.. my god!
Mad impressed with ”Movie McCabe” this season. After the last stage of the tour de ski, she has consistently skied well. She’s 21? Her and Laukli and Swirbul are gonna be a major force in the coming years. Randal to Diggins/Brennan to this next crop of girls..
5 of the 8 US gold medals are in snowboard and freestyle skiing. Skateboarding on the snow. Make sure an grab your board or you lose boocoo points dude!
Why isn't THIS in the winter olympics? This is a sport. Climb up some ice:
Of course an event taking three minutes is not a pure sprint, but when the very same athletes are competing in a range of events up to almost three hours, it is mostly a semantic difference.
30k XC-ski does not take 3 hours. Not even close.
The sprint consists of several races on the same day. First prologue, then quarter final, semi final and the final. This makes it an endurance event, I guess
Kipchoge's WR marathon split for 30k was 1:26:45. Berlin was not set for a qualifying 30k WR split. The "official" 1:26:47.4 by Moses Mosop (per Track and Field News).
The women's 30k XC ski winner, Therese Johaug, was faster than both with a 1:24:54.0.
The woman's 30k 2nd placer, Jessie Diggins, was faster than both with a 1:26:37.3, was also faster than the above men.
Grover shared, “Jessie had food poisoning 36 hours ago and had a really rough night, she didn’t ski the last few days. You could see out there, her body language, for the last two laps she did not look fresh and for her to hang on like that for those two laps was an unbelievable athletic and mental performance. [Diggins] asked Matt in the feed zone what lap she was on and we had to tell her she was in the third lap, she had one more to go and then when she needed to go to the finish.”
This woman is so mentally strong. I only got to read about this race since it started 4am Swedish time. But i just caught the video and her finish was pure brutality. The look on her face after crossing the line.. my god!
I didn't know that backstory. It seems there have been logistical and practical hurdles for the competitors due to overall conditions in the Olympic Village, etc.. She deserves a medal just for valor. At least the now has the full set!
Mad impressed with ”Movie McCabe” this season. After the last stage of the tour de ski, she has consistently skied well. She’s 21? Her and Laukli and Swirbul are gonna be a major force in the coming years. Randal to Diggins/Brennan to this next crop of girls..
She is only 20. I have seen her grow as athlete since age 3, by which time she was ready on skis!
I think that Diggins' performance was an all-timer for a U.S. athlete. Not as surprising as Molly in Tokyo but probably more hard-earned at the time.
No, a 30k won't take them anywhere close to 3 hours. But it was intended to be an 50k. The Olympic Committee changed the 50k to a 30k last minute because of cold weather. Many of these athletes are doing 50k races throughout the race season, not just the Olympics. Changing snow conditions, topography and speed of the course could easily make a 50k race take 3 hours.
I don't know why everyone is nitpicking why a 1k race is or isn't considered a sprint.
They have a sprint event in cross country skiing but it’s still over 1 km and it is contested by cross country skiers who are all basically distance cross country skiers. There are no pure sprint events in cross country skiing but they call it a “sprint event” which is part of an event schedule for long distance skiers. This means that unlike speed skating, there are no pure sprint cross country skiers - they are all long distance skiers but some of them prefer the shorter events.
Of course an event taking three minutes is not a pure sprint, but when the very same athletes are competing in a range of events up to almost three hours, it is mostly a semantic difference.
Certainly there is overlap, and to maximize points on the world cup circuit, athletes will do both, but it is more than semantics. Many athletes do specialize. Johaug has never been much of a sprinter and has focused on distance. Sophie Caldwell, who retired last year from the US team, was a sprinter specialist. If you look at the women's teams for the opening sprint event vs the 30k, the see rosters that show variation.
US sprint = Brennan, Diggins, Kern, Halvorsen US 30k = Diggins, Brennan, Laukli, McCabe
Sweden sprint = Sundling, Dahlqvist, Dyvik, Ribom Sweden 30k = Sundling, Andersson, Ribom, Kalla
These are really the first individual XC skiing medals by an American athlete competing on a level playing field. Bill Koch won a silver but that was mostly a fluke since he essentially invented skating technique while everyone else was skiing the slower “classical.” After that race, the sport had to divide the sport into freestyle and classical. Bill Koch wouldn’t have medaled if he was playing the same game as everyone else.
Like someone mentioned earlier the sprint isn't a sprint. It is a round robin elimination tournament over about a 3 hour window were they race 4 times. So this would be more like a 1500M elimination tournament with the top people in each race moving on after each round. These same people then race a half marathon a week later. The sprint is more like the skier with the best "kick" competition.
These are really the first individual XC skiing medals by an American athlete competing on a level playing field. Bill Koch won a silver but that was mostly a fluke since he essentially invented skating technique while everyone else was skiing the slower “classical.” After that race, the sport had to divide the sport into freestyle and classical. Bill Koch wouldn’t have medaled if he was playing the same game as everyone else.
Koch was certainly a transitional figure as the sport continued adapting to fiberglass skis, and yes he was an innovator on technique. But in addition to his medal, recall that he won the 1981-82 X-C World Cup and placed third in 82-83. I would have loved to have seen what Koch could have done in sustaining his career if he had access to 2022-level orthopedics for those knees. I take your point, but I think he was more than a fluke.
They have a sprint event in cross country skiing but it’s still over 1 km and it is contested by cross country skiers who are all basically distance cross country skiers. There are no pure sprint events in cross country skiing but they call it a “sprint event” which is part of an event schedule for long distance skiers. This means that unlike speed skating, there are no pure sprint cross country skiers - they are all long distance skiers but some of them prefer the shorter events.
Also, they have to ski a qualifier (top 30 make the quarterfinals), quarterfinal and semifinal just to make it to the final, with very little rest in between. In addition, the Beijing sprint course was much harder than most World Cup sprint courses with one solid grinder of a hill and then another pretty solid hill prior to the finish. Add in very cold (meaning slow) snow, and you have an even much more suited to a strong distance skier than an actual pure sprinter. And as you pointed out, this isn't a pure sprint in the sense of events of duration ~10-20 seconds. Much much harder event than it looks like if you only go by results in the final.
They have a sprint event in cross country skiing but it’s still over 1 km and it is contested by cross country skiers who are all basically distance cross country skiers. There are no pure sprint events in cross country skiing but they call it a “sprint event” which is part of an event schedule for long distance skiers. This means that unlike speed skating, there are no pure sprint cross country skiers - they are all long distance skiers but some of them prefer the shorter events.
Also, they have to ski a qualifier (top 30 make the quarterfinals), quarterfinal and semifinal just to make it to the final, with very little rest in between. In addition, the Beijing sprint course was much harder than most World Cup sprint courses with one solid grinder of a hill and then another pretty solid hill prior to the finish. Add in very cold (meaning slow) snow, and you have an even much more suited to a strong distance skier than an actual pure sprinter. And as you pointed out, this isn't a pure sprint in the sense of events of duration ~10-20 seconds. Much much harder event than it looks like if you only go by results in the final.
Imagine a round robin XC running comp over 600-800m. Who wins, the middle distance speedster or the distance king? Pretty exciting if you ask me. A perfect add-on to the XC format.
Also, they have to ski a qualifier (top 30 make the quarterfinals), quarterfinal and semifinal just to make it to the final, with very little rest in between. In addition, the Beijing sprint course was much harder than most World Cup sprint courses with one solid grinder of a hill and then another pretty solid hill prior to the finish. Add in very cold (meaning slow) snow, and you have an even much more suited to a strong distance skier than an actual pure sprinter. And as you pointed out, this isn't a pure sprint in the sense of events of duration ~10-20 seconds. Much much harder event than it looks like if you only go by results in the final.
Imagine a round robin XC running comp over 600-800m. Who wins, the middle distance speedster or the distance king? Pretty exciting if you ask me. A perfect add-on to the XC format.
Pretty exiting until you realize east Africans will dominate as usual. Then your attention will turn to how doped the winners all are.
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