Winter Olympics: event with weakest competition / smallest talent pool?

I’d say distance running. The only guys who do it are skinny nerds who have been cut from every other sport they tried. Bottom of the barrel. The dregs.

olympics are fun wrote:

The women's snowboarding half pipe and slopestyle were nowhere near as impressive as the men's (with exception of Chloe Kim). One thing I thought was weird was that none of the women (other than Chloe) could grab the board on their jumps. I don't know anything about snowboarding tricks, but it seems like that should be something that should be easier for the women.

A new event this year is the full track speedskating mass start. I encourage anyone to try and figure out what's going on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow-i95icGpc

Men have a huge, huge advantage in the halfpipe over the women. The women should be on a smaller pipe frankly. The strength required to even get up off the lip of that is really high, and very few of you could get any air at all, let alone do even a 360. To do the types of spins that are necessary to score high in the limited air time that the women get, also including long grabs are close to impossible. The men are able to get so far out of the pipe and that gives them a lot more flexibility with the grabs.

olympics are fun wrote:

The women's snowboarding half pipe and slopestyle were nowhere near as impressive as the men's (with exception of Chloe Kim). One thing I thought was weird was that none of the women (other than Chloe) could grab the board on their jumps. I don't know anything about snowboarding tricks, but it seems like that should be something that should be easier for the women.

A new event this year is the full track speedskating mass start. I encourage anyone to try and figure out what's going on

I only watched part but totally bizarre. They get points in the middle?

Watch below. I've got it to start at right point. A guy is leading I think at the bell. He gets passed and makes no attempt to even keep up. Can someone explain?

Women's Nordic jumping is brand new at the Olympics so there is a reason for the small talent pool. It's like women's pole vault 20 years ago.

For men maybe Nordic combined. Ski jumping itself isn't that big in the USA. The jumpers tend not to be at the world class level, and their skiing is probably 10% off from the world class skiers we see at the Games or World Cup.

ah, so you never saw Kelly Clark? She's been doing that for awhile... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grk49Lz8VM8

wejo wrote:

olympics are fun wrote:

The women's snowboarding half pipe and slopestyle were nowhere near as impressive as the men's (with exception of Chloe Kim). One thing I thought was weird was that none of the women (other than Chloe) could grab the board on their jumps. I don't know anything about snowboarding tricks, but it seems like that should be something that should be easier for the women.

A new event this year is the full track speedskating mass start. I encourage anyone to try and figure out what's going on

I only watched part but totally bizarre. They get points in the middle?

Watch below. I've got it to start at right point. A guy is leading I think at the bell. He gets passed and makes no attempt to even keep up. Can someone explain?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=448

There are 3 sprint laps to gain points and normally occur at the end of the 4th, 8th and 12th lap.

In the end, its still the top 3 finishers who are podium positions....but after that those finishing from fourth place and lower will be ranked according to points earned and finishing time, respectively in that order.

To those of you guys saying "Bobsled", you know the talent pool is very weak when you've got Jamaicans entering in athletes for the Winter Olympics

/S

It may not be an accessible sport out there, but there is lots of top sprint talent involved in the bobsleigh.

I'll go on and say "Mixed Doubles Curling" in regards for weakest competition as the gold medallists in that event failed to make their respective genders main Olympic squads. As for weakest talent, perhaps some of the slope events that are judged such as the ski and snowboard jumping events (can't name them all). In some cases there is a massive disparity between first and second in these events. Womens Ice Hockey is also up there as every time it seems to be either Canada or the United States for gold every time.

79 women in the USA competed in a biathlon race last year . Quite a few of those are 40 +. Based on the points there are about 20 who have the athletic prowess of a good D1 track athlete . 5 make the Olympic team so pretty good odds.

"The luge is the only Olympic event where you could have people competing in it against their will, and it would look exactly the same."

- Jerry Seinfeld.

Color Run Race Director wrote:

Anything that involves snow and ice.

I can't speak for the other sports but, for the top snowboarders in the half pipe, the talent level if off the charts. Some of the tricks they pull off are unfathomable, even from a pro-level standpoint. The money helps, and Shaun White and the likes wouldn't be where they're at without it. But this idea that anyone with access to money and snow would be as good is laughable. I would say that the talent level for the top pipe riders of today is comparable to, at least, sub 13 5k level - meaning that the amount of individuals that can pull of a sub 13 is around the same as those that can ride as well as the top pipe competitors at the Olympics.

Some people are saying Bobsled, but Bobsled requires a rare combination of strength, speed, and athleticism. They get excellent all-around athletes at the US combine. Sure, some countries get in just to get more countries in the olympics, It's not different than the summer Olympics. Richson Simeon represented the Marshall Islands in the 100M dash. He has a PR of 11.81 seconds. Can you conclude that the 100M isn't competitive because there's a guy who can barely break 12 seconds in it? Or how about Olympic marathoner Kuniaki Takizaki, who has a PR of 2:30:26. He competed in Rio for Cambodia.

I'll go with Luge. I had a friend who competed in the Olympics in Doubles Luge. He was really a daredevil with good body sense and control

runn wrote:

qualifying standards? wrote:

Remind me how many people are entered in the 10,000m in the Summer Olympics. Is that because of a small talent pool?

It's because of a qualifying standard that is meant to limit it.

You want to give every country in the IOC 3 entries? There's be about 600 runners.

Exactly. We agree. To clarify, my response was directly related to the comment "they even only have 35 competitors". Because of qualifying standards the 10000 has a similar amount or less. If the 35 ski jumpers are the only 35 interested participants that is a different story. My point was, similar to the 10000, there might only be 35 entrants because of qualifying standards. And of course I agree that there are more participants trying to qualify in the 10000. So, to say a sport is uncompetitive due to only having 35 athletes is inaccurate.

Many of the Winter events are like Cirque de Soliel acts- very impressive and exciting to watch, but niche talents.