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

YMMV wrote:

Jessie is such a cutie

She is going to make mint in endorsements. She's pretty, positive, wholesome, interviews well, and she has an olympic gold medal in what's certainly going to be the most memorable moment for the US this year.

Here's her instagram post after narrowly missing a medal earlier:

"Don’t be sorry for me because I just missed a medal...be happy WITH me, because I fought like a hell today! I pushed my body so far past it’s limits I’m actually kind of amazed I didn’t pass out on that final climb. Looking back and knowing you gave it absolutely everything you had without holding back is a great feeling. 30km of racing down...3 race days to go!"

Here's her post-race interview after today's race:

Could she be any more perfect, or more marketable?

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

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.

You mean that my warm and cold rillers plus bag full of common sandpaper out to 220 grit are no longer state of the art? Yikes! I suspect that they must have something going on with the base layer nowadays that I wouldn't understand even if they explained to me three times in a row. Nor could I probably afford it in a million years anyway?

Believe it or not I do hope that I live long enough for nanotechnology to show up and really rock this cloistered little world of theirs. Program your skis through the USB port just in front of the binding!

There was certainly lots of room for improvement in bone cold glide wax back then. Fortunately I am also too old to care now but the advantages of having four or five pairs of skis each set prepped and waxed for marginally different conditions are not lost on me. (Until you decided at the last minute to leave a certain set home and then they would have been the perfect ones on the course that day.)

I've had people tell me that grip wax older than two years is worthless just because someone at the local touring center had told them that; and then I get to tell them that the stuff that they were just minutes ago raving about on their own track skis was discontinued by the manufacturer way back in 1986 and that the iron that melted it on there sure didn't ask for a birth certificate either.

Anyway please let me know if you think that I was hallucinating last night.....

Presidents Athletic Conference wrote:

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.

More like 1.25 km. All the teams were reapplying a powder fluoro top coat every lap.

Could not be happier for Diggins and Randall. Have been watching all the world cup XC ski races this season and have really come to admire the determination shown by Diggins every time she toes the line. That determination was on full display in the final sprint and it was by far the most exciting moment of the Olympics for me.

As has already been mentioned, Diggins is the whole package. She could not be any cuter, and she has the perfect mindset/attitude that is beyond her years, not to mention amazing physique.

zzzz wrote:

Presidents Athletic Conference wrote:

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.

More like 1.25 km. All the teams were reapplying a powder fluoro top coat every lap.

More likely a liquid and/or rub on block. The race service has gone pretty far since the days of simple Cera F.

you miss zee apples & oranges wrote:

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.

I totally agree. Almost any major brand out there has good enough wax to win on, by just reading the packaging. Where the large teams, and hard working club coaches at the regional level, make the difference is getting their skiers set up with a fleet of skis for many type of conditions. Miner differences in the flex of a ski can make it great or horrible for a given condition. The paraffin, powder, block, liquid, and structure testing and application are pretty straightforward, though usually creates frantic work in the wax trailer that rivals NASCAR pits. But none of that can make up for a poor ski choice. It's the most unfortunate challenge within the sport, as the ski and race support has become sort of an arms-race. Then again, it creates a pretty cool team environment between the athletes, coaches, and service techs that is essential to winning. If I were still racing today and as successful as I used to be, I would surely tip my waxers a healthy percentage of the winnings. Those guys are the hardest workers out there yet hardly anyone will know their names.

skier wrote:

zzzz wrote:

More like 1.25 km. All the teams were reapplying a powder fluoro top coat every lap.

More likely a liquid and/or rub on block. The race service has gone pretty far since the days of simple Cera F.

Eurosport 1 had little scenes of the service during the race, and I thought I saw powder and rotobrushes, but I might have been mistaken.

Thinking again, the powder I saw might have just been the residue from the brushing. Anyway, they were getting a quick top coat between runs.

Running content: Kikkan Randall won more state XC championships in running (3) and than skiing (0). As a freshman she was 10th at Footlocker West Regionals, ahead of Desi Davila. I think that was the only time she ran Footlocker, so she's probably undefeated vs. Desi lifetime in running.

http://archive.dyestat.com/97/xc/results/fl-west-seeded-g.html

Oops, Kikkan as ran Footlocker as a soph. Had a bad race (Desi wasn't there that year).

zzzz wrote:

Running content: Kikkan Randall won more state XC championships in running (3) and than skiing (0). As a freshman she was 10th at Footlocker West Regionals, ahead of Desi Davila. I think that was the only time she ran Footlocker, so she's probably undefeated vs. Desi lifetime in running.

http://archive.dyestat.com/97/xc/results/fl-west-seeded-g.html

Great find! She was not far off Fleshman and Bei, and beat Desi and Sabrina Munro. Solid talent.

Her career seems a bit like the inverse of Ben True (decent potential in running but went with skiing and succeeded with that). I kind of doubt that Ben will be snagging any Olympic medals though.

UltraDude wrote:

Could not be happier for Diggins and Randall. Have been watching all the world cup XC ski races this season and have really come to admire the determination shown by Diggins every time she toes the line. That determination was on full display in the final sprint and it was by far the most exciting moment of the Olympics for me.

As has already been mentioned, Diggins is the whole package. She could not be any cuter, and she has the perfect mindset/attitude that is beyond her years, not to mention amazing physique.

Beyond that, Diggins is an interesting case study. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think she is the only athlete on the US cross country team, male or female, who went pro after graduating from high school, instead of following the college route. Her development has followed a more European model to success...

I used to train with a bunch of cross country skiers during the summer running on trails up in the mountains. They were all beasts at cross country and track. It is one activity you can do during the winter that will actually make you a stronger runner when track season comes around. It gives you great strength and endurance with little impact.

She was diggin.

I love them both, OP. How's that?

I too was curious what they were doing to the skis between legs. Do the top coats really make a difference on cold, firm snow? I recall Cera F having its biggest positive effect in fresh, warm snow, but that was 20 years ago.

The permutations of ski flex, stone grinds, wax, top coats, and brushing structure is mind boggling. That's one of the things I didn't like about skiing (you have to nail the setup to perform your best), although it's simultaneously fascinating. I was fortunate to have expert wax techs for the big races.

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.

Absolutely amazing! ...thanks for posting

Randall & Diggins are now the Golden Girls of the Olympics.

formerskier wrote:

I too was curious what they were doing to the skis between legs. Do the top coats really make a difference on cold, firm snow? I recall Cera F having its biggest positive effect in fresh, warm snow, but that was 20 years ago.

The permutations of ski flex, stone grinds, wax, top coats, and brushing structure is mind boggling. That's one of the things I didn't like about skiing (you have to nail the setup to perform your best), although it's simultaneously fascinating. I was fortunate to have expert wax techs for the big races.

Obviously nobody else thinks that some sort of digitally controlled surface texturing solution will make any inroads here?

Anyway thanks to the three of you for confirming that I was indeed looking at pretty exceptional wax performance all around. I certainly don't remember that sensation from the legendary Norway vs Italy mens Olympic relay events in '98 and '02 although speed of the event itself probably has something to do with that. And they were contested in daylight.

This being the only event where treating the skis between legs would even be possible, of course. So can the anchor in the 4x10 change out his own skis at the last minute? How about the earlier guys?

Also did any of you think that the pole mortality was greater due to the more violent nature of the event? The hand up rules that I was familiar with back there in the stone age sure do seem to have changed too?

What a great race! Props to Kikkan for staying with Bjoergen and Kalla. They should have put the hammer down earlier to try and drop her, but they didn't. Cross Country is such a hard sport. Every team needs a Jess Diggins to keep everyone motivated and positive.

As for getting fast skis - it goes in this order - proper camber of ski (flex), structure, wax. Get those right and you will have rockets. Spent some time in the wax room at a World Cup - athletes spent more time testing flex and structure than wax.