[Mae]

Again unless it is the Winter Olympics in the U.S. we get very little coverage of Alpine Skiing

[Litotes]

Originally Posted by Mae

Again unless it is the Winter Olympics in the U.S. we get very little coverage of Alpine Skiing

That's sad considering how good Vonn is. But I guess there can't be a market for everything.

[August]

Originally Posted by Mae

Again unless it is the Winter Olympics in the U.S. we get very little coverage of Alpine Skiing

When talking about free-to-air channels, that's very much the case in Finland too. Olympics are shown free-to-air because 1)law forces OG to be shown free-to-air and 2)rights are owned by the national broadcasting company. World Ch'ships are also shown free to air because their rights are owned by the national broadcasting company, even if Alpine Worlds aren't mandatory to show free-to-air unlike e.g. Nordic skiing Worlds.

But World Cup's rights are owned by a commercial channel and it has almost all sports on PPV channels. A few Alpine races are shown on that group's FTA channel because 1) they do that to advertise PPV channel and/or 2) there's a more important event to show on PPV channel.

But that's the case with tennis too. OG was the only big tournament in years (previus probably was Beijing '08 ) they showed on FTA channels because the national broadcasting company owned the rights. But AO, RG, and USO (plus some MMs) are on EuroSport and Wimby, Masters Series, and WTF (plus some MMs) are on Canal+ (or whatever it's called nowadays). National broadcasting company usually showes Nieminen's finals unless the rights are already owned by another channel, like was the case with Sydney final.

[Mateya]

I just can't believe what Tina Maze in doing

5 years ago we barely had a skier making it into top 30 and getting a point and now this. Such a fairytale, I hope it lasts.
Men's skiing is still in trouble. After Kosir, Dragšič and Valenčič there is not much happening now I think...

Skiing is a tough sport and can be really cruel. One nasty fall means the difference between 100 or 0 points. In tennis you can make 55 unforced error and still win the match, you can come back from 0-6 0-2 down...but here it's one mistake and you're out.

When I was a kid I tried to ski, like so many people here who are skiing for fun. But it wasn't for me, I'm much happier and better with racquet in my hand.

[Mae]

I'm afraid of heights so you know I would never ever try to ski

[August]

Originally Posted by Mateya

Men's skiing is still in trouble. After Kosir, Dragšič and Valenčič there is not much happening now I think...

At least Rok Perko got a podium from today's downhill race.

That race was on a shortened course because of snowfall and fog. The fastest man of Friday's training. Norway's Kjetil Jansrud had a great run, and a few skiers later Svindal gave a one-two lead for Norway, finishing only 0.05 sec behind Jansrud.

But a few skiers later Erik Guay, who had done well in training, went to lead. And after 30 skiers it started to look like the podium will be Guay-Jansrud-Svindal with the only potential threat being Werner Heel who starts 52nd because he's badly "underranked" after his poor last year.

Then I switched to curling but occasionally checked live results not to miss Heel's run. Then I noticed Rok Perko has gone to lead. Well, I thought no one else can anymore repeat it. But, a few skiers later, USA's Steven Nyman went to lead. The slope was getting faster because of improving weather conditions. Now I watched the race again a bit but there weren't any top 10 performances so I went back to curling missing France's Brice Roger's run that gives him 10th place in final standings. Well, later I came back to watch Werner Heel's run. Another Italian, Silvano Varettoni had a good run right before Heel and his final position is 9th. Then Heel has a good run and gets to 6th. And after Heel, Dutch Marvin van Heek gets to 8th position. Before that his best result 39th.

So it was a surprising race, and weather conditions played a huge role. The victory was Nyman's second, he took the first victory also in Val Gardena downhill, six years ago. And 2nd place was Rok Perko's career best, former best was 12th. And of the guaranteed Guay-Jansrud-Svindal podium, only Guay got to podium with 3rd place. Jansrud was 4th and Svindal 5th.

[Mae]

The U.S. has had some good skiers over the years and we used to have better coverage of skiing. What happened to it I don't know

[August]

Originally Posted by Mae

The U.S. has had some good skiers over the years and we used to have better coverage of skiing. What happened to it I don't know

Has it gone to PPV channels like in Finland?

Anyway, USA got another victory today from men's giant slalom. Ted Ligety had an unbeliveable 1st run and lead the race by 2.40 sec over Marcel Hirscher. So only clowning in 2nd round could've costed him the victory. His 2nd run wasn't completely clean but with the huge lead he had after the first round, he still beat Hirscher by 2.04 sec to take his second win in the prestigious Alta Badia giant slalom.

And in women's side, Tina Maze continued her amazing run by winning a giant slalom in Courchevel. She has won all four World Cup giant slaloms this year.

[Litotes]

Originally Posted by August

Has it gone to PPV channels like in Finland?

Anyway, USA got another victory today from men's giant slalom. Ted Ligety had an unbeliveable 1st run and lead the race by 2.40 sec over Marcel Hirscher. So only clowning in 2nd round could've costed him the victory. His 2nd run wasn't completely clean but with the huge lead he had after the first round, he still beat Hirscher by 2.04 sec to take his second win in the prestigious Alta Badia giant slalom.

And in women's side, Tina Maze continued her amazing run by winning a giant slalom in Courchevel. She has won all four World Cup giant slaloms this year.

2.40 ahead after one run is the sickest I've seen in a long time. What is happening here? Svindal wins with over a second and then Ligety with more than two. I'm not used to these kind of winning margins. Associate them more with the 70s.

[samanosuke]

yep, bad for the sport. it is becoming like women skiing . you know it is going in wrong direction then

[August]

Originally Posted by Litotes

2.40 ahead after one run is the sickest I've seen in a long time. What is happening here? Svindal wins with over a second and then Ligety with more than two. I'm not used to these kind of winning margins. Associate them more with the 70s.

One could already bring the "weak era" argument here.

Anyway, in giant slalom, they there was the controversial rule change on skis. The skis became longer and thus more difficult. And that can well be the reason why men's and women's giant slaloms have been dominated by one skier.

But Svindal's dominance in speed events is more difficult to explain. In World Cup level nobody should be that much better, especially as there's been no rule changes. I don't know if the season is still so early that others just haven't reached their peaks.

Anyway, considering Svindal's great form in speed events, and especially in super-g, one could expect him to do better in giant slalom. He used to be a potential winner in giant slaloms but he doesn't look like that at the moment. So maybe the new GS skis just don't suit to him.

[Mae]

Originally Posted by August

Has it gone to PPV channels like in Finland?

Anyway, USA got another victory today from men's giant slalom. Ted Ligety had an unbeliveable 1st run and lead the race by 2.40 sec over Marcel Hirscher. So only clowning in 2nd round could've costed him the victory. His 2nd run wasn't completely clean but with the huge lead he had after the first round, he still beat Hirscher by 2.04 sec to take his second win in the prestigious Alta Badia giant slalom.

And in women's side, Tina Maze continued her amazing run by winning a giant slalom in Courchevel. She has won all four World Cup giant slaloms this year.

No. The TV coverage just isn't there anywhere anymore other than the already mentioned Olympics.

[August]

Originally Posted by Mae

No. The TV coverage just isn't there anywhere anymore other than the already mentioned Olympics.

I was wondering how come not even the US races weren't televised in USA. Well, they were and that lead me to find this.

[August]

And yet another dominant victory in tonight's men's slalom. Marcel Hirscher won the race by 1.67 sec before Felix Neureuther. That was Neureuther's 2nd runner-up position in row in slaloms. And this year he's done also nicely in giant slaloms, 4th and 7th places from last two GSs.

3rd place went to Japan's Naoki Yuasa who was 26th after first round. Last year's slalom World Cup champion Andre Myhrer was 4th, 2.34 sec behind Hirscher. And after worse races in Val-d'Isère and Alta Badia, Manfred Mölgg returned to top 5. Ted Ligety got nice points with his 9th place, still Hirscher went past him in overall standings.

[August]

Originally Posted by samanosuke

Svindal already built a great platform for big crystal globe. Hirscher is his only threat but skiing more or less just two disciplines won't get it done for him like last year when he got lucked with Kostelic's injury in the moment when Ivica already had one hand on globe

Well, now Hirscher has went past. And there are anymore eight speed events compared to ten technical events. Hopefully Svindal can raise his giant slalom skiing and do well in the two combined races. If Hirscher keeps his level, that's the only way Svidal can beat him in overall points.