I had fun making those animated charts for World Cup points the other day, so I thought I’d try using the same charts to look at World Juniors. All I’ve done is tally up “World Cup” points for each nation and each year, scoring each (individual) race using the traditional WC point scale. Then I [...] Related posts:
This week is going to be pretty heavy on the WJC/U23 graphs, I suppose, as we wait for the World Cup racing to start up again. One of the things that has struck me while writing this blog is how much importance and meaning is placed on WJC/U23s compared with how little data they provide [...] Related posts:
This post appeared on FasterSkier several months ago, but I never posted it here, I don’t think. With World Juniors and U23s wrapping up, it seemed relevant. I edited the text slightly so it will differ somewhat from the original version. These graphs do not include this year’s WJC results or any results from the [...] Related posts:
Just a quick follow up to my earlier post examining some of the North American men in today’s U23 pursuit, this time for the women. I’ll just focus on three ladies: Sadie Bjornsen, Caitlin Patterson and Alysson Marshall. Here’s the graph for Bjornsen: Today’s race (blue) seems neither much better nor much worse than she’s [...] Related posts:
As before, with the U23 racers we typically have more data to work with, since these folks have generally been around longer and so are likely to have raced against each other more often. We’ll continue using the percent back difference plots, that examine how a particular skier has fared against each of their competitors [...] Related posts:
A little fun using the Google Charts API, R and my WC points spreadsheet. Both of these motion charts require Flash. It shows the progression of WC points for the top 30 athletes or so throughout this season. Distance points are on the x axis and sprint point are on the y axis. This does [...] Related posts:
My eyes are a bit bleary from grading all day, otherwise I’d try to watch some of the WJC/U23 racing action that appears to be available online. As it is, here’s what’s been cooking here over the last week: Wrapping up a weekend of racing on both WC circuits before they take this one off: [...] Related posts:
I’ve been swamped with grading this week, so I feel a little bad about not posting anything about World Juniors specifically. I’ll try to put something together over the weekend. But these percent back difference plots are pretty easy to pump out for the U23s, since they tend to have a bit more racing behind [...] Related posts:
I’ve mentioned this from time to time in other posts, but one thing I’ve noticed from the sprint heat times that Jan at WorldOfXC.com has been providing me is that the women’s heats are more likely to increase in speed as the day progresses. I’ve said it enough that I should probably provide some evidence: [...] Related posts:
Today’s U23 races in Estonia resulted in victories for some talented young skiers, Russia’s Evgeniy Belov and Finland’s Krista Lahteenmaki. In both cases their wins were fairly convincing, with Belov distancing himself from second place by 16 seconds and Lahteemaki crushed the women’s field by a full minute. One of the difficulties in gauging performance [...] Related posts:
It’s always nice to see my countrymen (and women) skiing fast, so it’s been fun to see Lowell Bailey and Laura Spector posting some good results on the IBU World Cup scene over the past several weeks. Let’s just check in and see how these results compare to their past: These are only “major” races [...] Related posts:
To mark last weekend’s World Cup races in Estonia, I thought a post on Andrus Veerpalu would be in order. I’ve heard it said, from various sources, that Estonian skier Andrus Veerpalu1 has a particular ability to show up at major competitions (i.e. Olympics, World Championships) and significantly over perform, based on his results that [...] Related posts:
As always, heat time data supplied by WorldOfXC.com. Beginning with the men: Ola Vigen Hattestad went progressively slower as the day wore on, though often there are tactical reasons for that depending on the speed of your heat. And of course, he ended up second. There is also the issue of skiers switching between classic [...] Related posts:
After all the hype, particularly last season, regarding the major (though seemingly friendly) rivalry between Petter Northug and Marcus Hellner, it’s been interesting to have it all sort of fizzle out this year. Northug’s been struggling with getting back into form after being sick, and Hellner also struggled somewhat during the Tour de Ski. However, [...] Related posts:
Marit Björgen returned to action this weekend in (mostly) convincing fashion. It’s becoming very interesting to see whether anyone will be able to beat her in a distance race. She certainly has shown some chinks sprinting, with Kikkan Randall stealing a freestyle win and Petra Majdic grabbing a classic victory yesterday. But with another World [...] Related posts:
Haven’t checked her skiing time, but five misses probably isn’t what Laura Spector was hoping for today in the range. Better luck next time! Related posts:Race Snapshot: IBU World Cup 1 Women Race Snapshot: IBU WC 4 Women’s Sprint Race Snapshot: IBU WC 4 Mass Start Related posts:
I like double poling as much as the next guy, but the course today sounded a bit on the flat side. Related posts:Race Snapshot: Davos WC Classic Race Snapshot: Davos WC Sprint Race Snapshot: TdS Classic Sprint Related posts:
Tough day for Lars Berger, it seems. But another strong race for Lowell Bailey. Looks like shooting was a bit dodgy today. Related posts:Race Snapshot: IBU WC 3 Distance Race Race Snapshot: IBU WC 4 Mass Start Race Snapshot: IBU WC 5 Men’s 20km Related posts:
Hey, look, a Norwegian guy won a distance race! And of course Marit Björgen wins again convincingly. Related posts:Race Snapshots: Kuusamo Classic 5/10km Marit Bjoergen’s Best Freestyle Race Race Snapshot: Davos WC Classic Related posts:
After solving the ski boot degradation problem, Skaði Nordic has turned to ski ties. Check them out here! Plenty of stuff happening this week, despite the inevitable lull following the Tour de Ski: Some World Cup racing for both the biathlon (women’s sprint 1/15, men’s and women’s pursuit 1/16, men’s sprint 1/20, women’s sprint 1/21) [...] Related posts: