This is the head to head matchup that was runner up in my recent reader poll. No reason not to keep everyone happy by tackling this pair next! Per usual, what I’m doing is taking races where Marit Bjoergen and Justyna Kowalczyk have both participated and plotting the difference of their FIS points (distance races) [...]
This is type of graphic that I hope to do on a semi-regular basis once the World Cup season gets rolling. These easily fall into the “fun” rather than “serious” category. If you hadn’t already guessed, I like making graphs. So these entries will be race summaries, but in graph form. They are fairly labor [...]
My first full month of blogging is in the books! I’ll be travelling a bit over the next ten days, so posting might be a little lighter than usual, but not much. I’ve got a bunch of stuff lined up already written… Here’s a look back at what’s been going on here this past week: [...]
Finnish skier Virpi Kuitunen is among the group of retiring skiers this year and she’s next in line for a retrospective look at her career. First we need to dispense with the issue of doping. Kuitunen was caught using a banned blood plasma expander at the 2001 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. She received a [...]
As I pore over my biathlon data, I learn new things all the time. For instance, I really had no idea what a typical biathlete manages for shooting accuracy. For some reason, I would have guessed something in the 60-70% range. But I was way off… I stand corrected: Here’s another version with contour lines: [...]
Watching Devon Kershaw’s (CAN) amazing race in the Olympic 50k this past season was both thrilling and a bit heartbreaking. There’s something of a reality distortion field that takes hold when the Olympics roll around that elevate the top three positions in a cross-country race to near mythic levels. This is at least slightly bizarre, [...]
I see on FasterSkier the news that there is already some angst regarding the FIS World Cup race calendar for next season. I have two things say on this topic that takes the form of two graphs… FIS cross country races: IBU biathlon races: A couple of notes: Size of the dot is proportional to [...]
This whole victims and nemeses thing is entertaining up to a point, but the most interesting about it is that it sometimes leads me to comparisons and graphs that I wouldn’t have thought of looking at otherwise. That’s what happened when I sat down today intending to dash off something quick about Kris Freeman’s victims [...]
Last week I ranted a bit about the inadequacies of F-factors1. We looked at the results from interval vs. mass start races and determined that they do indeed produce different distributions of percent back’s (PB’s). Specifically, the results of a mass start race are more likely to be bunched closely near the top, meaning the [...]
The Statistical Wife and I are getting pumped for the USA-Ghana game tomorrow. Whatever World Cup team you’re partial to (after the USA, I confess to having a soft spot for Holland), here’s a recap of what’s been going on here at Statistical Skier this week. A little light reading between soccer games, perhaps… I [...]
Last week I looked at the distance race results of some skiers who had been caught using performance enhancing drugs. A commenter wondered if I could show some data for “suspected dopers” as well. Honestly, I was a bit reluctant to do that. I mean, as much as I hate doping, the negative consequences of [...]
Next up in our retiring skier series is Sara Renner. Renner (CAN) retired this past season after competing internationally for around 16 years. She earned a Gold Silver medal at the Turin games in the Team Sprint event with Beckie Scott, but wasn’t quite as fortunate in individual events. (Update: Sorry for the typo!) However, along [...]
I just finished reading a great article checking in with US biathlete Tim Burke as he gears up again for next season. I was vaguely aware that Burke had a great season last year but a disappointing Olympics, but I don’t follow biathlon as closely as cross country. So I thought I’d check some data [...]
Previously, I described some problems with using percent back (PB) as a basis for comparing race performances. Namely, mass start and interval start races produce very different types of PB’s. In this post we’ll briefly consider whether this problem is actually worth worrying about and then I’ll finish with a simple solution. At first glance, [...]
The poll on the right is now closed. Marit vs Justyna was in the running for a while, but Daehlie vs Alsgaard eventually pulled away for a clear win. Don’t worry if the matchup you voted for didn’t win this time around, we’ll have another round of voting most likely in a few days. The head-to-head [...]
Don’t forget that tomorrow is your last day to vote (see sidebar to your right) for the head-to-head matchup you’d like to see me attack next. I’ll post the analysis on Wednesday….
This topic is going to be somewhat more technical than usual. It involves some inside baseball, to mix sports metaphors, so if the nitty gritty details of FIS point calculations don’t strike you as an exciting page turner, you’ve been warned! However, if you stick with me, you’ll learn how brutally stupid FIS’s F-factor adjustments [...]
Here’s a recap of what’s been going on at StatisticalSkier this past week: - A look at skiers who made the biggest jumps forward (or back) between the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons: here, here, here and here. - A colorful way to visualize the head-to-head matchups between groups of skiers. - A look back at [...]
Nat Herz wrote an interesting article today on FasterSkier.com about different ski companies’ policies regarding sponsoring athletes who’ve been caught doping in the past. I thought this post might make an interesting companion to Nat’s article. This post is going to look at race results data for skiers who’ve been caught doping. I need to [...]
Next up in my series of skier retirements is the Swedish sprinter Anna Olsson (prior to marrying teammate Johan Olsson in 2008 she competed using her maiden name, Dahlberg). Compared to the other skiers I’ve profiled, Olsson’s career was relatively short, stretching from 2001 to the present. Also, as I’ve sort of given away in [...]