Ranking athletes based on FIS points, or some other measure, is relatively easy. Â Sometimes rankings are fun, because they give sports nuts something to argue about. Â Sometimes, however, things devolve into annoying arguments about the specific measure you’re using to rank the athletes with. Any such measure has flaws, and FIS points are no different. […]
Also tagged Athlete Ranking, head to headA lot of the stuff I’ve done so far on this site looks at data over fairly long periods of time. Â Let’s switch things up and look only at the previous two World Cup seasons. Â Awards for most improved skiers have a special place in my heart due to my own skiing career, which had […]
Also tagged awards, most improvedIn a previous post, I talked about rookie skier performance on the World Cup. Â You can check back there for an explanation of what I mean by a rookie skier and the specifics of how I selected which data to use. Â I left off in that post with the following graph, showing rookie FIS point […]
Also tagged Analysis, development, rookiesEvery season a new crop of young skiers cut their teeth on the World Cup circuit. Â These might be new national team members racing on the World Cup full time, or they might be Nation’s Group athletes who receive a start as part of a host nation’s extra start allotments. Â Each nation likely has a […]
Also tagged Analysis, development, rookies, World Cup[Note: This article first appeared here.] Chris Grover recently mentioned a graph, “Every athlete who is being nominated to the U.S. Ski Team this year has something in common. Â They are on the path to winning a medal. This medal could from the World Cup, World Championship or Olympic Winter Games, but they are on […]
Also tagged Age, Analysis, Sprint, US Skiing[Note: This article first appeared here.] An endearing facet of cross country ski racing is the seasonal rhythm it introduces into our lives. Â Summer, fall and winter each hold unique rituals and landmarks of training, racing and recovery. Â Spring brings with it its own rituals, among them retrospection on the season just completed. Â Athletes around […]
Also tagged Analysis, trends, US Skiing[Note: This article first appeared here.] Kris Freeman recently commented on his FasterSkier.com blog, “I am a serious contender for the most volatile and inconsistent skier on the world cup”, in reference to his disappointing races at the Vancouver Olympics. Every cross-country ski racer knows that you can’t always race at your best, all the […]
Also tagged Analysis, variation, World Cup