As a quick follow up from my earlier post this week on Kikkan Randall’s chances of winning sprint World Cup overall title next season, a more detailed graph (click for full version): This shows the difference in finishing place between Randall and several top sprinters when they’ve raced head-to-head in sprint races over time. Values […]
Also tagged kikkan randall, World CupWith the slew of high profile retirements among female sprinters this year, American skiing fans have been quick to note that the two women ahead of Randall on the overall sprint WC podium this season won’t be returning next year. Clearly, this is an opportunity, but how significant an opportunity is it? Overall WC point […]
Also tagged kikkan randall, overall, World Cup, world cup pointsAnother accomplished specialist, Jens Arne Svartedal, is retiring as well. While no slouch in distance events, he had more success in sprinting. But his real specialty was classic skiing. My records show 25 WC level podium finishes for him, 7 in distance events and 18 in sprints. That includes his WSC Gold medal in the […]
Also tagged career retrospective, jens arne svartedal, retirementWhat can you say about Petra Majdic? The Slovenian was delightfully hard to miss on the ski trails. Known as a classic sprint specialist, she was no slouch at distance events either: From 2002 forward, that is some very consistent skiing, year in, year out. I realize that standardized percent behind the median skier may […]
Also tagged career retrospective, petra majdic, retirement, women, World CupA commenter asked if there was a connection between my lists of improved and un-improved skiers and age. Easy enough to check, so let’s go to the tape. Here are the distance skiers: The y-axis (Improvement Index) has no units, so don’t try to interpret it. It’s just the mash-up of several ways of measuring […]
Also tagged Age, Distance, men, most improved, most unimproved, women, World CupThe final installment in the most improved/un-improved series. This time it’s the sprinters who saw the biggest drop-off in performance this season over last. Again, you can consult the first in the series for a detail description of my methodology. Basically, though, the following aspects are included: A skier’s median result The average of the […]
Also tagged most unimproved, World CupContinuing on from my previous posts looking at some skiers who saw a lot of improvement (or not) in distance events last season, we turn our attention to sprinting. You can refer back to those posts for a more detailed look at the methodology we’re using. Of course, with sprinting we don’t have fancy percent […]
Also tagged most improved