Yeah I have mused about that as well, and to me it came down to “well, these people devote their lives to this weird sport, so presumably they’ve thought about it harder than I have and maybe tried it and it clearly must not work”. Perhaps it’s a risk issue with going too hard and wiping out.
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As with all sports, there probably is a big degree of people just following the herd without really questioning the logic. It also effects the way you train, so I’m guessing most of the elite short track people probably couldn’t go hard for the full competition (like how supposedly Bolt had no endurance - but I’m sure he could have been an elite miler if he changed training).
It would be interesting to see what would happen if some competitors trained to just go hard the entire race.
This is completely feels based, but in addition to the physical exertion of going faster, it seems like you would have to work hard to pass/lap other people, even ones who are skating more slowly. In auto racing, it often seems relatively easy for a faster car to catch up to the slower ones, but actually getting around is tricky because you have to take wider lines, make sure you don’t crash, etc. Obviously, people aren’t cars, but maybe enough of the same principle exist that it might make it hard to go all out when you’re racing against other people (or at least it changes the cost/benefit of going all out from the start vs conserving energy)?
At first I thought it was an angle shoot–and maybe it was, given how unusual her strategy was–but she literally finished the race faster than anyone else, so winning Gold seems fair. Everyone else had the opportunity to try to make up the fast lap and they all chose not to.
If trying to take a fast lap becomes an acceptable potential strategy, I’m curious what rule changes, if any, would be needed either for sporting purposes or safety?
The angle is the silver medalist being wise to the tactic and continuing to race hard when everyone else thought the race was over, probably because it was discussed.
Short track races sometimes start fast and stay fast. People are allowed to push the pace.
I’m not sure that was an angle, so much as she was the only one actually paying proper attention.
I’m gonna say that I’m sure it wasn’t. All this talk of blowing her up or some other kind of deterrent meted out by the other skaters makes no sense to me. What she did (or second place) doesn’t seem even the least bit shady. If you’re competing at the highest levels, I don’t think it’s too much to ask to just pay a bit of attention to WTF is going on.
Yeah, one mnemonic that stuck with me because it’s easy to remember more than because I give a shit about horse racing is that, at least at the start of the race, one horse width to the outside of anybody is worth about one horse length of distance. There may be other useful conversions like that in other sports, but it’s worth remembering that trying to go outside someone on the track, especially if you’re going to do so in any part of a curve, means you have to make up quite a bit of distance.
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Because in general the rest of the skaters will just let you hang less than half a track ahead while rotating the lead and you are guaranteed to lose as you spend way more energy. It is very rare that the trailing skaters don’t work together properly to overtake you before the end. The reason they are so slow at the start is because nobody wants to lead at any decent speed. Only later in the race the people with a higher top speed and the ones with more stamina have different preferences.
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To add to the above.
If the pack did work together as a team to chase down the leader, the other Chinese girl would have 100% NOT helped and stayed at the back, saving her energy for the final lap. So the chasing pack ends up fairly gassed and loses to a Chinese girl anyway.
I get the general theory but I just don’t buy that drafting and lower air resistance is some massive factor in Short Track Speed Skating.
This isn’t a Tour de France stage where it’s 3 hours of intense cycling outdoors in mostly a straight line.
This is a race that lasts under 3 minutes and you get at most 3-4s at a time of straight line drafting zones. I’m not saying it’s optimal to go at a dead ass sprint from the start but it seems like the best, most in shape skaters should be pushing the pace from the start.
Maybe do some speed skating and feel the difference between being the guy at the front and the guy following. Even as a total amateur the difference is huge.
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Just read that Kelvin Kiptum died in a car accident. He ran marathon world record in Chicago.
Bump.
Anyone going?
and in usa#11 qualifying news
Can’t f’n wait. Time zone is perfect my night owl ass being 7 hrs ahead of Paris. In for all the random shit I never watch otherwise like handball, rugby 7s, field hockey, archery, swimming, water polo, etc. Don’t care about stuff like basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.
I wish there was a bit better balance between Winter/Summer events, or maybe just make Summer 3 weeks long. Seems like Winter is a bit lacking and Summer has way too much stuff for me to watch that I might have otherwise.
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Agree. The Olympics are awesome even though Canada sort of sucks at them. I love the super weird events you never see elsewhere.
Edit: interestingly apparently projections suggest Canada might have a pretty good medal run.
It’s funny that the olympics is the only type of patriotism I like I guess because it seems harmless.
I always scratch my head at the stories of local residents all fleeing their city during the Olympics. I suppose Parisians may flee the city during summer anyway, so perhaps there’s some natural overlap, but if the Olympics ever come to my city, I’m soaking up every moment I can.
Lived in Sydney during the Olympics and went to the Bejing Olympics and can highly recommend going. So many events end up being not popular and cheap to attend and still have a great atmosphere. Scalpers were selling tickets to Judo which has finals almost every session for $10.
Google “Paris olympics air conditioners”
France is using geothermal water exchange to cool the athlete dorms, not traditional AC. But Paris gets hot in the summer and the rich countries are bringing their own portable (window?) units with compressors, because the geothermal units only cool the rooms to 11 degrees F cooler than the outside (not sure how firm this number is). The countries without much budget will be screwed if there’s a heat wave.
In the athletes’ defense, apparently a lot of them sleep with very cool temps as part of their training regimen.
If they have a heat wave it’s going to be a cluster, PR-wise and athlete safety-wise. If temps are low or normal, we probably won’t hear much about the issue