I love watching most sports and have enjoyed the Winter Olympics. I wonder if I am the only one disturbed however by how important chance seems to be in many winter events. I am particularly thinking about short track skating and snowboard cross. The Olympics should be about being the best,not the luckiest.
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Former Member
Short track? I think I know what you're thinking - the disastrous Salt Lake City Men's Short Track (forgot the distance) where everyone fell during the bell lap and the lagging skater won, with Apolo crawling towards the finish bleeding. Yeah, that was a LOT of luck, but it does not happen frequently. In fact, short track depends on A LOT of skills, experience, power, and for 1000s and 1500s, strategy.
Skills and power you can see from the Korean skaters, who can overtake on the outside as easily as anything. They would trail you for all laps except 2 or 3, then power ahead on the outside so quickly and swiftly the next second they create a huge gap between you and them. I'm sure it was not luck that got the Koreans 2 golds and 2 silvers yesterday in 2 short track events. It certainly wasn't luck when one second, Ahn was behind Smith, then the next second he powered ahead of Apolo. It wasn't luck either when Choi won the women's 1500 by a huge margin. The Koreans' superior skills and power showed there.
Strategy can be the next most important thing in 1000s and 1500s after skill. With 3 Koreans, Meng Wang of China, though a very fast skater (gold medalist of 500 short track), could not deal with them by herself, with the great Yang Yang kept out of the finals (probably age has gotten to her, but then again, she tried to overtake but was blocked by the Canadian Amanda). The 3 Koreans were taking turns wearing her out, and during the bell lap, you could see the 3rd Korean deliberately bump into Wang, who was lucky to stay upright but was forced to slow down - she was just speeding up to try for an outside pass.
Short track depends mostly on skills and strategy, and luck wouldn't hurt, but only once in a blue moon can it really change the outcome drastically. Let me race against Ahn, for example. He can fall down every 3 seconds and still beat me by about 30 minutes over 1500 short track.
Now, if we're talking about luck, ski jump is one. Yesterday someone was forced to jump with a huge tailwind. Skeleton and bobsleigh are two others.
There's luck in swimming too. Goggles flying off, for one. But most sports require much more skill and/or power than simply luck.
And short track is so exciting! It is by far my favourite sport of the Winter Olympics. You get about 5 or 6 skaters weaving in and out trying desperately to overtake others and during the bell lap you get some very brutal skating, with lots of powering ahead and blocking. And of course, short track turns are simply brilliant -so exciting! By contrast, long track seems a bit dull to me - racing against the clock instead of each other loses its apeal to me. Also, can't wait for the Men's 5000 short track relay. You got 16 skaters crowded on ice with skaters whizzing around the rink at about 45 to 50 km/h.
Short track? I think I know what you're thinking - the disastrous Salt Lake City Men's Short Track (forgot the distance) where everyone fell during the bell lap and the lagging skater won, with Apolo crawling towards the finish bleeding. Yeah, that was a LOT of luck, but it does not happen frequently. In fact, short track depends on A LOT of skills, experience, power, and for 1000s and 1500s, strategy.
Skills and power you can see from the Korean skaters, who can overtake on the outside as easily as anything. They would trail you for all laps except 2 or 3, then power ahead on the outside so quickly and swiftly the next second they create a huge gap between you and them. I'm sure it was not luck that got the Koreans 2 golds and 2 silvers yesterday in 2 short track events. It certainly wasn't luck when one second, Ahn was behind Smith, then the next second he powered ahead of Apolo. It wasn't luck either when Choi won the women's 1500 by a huge margin. The Koreans' superior skills and power showed there.
Strategy can be the next most important thing in 1000s and 1500s after skill. With 3 Koreans, Meng Wang of China, though a very fast skater (gold medalist of 500 short track), could not deal with them by herself, with the great Yang Yang kept out of the finals (probably age has gotten to her, but then again, she tried to overtake but was blocked by the Canadian Amanda). The 3 Koreans were taking turns wearing her out, and during the bell lap, you could see the 3rd Korean deliberately bump into Wang, who was lucky to stay upright but was forced to slow down - she was just speeding up to try for an outside pass.
Short track depends mostly on skills and strategy, and luck wouldn't hurt, but only once in a blue moon can it really change the outcome drastically. Let me race against Ahn, for example. He can fall down every 3 seconds and still beat me by about 30 minutes over 1500 short track.
Now, if we're talking about luck, ski jump is one. Yesterday someone was forced to jump with a huge tailwind. Skeleton and bobsleigh are two others.
There's luck in swimming too. Goggles flying off, for one. But most sports require much more skill and/or power than simply luck.
And short track is so exciting! It is by far my favourite sport of the Winter Olympics. You get about 5 or 6 skaters weaving in and out trying desperately to overtake others and during the bell lap you get some very brutal skating, with lots of powering ahead and blocking. And of course, short track turns are simply brilliant -so exciting! By contrast, long track seems a bit dull to me - racing against the clock instead of each other loses its apeal to me. Also, can't wait for the Men's 5000 short track relay. You got 16 skaters crowded on ice with skaters whizzing around the rink at about 45 to 50 km/h.
