World Cup Time

The Nordic skiing world cup kicks off in one week with the Ruka Triple miniseries.  I get excited for skiing like normal Americans get excited for normal American sports, like football or baseball.  It isn't as easy to find coverage of skiing, but for the past few years someone has been putting up torrents of full coverage from Eurosport, so that means I can download and watch full races with a bit of a delay.  There are ways to get live feeds, but the quality isn't as good and the hours the races are going on don't match well the hours I'm awake always, or if they do they are in the morning when I would rather be out skiing myself than watching others ski.  I am going to miss the first weekend of racing this year because I am going to be at Silver Star resort in BC skiing on some great looking early season snow.  I'll put together a post on that soon, maybe once I arrive and have some pictures to add.

One of the things that makes watching skiing even more fun is having a fantasy ski team.  Much like the fantasy leagues in other sports a player builds a team of athletes and their performance throughout the year scores points for any fantasy team they are on.  A magazine called Ski Trax hosts several nordic skiing leagues.  I have done pretty well in a few of these and even won a couple small clothing items.  Not bad for the 5 minutes of work I put into figuring out my team.  Unlike other, more involved, leagues where a roster is set each week here all the selection is at the beginning of the season, then all there is to do is sit back and watch.  Here is my team for this year.

Female Skier #1 : Kikkan Randall (Usa)
Female Skier #2 : Marit Bjoergen (Nor)
Female Skier #3 : Justyna Kowalczyk (Pol)
Female Skier #4 : Therese Johaug (Nor)
Female Outlaw : Maiken Caspersen Falla (Nor)
Male Skier #1 : Dario Cologna (Sui)
Male Skier #2 : Petter jr. Northug (Nor)
Male Skier #3 : Alexander Legkov (Rus)
Male Skier #4 : Emil Joensson (Swe)
Male Outlaw : Teodor Peterson (Swe)

I feel like most of the selections were pretty straightforward this year, especially on the women's side where there are a few skiers that have been head and shoulders above the rest of the field in most races.  The outlaw skiers (outside of the top 15 overall) can make or break a team when the skier selection is straightforward.  I feel pretty confident about Falla for my women's pick because she is blazing fast, one of the few skiers to beat Randall straight up in a skate sprint last year.  On the men's side Teodor Peterson is young but had some very promising races last season, especially later in the year.

This being an Olympic year always effects regular season results as well because many of the best skiers will be training hard through the early season to peak for the Olympic games in February, but many of the bubble skiers will be trying to have great races early in an attempt to make their nations Olympic team.  This can shake up early season results a bit.  After the Olympics some skiers may be burned out or on their way to retiring, while skiers at the top of the heap have to refocus before the world cup finals in March if there is a close competition for the crystal globe.

The Olympics themselves are a great spectacle too of course.  There is a lot riding on the shoulders of the top athletes, and somewhat unlike a normal race where points go to anyone in the top 30 at the Olympics if you are not in the top 3 you are forgotten (At least forgotten by anyone outside the ski world, I am in no way implying that a 4th, or a top 10, or a top 30 at the Olympics is anything less than an amazing performance for most athletes.)

I'm off to find snow, let the games begin!!!