Running 2018 Winter Games thread

Red Gerard wins one for red-headed step children

 

Answer something for this Olympics layman.

Do we have Olympic training centers for all these sports? How much of the training is formal? Because there are some winter sports in which the U.S. just doesn't seem to have any push. How/why do we build a biathlon competitor? Do we? Our best ski jumper tonight is 18th, and it's treated like a minor victory. We really don't have enough of a talent pool to grow some medal contenders in these sports?

 

Since no one's asked: Does the team from OAR row the boat?

 

Durrrrrrrr, Go BOLD or GO HOME!!!

 

We do have training centers for some of these sports. They're mostly based out of either Park City or Lake Placid.

The U.S. kind of picks it battles when it comes to contending in winter sports. It decides, for instance, to bulk up its Alpine ski team rather than, say, put much funding in ski jumping. The kid who placed 18th gets very little, if any, help from U.S. Ski and Snowboard mostly because at some point that organization decided it wasn't worth the money to try to be good in ski jumping. Now, if that guy goes out and starts winning World Cups, they'll reevaluate, at least with him personally if not with the team.

Still, the ski jumpers train in Park City and use official U.S. facilities, so they're not completely on their own.

Some sports are quite a bit different. The halfpipe snowboarders, for instance, don't all live in Park City even though most are on the "U.S. team." They all live wherever they want, then attend a few team camps every year and have team coaches and staff on hand for many big events. They certainly don' rely on U.S. team funding, though it does come in handy and pays for that coaching and for some travel.

 

I am surprised the USOC doesn't peel off a few middling distance runners to have them give cross country skiing a try. Ski jumping though, I can't really think of a regular sport in the US that really translates to ski jumping.

 

I remember seeing in the 1990s or so that the U.S. Luge team would put on free clinics that would include kids just sliding on plastic toboggans down a snowy hill in order to get kids interested in luge and maybe get a couple of them to start training.

I think they still do stuff similar to it, but it's more of a PR thing nowadays rather than an actual attempt to recruit Little Willie on his Rosebud to become a luger.

 

Downhill pushed to Thursday due to wind.

 

I think they still pretty actively welcome athletes from other sports to "just give it a try." I actually think that's how a ton of them get into it. I'm not sure about kids and their personal sleds, though.