Who Goes to Sochi?

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Say, can someone educate me about how and when we will know who is going to Sochi to race alpine for the US? There's been talk of various fundraisers, etc, but is there already a definitive list? The selection process is a black box to me.

What events exist on the Paralympic side? Are there alpine races, or is snowboard racing limited to BX?

Thanks Much

[bigwavedave]

The info I posted from the teamusa site was not correct.

Here is a link to the pdf file of the us olympic selection rules for snowboarding, put your lawyer hat on to read it.

http://ussa.org/sites/default/files/documents/athletics/athleticsexecutive/2013-14/documents/Snowboarding_updated.pdf

I will try to summarize here:

A maximum of 24 athletes (men & women) can go for all of the snowboard events. There are 10 events: men's and women's in each of these 5; PGS, PSL, BX, HP, and Slopestyle. A maximum of 4 athletes per event; a maximum of 14 of either gender.

The minimum Olympic qualification for an athlete is to have a top 30 finish in a world cup in the past year. We easily have more than 24 snowboarders that meet that requirement.

Objective criteria (not up to discretion of U.S. selection committee):

Up to 3 competitors per event who have had a top 4 finish in a World Cup in the past year automatically goes to the Olympics...except for parallel where it's limited to 1 athlete.

Justin Reiter should be going since he is the only U.S. alpiner who had a podium (2nd) at a World Cup last year. Oops, I got this wrong, apparently his podium finish was not a WC that counts for Sochi.

Mimi has a decent chance of going. She's the next highest ranked U.S. alpiner, the top U.S. woman in parallel with a best World Cup finish of 14th last year--full disclosure--she's my daughter.

The first World Cup PGS and PSL of the season are this Friday and Saturday in Carrezza, Italy and will be important qualifiers for who gets to go. Here's a link to the FIS site which has results and videos: http://www.fis-ski.com/snowboard/

Mimi finished 26th today in PSL, which is pretty good considering what happened on her way to Carrezza. Before she left for Europe her boards got lost on a derailed train on their way back from the tuning shop, so she had to cancel and reschedule flights at great expense, missing a Euro race and pre-WC training. When she got to Europe, her newly tuned GS board was broken by baggage handling. She had to scramble to buy a new board with no time for a race tune.

Edited January 5, 2014 by bigwavedave
correction

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Hmm. Here's a loaded question that doesn't necessarily have to be answered: Outside of Steamboat team riders, who else has a real shot at this?

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

It would be really cool if we had a BOL reporting at the games?? Perhaps one of our Russian members with some technical skills?

[bigwavedave]

The info I posted off the teamusa site was incorrect and so I changed my first post above with a link to the selection criteria from the ussa site, and a world cup update.

[patmoore]

Results from Carezza

PGS Men

PSL Men

PGS Women

PSL Women

[theboarderdude]

Hmm. Here's a loaded question that doesn't necessarily have to be answered: Outside of Steamboat team riders, who else has a real shot at this?

I would love to hear an answer to this question...

[NSSage]

Hmm. Here's a loaded question that doesn't necessarily have to be answered: Outside of Steamboat team riders, who else has a real shot at this?

Haha that's a good one. Right now I think Steamboat riders have the best chance. I can't think of anyone from another team

[bigwavedave]

Hmm. Here's a loaded question that doesn't necessarily have to be answered: Outside of Steamboat team riders, who else has a real shot at this?

Not sure why it's a loaded question...Assuming you're asking about U.S. alpine racers' shot at going to Sochi?

There used to be a team based in Park City. I believe they disbanded after the last Olympics. The only U.S. racers that have met the minimum Olympic qualification of a top 30 finish in a world cup in the past year, train with the Steamboat team. The rest is as above.

[bigwavedave]

For most competitors it takes 10 or more years of training and competing to get to the Olympics, sort of the equivalent of getting a PhD. It starts with the passion, but requires dedication, discipline and persistence to get there. Of course one won't get far without talent and financial wherewithal.

Don't you wish you would see a promo like this on your local TV station for the live coverage of the next world cup race in Bad Gastein...

[kieran]

Don't you wish you would see a promo like this on your local TV station for the live coverage of the next world cup race in Bad Gastein...

how brilliant it would be if their first run was regular stance, then second run was goofy? (freeze-frame @0:00:29) ;)