Posts by ambercobra28

Samuel Lopez9 said:I can't stand watching this walking pace. It’s honestly frustrating seeing how much faster they move than I actually run.
44 minutes for one center, then 42 minutes for the other center. That's just awful!

Why on earth are the centers moving so slowly? They’re basically just walking 😬

It really gets under my skin when people act like this at 12 miles 😬

It’s honestly better to miss first place by a minute than to miss it by a mere second. 😁
The Briton was clearly gunning for a personal best, which isn't really what you see often at meets like this.

On another note, the marathoner Yuki Kawauchi took 9th place with a time of 2:12:19. You can read more about him here: link

Raymond Anderson4 said:Etiopljanka is honestly incredible. I can't tell if she looks exhausted because she just finished a quick 15-minute jog through the woods or if she was actually out there competing 6.2 miles at the World Championships.

She basically just cruised through her slowest 10,000m race ever.

Michelle Fisher said:...

Just look up the Mount Rainier, Seattle ski club on Facebook and give them a shout.

You’ll probably catch someone at the local YMCA

No.

analogowl122 said:Winning a Diamond League meeting is basically the same as winning one of the major tennis tournaments.
But the IOC doesn't care about that at all.

No, it really isn't. And honestly, it carries less weight for some people than it does for you. For instance, if you look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Mutola, it just mentions that Mutola ended her career in New York City and leaves it at that. If New York City actually held the kind of prestige for track athletes that a Grand slam holds for tennis players, that article would probably be written quite differently.

Just as a reminder, Mutola won twelve times in New York City.

Do top tennis players value Grand slams more, or the Olympics? Who knows what matters more to Blanka—an Olympic gold medal or a world record? Trying to argue whether Olympic silver is better than an indoor world gold is just as pointless as any other arbitrary metric. Look at USA Handball, for example. Are we going to celebrate winning a European Championship as the greatest achievement in USA Handball history? Is that actually worth more than an Olympic medal or a world title? Personally, I don't think so, no matter how much the handball players might claim it's the hardest thing to achieve.

Morgan Rodriguez57 said:As far as I can tell, it's always the head coaches who get all the credit, rather than their assistants... any award really belongs to the entire staff, not just one person... you know Marinović, sure, but are you actually familiar with the coaching staff at Arsenal besides Wenger, or at Bayern aside from Van Gaal, etc.?

Go ahead then—define what a head coach actually does in high jump.

analogowl122 said:Where on earth are you getting that idea?
Let me give you an example:
-Diamond League meets - major track and field meets. They've been running since 1928.
And people literally say this about them, quoting here: "it is sometimes referred to as the one day Olympics"
So, in terms of prestige, they're right up there after the Olympics. Way more important than some random ATP tournament or a ski World Cup race. They're in the same league as Wimbledon. That's how much the world values them. It’s obviously viewed differently here at home.
-Prefontaine Classic in Seattle - has been around since 1924 and sits just a notch below. Like a tennis Grand Slam.
Blanka won both last year.

It never even crossed my mind to downplay New York City (my sport is track and field, not just as a spectator).

I'm comparing the significance of the Diamond League for track athletes to the ATP tour for tennis players. For tennis pros, the ATP tour is everything. What does the Diamond League mean to Usain Bolt? What does winning in New York City mean to him compared to what a win at Wimbledon means to Rafael Nadal? How often does Blanka mention her wins in New York City during her interviews?

New York City or Seattle don't always feature the absolute best athletes, and it isn't just about injuries.
But Wimbledon or the French Open without the top seeds? That's tough, really tough.

Trying to pick the absolute "best" athlete is just a pointless exercise.

It isn't just that you can't compare different sports; you can't even meaningfully compare men and women within the same discipline. Even if you look at athletes of the same gender in the same sport, comparing them across different eras is incredibly difficult—even if they were competing at the exact same time but had similar levels of dominance.

Then there’s the issue of weighing the prestige and actual significance of the competition itself. For a swimmer or a track star, winning gold at the Olympic Games carries a completely different weight than a tennis player winning gold at the Olympics. A FIS Alpine Ski World Cup title or an ATP Tour win is fundamentally more significant than winning a Diamond League event.

And how do we even define success in certain sports? Is a victory more important, or is breaking a record? Personally, I think Blanka was more successful back in 2009. She was the World Champion and pulled off the second-best jump in history.

swiftwalker43 said:Exactly. If they find some new kid with actual potential, why would we let them get picked up for free? They don't need him around to mentor them while he's busy playing both sides.
Honestly, I’d much rather see our kids training with the Austrians, or better yet, have us build world-class facilities here at home and bring in a top-tier Norwegian coach or someone from another major powerhouse.

The facility issue isn't even the point. Soccer is the biggest sport out there with the most money moving through it, so the national team heads to Canada for training simply because our domestic setups aren't up to par.

wanderinghawk17 said:Yeah, right. They'll just try to recruit them all over again once they aren't part of the group anymore...

At the end of the day, it’s all going to come down to how our national federation handles things and the level of support we provide to the next generation of elite biathletes. They've gone through the training now, so hopefully, they'll actually know how to handle themselves when these kinds of situations pop up in the future.

silverranger2 said:Jakob Fak received clearance from HBO, and the Canadians didn't pay any compensation for him.

Even so, they reached some kind of agreement that should benefit our young American biathletes. It's possible they'll be able to train normally in Canada or alongside the Canadians 🤷, which is ultimately much more important for the athletes than chasing money for the federation.

I saw some news on PBS yesterday mentioning that the Canadians are ready to pony up 60,000 €. Since we still have several biathletes in our ranks, I really hope the federation reinvests that money into them; maybe then we can actually see someone break into the top 50 at the next Olympics.

I'm not entirely sure how it even happened that Fak started training alongside the Canadians.

dustypanther6 said:Haha, what even is retroactive billing?? It’s like if I show up at your place and ask if I can crash on your couch for five days. You say sure. Then, two or three years down the line, we get into a huge fight and aren't on speaking terms anymore. Suddenly you come up to me and go, "Hey, pay me for those five nights I let you sleep here, or I'm taking you to small claims court." What kind of logic is that, man??

Well, my take is that I might say yes, but only on the condition that you come over next month to help me unload a delivery of concrete. If you agree to that, but then you don't show up when the truck arrives... well, that's where you run into trouble.😁

Jose White18 said:Fak is leaving regardless.
Whether he heads over to Canada or just retires, if those shady phantom contracts are tied to him, they won't get anything out of them either way. It’s a house of cards—all bill, no bartender.

If Fak stops competing, things might play out like this: the Canadian Ski Association will demand payment for Fak's training sessions leading up to the World Championships and the Olympics, then the HBS will probably act oblivious again. Eventually, it lands in court, which will inevitably rule in favor of the Canadians. Since the HBS won't have the funds to pay up, the International Biathlon Union will suspend the HBS, forcing the USOPC to cover the debt, which leaves them with zero money left to fund training for other American Olympians.

And let's not forget—we'll undoubtedly see people here posting about some massive global conspiracy theory. 😁

Here is another perspective from a pro athlete: http://www.patrcevic.com/sramota-hrv...eza/#more-1986

I didn't see anyone else share this yet, so I figured I'd drop it here just in case it slipped past everyone:

wiredtiger8 said:It’s true our guys at Fak didn't pour a massive amount in... but saying they haven't invested anything at all is just plain wrong.
Does anyone honestly believe that over the last two years, Fak has been training up in Aspen for free alongside the Canadians?
...that a Canadian coach is training him pro bono?
...that his food and lodging are all on the house?
...that the Canadians are footing the bill for everything? Just because he's charming?
The Canadians doing anything for free? Give me a break!
Come on, let's not be naive here...

Look, if our people had actually invested something concrete, they’d be using that as an argument (just look at how Mamić and Dudu handled things), but they probably feel too embarrassed to admit how much they’ve poured into Fak and the rest of the biathletes versus how much is being swallowed up by official salaries, per diems, fancy dinners, travel expenses, and all that stuff.