ScholaOsloensis
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Posts posted by ScholaOsloensis
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Hm, he's still on the start list, couldn't find any reports in German/Austrian media so far.
Yea, I noticed that... very weird. Apparently, the IOC had a press release out earlier tonight, but they removed it.
I'm thinking they're doing some information control, making sure his family knows and that all the right persons and federations are aware, or someone has screwed up.
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Norwegian media reports that Johannes Dürr's sudden rise to "stardom" (3rd at TdS this year) might have been fuelled by EPO.
He went back to Austria to prepare for tomorrow's 50 kms. When you do EPO, you have a time window of.., I believe 24-48h depending on the dose, where you don't want to get tested, but the performance enhancing effect lasts much longer. He obviously didn't expect to be tested in Austria when everyone was in Sochi, but he was and it turned positive for EPO.
This might be a break through for what has been reported as the doping hunters being more focused on suspicious athletes. If the austrian ADA, which I have no knowledge of, takes blood samples and not just urine samples, as many ADAs unfortunately still do, they can make a blood profile and find indirect evidence of blood doping. And if the evidence are strong enough, they can catch him on that alone, but they can also target test and increase likeliness of finding EPO traces.
This is a bit more dramatic than Sachenbacher-Stehle in my opinion, if the reports are correct.
Sad, but very very good that they are able to catch someone for EPO. It's been a while now.., Very hard to say exactly how wide spread the use of EPO/blood-doping is.
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Hearing that it's a stimulant.
Could still be that she messed up with some "vitamins" or maybe partied too hard.
It's useless to test for EPO/blood-doping during the olympics anyways, so I'm always surprised that people get caught by the IOC testing, which I consider almost to be ceremonial. Except when they have had a breakthrough testing method that hasn't been revealed to the field.
Olympic testing probably more relevant in 4 or 8 years time, as the revelations from Turin suggests.
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Venues look amazing.
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These guys are professional skiiers. They jet all over the globe from week to week, finishing one event then heading off to the next. Having "only" three days to fly from one part of Sweden to the other just isn't the obstacle some of you think. And of the 3,000 or so athletes, how many will participate in both long and short alpine events. 20? 30?
Sure, it'll be possible no doubt. But I think "many" people will be unhappy about it. They will have to get used to the snow conditions, race course etc in Stockholm. It's become quite normal to have "show races" in slalom in the world cup in cities that they can do in a hurry, but i'm thinking that for the olympics, they'd like to be as well prepared as possible. I would like to hear opinions from people in the know though; if this is something they're cool with.
It's not about the number of athletes though; we're talking about top contenders here. And you're right that few compete in both the technical disciplines and the speed disciplines, but many compete (and with good chances) in giant slalom and slalom, and there's the supercombined, which will also see competitors in slalom,
So I'm just saying that it makes more sense to have all the alpine events not too far from each other. However, the artificial hill slalom race in Sthlm could def add some to the spectacular factor.
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There's no need to bring SuperCombined into the argument as we all very well know that this would likely be held at/near the downhill course, not on a special slalom track a few hundred miles away.
This is true of course..: -), but the technical specialists would still need to settle down in the Åre village for the super combined, then wait for the giant slalom (if they do that) and then a quick turnaround before they re-settle in Stockholm for the slalom event. Of course they can design a schedule making it possible, but it just doesn't seem like a very good plan..., given that many athletes will have to compete at two different and distant places during the olympics.
I think there's a lot of tension because Stockholm has a couple of fans (as well as non-fans to be diplomatic), and since there are so many uncertainties with all the bids, there are many potential winners even if it's not yet technically or financially sound, but who knows what'll happen the next couple of months.
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Touché
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And 'winter culture' to me also means 'been there-done that.'
This is a good point.
I suggest the next winter games should be held during summer, anywhere in the world.
There are already working solutions to most disciplines. Skijumping is done with porcelain track and plastic grass. Other variations of skiing would be done with "rolling skis"; the sliding events could take place in a water world. Ehm.., there would be some challenges with the alpine race, but nothing that can't be fixed with a big screen, takeout pizza and the latest PS console.
When we've been there, we should perhaps aim for the moon, but the differing gravitational acceleration will then pose a real challenge for our ingenuity, but I guess that's what's gonna it so much fun.
:-)
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FYI's passion for Stockholm surprises me. Where does that come from? Do you have Swedish heritage or do you just like the idea of Swedish Games?
One popular theory is that the users of gamebids generally base their affections on whether they find the people (of the relevant gender) of the bidding nation sexually attractive.
For the record, I'm on the fence about this theory.
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What happens if somebody qualifies for slalom in Stockholm and downhill in Are?
This is a good point.. You're right in that slalom/downhill is a rather rare combination for athletes in the high profile competitions, but that doesn't matter for slalom+giant slalom is normal and there are also those who can be competitive in both the technical disciplines as well as the speed disciplines.
Another problem is of course the combined event, that i've mentioned before, or the "super combined" that is now the format used for the olympics. That is one run of slalom and one run of downhill, usually at the same day. Needless to say, this can't be done if Stockholm is going to have slalom. It's not just the travel in between runs, but they need access to the course for training.
So the answer to this is that the swedish bid org will find that slalom has to be bungled up with the other alpine events in Åre.
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Maybe it was a typo from gamesbids part & they forgot the zero. But even at $10 Billion, that's still quite low in a region that needs some massive investment. And that's not including Games operation & security.
Like I said earlier, even ready-to-go Oslo is proposing $5.5 Billion. And even Vancouver 2010 spent a "modest" $6 Billion in comparison, & they had many facilities in place already.
(my underlining)
Oh yeah, that might be true, I wouldn't know, but we all know how budgets tend to expand.
I was more curious about what you thought of Sthlm's budget though at 1,85 usd billion.
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How romantic...
yea
I suggest we not hijack this thread further.
did i mention she's actually really hot
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lol
You're doing better .
Lol, if you'd visited this thread earlier, you'd seen it's not the first time FYI and I 've been doing this.
But thanks..
Pixie, are we friends now. Pixie, your place or my place?
fyi she's a hottie
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According to Gamesbids, the number is $1 Billion. So blame them.
http://www.gamesbids.com/eng/winter_olympic_bids/future_winter_bids/1216136808.html
Lol ok, that's fine then (Someone should probably tell GB that something went wrong)
But incorrect information from gamesbids doesn't change what we know about sthlm's budget. Do you really see it as realistic?
1 euro is 1,35 usd, so that is
investments about 350 usd million
"carrying out costs" about 1,5 billion usd
And summed up about 1,85 billion usd.
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I've already acknowledge that Krakow COULD be a darkhorse. But it all depends on what they're proposing. If they too, however, like Lviv, propose an unrealistic budget, might as well kiss them goodbye, too.
Dude.. according to AP, Lviv plans to invest 10 billion dollars, http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/lviv-submits-bid-host-2022-winter-olympics-163125126--oly.html
While Sthlm/Åre plans to invest 2,5 billion SEK before the olympics, while they're "carrying out" budget is about 10 billion SEK.
That is not much more than 250 million euros for investments and they're building most outdoorish things from scratch.. including .. wait for it.. an artificial mountain.
Summed up, it's about 1,4 billion euros.
Sorry to keep going about this, but it just seems strange to denounce Lviv's budget when Sthlm is by far the city with the lowest budget, and in a higher cost country.
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But is it just me, or does anyone else find it extremely funny that in a cycle that includes unproven Ukraine, barely known Almaty, a last second electoral ditch by Munich, a binational Polish/Slovak bid, another bid from both Beijing and Norway, that SWEDEN of all places appears to have stirred up the most controversy in this race?
Lol, you'd be surprised there's a growing anti-swedish sentiment out there
. Can you imagine Pillan with some actual fuel on the fire?No seriously, if by whatever reason, you're a supporter of a swedish bid you need to look at the obstacles it faces:
1 - Needless to mention
2 - Reinfeldt and the minister of sports have been extremely lukewarm to say the least. They've basically already said no in more politeful ways, however, politics is dynamic, so it's not ruled out completely.
3 - Talk about low budget games! Currently, it's about 2/7 of the neighbouring country's budget and they are promoting themselves as "down to earth". The swedes would have to coin a different term to describe their money management, more like "down to rammed-earth", but point being, it's not realistic, and mr. Reinfeldt himself pointed this out: Make it realistic from the start; don't underfinance to gain false support..
Objectively speaking, I don't think it's strange that it's controversial given that the swedish bid has lots of supporters here despite Pillan's best efforts to prove otherwise, but it also has some major obstacles.
From my POV, it's just not likely to happen.
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The notion of "compact games" is a myth - the IOC don't insist on them. It's bidders who try to make it a selling point in their pitches as if it's something new they've just come up with to distinguish themselves against past hosts. Then they just do what always happens. Just about every games is spread out far and wide across a city... and further.
It's an interesting point you bring up..., so, Well, I think there's a difference here between summer and winter games. Frankly, summer games have always been compact, haven't they? I wouldn't look at compactness as the complete lack of a distance between two given events, as for instance the football stadias will likely be spread out. Rather, I'd say it's more natural with a positive definition, where compactness is simply "many (the large majority) events in the same place". So what I'm trying to say:-), is that compactness as an interesting problem is not something that I would usually relate to a summer games, since most of the events do take place in the hosting city.
If the events are within one city (albeit in different parts), that would be compact for a winter games nowadays. And I think this notion has increasingly taken hold as the WG has adopted more of an urban feel, perhaps out of necessity because of the "ever-growing" nature of the games. A consequence of this - most of the times -, is that the outdoor venues will be spread around in the outland of whichever city we're talking about. Talking maybe distances between 30-150 km. So for the visitors of the games, that isn't very compact.
So when someone can present urban games, which now seems to be a requirement ("at least 300 000" - someone mentioned here), where the large majority of the events, including outdoor, take place within city limits, there might be some sense in promoting them as compact, even though you'll hardly find a big enough city with the required mountain drop for the downhill/alpine events.
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I don't think there is any way Almaty can actually win (3 games in Asia in a row, second game in a former Soviet country in less than ten years) but I am starting to wonder if they don't have the strongest technical bid. Much of the infrastructure already exists (I think only Oslo would have more existing venues) and it has by far the smallest distance between clusters.
They've indeed invested heavily already.
A bad timing. I'm surprised they haven't tried to get more world cup events except the one nordic combined.
Downside is perhaps size of the stadiums, but they could be expanded. And of course turnout and such things. Decent at the 2011 games, but that's not a high profile tournament.
If IOC wants responsibility in unplowed terrain in Asia, Almaty would be an obvious choice.
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It would be very cool to have the Olympics in Vladimir Smirnov's home country. He will prob have a major role in promoting the bid, I'd guess.
Almaty/Astana held the 2011 winter games. They're also staging the 2017 winter universiade. They've already invested 1,2 billion usd probably in hopes for an eventual winter olympics.
Of the asian competitors, Almaty is clearly my fav.
It would be very cool to have the Olympics in Vladimir Smirnov's home country. He will prob have a major role in promoting the bid, I'd guess.
Almaty/Astana held the 2011 winter games. They're also staging the 2017 winter universiade. They've already invested 1,2 billion usd probably in hopes for an eventual winter olympics.
Of the asian competitors, Almaty is clearly my fav.
Lots of off topic in many threads.. I'll take this in the Almaty thread.
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I'm sure she won't be long in joining the discusion.
Brace yourselves, Unbelievers!
Lol, I read this thread from the start.
"It's not paranoia if they're really after you"
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Oslo could use Norefjell, but travel time will be shorter or just about the same to kvitfjell.
Also, better facilities.
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May Heaven
May Heaven hear you....
I do not believe a second in their ability to give us something exciting, creative, or great.
400 km between Stock. and Are ? You must be kidding. That bid has no reason to be, especially with Oslo already bidding and who, though I grew more tepid about them lately, present a far more relevant project. I do not think either that the huge distances is the only problem, that bid's narrative is inexistant and much weaker than that of Oslo and even weaker than that of Beijing / Krakow.
Next...
Just out of curiousity:-)
When it comes to the winter games, could you give an example of "exciting, creative or great"? I'm genuinely interested in what you have in mind and why Stockholm wouldn't offer that given that they do build all these outdoor venues (sadly (depends on POV), not going to happen).
What have the narratives been for the previous hosts: Vancouver, Torino, Salt Lake City? What are they for the competitors from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland/Slovakia and China? I don't know how many great WG narratives there are or have been.
Sweden is a traditional winter sports nation with enthusiastic crowds, haven't yet hosted though applied 6 times. Just look at how many forumers here that want it in Sweden. That's not a bad narrative.. There's also the urban ski metropol part though questionable since Stockholm doesn't host outdoor events or have much ski terrain.
There aren't that many possible winter olympics narratives. There's a kiwi living in Molde that's very active online (SSC, airliners.net etc. I'm sure he's got a user here as well), and he always argues that New Zealand should host the WG. Now that would be a narrative. But how great an olympics would it really be? There are endless problems. Scheduling and local interest being two obvious ones.
Åre-Stockholm 600 km.. (400 miles)
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Sad about Munich. But for all those who are now crowing Oslo - haven't several people posted that Oslo doesn't yet have the needed financial guarantees from the national government? What if they don't get them.
Correct me if I've misunderstood, but I don't think Oslo has this wrapped in Munich's absence, at all.
**er, make that CROWNING Oslo.
That is correct. Stortinget, that is the parliament, will finally vote over financial guarantees (practically, financial support as well) after the bid has been through external evaluation, which it is currently undergoing.
If Stockholm chooses to "formally announce their interest", they will also not yet have been through any kind of political process or have financial guarantees, so they will also have this obstacle.
Today's outcome might make it more probable with governmental support, since the "Munich scare" no longer exists, but it touches right into heated district debates and it's impossible to say (for me, right now) which way it'll turn. The new cabinet has strikingly few members from Oslo, but the minister of sports and culture luckily supports the olympics.
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Oslo is not boring, and will become an instant success like Lillehammer was in 1994
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJjOh2vDChA
Let's tone it down a little, eh?:-)
Obviously for those who want to see the olympics in Oslo, that has suddenly become much more probable, but we also love the WG and as such it's a sad day.
Doping...
in Sochi 2014 Sports / Events Discussions
Posted
5 positives, but 4 are for the known contaminant Methylhexhanamine.
Basically, everyone who gets caught for this stimulant will use the "vitamin", "sports gel" "energy bar" defence, cause it's known to be a contaminant in some of these products without being on the label. So as an athlete you can try to prove that it was a mistake as the cyclist Rui Costa succesfully did, but that will certainly take some effort and hard evidence.
Many athletes might use this stimulant for its performance enhancing effect, we simply don't know, or they were just stupid and unlucky. It's just hard to believe that so many pros would be that careless. Use "safe" vitamins/proteins for god's sake...,
Getting busted on EPO is a wildly different animal. Then you're a blood doper and you know the tricks. In my opinion, there's no reason at all to let people caught for EPO or other forms of blood doping back to sports. If it's unquestionable, it should be a ban for life.