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Actually I thought Deneriaz winning the downhill was one of the highlights of the last Olympics (or perhaps it was one of the only bits I watched). Great drama, the favourite thought he had won and then this Frenchman goes and snatches the gold in the very last run. It was quite something.

I also think the discipline is great as it seems to favour slightly overweight-looking men, who don't look like great sportsmen at all!

I agree with everything in the blog above.
Of course my views are those of a mop haired, headphone wearing muppet with the crotch of my trousers around my knees..............

Half pipe over dowhill??? Please! Half pipe with the height they get and the tricks some guys can pull is very exciting but hurtling down a downhill course at close to 80mph on the edge of control will always be the best. As for the "not great sportsmen at all comment", some of the downhill guys may look a bit overweight, but these guys are phenomenal athletes having seen what they can do in the gym and also the punishment their legs take on a single run, the likes of Wengen, the guys are on the limit for over 2 and a half mins. That run takes normal skiiers the best part of half an hour!

Down Hill skiing is an amazing sport. dangerous, fast and technical. but it just isn't as memorable these days because every single run, from the spectators point of view, looks almost identical except perhaps for the massive bails that happen.

snowboarders have been competing in the winter Olympics for a fair few years now. and like the blog says, the superpipe is taking over the downhill in popularity. I feel that if Freestyle skiing OTHER than mogul skiing was introduced it would make the whole winter Olympic experience much more memorable. this year at winter X games Freestyle skiing was pushed to absolutely incredible limits. Introducing Freestyle skiing may give skiing as a whole a new face lift and perhaps some people will remember the downhill champion as well.

This is maybe a brit-centric view as skiing is a minority sport in the UK (as is boarding)and I think CURLING got the biggest UK viewing figures for the last games. Maybe the French or the Swiss for example would see it differently. I'd like to see a pure downhill boarding race introduced, similar to the skiing - no gimmicks, just flat out speed on a challenging track - better than the slalom for me! I've never heard a border say "oh, let's go slaloming!". Also, no mention of the ski-jump in your summary of sports there.

Interesting discussion but there is a key point being missed!! As a huge sports fan I can love watching events like the half-pipe. However I don't really know what tricks out rank others and what 'tweaks' to look out for making a good spin great. Same really with all the freestyle sports, unless you have a little experience as a spectator you simply wait for the scores and listen to the commentators in order to follow the action.
Downhill on the other hand is universally understood as a 'pure' sport where the fastest wins. No judges, no hidden difficulty and no confusion. That for me is what makes it the blue ribbon event, anyone can tune in and appreciate what they are witnessing as something very special..

I have always despaired when a week after the Olympics have finished I can't remember the name of the men's downhill winner!

And no, no event will mean more to me than the men's downhill. Yes, others are faster (and as we have seen the inherent danger levels that go with higher speed are evident in those events too), others may offer to some a greater "cool" factor, some may seem more spectacular, but the event that just sums up the whole winter Olympics in one place is the men's downhill. Always will be.

One aspect of the Olympic events that often makes them a worse spectacle than World Cup races is the restrictions on numbers from each country. IIRC, it's 4 per country. This means that when one nation has a particularly strong team, you can get a situation in which skiers well in the top 15 in the world rankings are not allowed to compete, while no-hopers from minor countries are allowed to ski, even when they may be barely good enough to ski the downhill safely, never mind quickly. I'm all for maximising participation, but this is the biggest exposure a skiing event gets, so surely the sport needs to showcase all of its best athletes. They need to let in at least the top 30 automatically, irrespective of nationality. A further consequence of this policy is that a squad of 4+ strong skiers from, for example, Austria, have to treat training runs as races against each other just to make the team, and can then be more tired than the other skiers on the day of the actual race. The whole event is thus organised in a manner that makes it more likely that you'll get unexpected winners, like Jean-Fluke Cretier (only top-class race he ever won!).

But I can't let off the ±«Óãtv that lightly either. How can one expect ANY skier's "name may just ring a bell outside skiing circles" when there's so little coverage of World Cup skiing compared to decades gone by. It's the media themselves who create "standout superstars in downhill skiing" as much as in anything else. If they'd be more creative about how they cover the sport, show better angles that give a true impression of just how incredibly steep, icy and fast many of the courses (even slalom, let alone downhill) are (the coverage from Kitzbuehel for example, was spectacular), I'm sure more of the public would be interested.

And it'll be a sad day if the snowboard half-pipe is ever regarded as the blue-riband event. "The danger, the bravery of flying 20ft high out of a huge icy pipe"?? Please. To echo rastafairy5, that'll never match skijumpers launching themselves over 130m through the air! That's well over the length of any football or rugby pitch. I've stood at the top of the Lake Placid ski jump tower in the summer, and that was terrifying enough!

(If you've made it here, thanks for reading!)

Lord spare us the snowboarding. I'm not saying all the tricks look the same, but it does look like 1001 ways to grab a bit of the board ("did you catch that awesome air-to-fakie, dude?"). Downhill skiers look sleek because they need to squeeze every ounce of aerodynamic efficiency from their suits. Snowboarders, well, don't seem to have any such constraints - the baggier and trendier their clothing is, the better. No doubt boarding aficionados will claim that the loose fit is necessary for maneuverability but skin-tight spandex would be just as effective, if not as cool to look at. The record for a half-pipe jump is just under 25 feet - held by a skier, no less. Personally, I'd be happy if snowboarding stayed in the X-Games - unless we want the motto to be "faster, higher, stronger, trendier"...

I think that some of the comments made here are spot on.

Skiing is the preserve of the middle classes in the Uk and its participation and following is severely limited as a result. In Europe this is not the case and the athletes are of a much higher profile.

The issue of standards is not one which applies, would for instance the same people be critical of the percentage allocation by country if there were competitions where there was only participation from one nation. This would be particularly prevalent in some more niche snow-sports that are featured at the x-games. I am sure the europeans would not relish cheering on an all USA event.

The olympics is about a world competition where participation from other countries that wouldn't normally make the grade should be encourages, no Eddie the Eagle, no cool running's and this year no snow leopard from Ghana. The participation of these competitors encapsulates the spirit of the olympics.

Half-pipe is a bit too flim flam and subjective if you want my opinion whereas you cant argue with the clock!

I think that some of the comments made here are spot on.

Skiing is the preserve of the middle classes in the Uk and its participation and following is severely limited as a result. In Europe this is not the case and the athletes are of a much higher profile.


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Very true.

And not just of skiing.

Horse-riding and tennis are two other sports which are the preserve of the comfortable in the UK but are pursued elsewhere by 'ordinary' folk.

There's still far too much of a class-system in the UK for it to ever really prosper at Winter Olympics.

No, the class system is not the reason that Britain doesn't prosper at the Winter Games. There are two rather more significant reasons we don't do very well. In no particular order:

1) Lack of mountains
2) Lack of snow

Both are rather more fundamental.

In reply to mattyc:

I take your point that sports that are pursued predominantly in only one country would not make great Olympic viewing, but I don't think such sports should be in the Olympics to begin with. As you say, the X-Games is probably where they should stay until they have broader appeal and participation.

And I agree that the Olympics should encourage entries from all countries, subject to (not too restrictive) performance standards. However, I also think that if the Olympics wants to be considered the pinnacle of sporting competition, they need to make sure that all of the best athletes are included. The current quotas and some national selection procedures (the brutal US track & field trials being a particularly bad case) mean that often doesn't happen. Granted, achieving both these aims might cause logistical challenges due to the number of athletes involved. And it's true, some countries may be particularly strong in some sports. For example, the 100m sprint (summer, now) might boil down to a purely USA vs Jamaica final. So be it; that would still be one heck of an amazing race!

I have a slightly different slant on the Olympic spirit; to me it should be a celebration and appreciation of the very best athletic achievements arising from the toughest possible competition. Such performances will inspire excitement and admiration in audiences all over the world, no matter where the athletes are from.

I think there are some slightly old-fashioned, rather arrogant, comments towards some of the freestyle sports here. For example, saying sports should stay in the X-Games until they have broader appeal and participation doesn't quite fit when Half-pipe, Slopestyle and Boarder/ Skier Cross (those with the strongest case for being in the Olympics) have top competitors from a wide range of countries (US, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway, France etc). The women's slopestyle champion for the last 2 years is even English. Of course there are more US entrants, as it's an invitation only event held in the US, but across the TTR, Winter Dew Tour and World Cup events there are probably a similar amount of countries represented as in Downhill.

Also, whilst ski jumping and many other Winter sports are very dangerous, it doesn't detract from the fact halfpipe also is, as shown by the fact that probably the second best in the world is currently in hospital with a traumatic brain injury suffered from a crash during a backflip. They may not go as fast or as high as ski jumpers, but I also don't see too many ski jumpers attempting double-corked 1080's in the air. It's a technically very difficult sport and deserves some respect.

As to the image of snowboarders portrayed above, I doubt there's an Olympian who works harder than Shaun White to stay at the top, regardless of what clothes he turns up in (he even had his own half pipe built to practice for the Olympics). It takes a special kind of determination to pick yourself up after smacking your head on the lip to still come back and land the run perfectly the next time to win gold, as he did in last month's X-Games superpipe final.

I'm a skier, but you can't fail to see that freestyle skiing and boarding have much wider appeal to the younger generation than downhill does. Both are extremely challenging in their own right, but both should have their place at the Olympics.

I do agree that the major advantage of downhill is that it's not as subjective as judged sports, but that never stopped Ice Skating grabbing the attention here when Torville and Dean won gold. Besides, there's always skier cross if you prefer a clear winner!

Here in Switzerland if Didier Cuche wins then it will cement him as even more popular than Roger Federer (who has the temerity to have a place in Dubai!!)and it will always be the main event of all Olympic cycles (summer & winter).

What a dumb column. In spite of it's popularity among younger viewers, snowboarding will never match downhill as a 'blue riband' sport.
Ask yourself this one question. Which gold medal do you think Canada would have preferred to end their drought with, Moguls or Downhill. The answer's a no-brainer.
These events are fun but they are more like a circus act than a sport.
Canadian officials know, that for them to truly be able to say this games was a success, and that they 'own the podium' they have to take gold in a major event, several, in fact.

Halfpipe will never replace something like downhill simply because it involves judges. Faster, higher, further, judged better? Nah, doesn't quite work.

Yes, I know loads of other Olympic sports use judges, but pretty much every one has had big problems over the years with them. The Olympics should be looking to lose judged sports, not adding more, especially as for a layman to have a chance of understanding what's going on you need an expert commentator and a slow motion camera. Exciting? Actually, no, not remotely (even live, which I've tried).

We're asked if we remember the downhill champions. Well, yes I do. But I can't remember ANY freestyle champions.

A biased viewpoint? Well, I'm no downhiller, with my main winter sport being cross-country skiing, and my real favourite watching (even if not the most exciting) is the biathlon, so I don't think so. I'd still rate the downhill as essential viewing, but not the halfpipe.

The different elements and disciplines are what makes the Olympics special. Downhill is an exciting spectical and will always carry the prestige, you cannot argue with first down the mountain, granted they don't have usian bolt at the moment to liven things up but i'll still be watching.

Being a boarder myself its quite disapointing to hear some comments about halfpipe staying in the x-games etc. These people are just too lazy to learn what to look out for. The boundaries are being pushed on again particularly with double cork tricks, just check out Danny Davis's record breaking run at the US qualifiers in Mammoth last month to see whats going on.

The halfpipe attracts a different audience to the games and the olympics needs to appeal to the widest possible spectrum in order to validate its existence. I'm for including more freestyle disciplines such as slopestyle and big air, these are great to watch, even when skiers are doing it. Quite frankly if the slopestyle was included then jenny jones would be the best chance for a british gold, nevermind the luge or curling!

As for which is better the downhill or the halfpipe, just relax and enjoy a programme of events that only comes round every 4 years. Heck I even watched some biathlon last night and sorry Will but that really is boring!!

Ski jumping is my personal favourite.

Shaun White's half-pipe (and foam pit) at Silverton was built by his main sponsor. It's expensive, but is a *huge* advantage in trick development - but if it keeps their investment on top of the sport... ...I'm not dissing Shaun - he's got a great life story - but the idea that one guy can be so dominant indicates that the sport is still, well, developing. As for double-corkscrew 1080s, do folks not watch freestyle skiing? I've enjoyed the snowboard-cross and I will watch the half-pipe but it would be interesting to see a boarder on the ski jump or good downhill course (the Hahnenkamm, for example).

Sorry, but as a casual viewer (which is after all the majority of the viewers) the skiing is invariably boring. The snowboard cross (first time I've seen it) was thrilling! Four people on the same course hurtling at speed around an icy course had me up until 1am!

Skiing is dead. Long live boarding

What utter nonsense about the class system being to blame! It's geography pure and simple. Do you think that every person in France has the chance to go skiing? No because some of them live too far from the mountains. But in the Alpine areas, the kids do it in PE.

By the way, I think snowboard cross is more exciting than half pipe. But I adore watching the downhill. Why the need for an argument about it? Why can't you love both?