This whole victims and nemeses thing is entertaining up to a point, but the most interesting about it is that it sometimes leads me to comparisons and graphs that I wouldn’t have thought of looking at otherwise. Â That’s what happened when I sat down today intending to dash off something quick about Kris Freeman’s victims […]
Tagged Analysis, Distance, jiri magal, kris freeman, mathias fredricksson, nemeses, pietro piller cottrer, victimsLast week I ranted a bit about the inadequacies of F-factors[1. The scaling factor FIS uses to adjust FIS points depending on whether the race was an interval or mass start.]. Â We looked at the results from interval vs. mass start races and determined that they do indeed produce different distributions of percent back’s (PB’s). […]
Tagged Athlete Ranking, Distance, eqpb, fis points, mass startThe Statistical Wife and I are getting pumped for the USA-Ghana game tomorrow. Â Whatever World Cup team you’re partial to (after the USA, I confess to having a soft spot for Holland), here’s a recap of what’s been going on here at Statistical Skier this week. Â A little light reading between soccer games, perhaps… I […]
Tagged week in reviewLast week I looked at the distance race results of some skiers who had been caught using performance enhancing drugs. Â A commenter wondered if I could show some data for “suspected dopers” as well. Honestly, I was a bit reluctant to do that. Â I mean, as much as I hate doping, the negative consequences of […]
Tagged dopingNext up in our retiring skier series is Sara Renner.  Renner (CAN) retired this past season after competing internationally for around 16 years.  She earned a Gold Silver medal at the Turin games in the Team Sprint event with Beckie Scott, but wasn’t quite as fortunate in individual events. (Update: Sorry for the typo!) However, along […]
Tagged retirement, retrospective, sara rennerI just finished reading a great article checking in with US biathlete Tim Burke as he gears up again for next season. Â I was vaguely aware that Burke had a great season last year but a disappointing Olympics, but I don’t follow biathlon as closely as cross country. Â So I thought I’d check some data […]
Tagged biathlon, profile, shooting, tim burkePreviously, I described some problems with using percent back (PB) as a basis for comparing race performances. Â Namely, mass start and interval start races produce very different types of PB’s. Â In this post we’ll briefly consider whether this problem is actually worth worrying about and then I’ll finish with a simple solution.
Tagged Analysis, Distance, eqpb, fis points, interval, mass, technical