I think most people generally have a sense for how the past World Cup season went for the North Americans. What I’m going to do over the next few posts is to simply show some data that hopefully provides some context for what you already know. I’m going to split them into four posts for […]
Tagged alex harvey, canada, devon kershaw, Distance, kris freeman, men, noah hoffman, season review, USALast time we tackled the question of ‘home snow advantage’, but only for distance events. The methodology I’m going to follow for sprinting is nearly the same, though obviously we can’t use the same performance measure. I’m not going to repeat myself much, so go back and read Monday’s post if you think you need […]
Tagged Analysis, home snow advantageThe folks at Nordic Commentary Project were kind enough to point me towards an interesting book that raises the issue of ‘home snow advantage’. I actually haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, but the question of a home snow advantage is certainly an interesting one and it’s one that I haven’t talked […]
Tagged Analysis, home snow advantagePacing is a frequent topic of conversation in skiing, or really any endurance sport. Typically, the refrain is ‘don’t start to fast‘. In fact, I feel like I hardly ever hear people recommending that one should start a race harder. It must happen occasionally (and I’ll share a story about this later), but I suspect […]
Tagged pacing, splitsI’ve fussed in the past about the weaknesses of FIS points in distance events, but they really are quite useful. Â Sprint events, however, just don’t have an equivalently simple and useful numerical summary. Â I’ve resorted to using the final finishing rank (i.e. what place you came in, after the elimination rounds), but I’ve never been […]
Tagged Analysis, Athlete Ranking, Sprint, technicalThis is the final post in a four part series on rookie performance on the World Cup. Â To recap: we’re trying to quantify differences in the level of preparation among athletes from different nations upon first entering the World Cup circuit. Â A “rookie skier” for our purposes is one who’s done seven or fewer races […]
Tagged Analysis, rookies, Sprint, US Skiing, World CupCan I just say that if Google Analytics is hopelessly addictive for normal people, then for data-loving people like me it’s quite possibly the most addictive substance ever. Â One thing I’ve learned with the small amount of traffic I’ve had so far is that people seem to like the athlete rankings. Â At least, more than […]
Tagged rankings