The notion of an athlete preferring distance races of a particular length is pretty familiar, but what about sprinting? The differences between a 0.8km and a 1.8km sprint course may not seem like much compared to the differences between a 15km and 30km race. But (while I’m not a physiology expert) it seems likely to […]
Also tagged Analysis, holly brooks, jeori kindschi, Sprint, valentina novikova, World CupA commenter noted that it was interesting that Petra Majdic showed up as being “statistically significantly” better at longer distance races (as opposed to sprint races), although just barely. It turns out this is a good example of the statistical concept of leverage. Check out the following graph that compares skiers at each end of […]
Also tagged distance specialists, therese johaugWhat can you say about Petra Majdic? The Slovenian was delightfully hard to miss on the ski trails. Known as a classic sprint specialist, she was no slouch at distance events either: From 2002 forward, that is some very consistent skiing, year in, year out. I realize that standardized percent behind the median skier may […]
Also tagged career retrospective, retirement, Sprint, women, World Cup