Women's Alpine Skiing

Vanessa-Mae To Compete At Sochi. But Chemmy Alcott Will Probably Miss Out


World famous classical violinist Vanessa-Mae is to compete at Sochi!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/25802907

I couldn't quite believe it when I saw this story on John Kerr's Facebook page, but I went to the FIS website, and it is right enough!

Here is her FIS Bio:

http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography.html?sector=AL&competitorid=168683&type=result

I had always assumed that her first name was "Vanessa", and her surname was "Mae". But I only found out today that the "Mae" is actually part of a double-barrelled first name ("Vanessa-Mae"), and that her surname is actually Vanakorn.

As the story explains, she realised that she had no hope of being selected for the British team, so she is using her Dad's nationality to compete for Thailand.

And because Thailand doesn't have any other competitors, it has meant that Vanesssa-Mae only had to get the required points to qualify (Along the same lines that the TES is used to qualify in figure skating). And she did... by the skin of her teeth!


The irony is that it looks like the British top skiier, Chemmy Alcott, will probably not get to compete at Sochi.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/25800077

Chemmy broke her leg in August 2012, and was planning on making her comeback a Cortina d'Ampezzo yesterday. But the competition was cancelled because of bad weather, and the selections need to be made this week.

Personally, I am very annoyed that Chemmy left it to the last minute to make her competitive comeback. Like, she has been back training (with the Norwegian team) for a good while now, and has attended the past few races with the Norwegian coaches.

So, since she was at the race meetings anyway, why did she not enter?! When you have been out of action for a year-and-a-half, what difference is coming back a week or 2 early going to make?!

You can't control the weather. Every meeting has the risk of the weather forcing it to be cancelled hanging over it. So, give yourself a couple of opportunities to make the comeback, rather than restrict it to just the one.

Chemmy's team were very foolish not to take this into consideration, and it has probably now cost her an Olympic appearance.

Good luck to Vanessa-Mae!

CaroLiza_fan


BBC (all times GMT)

Monday 10th February 2014
07:00 – 08:30 AS Women’s Super Combined Downhill
11:00 – 12:00 AS Women’s Super Combined Slalom

Wednesday 12th February 2014
07:00 – 09:00 AS Women’s Downhill

Saturday 15th February 2014
07:00 – 09:00 AS Women’s Super G

Tuesday 18th February 2014
07:00 – 09:00 AS Women’s Giant Slalom Run 1
10:30 – 12:00 AS Women’s Giant Slalom Run 2

Friday 21st February 2014
12:45 – 14:00 AS Women’s Slalom Run 1
14:30 – 15:50 AS Women’s 4x6km Relay
16:15 – 17:15 AS Women’s Slalom Run 2

CaroLiza_fan said:

And because Thailand doesn't have any other competitors, it has meant that Vanesssa-Mae only had to get the required points to qualify (Along the same lines that the TES is used to qualify in figure skating). And she did... by the skin of her teeth!

Good luck to Vanessa-Mae!

CaroLiza_fan

Click to expand...

Interesting story... the only competitor for Thailand, cool.

Not as tough requirements as in FS, I suppose. What I remember from slalom olympic competitions, the last ones are almost a minute after the best. I hope Vanessa is better than that :thumbsup:

CaroLiza_fan said:

Chemmy's team were very foolish not to take this into consideration, and it has probably now cost her an Olympic appearance.

CaroLiza_fan

Click to expand...

They could let he do a test skate... secretely... down a hidden slope...

Beethoven Babe

Good news: Chemmy Alcott has been selected to represent Britain: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/25820363

Near said:

Good news: Chemmy Alcott has been selected to represent Britain: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/25820363

Click to expand...

I haven't heard from her in awhile and this is the last place I would have expected to find any news about her. I wonder what other activities she is involved with? A "Renaissance" woman perhaps?

Near said:

Good news: Chemmy Alcott has been selected to represent Britain: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/winter-olympics/25820363

Click to expand...

That was so good to hear. You never like it when people lose out on an Olympic slot through circumstances like this that are beyond their control.

RABID said:

I haven't heard from her in awhile and this is the last place I would have expected to find any news about her. I wonder what other activities she is involved with? A "Renaissance" woman perhaps?

Click to expand...

Just in case any of you are wondering, the Cortina d'Ampezzo round that had to be cancelled last weekend has been re-scheduled. The Super G is today; the Downhill is tomorrow; another Downhill is on Saturday; and another Super G is on Sunday.

Chemmy Alcott was 42nd in the first run of this morning's Super G, setting a time of 1m 27.61s, which was 3.38s behind the leader.

So, although she has got her Olympic slot confired, it looks like she isn't going to be troubling the front-runners going into Sochi. :disapp:

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

Chemmy Alcott was 42nd in the first run of this morning's Super G, setting a time of 1m 27.61s, which was 3.38s behind the leader.

So, although she has got her Olympic slot confired, it looks like she isn't going to be troubling the front-runners going into Sochi. :disapp:

CaroLiza_fan

Click to expand...

Good for her to be on the team but 40+ place today also.

By the way, sorry for Lindsey Vonn being out injured

Is this an alpine thread now or... I would like one thread for each sport or it will be too confusing for me

snowflake said:

Good for her to be on the team but 40+ place today also.

Click to expand...

Chemmy got 2 more places in the 40's in the Downhill races - 41st yesterday, and 47th today.

snowflake said:

By the way, sorry for Lindsey Vonn being out injured

Click to expand...

I was gutted for Lindsey. When she came back at Lake Louise, I thought it was far too soon after her injury. But, she didn't do too badly, so I thought "aha! She might be doing a wise thing getting a few races in before the Olympics". And it might have worked if she had not crashed 2 weeks later.

That must be heartbreaking getting re-injured less than a month before the Olympics. Like, it must be an awful enough feeling not being able to defend your title. But what makes it worse is being realistic and knowing that you are at an age that you will probably not be competing when the next Olympics come around.

Ask Evan Lysacek.

snowflake said:

Is this an alpine thread now or... I would like one thread for each sport or it will be too confusing for me

Click to expand...

It always was an alpine thread, as that is what Vanessa-Mae is competing in!

She's been doing Slalom and Giant Slalom so far, so I assume it's these categories that she is doing in the Olympics.

If you want, I could ask the Mods to remove the specifics from the title of the thread, so that it is just "Alpine Skiing".

Or, are you talking about separate threads for each of the categories?

Slalom
Giant Slalom
Super G
Downhill
Super Combined

If it is this, it could be hard enough to separate them out, as most of the skiiers do 2 or 3 of the categories. So, there would be a lot of overlaps in the discussion.

But, let me know, and I'll see what I can do

CaroLiza_fan

I just meant that if we have a thread for each competitor there will be too many. One thread for all five alpine disciplines is fine with me. I think it was like that last olympics? Actually quite a few do all five disciplines(Chemmy, right?). I suppose the mods know what works best. I hope there will be lots of information here on all sports, not only figure skating. Perhaps a thread for each sport. Anyway, you made a good start with this interesting Vanessa-Mae/alpine thread :thumbsup:

Congrats to local Julia Ford on making the Olympic team! Speed on in Sochi!!

Its very sad what happened to Lindsay indeed, she is such a great person! I am quite confident Jules can win at least one medal again, even though Tina & Tina are very strong and never forget the Austrian girls either

Alex D said:

Its very sad what happened to Lindsay indeed, she is such a great person! I am quite confident Jules can win at least one medal again, even though Tina & Tina are very strong and never forget the Austrian girls either

Click to expand...

Obviously, if she gets selected, I will be supporting my fellow Northern Irelander, Florence Bell.

But, as for the front-runners, I will be supporting Tina Weirather. There is so much about her that I like!

1. She is a very good skiier, and has been steadily improving over the past few years to become a regular front-runner and genuine medal contender at just the right time.
3. Her parents (Harti Weirather and Hanni Wenzel) were both very successful alpine skiiers. And when you have a child following in their parents footsteps, you really want them to do well and do their parents proud. (Which is why it is so disappointing to see what has happened to Ksenia Makarova’s skating career…)
5. Like me, she is from a small country. And although it is successful in snow sports, Liechtenstein is not a country that is very successful in sport in general. Just like Northern Ireland (although with us, it is golf and motorbike racing that we are successful at!)
7. Oh, and she’s seriously hot!

As for Tina Maze, I thought it was amazing what she achieved last season. But, I feel she has got too distracted by the trappings of fame, and that it has been reflected in her results this year.

With an Olympics this season, Maze needed to have all her focus on that. But that is hard to do when you are not only a sportsperson, but also a national celebrity.

That said, I do like her song!

CaroLiza_fan

CaroLiza_fan said:

Obviously, if she gets selected, I will be supporting my fellow Northern Irelander, Florence Bell.

But, as for the front-runners, I will be supporting Tina Weirather. There is so much about her that I like!

1. She is a very good skiier, and has been steadily improving over the past few years to become a regular front-runner and genuine medal contender at just the right time.
3. Her parents (Harti Weirather and Hanni Wenzel) were both very successful alpine skiiers. And when you have a child following in their parents footsteps, you really want them to do well and do their parents proud. (Which is why it is so disappointing to see what has happened to Ksenia Makarova’s skating career…)
5. Like me, she is from a small country. And although it is successful in snow sports, Liechtenstein is not a country that is very successful in sport in general. Just like Northern Ireland (although with us, it is golf and motorbike racing that we are successful at!)
7. Oh, and she’s seriously hot!

As for Tina Maze, I thought it was amazing what she achieved last season. But, I feel she has got too distracted by the trappings of fame, and that it has been reflected in her results this year.

With an Olympics this season, Maze needed to have all her focus on that. But that is hard to do when you are not only a sportsperson, but also a national celebrity.

That said, I do like her song!

CaroLiza_fan

Click to expand...

Great post! I agree with everything and i wonder if those death threats are still somewhere in Tinas head blocking her skiing.

Also great to see that there is someone else, who has not forgotten Ksenia!

I miss her always smiling face, she had such beautiful programs.

Just wanted to let you know that I have gone through the schedules on the BBC website, and had added all the Women's Alpine Skiing events to the first post in this thread.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/2014/schedule/sports/alpine-skiing

But, be warned that there are no reliable TV listings. So, we will just have to rely on looking up the livestreams at the times that we know there is Alpine skiing being held.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

Yippee, the Women's Alpine Skiing is starting in about 15 minutes, with the Downhill segment of the Super Combined.

For those looking to know about the girls from the UK, neither Vanessa-Mae (representing Thailand) nor my local representative, Florence Bell (representing Ireland), are doing the Super Combined. But, Chemmy Alcott is, and will be starting 5th in the Downhill segment.

Unfortunately, the BBC is not showing the Downhill on the TV LIVE (it will be repeated at 08:00 GMT on BBCi1). So if you want to watch it LIVE, you'll have do it on their website.

Official BBC Livestream Channel

BBCi1 is available via:

Digital terrestrial (UK only): Ch. 301 on Freeview
Digital cable (UK only): Ch. 991 on Virgin Media
Digital satellite (Europe): Ch. 977 on SkyDigital

As the BBC seems to be giving each broadcast a different livestream link, I will provide details of how to watch the Slalom segment of the Super Combined nearer the time.

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

If you were planning on doing like me and watching the repeat on BBCi1 - it has started early!!!

Chemmy Alcott is currently doing her run.

That's what I hate about the BBC Interactive Channels - they never stick to their published schedule. What use is that when you're setting timers to record?!

Like, last night I decided to tape the Free Dance coverage on BBCi1 and watch the start of the Ski Jumping on the computer. And when I came to watch the Free Dance when the Ski Jumping was over, I found the BBCi1 coverage had cut away from the Free Dance to go to the Ski Jumping 20 minutes earlier than planned, just as Tessa and Scott were about to start!!!

Thankfully, I still had the streaming page up on the computer and was able to wind it back and watch it. So, I did get to see the Top 2 and the podium ceremony.

In light of this happening, I did the left the streaming page for the Alpine Skiing page open this morning as a precaution. So, I won't have missed anybody.

But, what would have happened if I had been recording the Free Dance because I was away out somewhere? I would have missed the "gold" and "silver" performances completely!

Bad job, BBC. Bad job.

CaroLiza_fan

The Slalom segment of the Super Combined will be starting in about 10 minutes.

Yet again, the BBC is not showing the Slalom on the TV LIVE (it is due to be repeated at 12:30 GMT on BBCi2). So if you want to watch it LIVE, you'll have do it on their website.

Official BBC Livestream Channel

This is NOT the same livestream page that was used for this morning's Downhill.

Digital terrestrial (UK only): Ch. 302 on Freeview
Digital cable (UK only): Ch. 992 on Virgin Media
Digital satellite (Europe): Ch. 978 on SkyDigital

But, going by my other experiences this past 24 hours, the coverage on BBCi could start at any time!

So, I for one am taking no chances - I'm watching the Slalom LIVE online!

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan

Congratulations to Maria Riesch on successfully defending her Olympic Super Combined title!!!

Mind you, of all the girls on the podium, I have a sneaky suspicion that Jules Mancuso was the happiest...!!!

It's been a while since I've seen somebody bouncing about so happy with getting third! But, there again, she did win the Downhill segment...

And, although she did not do the Slalom segment, well done to Chemmy Alcott for finishing 16th in the Downhill segment. Absolutely brilliant considering she has only recently come back from injury!

But I was absolutely gutted for Lara Gut. A brilliant 2nd in the Downhill, only to be undone in the Slalom with a DNF.

And Lizzie Goergl had the same fate, after finishing 7th in the Downhill.

Well, at least there'll be plenty of chances for them to make up for it between now and the end of the Olympics!

Wednesday morning to be precise, when we have the proper Downhill competition.

Looking forward to it already!

CaroLiza_fan

I love Julia Mancuso! She is such a free spirit.

Well I think she was thrilled because she hadn't been doing too well leading up to the Olympics...so for her to come back and get another medal is pretty awesome. And per this article she is one of only three athletes (and the only skier) to win individual medals in three straight Olympic games (and also has won the most medals among any U.S. woman skier).

Mrs. P said:

I love Julia Mancuso! She is such a free spirit.

Well I think she was thrilled because she hadn't been doing too well leading up to the Olympics...so for her to come back and get another medal is pretty awesome. And per this article she is one of only three athletes (and the only skier) to win individual medals in three straight Olympic games (and also has won the most medals among any U.S. woman skier).

Click to expand...

You know, I always got the impression that Julia was a bit of a "free spirit", as you put it. Like, anybody who puts their hair up the way she did in the photo used in the regular FIS graphics has to be that little bit mad (in a good way!)

And I loved the part where they showed Chemmy Alcott congratulating Julia after her run. I never realised they were friends, but seeing that left you in no doubt just how close they are.

I really hope Jules continues for a few more years, because it is great when you have characters like her in sports. And, although she may not be in Lindsey Vonn territory, she is a very good skiier. And with Lindsey out of action, US Skiing need a very good skiier to provide backup for Mikaela Schiffrin.

I hope Julia gets another good result in the Downhill today. And that Lara Gut gets a finish!

But, I am supporting Tina Weirather for the win!


Anyway, the Downhill competition starts in 15 minutes. And, as well as on the website, it is due to be shown LIVE in it's entirity on BBCi2

Official BBC Livestreaming Channel

This is NOT the same livestream page that was used for Monday's competitions.

Here are the details on how to receive BBCi2:

Digital terrestrial (UK only): Ch. 302 on Freeview
Digital cable (UK only): Ch. 992 on Virgin Media
Digital satellite (Europe): Ch. 978 on SkyDigital

Hope this helps

CaroLiza_fan