Danger in the Slopestyle Event!

[Near]

I wonder how different the judging will be in ski slopestyle - pretty sure it won't be the same judges.

 

[cheerio2]

Apparently there has been some kerfuffle over the judging in men's snowboarding slopestyle.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/sochi..._brings_slopestyle_judging_into_question.html

Mark McMorris laid down a run with two triple corks — something so on the edge of this sport that it was done for the first time just three weeks ago — and he was beaten by someone who only did doubles.

http://www.businessinsider.com/olympic-slopestyle-judging-system-2014-2

Yahoo's Jeff Passan did a story on how the sport is judged. Here are the basics:

Riders are graded on a 1 to 100 scale based on entirely on "overall impression."
The judges are allowed to talk to each other, and the head judge can suggest changes.
The official judging criteria urges judges to consider difficulty, amplitude, execution, variety, progression, and combinations. But there are no objective metrics for those factors. There's no strict definition for which tricks are more difficult than others, or by how much. The official judges manual says "difficulty is very individual" to each rider.
The judging is being conducted by a skiing federation, the FIS, not by snowboarders.

^ A score based only on "overall impression"? The judges can talk to each other? No objective metrics for anything? WOW. There is finally a sport that's judged worse than figure skating

 

[ice coverage]

http://www.businessinsider.com/olympic-slopestyle-judging-system-2014-2

The judging is being conducted by a skiing federation, the FIS, not by snowboarders.

Random FYI:

A profile of one of the Olympic slopestyle judges -- who herself is a snowboarder and snowboarding coach -- aired last night on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.

So happens that the profiled judge is Phoebe Mills, who decades ago was an Olympic medalist in gymnastics. (Her sister is Jessica Mills, the former skater.)

 

[treeloving]

I have no idea about this sport but I just watched it and feel terrified by the course and how many athlete felt down.

 

[Chemistry66]

Thank god for helmets with Sarka Pancochova's fall the other day. Saved her life by spreading the impact to crack the helmet rather than her head. She reportedly blacked out for a few seconds. According to my Czech friend, she felt sick during an interview and had to leave it early, but is fine now.

 

[karne]

Thank god for helmets with Sarka Pancochova's fall the other day. Saved her life by spreading the impact to crack the helmet rather than her head. She reportedly blacked out for a few seconds. According to my Czech friend, she felt sick during an interview and had to leave it early, but is fine now.

She was definitely unconscious for a moment, she was rag-doll limp as she rolled down the snow.

Yuki from Canada had a worse accident in the ski slopestyle last night - a crash with such force that it ripped her helmet off, and she wasn't moving. Apparently it's "just" a broken jaw. But again, to my noteknik eye, it just looked like skiier error, not a course problem.