Author Archives: specialk

From heaven to hell in 5 seconds

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The Olympic Quarterfinal women’s pursuit between Germany and the US produced the most amazing race.

The German racer, Anna Friesinger-Postma,  bonked, pulled a muscle, who knows, but she was failing with one lap left to go. And then with no gas left in the tank she fell on the ice and hurtled herself towards the finish line.

She falls on the ice and slides into the finish line.

Convinced she had blown it for her team she was on the ice pounding her hand onto the rink in frustration. She didn’t even bother to look at the result, because she knew they had lost. She knew she had failed her team. And the team was also convinced that they had lost.

But no. She had managed to cross the line just before the Americans … And her absolute determination to cross that line at all costs had paid off.

From heaven to hell in 5 seconds.

There is a body of research

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So I was curious to read about ski waxing. And I thought, well maybe there is some home-brew, anecdotal, crappy knowledge, but there isn’t any real science behind this.

Uh no.

There isn’t just some research out there, there is a body of research on the topic.

There is a field. I found this thesis which concentrates on a subset of the co-efficients  that affect the performance of skii’s.

Click to access LTU-LIC-0603-SE.pdf

I’m sorry.

I didn’t realize. Waxing at the Olympic level requires a Ph.D..

The countries with the deepest research departments, and the best athletes have a decided edge.

Wow.

The Olympics, they are complete — A figure skating controversy

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How wonderful. The Figure Skating competition has, once again a controversy.

On the one hand, we have Plushenko executing maneuvers that no one else did, but was flawed.

On the other hand, we have Evan Lysacek who executed the maneuvers he could execute, perfectly.

And then the debate emerges.

Was attempting flawed stronger moves more valuable than executing safe moves perfectly?

The scoring encourage perfection at the expense of experimentation.

Which is unfortunate and sad.

But ultimately, winning an event is about optimizing for the rules that are presented to you, not to argue that the rules are wrong…

So I agree with Plushenko, but Lysacek deserved to win.

I am a wimp, Petra Majdic is not.

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This woman broke four ribs in a horrific accident.

She could have called it quits.

But nope, she didn’t.

She came in third claiming bronze.

With four FUCKING BROKEN RIBS.

I’ve broken a rib.

It hurts like a bitch.

The idea that she could compete at a level necessary to claim a medal, is unreal.

So I am a wimp. Petra Majdic is not.

Maele wins Gold with Jacobellis hanging over as a dark cloud

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so the Canadian woman is in the lead. she has no chance of losing.

And the announcer says: in previous events we’ve seen how weird things can happen. All she has to do is focus. And you know not do what Jacobellis did.

Damn.

Poor Jacobellis. her life is permanently tied to a singular event with no hope for redemption.

I feel for her.

Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah: Yevgeny Plushenko

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I’m not an expert in figure skating.

I don’t understand the details of the sport.

But I do know greatness when I see it. Yevegny Plushenko put o a performance that was qualitatively better than anything I had seen before.

It was like greatness on ice.

And what was amazing was to hear the reaction of the announcers.

The announcer’s reaction was: Ah-ah-ah… aie – aie – aie ..

He was stammering …

The guy is a legend and is legendary.