Skiing - the Janica Kostelič thread

[zebu]

dont know if any of u r following skiing. i dont like to ski, didnt even watch skiing on tv before much. but since janica kostelic appeared pretty much everyone in zagreb watches it. anyways, if u have never heard about her shame on u! she has won now 24 races in world cup, and 4 medals on last olympics, 3 of them gold. this weekend she won 2 races, on sunday super g, which makes her one of 3 women ever to have won races in all five disciplines.

she had a terrible fall a year and something ago, could hardly walk and she came back in winning style. and were a country with 2 places where u can ski so its a great success. also she can ski perfectly without the stick and a glow and come third after 7th in first run. shes a big big fighter and torino could be great for her

[freddie]

See that's what bothers me with you Croatians. Skiing IS Janica Kostelič to you. No one was EVER enthusiastic about the sport in that country, until she came and started getting succesful. As soon as her results dropped off a bit Croatian TV stopped showing live feeds of world cup races. It was so clear how alpine skiing is nothing more than planet Janica to Croatians. Our skiers who used to be pretty good in the past are total crap these days, yet we still enthusiastically follow the sport, hoping Americans take away some glory from those darn annoying Austrians. We're an Alpine nation - we pretty much grew up with the sport and we follow it regardless of how good or bad our competitors are (though admitedly of course we'd prefer to see our people in front).

I admit Janica is a real phenomenon, though. Such a power-house. Almost man's phisique. The only one who can rival her (and is almost a bit better on a good day) is Anja Paerson. Janica is much stronger mentaly than Anja though.

My humble wish is a nice battle for victories in all the events between Anja and Janica, with Anja not succumbing to mental pressures again. Males: I want Bode Miller to regain his last years form and finally for once finish a GS or slalom. And I don't want Austrians to win. Especially Beniamin Reich.

[zebu]

yeah, i know whats ur trouble, you dont have janica and kostelić if u insist . course were not enthusiastic bout skiing when we dont have mountains. one good track wont make us a skiing nation. dont know whats so strange about that. but now we have all races on tv,man or woman even if ivica and janica dont ski, not true that they didnt show races when she was not good, just that not always national tv has the coverage.

[freddie]

Yeah that's what I'm saying. Nationa coverages ceased to exist after se started to suck. And now when she's back again, the coverages are predictably back, while we continued our coverages through 10 years of our skiing's suckage. It's also interesting how you make a thread titled "skiing" and then proceed to talk about Janica Kostelič as though as she was teh essence of skiing and nothing came before nor will came after her. Skiing is a great sport - much greater than just one individual.

[zebu]

i opened a skiing thread cos i didnt want to make a janica thread, not to make a too big deal out of it. but u somehow turned this into a thread bout janica and our tv coverage, which u didnt get what i said or whatever. anyways noone was upset while tennis thread was a federer one lol chill, its not my fault janica is better than all ur skiers

freddie: Not at all. I have no problem with Janica whatsoever, I just think the thread (since it's obviously about her and not alpine skiing in general), should be renamed appropriately. So I took the liberty to alter it slightly.

why then janica kostelič?? its kostelić