My preliminary analysis from the recent Audi FIS World Cup, Levi

...because, after watching the race on my couch, I thought there might be something odd to be found from the results.

…and only preliminary, because I think there could still be more in the available data.

Anyway, I have the couch time at the moment, because of the (evident) tendonitis and consequently extra spare time. So, I typed some of the 1^st run data to my excel and played around a little bit.

I was delighted to watch my old friends skiing today and even more so, impressed by Joonas and Jens blasting the upper part of Levi Black. Evidently pretty damn fast skiing, but we'll come to this a little later.

So far I've only ran some basic calculations between skiers and nations. I decided to go with the top 40 an exclude solo nation representatives - namely Ryding, Kryzl and Khorosilov and just figured out some average nation rankings for the 1^st run. Levi Black is said to be one of the easier slopes in World Cup circus and it certainly has some features for analysis. It is quite simple in terms of shape: flat – steep – flat. More importantly the people at Levi are apparently the best in business, when it comes to the art of slope preparation. In other words, they inject the slope just right with water to make it icy, but in perfect balance, to hold for the whole competition. The difference between bibs is subtle, but arguably of course not negligent. However, the slope conditions at Levi even things up and the differences aren't huge.

A background note: Whilst I skied almost ten years ago, I can remember myself and my friends watching our Swedish and Norwegian compatriots just flying through the flatter parts of the slope. They knew how to 'run' across the plains. Apparently, things have changed. Today the Finnish skiers ousted our Nordic compatriots on the upper part of Levi Black.

So, from the first run results for the top 40 as national averages (2 or more skiers, n=37)presented as Total time, Start to Interval 2 (i.e. The upper flat) and Interval 2 to Finish (i.e. The steep).

One more thing:

Even though our guys rocked the upper flat, we lost considerable amount of time from Interval 3 to the finish line, which consisted of bit of steep and flat. That loss could be a result of few factors. Is it due to a crucial mistake, or maybe something to do with the energy systems or concentration. I can't say, but only think of probable answers. Anyhow mastering the first flats and declining at the last is an opportunity. The sheer 'flat flying' skill did not disappear at the steep.

These stats aren't to be taken too seriously, but maybe goes to raise interest in general.

To conduct a proper analysis of flats, I'd need to go through the videos, time each skier separately and not bluntly use official splits. As it is, I haven't included a video analysis of every performance to account for mistakes made, but as far as I remember – it is part of the sport. Analysing performance and split times in ski racing could yield insight and has therefore a potential for marginal gains.

Whilst I haven't done anything but some averages, I want to bring this babble to a conclusion. Being within two tenths from second round is good, very good indeed. There are great things to come as the season gets bit further, I believe. I keep watching you guys ;)