Mens downhill

After watching the mens downhill at Bormio, I found it interesting that a couple of new names seem to be appearing on the podiums. Now this could be for a few reasons, like a couple of injuries to the big names which is the case for a couple of unfortunate skiers, but is it also some of the skiers feel they have a decent chance of a medal at the winter Olympic games in Vancouver in a February? And they are backing off slightly to ensure getting down the mountain in one piece with some decent points to add to their championship. Now backing off slightly may sound like a crazy thing to do when these guys need to be committed 100% to their downhill run, but it does make sense. Backing off might mean doing 111 km/h rather than 115 km/h and coming in the top 10 instead of pushing and risking it all for that win. For the mere mortals that can only dream of skiing like these guys, which is most of us, we perhaps cannot appreciate the speeds and efforts required to get the ski edge to dig in at these speeds, but I for one have skied at a decent pace for my ability and I know that if I pushed a little faster, then the likely outcome would be taking a face full of snow as I slide down the piste in probably a spectacular wipeout that should be caught on camera and added to You Tube. So if my limit was 60km/h, which I am only guessing because I have never timed it and I skied at 55km/h that is probably enough to ensure I get down safely but not too far off my limit.

Now of course I am only speculating and it is my opinion, but whatever the reason I think it is great to see some new faces and names winning the downhill and could even carry that form through to the winter Olympics! which could make it very interesting to watch, bring on Vancouver.