Recent comments in /f/sports

Buckscience t1_jadml24 wrote

Reply to Jessie Diggins is first U.S. cross-country skier to win individual world title by smackslips

Jessie is an indisputably great person, and an amazing ambassador for the sport. In 2011(?) she raced nationals in Rumford, ME, and wrote a glowing letter thanking everybody--volunteers, the town, the spectators. Next year they returned to Rumford, so I somehow contacted her and asked her if she'd visit our school to speak. She declined that, with busy schedule, and wanting to reduce exposure to the cesspool of germs in a school, but offered to ski with the middle school team I coached. She brought along Jennie Bender, who was also a pretty big-deal racer. My son was in 8th grade at the time, and has gone on to ski collegiately and now coaches at Alaska-Fairbanks, in no small part because of Jessie and Jennie.

She's a hero.

63

cho_bits t1_jadj5hy wrote

Reply to comment by niems3 in Jessie Diggins is first U.S. cross-country skier to win individual world title by smackslips

Ah yeah fair point! Skate didn’t replace classic. I’m Just glad more people are learning about the sport as a whole! I saw an interview with Kikkan Randall a few years ago and she talked about how she’s a huge celebrity in Europe and then she goes home and nobody recognizes her, even though at the time she was one of the best and most successful athletes representing the US.

12

budgreenbud t1_jadcljq wrote

Reply to comment by 5m1tm in New Zealand defeat England by 1 run in the 2nd Test Match at Wellington by IntoThePeople

This all I know about cricket.

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game

4

AGreatBandName t1_jadb0oi wrote

Reply to comment by FSchmertz in Jessie Diggins is first U.S. cross-country skier to win individual world title by smackslips

Cross country skiing is not a mass participation sport in the US. I live in a place that gets reliable snow (or at least it used to up until a decade ago), and you would really have to seek out xc ski racing. Every high school has basketball teams in my area, but very few have xc skiing even though it would be a good complement to track (spring) and cross country running (fall).

Yes there is a lot of potential for finding the best with a higher population, but if these people never get introduced to the sport it won’t happen. On the other hand Norway has a population of less than Minnesota, but routinely dominates xc and biathlon. (Speaking of biathlon, you’d think the US would be good at it because, ya know, guns, but it’s the only Olympic sport we’ve never medaled in)

Hopefully one thing that will come out of the success of the American women in xc skiing over the past few years is increased interest in the sport, not just competitively but also recreationally. If nothing else it would give the people in my area a fun activity to do in the winter so they’d stop bitching every time it snows.

28