FasterSkier

Tag: Ivan Batory

  • Career Retrospective: Ivan Batory

    Woo hoo! Another classic specialist! Ivan Batory has been around the block a few times. The first WC race I have for him is all the way back in the 1994 season. Let’s see, I think I was a freshmen in high school that year.

    Among Batory’s top 30 results, 63 were classic, 31 freestyle and 20 in mixed technique events (i.e. pursuits). While his best results were undeniably weighted towards classic races, his median results actually weren’t that lopsided:

    At least, they weren’t too lopsided during his heyday. As he got older, Batory did seem to let his skating slip a bit. He dabbled in sprinting, during the early days of the event:

    But as you can see pretty quickly was displaced by the “true” sprinters and never had much luck with it after that. If we take a somewhat cruder look has his (World Cup-level) distance results using finishing place:

    We can see that Batory’s “golden era” spanned roughly from 1999-2003. The 2003-2004 season was a big drop-off for him, and top results got thinner each year after that.

    With some of these older skiers with very long careers, I think it’s fun to remind people when they retire how they did at World Juniors. In his first trip, Batory finished 21st and 22nd. The next year he finished 14th and 2nd. Both years his better race at World Juniors was the classic event.

    While he had many, many top-30 results over his long career, Batory finished with only 3 podium results, but 26 top 10 results. My point here is, of course, that his success at World Juniors probably correlates well with his large number of top 10 or top 30 results. But the next step to finishing in the top three repeatedly is probably a big jump from 10th place, and not easily distinguished using 4 races when he was 19.

    Related posts:

    1. <Career Retrospective: Rene Sommerfeldt
    2. <Career Retrospective: Laurence Rochat
    3. <Career Retrospective: Tore Ruud Hofstad


  • Team 16: Slovakia

    Team 16: Slovakia

    Slovakia

    Nations Cup Ranking: 16th (419 pts)

    Men: 14th (211 pts)

    Women: 18th (208 pts)

    2010/2011 A Team (Best estimate)

    Men

    Ivan Batory

    Martin Bajcicak

    Peter Mlynar

    Michael Malak

    Women

    Alena Prochazkova

    What you may have missed last season:

    Alena Prochazkova finally cementing herself firmly in a position of authority in the Sprint Cup rankings. Prochazkova had sprinting dialed in last season, making the heats in every start she had on the World Cup. Furthermore, she capitalized on her chances, nailing down a bronze medal in her first start of the season in Kuusamo, then making another third place finish in Prague on the Tour de Ski.

    Prochazkova (13) trails Kuitunen on her way to a bronze medal on the 2009/2010 Tour de Ski Prague sprint.

    Meanwhile, her male team mate Martin Bajcicak avoided anything that looked like a sprint, doing his best work over 50 kilometers in Oslo, placing ninth. Between Bajcicak and Ivan Batory, the Slovaks had competent if not outstanding skiing, and even managed a 4×10 k relay team at the Olympics.

    What You Should Know For This Season

    YouTube thinks Ivan Batory’s classic technique is awesome!

    At 26, Alena Prochazkova has emerged in the last couple of years as a bona fide sprint star. She’s versatile, excelling at both classic and skate, and just hitting her prime. While all the summer sprint talk was about Petra Majdic, and how terrible the Oslo World Championship sprint course is, Prochazkova is worthy of a discussing as a very legitimate contender.

    Who You Should Watch

    While Peter Mlynar didn’t exactly blow anybody’s socks off with his performance at the Olympics, finishing 57th in the sprint and helping the relay team to 12th, his age is to his advantage. At 22, with the limited quality and quantity of men on the Slovakian team, Mlynar was given starts last year to gain experience, and there is no reason to think, especially after posting a strong sprint result at Under-23 World Championships, that things will change this season. And Mlynar has been working on his sprinting!