Beleaguered Chromiak Needs Cross Country Gold

1:52 & 2:02 PM PST - Cross Country SkiingCross country skiing will hold its shortest race today, the Individual Sprint Classic. The women's finals are at 1:52 with the men's final scheduled 10 minutes later.

Unlike most cross country races which reward endurance and end in 15 second margins of victory, the sprint is a short, but tough and aggressive race with competitors closely bunched together.

Sweden (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined) and Norway (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club) have the top two men's teams and are huge rivals in the sport. Banker's Club really needs a strong performance as they're currently mired in eighth place. A finish like that would really tarnish Zach Chromiak's heretofore pristine fantasy reputation, and could even have repercussions in 2010 Fantasy Baseball and beyond.

At press time, the normally even-tempered Chromiak was visibly nervous and had clearly lost some confidence - celebrating such minor victories as decent times in qualifying rounds.

Sweden's Emil Jönsson is my choice for the gold. He took golds in the last World Cup race as well as the most recent race at Whistler.
Norwegian Ola Vigen Hattestad, the 2009 World Cup champion, has been publicly saying that Jönsson is the overwhelming favorite. That's more of a psychological ploy as the two skiers are pretty close. I'm picking Hattestad for silver but really it could go either way.

Norway's Petter Northug, a versatile skier who's good at distance and short events, is my choice for bronze. Another Swede, Bjorn Lind, is back to defend his Turin gold medal, but 32 is old in cross country years and I think he won't make the podium.

In the women's race, I'm taking Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches) for gold. That would be a minor upset but the Bitches have skied with passion and Olympic spirit.

Petra Majdic of Slovakia (undrafted) is the favorite and my choice for silver. She was sixth at Turin but has really improved since then and leads the world rankings.

There's a huge drop off after the top two skiers, creating a wide open race for the bronze. Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland (Tim Lavoie/Fightin' Ovechkins), a top ten finisher in every World Cup race this season, is my choice. Other contenders are Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Slovakia’s Vesna Fabjan. Canadian Chandra Crawford (undrafted) won the gold four years ago but I think she'll finish out of the running.