The Men’s Super-Combined takes place on Friday morning (Feb 14) with a start time of 2 a.m. ET for the downhill portion, while the slalom portion has a start time of 6:30 a.m. ET. The events will be televised live at www.nbcolympics.com or you can check your local listings to find out when you can catch the action on television, tape-delay style. Odds for the top 15 in the event are listed below, with a slightly detailed look at the top 6 in the field.
What is the Super-Combined? Skiers must complete one Downhill run and one Slalom run. Athletes ski a single run of each, and the fastest aggregate time wins the gold. The slalom and downhill portions of a combined event are run separately from the regular downhill and slalom events on shorter, and often less demanding, race courses.
Alexis Pinturault (France) comes in as the favorite at 3/1 odds. Alexis is the World's No. 3-ranked skier and finished first in the super combined at the Kitzbuehel World Cup on Jan. 26th. In 2013 he was the top ranked skier in super combined World Cup standings. In 2013 Alexis scored 5 of his 20 podium finishes in the super combined, with none of the finishes lower that 2nd place.
Ted Ligety (USA) is is next at 7/2 odds. Ted Ligety one of the favorites to win gold in the super combined thanks to his strength between the gates. Ted won combined gold at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and super-combined gold at the World Championships last year. Through October 2013, he has 21 victories (20 in giant slalom and 1 super-combined) and 43 podiums in World Cup competition. Ted won his last race (the slalom) before coming to Sochi, so his is coming in with some confidence, although he did finish 15th in his combined training run here at Sochi.
Bode Miller (USA) checks in at 9/2 odds. Bode is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and so the most successful male American alpine ski racer of all time. At 36, Bode Miller is one of the oldest in the field, but he brings with that age years of experience and a gold medal that he won in the 2010 Vancouver Games. This uyear he has struggled, finishing ninth at Wengen and was disqualified for straddling in Run 2 in Kitzbuehel after initially landing on the podium. Still, Bode is a real threat to take the gold here.
Ivica Kostelic (Croatia) is next at 11/2 odds. Kostelic has scored a total of with 26 World Cup race victories and a total of 59 World Cup podiums during his career (as of February 2014). Slalom and the Combined are his best events and in 2013 he finished 3rd in the Slalom World Cup standings, while he finished 1st in the Combined. Ivica took the Silver in the Combined and Slalom back in the 2010 games, while also taking Silver in the Combined in the 2006 games at Turin.
Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) is next at 7/1 odds. Svindal has won this event twice in his career, just not in the Olympics. Since finishing fourth in the opening giant slalom in Soelden in October, he has finishes of 11th, 12th, 13th and two DNFs this season, so he is not coming in with much momentum. In the two World Cup combis this season, he finished fifth in Wengen and skied out in the slalom run in Kitzbuehel. In the 2010 Vancouver games he had a DNF, so he is looking to avenge that.
Christof Innerhofer (Italy) comes in at 12/1 odds. Christof skis in all five alpine disciplines but really specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G. He finished 4th in the downhill world cup standing is 2013. At the 2011 World Championships in Germany, Innerhofer won a medal of each color: gold in super-G, silver in super combined, and bronze in downhill. He has a silver in these Olympic games in the downhill and will look to build off of that in this event. He was ranked 10th in the combined World Cup standings in 2013.
Next 9 Super Combined Odds... Carlo Janka- Switzerland 16/... Thomas Mermillod Blondin- France (16/1)... Kjetil Jansrud- Norway (20/1)... Matthias Mayer- Austria (20/1)... Romed Baumann- Austria (25/1)... Benjamin Raich- Austria (28/1)... Peter Fill- Italy (33/1)... Dominik Paris- Italy (40/1)... Sandro Viletta- Switzerland (50/1)
Prediction: Would love to go with Bode Miller who is one the comeback trail, but I just can't. I will instead go with the #2 overall skier in the world and that is Aksel Lund Svindal. For the Silver I will take Ted Ligety of the USA, while I like Alexis Pinturault to take the Bronze.
Many thanks to Wikipedia, Bleacher Report and NBC Olympics for providing the info needed for this article.
-$25 of picks FREE! No Obligation - No Credit Card Required - Becoming a member is Fast and Free!
RJ Bell Talks Daily Fantasy Sports — LISTEN on Soundcloud
The Myth Regarding Sharps vs Squares
Brady Kannon and host Steve Fezzik from Pregame.com, discuss the myths regarding the Sharps vs the Squares theory.