00:37 – Mark has a new book!
3:50 – Beijing organizers confirm there won’t be e public sale of tickets. So who’ll be invited? Is … Mark on one of these lists?
5:49 – What about outdoor skiing events? Is it a wasted opportunity to have no spectators at outdoor venues where spectators can space out?
7:45 – A batch of new cases in Beijing over the last week means that the level of concern has raised, but at this point, is there a reason to panic? Let’s check back next week.
9:57 – One of the Beijing cases is blamed on a package that came from Canada. We’re no doctors, but that … seems like a stretch.
11:50 Canadian researchers look under the hood of the compulsory My2022 app. They don’t love what they see.
13:42 – A year ago today, superstar Norwegian downhill skier Alexander Aamodt Kilde was in a hospital bed, recovering from a torn ACL. Now he’s back to his winning ways with five World Cup victories and a solid favorite for gold in Beijing.
14:57 – After his injury, did he ever feel like he wouldn’t get back to where he was?
16:00 – Like all World Cup skiers, Kilde has never competed in China. So how do you game plan for a course you’ve never experienced?
16:53 – What does Kilde know about the type of snow in Beijing, and how it will affect his performance during the Olympics?
18:11 – To cope with the unknown conditions, and far from the ski factories in Europe, Kilde’s team is traveling with an incredible number of skis.
20:37 – What’s on the schedule over the next two to three weeks before the Games begin?
21:15 – How much is the Omicron variant worrying Kilde in the lead-up to the Games?
22:26 – Is the mental aspect more important than ever in case there’s a need to isolate?
23:55 – With China’s push to get hundreds of millions of people into snow sports, does Kilde see himself as an ambassador for skiing?
24:44 – How aware is Kilde of China’s push to be a winter sports country?
26:17: – Is he aware of more Chinese entrants in downhill skiing?
27:28 – One of the stories of these Games may be Benjamin Alexander, who is competing for Jamaica after learning to ski just six years ago. Is this a good thing for the sport?
29:02 – To much of the world, Kilde is known as a world-class skier. But to American viewers on NBC, he’ll probably be known as “Mr. Mikaela Shiffrin.” How has life changed since he started dating the world’s most famous skier?
31:32 – One major outcome of being in a relationship with a high-profile skiing celebrity like Shiffrin is an increase in brand recognition. We ask Kilde his thoughts on their combined commercial potential.
33:54 – What do Kilde and Shiffrin talk about when they talk skiing?
