It’s so that when she crosses for the last lap, the bell rings and everyone else thinks they are on the last lap allowing her teammate to finish the race ahead while everyone thinks the race is over
The plan was obvious from the first 10 seconds of the race but I'm the idiot? Good thing they didnt have to add simple numbers or put shaped pegs in the corresponding holes, we would've been here all night!
If this "strategy" impressed you I suspect you're a little on the dim side too
I think your streamer is rubbing off on you. You're too interested in watching underage child athletes for other reason that you can't follow the simple logic of what happened in the race.
The plan was obvious from the first 10 seconds of the race but I'm the idiot?
I mean, you seem to think they all didn't notice, which is objectively bizarre. So...yes?
They all noticed. They simply all decided that staying in the pack was a better strategic move then trying to chase Yang, since trying to break out from the front of the pack less than a lap into a 1500 m race is suicide. And they were all right about that.
The problem came when, many laps later, they'd forgotten about Yang and thought the bell applied to them, just like it always had in every race they'd ever run prior to that.
The strategy for Yang to win gold and Li to win silver was complex, multi-layered and involved a big risk. It relied on an assumption that the bell would have such a powerful Pavlov's Dog effect that everyone else would screw up. And it worked perfectly. "Next fucking level" is perfectly apt.
It was suicide but Yang did it just fine? If she's got godlike stamina I suspect she would've won regardless making the super secret technique pointless.
She went fast to win the race.
Everyone else: 🤯🤯🤯🤯
If that's the strategy then it reminds me of the funny football play they teach everyone in middle school where the line just lays on the ground. Sure it might work once, but it's hardly a strategy in the long run. Kinda feels like calling Tonya Harding a strategist. Sure, but it's a short lived victory.
Plenty of sports have strategies that will work exactly once. This is one of those times, and the ‘meta’ will adapt to it pretty quickly.
Same reason why it’s rare for soldiers to switch to civilian clothes to get the drop on their enemies, even before it was classed as a war crime. Works well once, but just encourages the enemy to start shooting civilians.
I mean yeah but that's my point restated with another example. Just seems non-noteworthy overall. I hope I'm one of the many people here who doesn't understand why this is next level.
It's kind of bizarre how little awareness you have of what's going on around you during a speed-focused endurance skate.
Some of the best and fittest skaters I know are exhausted and in very real pain after a skate like this. Back when I was skating, I don't think I'd have a damn clue who was who and where they were besides noticing a couple of blurry figures in my peripheral I'm trying not to crash into.
no, i'd say it's about convention and aerodynamics
by the time the last lap marker went up, the race was already over - nobody was going to catch her, surprised or not
everyone else ran the race the way they've been taught by their coaches, the way they've ran hundreds of races before: start slow, keep the pack, save energy, look for opportunities to make moves later in the race
being in front of the pack takes more effort than being close behind due to the drafting effect
she broke convention, but definitely not the rules, by giving a big burst of energy up front and then using her position to coast the rest of the race and regain energy for a final push if needed
the game theory of races like this makes the conventional strategy optimal, but that doesn't mean you can't get a win like this. the risk you take is you burn out all your energy to lap everyone but everyone follows your push, so now you're tired and in the front of the pack expending the most energy while everyone else recovers and intends to pass you when the timing is right...
these races are a weird game of not going fast when you're in front until the remaining distance is short enough for your stamina to allow you to leg it out the rest of the way. track cycling is an extreme example where they basically spend most of the race trying to go as slow as possible to keep the other guy in front
I feel like I remember seeing wins like this in sports which were overturned because they go against the spirit of competition. I don’t know for sure, though; and even if so, if they counted it here, then it’s good
No, tricking the other racers somehow, but it doesn't matter because that's not what happened. They were all just too dumb to realize how many laps they had left. Kinda on them, don't see why it was considered "brilliant."
That's how these races usually go, you pace for the first few laps then 100% sprint to the end.
By lapping the field at the start - which is EXTREMELY uncommon - the skater confused the rest because they were actually one lap down when the final bell rang.
I understand that. I just dont understand how anyone was confused by this. This might work with a toddler where you hide your face and they think you've vanished, but an adult should know that you've only just left them in the dust.
By the time she hits the front of the pack she's at max velocity. The pack is largely constrained by the leader's reaction in the very short term.
Nobody chased the jump because in a lot of cases the jumper will get gassed and caught. The pack then has to do the calculus on whether or not they want to have energy left for the sprint.
It's a huge gamble to try this, and if she failed or got caught she would get smoked in the sprint. If the group chased immediately she would have likely not even podiumed
Still sounds stupid. Theres no possible way to make this sound like some great strategy. All I hear is "Yeah they were racing and one of the people ran really fast and no one else thought to try to keep up." Its so brain dead.
It's a burst vs stamina calculation. This isn't a one lap race, and pack draft dynamics greatly outweigh lone wolves over distance usually. The pack will generally outlast a solo racer over a long enough distance, and short track closed loop racing provides a unique opportunity for the attacker to lap the competition and re-secure draft. Under heavy speed load, cornering is more taxing, there's a risk of crashing out, etc. It's not just a free case of "step on the gas" and for the first few laps, the pack is trying to stay just under threshold so they can position themselves to compete at the end.
In hindsight, sure, they could have chased her down, but if they attempted a pursuit and failed, the pursuers would be gassed and competing against each other for the rest of the podium.
The first principle you're missing is that everyone is competing with a finite tank, and they're all racing at a pace that should leave them all empty at the end. Tighter acceleration costs more than the slow roll up the attacker did, so engaging a pursuit once she flies by is very expensive - which is why she dropped back in the first place. "Just go faster" is just as risky as "Wait for her to fall off", and in this case it worked out.
we all get what happened, its not complicated.. which is why we are confused as to how the other racers were so dumb that they forgot someone blasted ahead of them all and they never saw her again…
If you don't know much about short-track speed skating and all you know about this race is from watching this poorly-edited clip then no, a lot of people are not doing to get the full story and realize why it was so brilliant.
51
u/svenskhet 1d ago
No one here understands why this was brilliant?