Dominance in Sports

Living in Finland at the moment, I've gotten hooked on cross country skiing on TV. In the women's FIS XC world cup (a pga-tour like ski circuit) a particular skier, Therese Johaug, has won every race this season save one, usually by 30+ seconds and sometimes by multiple minutes. There is no suspense or drama, merely a question of how big the gap will be this week.

From a United States based standpoint, the Golden State Warriors were a 5 year dominant force. UConn women's basketball has been for as long as I remember. Alabama football to an extent, the New England Patriots. Right now Liverpool is a class above in the Premier league. Mercedes has dominated F1 for the last decade.

My question is, does a sustained run of dominance by a player/team in a sport add or lessen the interest you have in it? I've stopped watching the Johaug and Mercedes parades becsuse it doesn't excite me to watch. In our sport though, Tiger's dominance brought about untold popularity to golf. I'm curious to hear other's thoughts.

Awesome, someone talking about x country skiing.....

I tape all of those and the biathlon on the Olympic channel. We are of Norwegian descent, so easy to root for them.

Johaug is simply amazing, really not much competition for her at the moment, just flat out dominant. It is easier to watch if you are rooting for them, but I almost wish she was pushed harder by closer competition.

i am also a huge F1 fan, watch every telecast, can see the Flying Finn is my sig pic. Kimi is the man, tire of watching Lewis, the car is just better than the others.

I find it easier to stomach when it is a true level playing field, like golf or x country, they still have to be better than everyone else, and while Lewis is an amazing racer, when your equipment is superior to everyone else, is frustrating.

I also root for Europe in the RC, feel like an American that born in Europe.

Moi Suomeen :)

If we stick to winter sports on skis, I’d add to the list Mikaela Schiffrin and now retired Marcel Hircher.

in my opinion, this kind of dominance makes it interesting. It’s quite exciting how, say, Petra Vhlova is pushing herself to work harder to catch up and forcing Schiffrin to not take it easy. Also, how skiers will compete in many types of events beyond their main event as they will need every point they can get to challenge the leader.

It’s sad that Schiffrin will miss the end of the season but thanks to her dominance this has been a great season to follow. I hope she will bounce back from the loss of her father and be strong the next season.

Yeah I get it, and it also makes a big difference if you are a fan of the dominator or they are a rival to your team/player. But suppose Schiffrin was pulling off wins by multiple seconds, every event, every week. Eventually you're tuning in to see if other competitors have anything to offer, and time after time they don't.
I like it when a new up and comer becomes dominant. Year one of the Warriors was fantastic, but by year 5 they needed to lose for it to be interesting again. The outcome of a sporting event must be suspenseful in my opinion. Unfortunately in skiing there are no world records to chase that anyone seems to pay attention to, so you lose that potential angle as well.@Warrick I get being a Norway fan and enjoying Johaug's victories, but let's face it, women's xc skiing is boring right now (except sprints). Especially if you are not a Norway fan. On the Men's side, Bolshenov was the only thing preventing a 1-8 Norway sweep last Sunday, but at least the male Norwegians take turns with the winning. Like you say, you still have to be better than everyone else, but when no other woman in the world can ski 10km within 30s of the leader, my interest goes down.
You mentioned biathlon, and that I am finding riveting because of the x-factor of the shooting really randomizing. Susan Dunklee got a medal the other day because she shot clean. Would never touch the podium except for that.

I think you are right. For the dominance to make competition interesting someone needs to stand up and raise to the challenge. For a few races there is the shock and awe seeing someone like Schiffrin win by two seconds but if nobody has what it takes to challenge then it becomes stale. After all, her technique is so good it makes great watching in itself for a while.

Talking of Johaug, did you guys notice that she ran 10km in 32:20:86 in the Norwegean athletics championship games in August? That’s without even proper racing shoes.

Although not a normal sprint race, Johaug just won her first ever.

Dusted everyone up that hill....

I hate this sport :D Sprints were my safe space!

God if you could have built a course for Johaug that was the one. Credit where credit is due, musta been a good batch of lipstick ;)

Well she is dominant isn't she. I'm going to stop watching womens skiing now, which is going to be hard because I have tickets to Lahti in 2 weeks.

(I'm really not trying to single out Johaug here, but she is (to me) ruining my only source of winter entertainment as a golfer in Finland (esp as a fan of team Finn in a down period). I did not intend to start the thread as "James has a bone to pick with norwegian skiers", they are just the most relevant to the discussion of dominance at this second... And Im glad I wasn't watching during the Marit Björgen era)

Is there snow in Lahti? I've been told it's been a crazy winter in Finland. Record amounts of snow in the North and nothing in the South, even too warm to use the snow making machines. As far North as Oulu, Tervahiihto was cancelled for the first time ever because of the lack of snow. I lived in Oulu for five years and if my memory serves right it was always -30 and windy, be it summer or winter. And a million mosquitoes per cubic meter of air.

i have always rooted for the Finn’s also, not so much the Swede’s. Linn Svanh looks impressive in the sprints.

Marit was one of my favorite, along with Northug, wish he would have been more disciplined.

Fourcade is the one guy I just don’t like, probably for the reason of this thread, he was dominant.

I love all the good stuff on all week, weekend

The snow line at the moment cuts from about Oulu down through Kuopio and north of Joensuu into Russia. Lapland is getting bonkers snow because the low temps that usually prevent snow from falling are now warmer temps that let it fall. But I kid you not, it was raining in Rovaniemi last week. That should not happen.

There is no snow in Lahti but I am sure they have a contingency. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the Finlandiahiihto, which could not artificially prep 50km of snow in 40°F weather (understandably). Helsinki was above freezing most of January. I'm probably not going to be able to ski at all this year.

Watching Klaebo dust all the men yesterday was incredible. He kicked into another gear. But that unexpected dominance I can tolerate because it doesn't happen very often. It looked simply amazing. But if he did that every race, that would get boring quickly.

Also kind of Krueger to take a dive to take out Bolshenov in the semis, nothing suspicious there...

That was almost a joke watching him kick it in gear up that hill, like the rest were standing still, but the men’s side is much more entertaining.

I almost feel bad for Heidi Weng, finished 2nd to Johaug 8 times this season I believe.

That’s very unusual. Total opposite of last year. I was in Turku for a few weeks and bought myself xc skis which was great fun.

Looks like the snow situation is bad all over Europe. Most races have no snow outside the artificial snow at the race tracks. This is the first time for a while that I did not go to The Alps and looks I picked a good year to not go.

Fingers crossed they will manage in Lahti.

Funny a thread on dominance has turned into the FIS/IBU ski thread.

I'm excited for this 38km mass start. It's an unorthodox distance and though I don't expect anyone to upset Johaug, I think if anyone is going to beat her it will be someone who stubbornly clings to her and wins a shootout in the last 250m. Be it Heidi Weng or whoever. It's not going to happen in an interval start and certainly not in a pursuit race based on an interval start.

Last year was a blast and we were skiing almost every day. This year unless we go up north the skis aren't even going to come out of the attic. It's been brutal.

Yep, can’t wait to watch both 38km tomorrow morning, expecting more entertainment from men’s side.

Heidi is close some days, maybe tomorrow is her day....

probably not

Dominant enough for you?

Wow, Oestberg almost got her, much closer than expected.

Man utd from 90 to 2013....total dominace from the great sir Alex. Not sure that will ever be repeated

I'll agree with that. A series of teams so dominant even casual Americans learned who they were; a household name on multiple continents. Didn't see that Liverpool result coming last night though!
@Warrick @Singapore Joe
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Not many did, saw Watford up close last Sunday and they were dreadful...... Keeps the gooners happy anyways