I was recently watching some video of downhill skiing, and I realized the coverage was missing something: a “ghost” skier alongside a real one.
The scheme was to show the currently active skier along with a recorded & time-synched image, semi-transparent, of the previously fastest one. This allowed viewers to see the “real” race: the actual difference between two performances, clearly showing where time was being gained or lost.
This seemed like a really good idea - much more interesting than the standard scheme of simply showing split times at several places along the course. But where is it now? I’m a very occasional fan of televised skiing, but I’m pretty sure it has been a decade or more since I last saw this.
What happened to it? Does it even still exist?
I haven’t seen it in a while, I think most folks found it distracting. I certainly did. The time from the splits on the side is updated frequently enough so you typically know roughly how the skier is doing relative to the previous racer.
It’s also only directly useful in the downhill or Super-G events, which only have a single run. The Slalom and Giant Slalom have two runs, so while you can compare runs side to side it won’t tell the full picture. Also there a version of slalom that is run head-to-head, so no need for the ghost skier.
I’ve seen it used recently after the event during analysis, but when a skier is racing, I want to be able to focus on them. I suspect it’s like the FoxTrax animation that was tried in the 90s to make hockey easier to follow for the casual fan. Real fans didn’t want or needed it, and I suspect it’s the same for ski race fans.
I don’t watch a lot of skiing, but when I do (generally just in the Olympics) it’s not hard to follow based on the numbers. And again, I know next to nothing about skiing. It’s just pretty intuitive and easy to understand.
A “ghost skiier” sounds gimmicky and distracting. I get the appeal and it’s not stupid to want it, but I think it’s better to not have it. Just my opinion.
Heh. I have a Toity ghost.
