BirkieGuide.com | 2011 statistics

BirkieGuide.com:
Ari's Unofficial Guide to the Birkie

2011 freestyle statistics.

Charts: Age, Gender, Geography, By wave: Birkie Freestyle, Birkie Classic, Korteloppet Freestyle, Korteloppet Classic, 2011 statistics index
Data: State data for all finishers, state "competitions", "Special data" search

Finishers by time and wave With racers concentrated in early waves in the freestyle race, most skiers finished within about 4:00; few took more than 5:00. The seeding criteria seem pretty decent, especially early on, although times become more muddled later. The long tail of wave 3 is due to all over-65s being allowed to ski out of wave 3. The Elite cutoff this year was about 2:27:30, about 35 wave 1 skiers qualified and 3 wave 2 skiers.

Finishers separated by wave Excel's 3D charts seem to show these data well; you can visualize the rise and fall for each wave; wave 2 has a particularly well-formed, if somewhat pointed, curve. Note how the lead pack of skiers finishing in the first five minutes caused a spike at the beginning of the elite wave. Later waves, especially smaller ones, are quite muddled in this chart, but the spread becomes much wider, especially beyond wave 3.

Percent of each wave finishing in each five minute block This chart normalizes these data by the size of the wave. In other words, it makes it easier to see how spread out waves were. Note how, as the race progresses, the waves get more and more spread out. The Birkie freestyle race is skewed towards faster skiers. It is, perhaps, a testament to the athletes in the race that most finish within 100% of the winner's time. It would be interesting to compare these data to a foot marathon.

© 2010-2011, Ari Ofsevit / birkieguide.com
This site is in no way affiliated with the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, the Birkebeiner or the Birkie. But it is a huge Birkie fanboy.

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