Open Water Swimming WA World Cup 2024 (Neom)

20 nations are qualified on the men's side right now (even without China). Canada is only in bc Boyd-Clowes has resumed his career.   There is no nation count limit indeed, I only counted the qualified athletes' nations (20 for men, 16 for women).

Well, half of this is not true.There is no minimum nation count - even less nations were expected by FIS ski jumping higher-ups than there are qualified now. The last 4 quotas for men are for NOCs with one or none athletes qualified. So we should complete 3 super teams and get China with one ski jumper in the men's individual competitions. 

https://www.oasport.it/2025/12/foto-federica-brignone-lallenamento-di-oggi-a-valgrisenche/

Spengler Cup 2025   Day 4 Results 29.12.2025   Quarterfinals   Sparta Prague  - Team Canada    5-1   HC Davos  - IFK Helsinki    3-0

I think it depends on the sport.    One one hand, I admire the meritocracy of trials for Dutch speed skating or US athletics... but I don't think it's necessarily a recipe for optimal results forcing athletes to run the gauntlet at incredibly competitive trials, then turn around and try to peak again in short order at the Olympics.  It's something Canada does for our curling teams, and I think it's been a big part of the reason we've underperformed internationally more than one would expect. The successes we've had I feel are largely in spite of the qualification system, not because of it. Granted curling is a much different sport, but in it's case and it were up to me, I'd do like Sweden or GB, select the team the prior season then let them properly plan their seasons around the Olympics and preparing properly... rather than needing to peak for trials, and pouring whomever survives onto a plane for the Olympics a few weeks later For speedskating, I like the Canadian system. It's a mix of international results and trials. The medal contenders largely have their spots sewn up, so trials are a none-issue... and the rest are mostly just making up the numbers, so a heavier weighting on trials results is fair enough as no one else in that situation has done enough to solidify their position prior, so might as well play the hot hand. The Dutch having such incredible depth would obviously need to set the pre-qualification bar higher, but I don't think it would hurt them. But then again, their entire system is build around performance on demand... and that's produced great results, even if a few Ted-Jan Bloeman's wash out along the way