Speed Skating at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022

[Dennis 712]

10 hours ago, intoronto said:

Just curious how many male athletes qualified spots?

97 different skaters won at least one spot for their NOC

[dcro 10,210]

What a ridiculous system. Sadly it's still possible for one athlete to earn more than one spot for their NOC. 

[Topicmaster1010 4,181]

Out of all of the sports that had quotas cut, speed skating very well might have had the worst cuts. At least with cutting short track quotas, you still had extra quotas left over once all the relay and starting positions were filled out. Here, there's gonna be at least 14 deserving skaters on the men's side that are going to have their olympic dream shattered because the IOC was too cheap. If you're gonna cut quotas, at least make them reasonable cuts. Reducing the men's speed skating quotas from 100 to 83 is not reasonable.

[Vic Liu 1,682]

1 hour ago, Topicmaster1010 said:

Out of all of the sports that had quotas cut, speed skating very well might have had the worst cuts. At least with cutting short track quotas, you still had extra quotas left over once all the relay and starting positions were filled out. Here, there's gonna be at least 14 deserving skaters on the men's side that are going to have their olympic dream shattered because the IOC was too cheap. If you're gonna cut quotas, at least make them reasonable cuts. Reducing the men's speed skating quotas from 100 to 83 is not reasonable.

I think it a very long and complicated process to determine the head-counts of each NOC but it's not definitely to be a cruel quotas cut as it seems. For example, Van De Poel earned two quotas on 5000m and 10000m for  but they will just send one person and Huang Yu-ting earned 3 quotas on 500/1000/1500m for  , also very likely just sent herself alone. So I think all depends and we have to wait trials results.

[Dennis 712]

Exactly. Belgium for example has 6 quotas on the mens side but only 2 skaters to fill in those 6 spots (Swings/Vosté). Czech Republic has 7 quotas on the womens side, but only 2 skaters who will normally fill in those quotas (Sablikova/Zdrahalova)
 

So on the womens side I foresee no issues, probably around 77-78 different skaters will fill in those quota. On the mens side, I think the total number will be around 87-90. That’s why I was wondering if they would use the unused quota from the women, but there is no rule about that. 

[Belle 975]

2 hours ago, dcro said:

What a ridiculous system. Sadly it's still possible for one athlete to earn more than one spot for their NOC. 

Not sure what you do mean with this? In one distance? 

[Belle 975]

I mean Sweden deserve the quotas we have even if it’s one athlete. 

 

Should country get at spot from Sweden in 5000 and 10000? Ridiculous! Because they have more athletes? 

[dcro 10,210]

13 minutes ago, Belle said:

Not sure what you do mean with this? In one distance? 

Van der Poel will start in both distances and that's fine.

 

However, if another athlete who qualified in both 5/10k for example decides to start only in the 5k, then the qualification system allows the 10k starting place to be assigned to another athlete from the same nation, even if that other athlete was nowhere near qualifying by himself. That is my issue with the qualification system.

[Belle 975]

3 minutes ago, dcro said:

Van der Poel will start in both distances and that's fine.

 

However, if another athlete who qualified in both 5/10k for example decides to start only in the 5k, then the qualification system allows the 10k starting place to be assigned to another athlete from the same nation, even if that other athlete was nowhere near qualifying by himself. That is my issue with the qualification system.

Ahh thank you!! Now I understand you. Well you clearly have a point. Tbh don’t see any reason for Sweden to keep quotas if Van der Poel can’t go for some reason. 

[Olympian1010 7,976]

2 hours ago, dcro said:

Van der Poel will start in both distances and that's fine.

 

However, if another athlete who qualified in both 5/10k for example decides to start only in the 5k, then the qualification system allows the 10k starting place to be assigned to another athlete from the same nation, even if that other athlete was nowhere near qualifying by himself. That is my issue with the qualification system.

One compromise solution could be that a quota is only transferable if a) the maximum number of athletes has not been reached after original allocation b) the athlete fulfilling the quota has met the qualification standard. 
 

I do agree with the principle that with the scarcity of available quotas, quotas should be allocated to specific athletes, not NOCs.