Speed Skating at the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022

[NearPup 3,044]

4 hours ago, dcro said:

New Zealand went from being medal favorites to not even making the cut all within one Olympiad.

 

 

The NZ team was already pretty old by PC.

[NearPup 3,044]

By my calculations some of the reserve lists are really funky. Like the first reserve in the men's 500m (since athletes go to the front of the reserve list if they are from an NOC without a qualified skater) is Christian Oberbichler, who ranks 48th(!) on the time ranking. Meanwhile Liu An is the fifth reserve despite being 20th on the time ranking

(countries can't qualify a third skater from the time list, but they can get a spot on the reserve list, assuming they would have obtained a third spot if not for this rule - they can't go on the reserve list if they would otherwise only be a reserve. Some of those qualification rules are really weird).

 

On the other extreme we currently have two of the three reserves getting a re-allocation spot in the women's 1500m (there are supposed to be eight reserves in individual events but literally only three skaters are eligible).

[intoronto 5,635]

59 minutes ago, NearPup said:

By my calculations some of the reserve lists are really funky. Like the first reserve in the men's 500m (since athletes go to the front of the reserve list if they are from an NOC without a qualified skater) is Christian Oberbichler, who ranks 48th(!) on the time ranking. Meanwhile Liu An is the fifth reserve despite being 20th on the time ranking

(countries can't qualify a third skater from the time list, but they can get a spot on the reserve list, assuming they would have obtained a third spot if not for this rule - they can't go on the reserve list if they would otherwise only be a reserve. Some of those qualification rules are really weird).

 

On the other extreme we currently have two of the three reserves getting a re-allocation spot in the women's 1500m (there are supposed to be eight reserves in individual events but literally only three skaters are eligible).

This is what happens when the IOC keeps cutting and wants increased universality 

[NearPup 3,044]

9 minutes ago, intoronto said:

This is what happens when the IOC keeps cutting and wants increased universality 

Ya, it causes my script to calculate who is in a qualifying position to get way too complicated D:

[Dennis 712]

45 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Ya, it causes my script to calculate who is in a qualifying position to get way too complicated D:

Haha, I have the same issue. I made some errors, I noticed. 

 

But I agree, guys like Christian Oberbichler shouldn't be at the Olympics if you want the best skaters to be there, as they would probably finish last by at least half a second. 

[NearPup 3,044]

37 minutes ago, Dennis said:

Haha, I have the same issue. I made some errors, I noticed. 

 

But I agree, guys like Christian Oberbichler shouldn't be at the Olympics if you want the best skaters to be there, as they would probably finish last by at least half a second. 

I have two main problems with the qualification system - the max number of skaters per NOC should have stayed at 10 (this has a very small effect overall but the new rule really hurts  ) and the reallocations should be given in order, there shouldn’t be a priority for unqualified countries.

 

I don’t really mind making third skaters per NOC ineligible from qualifying by time, even though that’s really going to hurt Canada. That’s not where the really insane qualification results are coming from. Most of the other issues currently are related to the inherent unfairness of the A and B races in the World Cup.

[SalamAkhi 313]

I really don't get the principle of having two "leagues" in the World Cup. At least not in Olympic season ... Like, how were the divisions decided for the first WC of the year ? 

[Olympian1010 7,971]

The easy fix for the two divisions problem would be to create a separate Olympics qualifying points system that ranked skaters based off time set regardless of what division they were in. 
 

I would personally prefer to see qualification based purely off time, since that’s mostly what the sport is about anyways. The problem with that would be high altitude ovals like Salt Lake. My suggestion to solve this would be to base qualification of the total of a skaters three best times in the qualification period added together. The only restriction in that system should be three skaters per country, reallocation would go strictly to next best. It might worth it to have some sort of universality criteria as well, to make sure there’s a good amount of countries involved. 

[NearPup 3,044]

And to make things even worse time qualification in the 3000, 5000 and 10000 aren’t fair either because the B group has four skaters per race while the A group has two skaters per race.

[NearPup 3,044]

Qualification update:  are guaranteed at least one quota in the women’s 5000m. First four nations to qualify.

 

Edit: is also now guaranteed at least a host spot in the women's 5000m (they are currently in a qualifying position in the time ranking, assuming the current points ranking holds)