Speed Skating ISU World Cup 2021 - 2022

[Belle 1,017]

Nils van der Poel!!!!!!!

[heywoodu 16,004]

Nils van der Poel is no human. What a truly, truly insane athlete  

 

 

[NearPup 3,496]

7 hours ago, heywoodu said:

Nils van der Poel is no human. What a truly, truly insane athlete  

 

 

I think he may be a slight favorite to win two golds in Beijing.

 

Also I would be very surprised if the 5000m world record doesn’t fall in SLC or Calgary.

[heywoodu 16,004]

1 hour ago, NearPup said:

I think he may be a slight favorite to win two golds in Beijing.

 

Also I would be very surprised if the 5000m world record doesn’t fall in SLC or Calgary.

I'm not so convinced about the 5k, but then 10...yeah. The way he rides it is just a pure show  

 

He just does not get tired. Well, of course 10k is easy if you do supermega-ultramarathons running and 24 hour bike rides  

[Nickyc707 382]

For a country with very low to non-existant hopes in this sport it was nice to see GB's Cornelius Kersten get our first top 10 finish in a World Cup race for 36 years in the 1k on Friday. Looking like we could have our first competitors at an OG since 1992.

[NearPup 3,496]

7 hours ago, Nickyc707 said:

For a country with very low to non-existant hopes in this sport it was nice to see GB's Cornelius Kersten get our first top 10 finish in a World Cup race for 36 years in the 1k on Friday. Looking like we could have our first competitors at an OG since 1992.

Kersten is almost guaranteed to qualify at this point.

[dcro 10,210]

49 minutes ago, NearPup said:

Kersten is almost guaranteed to qualify at this point.

I think an internal criteria was in question here.

[heywoodu 16,004]

The whole Russian team seems unlikely to make it to the US due to their vaccination status (Sputnik V). That would be outright stupid by whichever Russian authorities decided to give international athletes a vaccine which is not as widely recognized as others...

 

Quote

Olga Fatkulina has announced on her IG that she and the entire Russian team were denied entry into the US and spent 6-7 hours at the airport. She also mentioned that they'll be trying again tomorrow but the chances are thin. She didn't state the reason but I assume it is the vaccination issue: more particularly, the issue of non-recognition of Sputnik V vaccination status in the EU and US.

Once again, it seems that Russian athletes are screwed by their own authorities  

[heywoodu 16,004]

Nasty crash at the end of today's morning training. Natalia Czerwonka lost balance, crashed and then hit Dutch national coach Jan Coopmans at high speed (he was facing away from her at the moment), causing him to hit the back of his head hard on the ice and lose consciousness for a bit. Taken to the hospital and they're suspecting quite a strong concussion at the least.

 

Dutch media annoyingly didn't mention anything about Czerwonka's condition, so unless the opposite is being said, I'm going to assume she luckily is alright.

[NearPup 3,496]

Well this week-end is stating well…