you don't even have idea how it works   last week he was the best of the field and now he's in bad shape?   on Friday he was 24th despite 4 (4!!!!!) missed shots and Yesterday he suddenly went out of shape?   be serious!   he either just had bad skis or he got sick, like many other athletes (see Vittozzi)   the snow in LGB is usually shit, results are always heavily influenced by that and Italy is one of the teams that usually struggle a lot in that place   nothing new and nothing to be worried about

Don't look now but the Bears might actually win the division in Ben Johnson's first season as HC...      

Festival of Music   For this year’s Festival of Music I thought I would change it up a bit. Since we are approaching the festive holiday season, I want you all to post some festive songs from your country. If you don’t celebrate Christmas then perhaps some other song that has a special place in your heart during an important celebration.     I’m going to start with a Christmas song from Ireland’s TISC Annual 2023 representatives Picture This.     Picture This - This Christmas  

pair Danilova/Tsiba hasn't fulfilled the national criteria to participate in the Games but their skating federation has sent a request to the national olympic committee for an exception and to include them to the TeamNL. https://www.schaatsen.nl/nieuws/knsb-dient-verzoek-in-voor-olympisch-startbewijs-danilova-tsiba/

Juniors were there recently and the track was awful   Although that's not necessarily bad. Tracks don't all need to be fast, a slow track (like the horribly slow one in Poland) simply favors a different style of athletes. Training a lot there doesn't really give much extra advantage though, not like in sliding sports where of course as host country you make sure your athletes know every single meter a year before the Olympics.    And to get back on topic: speed skater Elisa Dul broke her tibia and fibula in a training fall yesterday and will obviously be out of the OQT and so the Olympics. 

The PSL race in Davos was (yet another) insult to a beautiful discipline. The red course (which was actually yellow) had several holes and an exposed ice sheet, which made the athletes slide way too long, causing DNFs or massive time losses. The only positive note is that Caffont won despite racing on the more dangerous course in the final

Aerials WC Secret Garden     Mixed Team Gold-  China 1, (315.35 - Xu Mengtao, Li Tianma, Qi Guangpu) Silver-  China 2 (308.45 - Chen Meiting, Wang Xindi, Sun Jiaxu) Bronze-  United States 2 (272.81 - Kaila Kuhn, Ashton Salwan, Connor Curran)   Full Results

Parallel Slalom WC Davos     Women Gold-  Elisa Caffont Silver-  Zuzana Maderova Bronze-  Miki Tsubaki Surprising 4th for  Annamarri Dancha   Men Gold-  Arvid Auner Silver-  Gabriel Messner Bronze-  Aaron March   Full Results

Ski Cross WC Innichen   Women Gold-  Marielle Berger Sabbatel Silver-  Fanny Smith Bronze-  Sandra Naeslund Naeslund only winning bronze    Could very well be a preview of the women's big final at the Olympics.    Men Gold-  Reece Howden Silver-  Alex Fiva Bronze-  Tobias Bauer   With his win today, Howden is now the all-time leader in men's WC wins with 20!    Solid 4th for Jared Schmidt as well   Full Results