Seriously wish Bialystok will be banned from any European competition and for long time.

Unexpected boost for Team    American rapper Snoop Dogg has been named an 'honorary coach' for Team USA at next year's Winter Olympics.   The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) announced on Thursday the 54-year-old will take on "a volunteer role celebrating and supporting America's athletes off the field of play".   Snoop Dogg named 'honorary coach' for Team US at Winter Olympics - BBC Sport

Just now getting around to these results...glad to see USA win a gold.  Didn't think we were much of a contender here.  Home soil luck?

Qualification status that could realistically change this week, barring (except where noted) new time qualifying performances :   Men   500m : pretty much done   1000m : pretty much done   1500m : pretty much done   5000m : one outlier at the moment  Semirunniy. He's currently not qualified for the distance being 18/15 in the rankings and R1 time-wise. He could still punch his ticket :    either by getting into the top 15 with a very good result (a podium or even a win would be needed). If it is at the expanse of  Henriksen or, less likely,  Swings, then the loser is out. If it is at the expanse of any other, then  Sasaki is out.  or by hoping Lorello gets into the top 15 at the expanse of Henriksen or Swings. or by going faster than Sasaki (6'08''834) which seems reachable after his 10k, even in Hamar.   10000m : once again Henriksen is on the bubble. If  Maly, Petzold of  Farthofer gets into the top 9 at the expanse of Malfatti or Snellink, then he's out.    Mass-start : not much at stake considering most of the reserve skaters will already receive an additional quota - at the moment    . Morino  will try to enter top 32 and be in those additional quota spots.    Team pursuit : pretty much done   Women   500m : pretty much done   1000m : with  Thorup not cleared to participate one more spot is up for grabs.  Scholz would need to be in front of both Herzog (done as she's not entered) and Czerwonka (7 points) after this final week.  Silaeva would be left out.    1500m : Lamarche not competing and  Zofia Braun being promoted to A division, Poland has got a real shot at a second quota. Braun will need to stay in front of Scholz and Weidemann, who could still finish ahead of her depending on how good Braun fares in A division.  Smedding would suffer from a Polish rise.   3000m : match-up between  Yang and  Horikawa only separated by 3 points. At the moment Yang is out (R2) but if they exchange position in the standings then Horikawa is out (R1). They could also both finish ahead of Hofmann, at the expanse of  Golubeva ultimately.  Jasch has a small shot at a second German quota too, by edging the former two skaters, eliminating them.    5000m : pretty much done   Mass-start :  Santo Rodrigues is hanging on by a thread. The cruelty of it is that those immediately behind her -    - will get an aditional spot anyways, so it does not really matter if they finish in the top 24 ahead of her, except it would allow France to enter a second skater and two girls in the MS.   Team pursuit : three-way asymetrical tie for the last SOQP spot between   and , all in division A. Norway needs to beat both as they can't rely on a time Q, Kazakhstan needs to beat Norway to ensure (if they fail to beat China) the first SOQT spot and avoid the Italian wild-card*, whereas China is pretty safe. *  is currently out but they "only" need to get into a reserve spot to be qualified, which is going faster than 3'00'92 (or faster than Norway if they too decide to skate faster). They were not far off this mark in Hamar earlier this year but the team was in a better shape overall. 

lol

Finally got around to updating post 2 with results from last weekend...that's a lot of German and Austrian flags!

Thursday December 11th, 2025 - Round-Robin Day 3 Results (GMT +1)   12:00   Lithuania  1 - 4  Estonia 16:00   Hungary  OT4 - 3  Poland 20:00   Japan  5 - 1  Italy   Provisional Standing After Day 3:   1.    8 ----------------- 2.   7 3.   5 4.   4 5.   3 ----------------- 6.   0

Was in a meeting so I wasn't following, so as soon as it ended, first thing I did was check the score.    Go Team !!   Thrilled to have both teams in Cortina. And don't need to go through qualifying in mixed doubles

December 2025 International break   10.12.2025   EURO HOCKEY TOUR Swiss Hockey Games   -   3-1 -   3-2 After PSO   1. CZE 3 2. SWE 2 3. SUI 1 4. FIN 0   EURO HOCKEY TOUR Standing After Matchday 4/12   1. SWE 11 2. CZE 6 3. SUI 4 4. FIN 3   -------------------------------------------------   EUROPEAN NATIONS LEAGUE   Division A   CHRISTMAS KAUFLAND CUP   -   0-4   1. LAT 3 2. SVK 3  3. NOR 0 Played All Matches   -------------------------------------------------   Division C   -   2-3   1. UKR 3 2. ROU 0 

Thursday December 11th, 2025 - Round-Robin Day 4 Results (GMT +1)   12:30   Austria  9 - 2  Ukraine 16:00   Norway  10 - 2  Kazakhstan 19:30   Slovenia  OT5 - 4  France   Provisional Standing After Day 4:   1.    11 ----------------- 2.   9 3.   6 4.   6 5.   3 ----------------- 6.   1