Speed Skating Discussion | Qualification to Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

[copravolley 574]

20 minutes ago, Josh said:

Not the first name I’d think people think of when naming their favourite Canadian athletes I’m surprised  

She's quite well-known in the world of alpine skiing, and besides, she's had several serious injuries and always returned to a high level. Now, for me, she has a chance to win a medal in the giant slalom on OG.

Edited December 29, 2025 by copravolley

[Noorderling29 203]

8 hours ago, copravolley said:

There's always someone who will show up there, but it's unlikely to be someone who'll win gold in Cortina. Ghiotto, on the other hand, in his best from a 1 or 2 ago, should be able to beat him quite confidently: Ghiotto beat Bergsma by at least 11-12 seconds in the 10km. If he's not in that form, he could just as easily lose to Semurunnyi or Lubineaud (sorry, if I write bad this 2 names).

There’s a history of people just popping up at the OKT and winning gold at the olympics: Jochem Uytdehage, 2 golds and a silver in 2002, Wust in 2006, Visser and Achtereekte in 2018.

[Noorderling29 203]

13 hours ago, copravolley said:

He won by 10 seconds over Bergsma and Bosker not a great result for me. In their best races, Ghiotto beat this guys by well over 10 seconds.

I’m sure you know better than Ireen Wüst, Erben Wennemars and the other specialists in the Dutch commentary team

[NearPup 3,700]

47 minutes ago, Noorderling29 said:

I’m sure you know better than Ireen Wüst, Erben Wennemars and the other specialists in the Dutch commentary team

What does Wüst know about speed skating anyway?

[Josh 12,299]

8 hours ago, copravolley said:

She's quite well-known in the world of alpine skiing, and besides, she's had several serious injuries and always returned to a high level. Now, for me, she has a chance to win a medal in the giant slalom on OG.

True, true 

 

A chance definitely, but not someone you'd want to place your bets on

[copravolley 574]

14 hours ago, heywoodu said:

If you're capable of skating 12:35 at this very, very high air pressure, you are at the very least someone with an outside shot, if not more. For those new to the Olympics: it's not like a regular competition, there's insane extra pressure and everything, you simply can not just look at the fastest times of the past 1-2 years and say "well, that's gonna be the result".

 

12:35 in these conditions is absolutely at least as good, if not better, than for example Semirunniy's 12:28 in a 4-way start.

Okay, but all the top 10k guys, except Bergsma and Ghiotto, will be competing only once at the Olympics (Lubineaud was in 2022, because I don't remember?). And if I remember correctly, you wrote over a year ago that Jilek is a future phenomenon and that two gold medals in Milan are very likely.

[copravolley 574]

13 hours ago, NearPup said:

Why are you just making up fake Italian names? :P

 

But once again, I feel like people always underestimate how weird Olympic speed skating results can be. There are always people who find the form of their lives, people who overtrain, people who are randomly in bad form and people who have been hiding their form all season.

It's certainly a more measurable sport than any other Alpine skiing event- even slalom with Shiffrin or giant slalom with Odermatt. If someone is a strong favorite and has shown the form van der Poel has in 2022, then two gold medals are very realistic. As of today, Jilek, in his December form, would have those two golds.

[Noorderling29 203]

47 minutes ago, NearPup said:

What does Wüst know about speed skating anyway?

She told yesterday that when, as a member of team of only female sprinters, she needed Some endurance training in 2022, she borrowed 2 youth riders to help her. Van de Bunt was one of them. She praised his technique. 

[copravolley 574]

1 hour ago, Noorderling29 said:

I’m sure you know better than Ireen Wüst, Erben Wennemars and the other specialists in the Dutch commentary team

I'm no big expert, but I'm just comparing times and going by that my predictions. If you beat Bergsma in under 10 seconds, your time wasn't particularly fast, but I could be wrong. We will see.

[copravolley 574]

1 minute ago, Noorderling29 said:

She told yesterday that when, as a member of team of only female sprinters, she needed Some endurance training in 2022, she borrowed 2 youth riders to help her. Van de Bunt was one of them. She praised his technique. 

He might be a dark horse, but if Ghiotto, a 10k dominant force on his track for the last three seasons, is to be afraid of someone like that, then he has very little chance against Jilek. That's all. And that's unfortunately possible, because Italy lacks truly great champions who goes as favorites at the Olympics and won a gold medal: Zoegeller, Tomba, maybe Goggia in 2018 in the women's downhill. Not to much.