Speed Skating at the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026

[NearPup 4,184]

14 minutes ago, Joshi said:

I guess the Danes just love handball too much a bit like our obscene love of rugby in NZ. I always think imagine if some of those rugby players threw a shot put or a hammer throw instead. I mean one former national junior rugby player Tom Walsh is slowly showing the way. I guess some of those Danish handballers could try speedskating. I'm always baffled with the Belgians. Maybe too much love of road cycling.

The one that’s crazy to me is  and , two countries that are extremely strong in inline speed skating, being incapable of getting medals in (long track) speed skating. If they had a well funded national team setup they would win winter Olympic medals in no time.

[Josh 13,529]

16 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

This is my theory, actually.  What makes great national sporting dynasties?  Overwhelmingly, I think, is when teenagers joining the system are brought into direct personal contact with adults who are already champions.  This explains why certain countries excel in certain sports.   in track cycling,  in speed skating,  in cross country,  in distance running etc etc.  

In sports where you see countries dominate, I think the amount of facilities/funding that is put into it is one of the biggest factors. Take Norway in cross country skiing for example, they have hundreds of clubs, youth programs that kids can try it out at a reasonable price, and a well funded high performance group.
 

For Norway, it’s also about ensuring the kids are having fun and not worrying about results, you don’t want to put pressure on them and make them think about continuing or not if they have a bad race. 

[BMOlympics 22]

1 hour ago, copravolley said:

The Netherlands is just lucky. I hope there's nothing more to it. Norway and the Netherlands have such an advantage in some sports that I'd like to take a closer look at them – after all, there was already a controversy over Bjoergen's asthma medication.

Your comments are nothing other than ridiculous. Sure, some individual medals can be considered 'lucky', but overall this is a fully deserved result. It's the consequence of succesful investments and great innovations. That's the difference between The Netherlands and Italy in my opinion, and what makes the Netherlands capable of scoring more golds than silvers or bronzes.

[copravolley 644]

4 minutes ago, BMOlympics said:

Your comments are nothing other than ridiculous. Sure, some individual medals can be considered 'lucky', but overall this is a fully deserved result. It's the consequence of succesful investments and great innovations. That's the difference between The Netherlands and Italy in my opinion, and what makes the Netherlands capable of scoring more golds than silvers or bronzes.

You're not the sport`s 3-largest powerhouse, and you never will be, with 20 medals overall. And that's fortunate, because based on just two disciplines, that would be ridiculous, for me. 

Edited February 21 by copravolley

[BMOlympics 22]

2 minutes ago, copravolley said:

You're not the sport`s 3-largest powerhouse, and you never will be, with 20 medals overall. And that's fortunate, because based on just two disciplines, that would be ridiculous, for me. 

Lol what a nonsense argument to make. That's never what I claimed, and in the alltime medal standings Italy is even lower than the Netherlands so if you're trying to argue Italy is a powerhouse, then that's an invalid argument to make.

 

Besides, what else would you expect The Netherlands to do? There is no snow and there are no mountains which structurally eliminates 70% of medal options with a very rare exception every few games, and there's simply no figure skating or ice hockey culture over here which eliminates another 10% of options. We're simply maximising all our medal possibilities, resulting in consistent performances the last few Olympic cycles. 

 

[copravolley 644]

Just now, BMOlympics said:

Lol what a nonsense argument to make. That's never what I claimed, and in the alltime medal standings Italy is even lower than the Netherlands so if you're trying to argue Italy is a powerhouse, then that's an invalid argument to make.

 

Besides, what else would you expect The Netherlands to do? There is no snow and there are no mountains which structurally eliminates 70% of medal options with a very rare exception every few games, and there's simply no figure skating or ice hockey culture over here which eliminates another 10% of options. We're simply maximising all our medal possibilities, resulting in consistent performances the last few Olympic cycles. 

 

Nothing, it's just that the Netherlands took advantage of their historic opportunity here, and Italy lost it. We won't have a chance of finishing 3 in the medal table in future editions for the next 100 years, maybe even longer. Canada, Germany will wake up, Russia will return, France will be at home, etc. I simply regret the missed opportunity. Forgive me if I offended you or your country. 

[BMOlympics 22]

4 minutes ago, copravolley said:

Nothing, it's just that the Netherlands took advantage of their historic opportunity here, and Italy lost it. We won't have a chance of finishing 3 in the medal table in future editions for the next 100 years, maybe even longer. Canada, Germany will wake up, Russia will return, France will be at home, etc. I simply regret the missed opportunity. Forgive me if I offended you or your country. 

No worries Copra, but accusing the Netherlands or Norway of using performance enhancers or whatever like the first post I quoted is simply not a realistic accusation to make. It's still a historic performance from Italy, and I feel for you in the sense that not 1 or 2 of those bronze medals were a silver instead. The thing is, Italy has all the potential to get 10+ golds in the future if they have 1 or 2 talented alpine skiiers for example, I'm convinced that you will experience a top 3 performance for Italy once in your lifetime 

Edited February 21 by BMOlympics

[pdr4332 261]

8 minutes ago, copravolley said:

Nothing, it's just that the Netherlands took advantage of their historic opportunity here, and Italy lost it. We won't have a chance of finishing 3 in the medal table in future editions for the next 100 years, maybe even longer. Canada, Germany will wake up, Russia will return, France will be at home, etc. I simply regret the missed opportunity. Forgive me if I offended you or your country. 

I am with you on this one. I am almost as disappointed that did not get the 3rd place at most as if I was Italian. 

Definitely much less (if at all) disappointed at the performance is as before the Olympics everyone knew that HU short track is out as a medal contender (at least for now) with that 

Italy definitely deserved the 3rd place with at least 10 sports they medalled in.

If the curling mixed doubles (where you were title holders) went into the final and then lost, would have the missing silver for 3rd place.

Obviously, other sports could've made up for that.

 

Edited February 21 by pdr4332

[copravolley 644]

6 minutes ago, BMOlympics said:

No worries Copra, but accusing the Netherlands or Norway of using performance enhancers or whatever like the first post I quoted is simply not a realistic accusation to make. It's still a historic performance from Italy, and I feel for you in the sense that not 1 or 2 of those bronze medals were a silver instead. The thing is, Italy has all the potential to get 10+ golds in the future if they have 1 or 2 talented alpine skiiers for example, I'm convinced that you will experience a top 3 performance for Italy once in your lifetime 

I`m sorry, I exaggerated with the Netherlands, but in the case of Norway there were concrete accusations regarding the use of asthma medications and since then they have become a total winter powerhouse (they were also like that before - ok, but not to this scale). 

Edited February 21 by copravolley

[copravolley 644]

3 minutes ago, pdr4332 said:

I am with you on this one. I am almost as disappointed that did not get the 3rd place at most as if I was Italian. 

Definitely much less (if at all) disappointed at the performance is concerned as before the Olympics everyone knew that HU short track is out as a medal contender (at least for now)

Italy definitely deserved the 3rd place with at least 10 sports they medalled in.

If the curling mixed doubles (where you were title holders) went into the final and then lost, would have the missing silver for 3rd place.

Obviously, other sports could've made up for that.

 

Sighel's poor form, Ghiotto's slip-up in the 10km, the miss of medals in the men`s PGS alpine snowboarding, Gicomel's tragedy yesterday, etc. It could have easily 4-5 more silver medals. Personally, I thought 10 gold medals would be enough for 3rd place, but unfortunately, there weren't enough silver medals and too many bronze medals: 14.