Winter Olympic Games 2018 Debuting, Coming Back, Returning and Missing Nations

[stefanbg 163]

4 hours ago, heywoodu said:

This is some nice reading on them.

http://deadspin.com/dominicas-fake-ski-team-scammed-the-olympics-and-the-p-1529973935

 

I'm a huge fan of exotic nations, but I hope these two won't be anywhere near the Olympics ever again to be honest  

 

What a scam! Thanks for the article.

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

Qatar apparently has a curling team now which competed at the Mixed Doubles World Champs: http://www.dw.com/en/qatari-curlers-aiming-for-winter-olympics/av-19197290

Think they're just a BIT too optimistic about their prospects. 

Edited December 28, 2016 by ahjfcshfghb

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

Also Bermuda could be back for 2018, but it's a longshot. They have a few freestyle skiiers who aren't doing too badly.

https://data.fis-ski.com/global-links/search-a-athlete.html?listid=&lastname=&gender=ALL&sector=&firstname=&nation=BER&status=ALL&fiscode=&birthyear=&Search=Search&limit=50

And I know Puerto Rico  will probably reject their quotas, but it is worth mentioning  they do have an athlete near qualification position currently. I mean you never know.

https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography.html?sector=AL&listid=&competitorid=210830

Edited December 14, 2016 by ahjfcshfghb

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

Point of interest, as well: There was an athlete from Uruguay,  Philip Schmid (not to be confused with the German WC racer) who competed in a FIS race in 2013, and I messaged him on Facebook about whether he will try and qualify, he says that 'he would love to' but he's studying at the moment and doesn't have much time to train so he 'probably' won't try qualifying this year. He said he'd let me know if he does, though. Apparently he lives in Switzerland now.

Edited December 14, 2016 by ahjfcshfghb

[intoronto 5,635]

5 hours ago, ahjfcshfghb said:

Point of interest, as well: There was an athlete from Uruguay, Philip Schmid (not to be confused with the German WC racer) who competed in a FIS race in 2013, and I messaged him on Facebook about whether he will try and qualify, he says that 'he would love to' but he's studying at the moment and doesn't have much time to train so he 'probably' won't try qualifying this year. He said he'd let me know if he does, though. Apparently he lives in Switzerland now.

Interesting, that means for the first time ever the traditional 10 nations of South America (ie CONEMBOL) all can qualify for the same Winter Olympics!

[ahjfcshfghb 287]

6 hours ago, intoronto said:

Interesting, that means for the first time ever the traditional 10 nations of South America (ie CONEMBOL) all can qualify for the same Winter Olympics!

You're right! That in itself would be quite a milestone 

By the way there's a cross country skier from Egypt who looks like he is trying to qualify: http://www.vismaskiclassics.com/news/helmy-egypt-takes-ski-classics

Edited December 14, 2016 by ahjfcshfghb

[rybak 3,217]

It would be soo much awesome to see all those mentioned above "exotic" countries in Korea

[Jur 683]

One thing that pisses me of a lot is the fact that there are no tripartite invitationals for the Winter Olympics, when some nations could really use them.

 

I remember specially a Bahamas snowboarder from Sochi who was not far from clasification. Then in summer olympics it's like a free pass for no level athletes.....

[mrv86 3,138]

5 hours ago, Jur said:

One thing that pisses me of a lot is the fact that there are no tripartite invitationals for the Winter Olympics, when some nations could really use them.

 

I remember specially a Bahamas snowboarder from Sochi who was not far from clasification. Then in summer olympics it's like a free pass for no level athletes.....

 

I agree... at least one place in each individual event, subject to the athlete achieving an "easier" standard, like what Triathlon or Badminton did in the last Summer Olympics.

[dcro 10,210]

10 hours ago, Jur said:

One thing that pisses me of a lot is the fact that there are no tripartite invitationals for the Winter Olympics, when some nations could really use them.

 

I remember specially a Bahamas snowboarder from Sochi who was not far from clasification. Then in summer olympics it's like a free pass for no level athletes.....

 

Exactly! Nowadays it's becoming very hard for smaller nations to qualify anywhere outside of alpine/XC skiing because quotas are so limited and because big (rich) nations want to be good (or at least participate) in everything.

 

It's happening all the time. Virgin Islands have a very good athlete in women's skeleton but her chances are very low... Even though she is their best winter athlete by a long, long way... Similar story for bobsled team. They were decent and they tried to qualify for Sochi but yeah...