Definitely agree with a lot of these. In general, everyone from countries that don't have much of a tradition or many facilities, so would add people like
Anthony Ferlazzo in Luge
biathletes
in everything
Maloney-Westgaard in Cross country
TBH I just try to support European athletes where I can, but I do prefer some countries over others in certain sports.
Alpine Skiing -
Biathlon -
Bobsleigh -
Cross Country Skiing -
Curling -
Figure Skating -
Freestyle Skiing -
Ice Hockey -
Luge -
Nordic Combined -
Short Track Speed Skating -
Skeleton -
Ski Jumping -
Ski Mountaineering -
Snowboarding -
Speed Skating -
Selina Grotian is the 6th youngest World Cup winner among women (20yo 8 months).
Elin Kristiansen remains the youngest at 19yo 6 months (Anterselva 1988 sprint). Magdalena Neuner is the only other athlete to win before turning 20yo (19yo 11 months). Uschi Disl (20yo 1 month), Svetlana Davidova (20yo 3 months) & Martina Glagow (20yo 4 months) were also younger.
Today maybe there was poor wax servic, but Auchentaller loses in every race at the end, when younger competitors: Grotian, Richard, etc. are already running much faster. Vittozzi is 29 years old but unfortunately she got injured in November - if she recovers, she will still have a big chance for medals. Unfortunately, Wierer can only be a complement to relay teams.
Could be the waxing on the last lap fresh snow. Auchentaller, Wierer & Trabucci all fell off on the last lap and basically had the slowest skiing time there? Overall though you have a problem, days of prime Wierer & Vittozzi won't be repeated soon but then I hear the same issues in alpine skiing where there is a huge gap behind Brignone & Bassino (the latter being 28 years old already). And someone claimed Colturi would have plateau'd if she stayed with the Italian federation as well.
Slovakia returns to the podium for the first time since Oslo in March 2022. To find a podium in the mass start we even have to go back to Rupholding 2019, before the covid era