Monzanator

5 hours ago, heywoodu said:

On the bright side, Russia is probably fucking their own economy with this.

 

On the dark side, the people who will suffer from that are the many millions of regular Russians who probably don't care too much about these things and just want to live their regular life like you and me. Obviously the Putin's and his cronies aren't going to suffer one bit from a sanction more or less.

EU played this card for years telling everyone that Russia can't afford to start a war with Ukraine because their economy will suffer. I guess it's pretty obvious that this narrative was completely false and Europe being dependant on Russian gas has far more to lose than Russia. Enough with this nonsense. It's obvious Putin has prepared for any santions EU can come up with. The War in Donbas lasted 8 years and EU decided to look away and pretend nothing happened. Former German, Italian, French and Austrian politicians are enrolled in Russian gas & oil companies and you want to tell me their economy will suffer?

First JWC gold for since 2003?

2 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

I was thinking about Bjoerndalen and Domrachava's daughter.  

Yes, her name is Xenia and she was born October 1st, 2016 so she's only 5 yo now.

Sivert Bjoerndalen is Dag's son indeed.

Ole Einar has posted several vids of his nephew Sivert on FB few years ago.

1 hour ago, RobtheAggie said:

I did see a Guro Femsteinevik for Norway.  I am going to assume she is a sister of Martin and Ragnhid.

That is correct. She is their younger sister

Yeah, this looks like some old bus there

Good break for Polish viewers as Polsat Sport News will show the races live.

20 minutes ago, LowerSaxony said:

The idiotic from the start project of Nordstream 2 is officially dead, thankfully.

It's not dead. The pipe has been build. It will go into operation sooner or later. Your former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder will make sure of that.

1 hour ago, RobtheAggie said:

My sister is volunteering at the Junior/Youth World Champs this week.  Fresh snow fell today.  It is supposed to be 7 degrees F on Thursday morning.

7 F is -13 Celsius for Europeans. Quite tough weather for the juniors

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

Ah, I was wondering when this default "but the West!" would come out from underneath the Ctrl + C  

Yeah, I guess we should all laugh & giggle over a war in Ukraine? Excuse me for NOT laughing

Same trick Russia pulled in 2008 when they recognized Abkhazia & Northern Osetia. Did any of the 'democratic' countries do anything about that? Nope. Nobody will do anything about Donetsk & Lugansk either. I mean War In Donbass goes on for eight years and most Western democracies would like everyone to forget about that one. But the evil Putin just won't let it go! How rude!

He'll come after the Baltic countries in 5-6 years time. Modern day appeasement suits him just fine. Germany will do everything not to help Ukraine and protect their Nord Stream 2 investement

Malgorzata Holub-Kowalik (400m) is ruled out of the championships due to a foot injury.

12 hours ago, Jan Linha said:

I am glad that you are watching Brenda. Altogether with her sister Linda, they are amazing. Now, I can't believe that Brenda made it through the qualifier and she will in the main of the WTA tournament in Guadalajara. Just amazing💪💪

Tennis is my default sport so to speak so I follow WTA more than you realize She drew Sloane Stephens in R1, arguably the hardest player any of the qualifiers could get but maybe this is for the best as she will find out how far away she is from a regular WTA player at this stage.

She had a relatively easy Q draw (nothing is easy for a 14yo in her first WTA tournament but past-prime Errani away from clay & Kung who won 5 matches since the start of 2021 are as good as it gets) and we'll hear about the sisters for years to come since Czech Republic does have a good record of setting up established players on the WTA scene for years.

Jacques Villeneuve wrecking other cars in Daytona 500. Welcome to 2022!

Brenda Fruhvirtova beat Leonie Kung in Q2 and has qualified for Guadalajara MD. Obviously first player born in 2007 to achieve that feat.

Meanwhile her older sister Linda won ITF 25k in Cancun beating veteran Rebecca Marino in the final.

Some of the biathlon races were more predictable aka boring in 2022 and of course our Dutch friend wasn't posting as much due to known circumstances.

Freestyle skiing was hardly a highlight either, the in-breeding in some events makes people ignore the action and I believe slopestyle & half-pipe just doesn't really do much with the same nations taking medals over & over again.

3 minutes ago, De_Gambassi said:

I'm complety in favor of a team event in alpine skiing, but this format... Yeah. In theory, would it be possible to have a relay a la luge (with racers alternating blue and red courses) ? 

 

There used to be two runs on each course for individual parallel at the start of this event but it lasted too long for TV window so they scaled back to one and it's been unfair 9/10 times since. Obviously they could introduce two runs each again only if men & women would have separate venues which is unlikely to happen.

As for team event, technically they are alternating the courses. It's a question of figuring out what is the winning formula. Here in Beijing it was to put your best two skiers on the blue course. Surprise, surprise... eventual gold medal winners Austria did just that - Liensberger & Brennsteiner raced on blue course in QF, SF and Final. I do wonder if Austria noticed that pattern after 1/8 when they had a bye. Total times from two winning runs on blue ALWAYS decided every tie. The gaps to red & DNFs on red were irrelevant.

If USA put Shiffrin on blue in SF they would make the final, if they put her on blue in small final they would win bronze. They got lucky de Aliprandini crashed on blue course in QF but it was criminal to keep putting Moltzan on blue after that.

Diggins silver and Niskanen takes bronze! Andersson collapsed in the last 500 meters after all.

Andersson's gap down to 11 secs with 1,4 to go.

Justyna Kowalczyk foreshadowing Ebba Anderson's collapse

Nepryaeva DNF after 20 minutes.

Just now, vinipereira said:

Obviously I'm not familiar with the sport, but that seems so stupid. So theoretically a team can have 2 DNF and still win?

Yes, obviously.

1 minute ago, MHSN said:

I highly doubt that. she was the only one on the red course getting very close to win a race

 

let me show you guys some statstics  , if we don't count CHN vs SUI . we had only and only one win from the red course (beside DNF wins) and that solitary win belongs to Shiffrin against Slovakia. I somehow think she was the best skier today

Yesh, Shiffrin on red lost to Bassino by 0,02! Most red losses for women were by at least 0,4 if not 0,7! Shiffrin would have smoked everyone on blue course most likely. USA will look back at this and realize how badly they blew this. DNF didn't mean jack shit here. Blue course winning times were the key. Radamus on blue course was fast enough to carry them but they put Moltzan on blue instead of Shiffrin.

Austria wins in lieu of the total time rule. You could literally DNF both runs on the red course and win all the ties based on two wins from the blue course. A complete joke. USA putting Shiffrin on the red course in QF, SF & small final was clearly a big mistake.

Liensberger was faster than Duerr on the blue course. Almost impossible for Germany to win this.