Monzanator

Stefan Kraft leads after Round 1 by a rather comfortable margin. He was already winning all the training sessions so gold seems out of reach. Great effort from Vitali Kalinichenko to make the second round!

I suppose the revival of 5km distances has helped RL Roponen a lot. She's older than Raisa Smetanina when CIS relay won Olympic gold in 1992

Gold and silver decided, Diggins vs Parmakoski for bronze.

I don't think Nepryaeva can make up 20 seconds on Fossesholm.

She's his niece

Kalla is absolutely toast. Probably no medal for Sweden. Andersson & Karlsson will have a mammoth task to claw this back.

50 seconds in and Lithuania is 25 meters behind already. Langsam aber sicher as the Germans would say

Finally a better jump from Kupczak. It's gonna be a challenge for him to stay in Top 20 though.

I hope FIS won't wait 4 years to put Jasna on the calendar again? I mean Nove Mesto is usually a sell-out in biathlon so I have no idea what stops FIS from milking Vlhova's career peak?

Apparently no injury, just all-in on the 4x400 relay. However it would make sense to at least put Lesiewicz in the individual. Due to her lack of experience I think she won't make the relay despite finishing 2nd at the Polish indoors.

Malwina Kopron said Swoboda got infected in Spala from one of the training athletes that don't take part in indoor sports. Second positive test for Swoboda. She's out 100%. Meanwhile Malgorzata Holub is pulled from the 400m individual races and won't be replaced by anyone leaving Swiety-Ersetic as the lone entry. Then what's the point of having SIX 400m runners if there only will be a relay final contested

Yep, can't blame anyone for being smarter than everyone else. If Latvia can convince Baiba Bendika to help them with FIS points (and 10k was in freestyle) then it's understandable Lithuania fields a relay team when they can - even if they probably finish dead last anyway.

Maren Lundby wins gold. Sara Takanashi silver, Nika Kriznar bronze. Big favorite Marita Kramer blew the second jump and finishes 4th.

It's Norway. They will be allowed to compete

Yeah, I remember that one, IBU used the Finnish umlauts or whatever that's called and FIS used the "ae" anglicized versions. There was also the infamous Jarkko Maeaettae in ski jumping

pushes off the podium

Obviously. Greenland & Faroe Islands aren't members of IOC

Baiba Bendika finished 35th

Must be a new lipstick?

Looks like another Johaug-Karlsson-Andersson 1-2-3.

I wonder how long will Baserga be kept away from the World Cup? Even Cadurisch made her debut at a younger age. For someone labelled as a big talent for years, Baserga is being held back a lot.

It's not about retirement, it's about lack of competition. The fact Riegler, Pommegger, or Fischnaller are still active and in contention for medals at age 40+ tells me in ten years time Joerg and Hofmeister will be in the same bout. Hell, Dujmovits took two years off and she's back on the WC podum like she never retired to begin with. The youth charge happens in other aspects of freestyle skiing, slopestyle, big air and all those events. Parallel slalom has to have the highest average age of competitors involved. This is like the geriatric home for seniors. And since those bad Russians are the only ones with some fresh talent this event will be willified by FIS and IOC for a little while yet.

I just made a point that nobody will retire anytime soon. Joerg has like 10 years on the tour left and Hofmeister & Loch probably 15.

If the situation in Slovakia as bad as everyone says I wouldn't give a fuck what EU says about this. Either save lives or admit coronavirus is indeed a political problem. Ursula van der Leyen has looked incompetent enough already as the delays in vaccine transfers are linked directly to her purchase "strategy" last summer.

This parallel snowaboard is totally low-hanging fruit, Joerg & Dujmovits in the mid-30s, Riegler in her late 40s. It's hilarious that the much-maligned Russia is one nation that actually has found a new talent. Everyone else is set to die on the old name hill Same for the men, two youngest prospects come from Russia, the rest is basically over 30 yo, Fischnaller and Prommegger probably won't retire before they hit 50 at this rate and why should they. There is zero competition in this sport.