JockCartier

Been an interesting year for the women. New coach, and he’s definitely giving different players some reps. And with Grey evidently taking the summer off, O’Reilly injured and Van Ryk sitting out week two, it was certainly a radically different look You could really see the younger players progressing in Turkey, but going into the last week of VNL we have to keep an eye on relegation and be careful Sounds like Van Ryk will be back, so hopefully we can comfortably avoid relegation.

IIRC they had a hard time prying guys away from their NCAA teams last year, and had a bunch of restrictions on the ones they did. Perhaps that was part of it, or maybe injuries, or maybe they just didn’t feel they could qualify. I guess at least they wised up this year and made the mixed a priority. Hopefully the men will keep progressing

It's too bad OTP never realligned their focus when it was continued after 2010. They have such a backward facing funding formula. It was one thing when when it started, cause it was only like 5 years out from Vancouver, at when looking to maximize medals over such a short term funding like that makes sense (to a point anyway, some of the decisions still seem to be highly political, but I digress)... but when it was continued after they should have became more forward facing and investing in sports with better potential ROI

I agree, any clarifications from ISMF would be awful nice as to what next season might look like Per their standings we’re up by one whole point at this point! https://dataskimo.org/pdf/OMRRL.pdf

Sadovsky had another really good skate (huge progress for him) but a top ten in not in reach

So close… but so far. Popping that opening lutz sunk her, lost probably 5-6 points right there Great skate overall though. Honestly, coming in this was a big longshot.

Looking at the last few years, for a top ten in the women’s you usually need around 190+… for that Maddie would need 120+ in the long. So, certainly possible, but would require a really good skate Would be a wonderful accomplishment… and give someone a chance at a second Olympic spot too boot

That family is practically the United Nations with all their passports

Lithuanians saved their lutfisk. Rough round for the Baltic nations

We’re to the last group, we’ll see what the judges do here 😬 I fear Chock/Bates could fall and flop around and they’d still give them a record score… the US certainly is getting some home cooking this week

Saved by a very unfortunate fall by the Finns

There is still another team to go

Yikes… well, at least in the long we don’t need to wonder why the scores are low L/E seem like nice enough kids and it would be nice for them to go, but if we don’t get a 3rd spot I don’t think it will effect their ceiling

Is it wrong that I still hope they can talk Messing out of retirement for next year?!

Great skate by Sadovsky! Never doubted him! 🤞🤦‍♂️🙏

Gonna be tough to qualify three pairs teams the way this is going…

Brenda Irving has also said if you don’t qualify a man, you can’t get a team Sometimes they’re just wrong Let’s just put it this way, if she’s not top ten we only get one

It’s just an extra step to make sure the countries with spots have that many capable entries. Sadovsky had to do that to go to Beijing 2022. They used to do it at Nebelhorn in conjunction with that, but now I guess they’re having a specific qualifier As long as our nominee skates reasonably, I don’t think it will be an issue

Thank you for that. So with one race left this year that makes 6 races So it depends if/how many races they plan to have before the deadline in December. If one, that’s seven, still just one dropped If two, that’s eight and a second result dropped And I can’t find any outline of what’s planned for next year. As long as the Canadian’s can keep within one spot of the Yanks ( or preferably beat) in those races they should be alright. As right now even dropping another result wouldn’t hurt us

The will need to equip each boat with a knife ala Crocodile Dundee

It's not as different as you think. Their B-team has guys any given day can beat the guys on their A-team... no different than we'll be looking at in some sports. And we're still sending 4 each for any event we have that many medal contenders in. Which is a lot in sports limited to 25-32 spots

There are two races left? There only one left this season, so that means they're having one before the deadline next season? Beyond that, do they get to drop more scores? If so, how many? It would be great if the ISMF actually explained all this stuff, or any of it.

Norway’s is no different in cross country and biathlon. Their B-teams have men and women that would be top ten in the world. They often have guys that pop in from the IBU Cup for one weekend and podium

But if you want medals, cross country skiers are the most efficient investment. Takes 25 world class hockey players to win one medal… with 25 world class nordic skiers, Norway wins 20+ medals across XC, NC, and biathlon Not that we could expect to be Norway, but if we got serious and stuck with it, 5-10 every Olympics wouldn’t be out of the question

Though so. It’s a bit of an odd rule given there are only two countries anywhere close to 30