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@Finnator123 Therefore, for my own sanity, I'm pretending we beat you guys on Saturday.

So, time for a recap! Hopefully there's still someone in this thread. First of all, these Olympics were spectacular from the very beginning. Ever since the opening ceremony kicked things off, I felt something big was happening. Such a global event and a celebration of sports couldn't have been set in a better location this year. It's great to have the winter edition in Europe once again. Wonderful sceneries and great venues just fueled the atmosphere. I really enjoyed switching from one event to another, admiring the landscapes, just like every other Olympics. The mascots were amazing. They're so adorable. I'm not really an avid collector of Olympic memorabilia, but I feel like I have to get my hands on one of these plushies. Not saying the last mascot was bad, but these stoats are perfect in every sense. The opening sequence rocks, the tune has been stuck in my head for days, it's really catchy. It gives off this dramatic vibe while still keeping a classy coating. Interesting medal table this year! Norway showed up once again. Honestly, Klæbo, you're mad. I'm pretty sure the guy would place in the top ten of the leaderboard if he competed by himself, absolute legend. Both the United States and France recorded their best ever campaigns, very impressive. Some other countries locked in as well, unfortunately, some did not. That brings me to a more subjective review. What do we have here? It's not really pleasant to look at, but that's something we all expected. The last Summer Olympics were supposed to be successful, we had plenty of medal hopes before the start. That one was a disappointing campaign. This time, it wasn't that surprising. Just as expected, not a lot to be cheerful about. However, I always try to pick something positive. Even these Olympics brought us some successful and memorable stories. There's definitely stuff to go through: Alpine skiing: This is one of the memorable stories. Petra's comeback is already a victory on its own. It's even more symbolic when you realise the slopes of the Italian Alps marked her return to competitive skiing. Not a disappointing finish from her at all, she even improved her result in the second slalom run. Biathlon: Now this is the sport I'm closely following during the entire year. Well, to say it was disappointing is an understatement. No individual finish in the top twenty is a disaster. No matter how we look at it, it's a failure, especially after all the promising things we've heard during the last few races, building up to the main part of the season. I'm not saying I expected medals, but the results are horrific from every angle. Paula not being able to shoot with less than three misses just sums up the hopelessness of Slovak biathlon in Antholz this year. The women's relay also didn't live up to the expectations. Disappointing. Figure skating: Adam Hagara is the first male competitor to reach the final round since Nagano. Very impressive. Despite not improving afterwards, it's a great debut for him. His time will definitely come, it will be interesting to watch him skate in four years from now. Ice hockey: Now this is where it gets interesting. Again, there wasn't much to expect from us at the Olympics this year compared to the past, but I definitely did not expect hockey to be our best shot at a medal. And what a ride it was! No matter how easy our path to the semifinal was compared to other teams, we rightfully earned it down to the last detail. Damn, winning a group with Sweden and Finland at the best tournament in twelve years feels like a dream. Absolutely surreal. If only we could change the outcome of the last weekend, it was disappointing, although definitely not as painful as Vancouver was, @hckošice definitely remembers that one better than me. In all seriousness, I'm glad we didn't disappoint, fourth place is a pleasant shock, something no one in Slovakia or outside the country predicted to happen. I suppose we know how to move the puck, we don't suck as much as we used to. Ski jumping: This is what I'm looking forward to. I know pretty much nothing about this sport outside of the basics, but Hektor Kapustík looks so promising. He's already reached several milestones of Slovak ski jumping in the last couple of months. I'm very excited to see what the future brings, he's definitely got the potential. I can picture myself watching him being a serious medal contender in a few years, the kid has wings. Ski mountaineering: I don't know, this whole sport was very anti-climatic. Not sure if it's because of the events happening almost at the end, the execution being pretty disappointing, or our athletes being unlucky, that's a Slovak classic. Just as I thought, we could have had a serious medal contender in the women's event if it wasn't for snow getting in the way. Stuff happens. Other sports didn't really stand out. There should be a big warning sign coming out of these Olympics for Slovakia. The brightest of our hopes did not come from a working state-sponsored system of support. They had to rely on their families and self-sacrifice plenty of times. There's not much support for young talents, nepotism and corruption are prioritised instead. I know that's something happening not only in Slovakia. Many countries suffer because of this, but it's still not something to be proud of. To end with something more positive, our hockey future is so bright and I'm really excited to watch these young guys improving as time goes by. We've had the youngest squad on average, many of those players are eligible for multiple Olympic tournaments, including the World Championships we're hosting in three years. If these players are already the core of the team in their early twenties, we can only imagine how much glory they can bring in a few years. Finally, it looks like Slovak hockey is not getting worse. Let's keep it that way.

How are people feeling about this? Not like I can brag or anything, but are people disappointed because of zero gold medals (compared to the overall medal tally from four years ago)?

It’s that peaceful period when you don’t have to stress about qualifications, quota allocations, or the actual events.

And that's a wrap! The end of the Olympics always gets me. For a couple of weeks, the whole world is cheering, feeling the same highs and heartbreaks together, and suddenly it’s over. I’m really going to miss that.

Nevertheless, it was exciting to watch the Olympics in this community for the first time!

I'm actually going to be sick. I know we shouldn't get too attached, but I'm going to miss these two weeks so much. I can't believe the Olympics are over.

Absolutely not. We're launching a new dynasty, slowly working our way forward, eventually beating you after another 22 years.

Slaf is part of the team of the tournament!

Well. Nathan should have put the puck in the empty net.

Alright, I'm tuning in. There's no way I can miss this.

Good luck to both teams, there should be plenty of drama and action. Despite looking forward to the final, I just can't bring myself to watch it.

I would much rather see us win tonight than in the first game of the tournament.

Well, it still hasn’t settled in an hour later. This team has given me so many heartbreaks over the years it’s actually insane. I can’t imagine having to endure to this for multiple decades. Even if we have some luck, we’re just not destined to finish the job. I don’t know. This sucks. Everyone in the country would be over the moon if someone told us about finishing fourth before the tournament, but it just sucks. Not getting to see them with the medals, not getting to see them cheerfuly answering questions from the media, I don’t know. I mean, yeah, fourth place is great. No matter how the games looked like, we can claim we’re the fourth best team after the tournament, no one can take that away. But to imagine we were one game from celebrating with the players on the main square in the capital, I don’t even want to imagine. I don’t know.