Dennis

No news on that, but I doubt it, because we now have a European Champion and World Cup winner in skeleton who had to prepare under very similar circumstances.

Some miracle has happened: the Dutch NOC said Maarten Meiners can go to Beijing even though he did not meet the NOC's criteria of finishing top 16 twice or top 8 once in the World Cup. Meiners is still allowed to go to Beijing because he was disadvantaged in his preparation compared to the top countries because of the corona pandemic. The technical director of the Dutch Ski Association said that ski areas remained open only to their own, national teams. An equal opportunity for optimal preparation for this season was thus denied him. Meiners managed to finish 25th in a World Cup race on the giant slalom once both last winter and in the current season.

Kimberley Bos is now the European Champion and the winner of the World Cup 2021-2022. Did not see that one coming before the start of the season

What an intense second half

No, nobody seems to understand. The lists we posted here and what was posted on Wikipedia was all in line with each other. Yet, the ISU interpreted the rules in such a way that nobody but the ISU understands how the list was compiled.

Nil Llop is definitely not going to Beijing: https://www.rfedh.es/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Comunicado-oficial-de-la-RFEDH-en-relación-a-los-criterios-de-clasificación-para-la-competición-de-patinaje-de-velocidad-de-los-JJOO-2022.pdf The Spanish Ice Sports Federation had filed an official complaint with regards to the interpretation of the rules (which we here also interpreted differently). I made a rough translation of the document to English. My Spanish isn't perfect, but I think it gets the message across:

No, that’s true. But at least countries like Germany, Austria, Czech Republic or Finland were able to win a medal or two.

Rather boring European Championships this weekend held in Heerenveen. The last international test for most European athletes before the Games. A lot of Russians were in quarantine leading up to the tournament as the their team manager, sprint coach, and Olga Fatkulina (reigning European Champion 500m) were all tested positive soon after arrival in the Netherlands at the start of this week. Therefore the whole Russian team had to stay in their hotel rooms for 5 days, and even missed the first day of the event. Other Russians, including most elite male sprinters had decided last week to stay in Russia. Nils van der Poel had already decided not to compete. Medals: Event Gold Silver Bronze Men's 500m Piotr Michalski (34.60) Merijn Scheperkamp (34.61) Dai Dai N'tab (34.76) Men's 1.000m Thomas Krol (1:07.77) Kjeld Nuis (1:07.86) Kai Verbij (1:07.94) Men's 1.500m Kjeld Nuis (1:43.60) Thomas Krol (1:43.91) Allan Dahl Johansson (1:44.16) Men's 5.000m Patrick Roest (6:11.54) Jorrit Bergsma (6:13.47) Hallgeir Engebråten (6:13.67) Men's Team Pursuit Bosker, Kramer & Roest (3:37.97) Engebråten, Johansson & Pedersen (3:38.92) Ghiotto, Giovannini & Malfatti (3:43.41) Men's Team Sprint Scheperkamp, Snel & Verbij (1:19.71) Lorentzen, Magnussen & Rukke (1:19.83) Kania, Michalski & Zurek (1:20.54) Men's Mass Start Bart Swings Livio Wenger Ruslan Zakharov Women's 500m Femke Kok (37.32) Angelina Golikova (37.43) Daria Kachanova (37.58) Women's 1.000m Jutta Leerdam (1:13.60) Femke Kok (1:14.80) Daria Kachanova (1:14.94) Women's 1.500m Antoinette de Jong (1:53.81) Ireen Wüst (1:54.08) Francesca Lollobrigida (1:54.50) Women's 3.000m Irene Schouten (3:56.62) Antoinette de Jong (3:59.79) Francesca Lollobrigida (4:00.61) Women's Team Pursuit De Jong, Schouten & Wüst (2:54.12) Bøhm, Haugen & Wiklund (2:58.54) Golubeva, Lalenkova & Voronina (2:59.32) Women''s Team Sprint Bosiek, Wójcik & Ziomek (1:27.26) Nifantava, Sloeva & Varabyova (1:31.18) Farstad, Ripsrud & Samsonsen (1:31.43) Women's Mass Start Irene Schouten Marijke Groenewoud Elizaveta Golubeva Only 8 countries won a medal, a record low.

Yeah, I answered before I saw the actual footage. She made a big mistake herself. I agree, there's no good solution. Not sure what will happen. I think a lot of countries need to give up a spot for USA to get a third.

Such a bad decision

Kramer and Bosker in. Ntab and Snel out. Bosker will skate the team pursuit and 1.500m. Kramer will skate the team pursuit, mass start (!) and 5k. Krol will replace Ntab and will therefore skate the 500, 1.000 and 1.500m.

(Preliminary) Team Men: Peder Kongshaug Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen Bjørn Magnussen Sverre Lunde Pedersen Kristian Gamme Ulekleiv Allan Dahl Johansson Hallgeir Engebråten Women: Marit Fjellanger Bøhm Sofie Karoline Haugen Ragne Wiklund Still 5 (!) quota places on the women's side which have not been used yet. Norway has won 2 quota on the women's 500m, but this list does not include any 500m skaters. I'm not sure if they'll use the quota as both Samsonsen and Ripsrud only barely qualified based on their season's best time and probably won't make top 20 in Beijing, whereas on the men's side all skaters selected have top 10 potential. Bøhm competed during the World Cups but did not even get close to a quota, so she's probably selected for the team pursuit. Not sure if she'll compete in an individual distance. Source: https://www.teamnor.no/nyheter/2021/47-utovere-tatt-ut-i-forste-uttak-til-ol-i-beijing/

Team Men: 500m: Tatsuya Shinhama, Wataru Morishige, Yuma Murakami 1.000m: Tatsuya Shinmaha, Wataru Morishige, Ryota Kojima 1.500m: Seitaro Ichinohe, Takura Oda, Ryota Kojima* 5.000m: Seitaro Ichinohe** 10.000m: Ryosuke Tsuchiya Mass Start: Seitaro Ichinohe (Ryosuke Tsuchiya is a reserve) * got disqualified during the trials, but made it over Taro Kondo as Japan only has 7 quota on the men's side. ** Japan has two quota on the men's 5.000m. Unsure who will be the second skater or if they're going to give back the quota Yamato Matsui is the #7 in the World Cup standings over 500m, but he misses out, because Japan has selected #2 (Morishige), #3 (Shinhama) and #4 (Murakami) based on the results in the Japanese trials. The best Japanese skater in the 1.000m World Cup standings (#8), Masaya Yamada, finished in 5th place, and therefore misses out on a spot in team Japan. Most notable skaters missing out include Taro Kondo, Takuya Morimoto, Shane Williamson and Masahito Obayashi. Women: 500m: Nao Kodaira*, Miho Takagi, Arisa Go 1.000m: Nao Kodaira, Miho Takagi 1.500m: Miho Tagaki, Nana Takagi, Ayano Sato** 3.000m: Miho Takagi, Ayano Sato 5.000m: Misaki Oshigiri, Momoka Horikawa*** Mass Start: Nana Takagi, Rin Kosaka Team Pursuit: Miho Takagi, Ayano Sato, Nana Takagi, Misaki Oshigiri * did not compete in the 500m at the trials, was probably pre-qualified ** Nao Kodaira finished in third place in the trials, 0.62 in front of Sato, but Sato got selected. *** 18-year old, still a junior this season and next season All the top athletes are there, with Horikawa being the biggest "surprise". Miho Takagi skates 5 distances. She also won Japan a quota on the 5.000m, but decided not to enter the trials on this distance. Source: https://www.skatingjapan.or.jp/common/img/info/2022OWGDelegation211231.pdf

Tijmen Snel

That was one exciting 5k Achtereekte missing out by 0.03 and Conijn by 0.13. Conijn also missed out on the 3k by 0.01.

His only hope is Roest and Krol both qualifying. None of the other guys have a chance. And even then he’s not sure as there’s someone missing for the team pursuit next to Roest/Kramer (maybe Bergsma) and the mass start next to Bergsma. I think Bosker would be a good one for both teams.

Krol, Otterspeer and Verbij qualified on the men’s 1.000m. First ever qualification for Otterspeer near the end of his career. Nuis fails to qualify. He must have flashbacks to 2010 and 2014 when he was also one of the favorites to qualify and he missed out. Bad news for someone like N’tab that Otterspeer qualified over Nuis.

One more race on the men’s 1.000m. A 1:07.64 might not be enough for Nuis to qualify as the reining champion. This level is insane.

Naah, don’t think so. They’ll both go to Beijing and the 1.000m is the last distance Antoinette will skate in Beijing after a rest day after the team pursuit. So I guess she will skate herself. But yeah, Michelle would be a great replacement if she’s too tired after all these distances.

8 different women in the matrix so far. If Schouten OR A. de Jong OR Achtereekte qualifies on the 5.000m, then the women’s team will be complete. The mass start team will 99% sure be Schouten and Groenewoud. The team pursuit team will most likely consist of A. de Jong, Schouten and Wüst with Achtereekte as a reserve. Based on the season so far, that would definitely be the strongest team, so I’m happy!

De Jong and Wüst also qualified, two skaters who had already qualified on another distance.

Groenewoud qualified on the 1.500m That means she’ll most likely start on the mass start as well as reigning World Champion.

Would be a surprise as the short track relay final will be on the same day, with the relay final being right before the 500m.