Dennis

They’ll probably win one or more golden medals, a lot of the events are very close this year. It’s just that Canada hasn’t won many world cups either this year. Canada definitely has good chances in the women’s mass start with both Blondin and Maltais, they have a solid women’s team pursuit team and Ted-Jan Bloemen is one of the favorites for the men’s 10k (especially on his favorite rink in Calgary). A lot can happen on the men’s 500m where one mistake from Stolz could create chances for Dubreuil as well. This is just a fun prediction, but apart from Stolz and Takagi there aren’t any obvious winners on any of the distances, I think.

No prediction contest this year, so I'm just going to post my predictions here (with some surprises): Thursday: 3.000m Women: Ragne Wiklund (hoping she is fully recovered) Irene Schouten Marijke Groenewoud 5.000m Men: Patrick Roest Davide Ghiotto Ted-Jan Bloemen Team Sprint Women: the Netherlands Canada Poland Team Sprint Men: the United States of America Poland the Netherlands Friday: Team Pursuit Women: the Netherlands Canada Japan Team Pursuit Men: the United States of America Norway Italy 500m Women: Erin Jackson Femke Kok Kim Min-Sun 500m Men: Jordan Stolz Wataru Morishige Laurent Dubreuil Saturday: 1.000m Women: Miho Takagi Jutta Leerdam Kimi Goetz 1.000m Men: Jordan Stolz Kjeld Nuis Tatsuya Shinhama Mass Start Women: Irene Schouten Ivanie Blondin Mia Manganello Mass Start Men: Chung Jae-Won Bart Swings Andrea Giovannini Sunday: 5.000m Women: Irene Schouten Martina Sáblíková Ragne Wiklund 10.000m Men: Davide Ghiotto Michele Malfatti Jorrit Bergsma 1.500m Women: Miho Takagi Antoinette de Jong Joy Beune 1.500m Men: Jordan Stolz Kjeld Nuis Ning Zhongyan My predicted medal table: Country Gold SIlver Bronze United States of America 6 0 2 the Netherlands 5 6 4 Japan 2 1 2 Italy 1 2 2 Norway 1 1 1 South Korea 1 0 1 Canada 0 3 2 Poland 0 1 1 Belgium 0 1 0 Czech Republic 0 1 0 China 0 1 1

And Daleman is still a junior for two more seasons as she was born in March 2007.

Pan swimming 46.80 as the start swimmer in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, a new World Record

3:41.72, so close!

O wow, didn't see this gold medal coming

Update after stage 5: South Korea - 6.677 points (+1.301 points) Canada - 6.031 points (+1.102 points) the Netherlands - 4.681 points (+988 points) China - 4.585 points (+320 points) Italy - 2.818 points (+397 points) the United States of America - 2.776 points (+687 points) Belgium - 1.867 points (+320 points) Poland - 1.692 points (+336 points) Japan - 1.543 points (+306 points) Kazakhstan - 1.477 points (+301 points) drops one spot after sending the full Junior team because of the Chinese National Winter Games that start this week. The juniors had their own National Winter Games events in January. I assume next week China will be represented by their juniors again. and had their strongest weekends of the season so far. (for obvious reasons) and disappointed a bit this weekend. One more event to go in Gdansk before the World Championships in Rotterdam

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Dresden (Stage 5/6) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 5 - Women: Kim Gilli - 1115 points (-) Kristen Santos-Griswold - 980 points (-) Xandra Velzeboer - 875 points (-) Hanne Desmet - 869 points (-) Corinne Stoddard - 651 points (+1) Selma Poutsma - 558 points (-1) Seo Whimin - 484 points (-) Wang Ye - 480 points (+2) Shim Suk Hee - 457 points (+4) Courtney Sarault - 446 points (-1) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 5 - Men: Park Ji Won - 931 points (+1) Steven Dubois - 822 points (-1) William Dandjinou - 784 points (-) Kim Gun Woo - 612 points (-) Jordan Pierre-Gilles - 524 points (+2) Liu Shaoang - 501 points (-1) Stijn Desmet - 500 points (+4) Felix Roussel - 474 points (+6) Pietro Sighel - 466 points (-3) Luca Spechenhauser - 459 points (-)

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Dresden (Stage 5/6) Women's 500m: 01. Xandra Velzeboer 02. Wang Ye 03. Kamila Stormowska Men's 500m: 01. Felix Roussel 02. Jordan Pierre-Gilles 03. Lukasz Kuczynski Women's 1.000m [2/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Suzanne Schulting 03. Corinne Stoddard Men's 1.000m [2/2]: 01. Park Ji Won 02. Jang Sungwoo 03. Adil Galiakhmetov Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. Canada 03. the United States of America Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. South Korea 02. Japan 03. Hungary

Impressive race by Kim! Love it when someone goes all out like this, no fear

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Dresden (Stage 5/6) Women's 1.000m [1/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Xandra Velzeboer 03. Kamila Stormowska Men's 1.000m [1/2]: 01. Park Ji Won 02. Felix Roussel 03. Steven Dubois Women's 1.500m: 01. Hanne Desmet 02. Kristen Santos-Griswold 03. Suzanne Schulting Men's 1.500m: 01. William Dandjinou 02. Stijn Desmet 03. Kim Gun Woo Mixed 2.000m Relay: 01. the United States of America 02. the Netherlands 03. South Korea

And the first ever medal for in artistic swimming at a World Championship!

Amazing world record indeed, Stolz is in a league of his own.

Winners highlighted in red above. On top of that, Niels Laros (athletics) won the Young Talent Award. The 18-year old is a double European Champion under 20 (1.500m and 5.000m). At the World Championships in Budapest this year he finished 10th place.

The final stage of the World Cup in calendar year 2023 has been completed. Two more stages to come in 2024. , and had a great showing here, had their worst weekend so far in terms of World Cup points won by their skaters. and are also not at the level they showed at the first two world cup weekends in Montréal. These are the top 10 countries in the world based on the number of World Cup points they have gained this year, including points gained in relays: South Korea - 5.376 points (+1.343 points) Canada - 4.929 points (+1.183 points) China - 4.265 points (+983 points) the Netherlands - 3.693 points (+1.007 points) Italy - 2.421 points (+548 points) United States of America - 2.089 points (+627 points) Belgium - 1.547 points (+416 points) Poland - 1.356 points (+314 points) Japan - 1.237 points (+233 points) Kazakhstan - 1.176 points (+381 points)

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Seoul (Stage 4/6) Women's 3.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. South Korea 03. China Men's 5.000m Relay: 01. China 02. the Netherlands 03. Belgium

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Seoul (Stage 4/6) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 4 - Women: Kim Gilli - 865 points (-) Kristen Santos-Griswold - 805 points (-) Xandra Velzeboer - 695 points (-) Hanne Desmet - 689 points (-) Selma Poutsma - 508 points (-) Corinne Stoddard - 306 points (+2) Seo Whimin - 436 points (-1) Gong Li - 381 points (+1) Courtney Sarault - 372 points (-2) Wang Ye - 368 points (+3) Overall World Cup Standings after Stage 4 - Men: Steven Dubois - 683 points (+1) Park Ji Won - 681 points (+1) William Dandjinou - 604 points (+1) Kim Gun Woo - 540 points (-3) Liu Shaoang - 501 points (-) Pietro Sighel - 421 points (+1) Jordan Pierre-Gilles - 416 points (-1) Jens van 't Wout - 392 points (-) Hwang Daeheon - 383 points (+3) Luca Spechenhauser - 382 points (-1)

Ah yeah, I only just woke up. Didn't see the race, but I can't remember ever seeing a double winner on any distance

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Seoul (Stage 4/6) Women's 500m: 01. Xandra Velzeboer & Selma Poutsma 03. Wang Ye Men's 500m: 01. Liu Shaoang 02. Seo Yi Ra 03. Denis Nikisha Women's 1.500m [2/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Kristen Santos-Griswold 03. Hanne Desmet Men's 1.500m [2/2]: 01. William Dandjinou 02. Park Ji Won 03. Steven Dubois

ISU World Cup 2023/24 - Seoul (Stage 4/6) Women's 1.000m: 01. Hanne Desmet 02. Kristen Santos-Griswold 03. Xandra Velzeboer Men's 1.000m: 01. Steven Dubois 02. Hwang Daeheon 03. Pascal Dion Women's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. Kim Gilli 02. Corinne Stoddard 03. Gong Li Men's 1.500m [1/2]: 01. Park Ji Won 02. William Dandjinou 03. Felix Roussel Mixed 2.000m Relay: 01. the Netherlands 02. Italy 03. South Korea & United States of America (both PEN in the final)

Those would also be my picks, but I have a feeling they'll go with Verstappen again.

She was on the shortlist though, but speed skaters seldomly win outside of Olympic seasons.

Nominees for the awards organized by the Dutch NOC: Best male athlete: Harrie Lavreysen (track cycling) Mathieu van der Poel (road cycling / cyclocross) [winner 2019] Max Verstappen (formula 1) [winner 2016, 2021 & 2022] Best female athlete: Femke Bol (athletics) Sifan Hassan (athletics) [winner 2019 & 2021] Karolien Florijn (rowing) Best team: Women's 4x400m women (athletics) [winner 2022] Team Jumbo-Visma Men (road cycling) Women's waterpolo team [winner 1976 & 2008] Best male paralympic athlete: Daniel Abraham Gebru (track cycling / road cycling) Rogier Dorsman (swimming) Joël de Jong (athletics) Best female paralympic athlete: Lisette Bruinsma (swimming) [winner 2016] Diede de Groot (tennis) [winner 2022] Fleur Jong (athletics) Best paralympic team: Wheelchair tennis quads doubles - Niels Vink & Sam Schröder (tennis) Women's wheelchair basketball team Tandem men - Tristan Bangma & Patrick Bos (track cycling / road cycling) Coach of the year: Evangelos Doudesis (women's waterpolo team) Eelco Meenhorst (rowing) Laurent Meuwly (athletics) Merijn Zeeman (track cycling, Jumbo Visma) The winners will be chosen by athletes/coaches (50%) and a jury (50%, consisting of former athletes, old-winners like Arjen Robben, and press). Fair nominations in my eyes in all categories.

I don't have an answer to this, but it does indeed look like it.

These are the relay teams that would now qualify for the world championships (top 11 countries + the host country the Netherlands): However, there are still 3 World Cups to go in the qualification period. Rank Men Women Mixed 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ----- 13 14 15 16 17 18 19