Dennis

Insane to see NL so close to the top 3 

Biggest changes in the number of top 8 if compared to 2022.
 
Positive:
+29
+28
+13
+12
+10
+10
+8
+8
 +8
 
Negative:
-8
-6
-5
-5
 
 
 

Final table:
 
  NOC   points gold silver bronze 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th total 1 NOR Norway 446 18 12 11 11 9 15 5 6 87 2 USA United States 414 12 12 9 12 15 9 10 13 92 3 ITA Italy 361 10 6 14 9 14 10 9 6 78 4 GER Germany 310 8 10 8 14 3 6 10 8 67 5 FRA France 291 8 9 6 9 10 7 7 8 64 6 CAN Canada 265 5 7 9 3 14 9 9 6 62 7 SUI Switzerland 265 6 9 8 8 5 9 8 3 56 8 AUT Austria 233 5 8 5 5 9 4 12 10 58 9 JPN Japan 232 5 7 12 6 1 8 4 5 48 10 NED Netherlands 210 10 7 3 6 5 1 3 4 39 11 CHN China 197 5 4 6 5 7 5 8 9 49 12 SWE Sweden 178 8 6 4 4 4 1 4 1 32 13 KOR South Korea 103 3 4 3 2 2 2 2 5 23 14 GBR Great Britain 88 3 1 1 5 2 4 3 0 19 15 FIN Finland 86 0 1 5 3 3 4 4 2 22 16 AUS Australia 77 3 2 1 2 3 1 2 4 18 17 CZE Czechia 67 2 2 1 0 4 2 2 5 18 18 POL Poland 55 0 3 1 2 0 3 2 5 16 19 SLO Slovenia 42 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 8 20 LAT Latvia 37 0 1 1 3 2 0 0 1 8 21 NZL New Zealand 33 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 5 11 22 BEL Belgium 27 0 0 1 1 1 3 1 1 8 23 AIN   26 0 1 0 1 1 3 0 1 7 24 ESP Spain 24 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 4 25 KAZ Kazakhstan 20 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 8 26 BUL Bulgaria 19 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 4 27 EST Estonia 14 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 4 28 GEO Georgia 12 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 29 DEN Denmark 9 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 30 UKR Ukraine 9 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 4 31 BRA Brazil 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 32 HUN Hungary 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 33 SVK Slovakia 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 34 ROU Romania 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 35 LTU Lithuania 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 36 HKG Hong Kong 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 37 IRL Ireland 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1  
 

I mostly agree, though I dispute your last point. Apart from Velzeboer’s 500m, the Dutch weren't favorites in their winning events; they simply had everything break in their favor. And in long track the women’s 1,500m was won by 0.06 seconds, and the men’s mass start succeeded only because the field, except for Thorup, failed to counter the most predictable Dutch strategy possible.
 
Furthermore, top 8 data from Milan proves speed skating is highly global, certainly no less than i.e. XC skiing or biathlon that also have 23 events combined. The competition is there, the Dutch skaters just seized the margins.
 
Short track (14 countries in 9 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal):  Europe:   North-America:   Asia:   Long track (18 countries in 14 events, of which 10 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia:   North-America:     
Compared to other sports with many events: 
Cross-country skiing (13 countries in 11 events (so far), of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America: Biathlon (12 countries in 11 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal [all European]): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America:  

I mostly agree, though I dispute your last point. Apart from Velzeboer’s 500m, the Dutch weren't favorites in their winning events; they simply had everything break in their favor. And in long track the women’s 1,500m was won by 0.06 seconds, and the men’s mass start succeeded only because the field, except for Thorup, failed to counter the most predictable Dutch strategy possible.
 
Furthermore, top 8 data from Milan proves speed skating is highly global, certainly no less than i.e. XC skiing or biathlon that also have 23 events combined. The competition is there, the Dutch skaters just seized the margins.
 
Short track (14 countries in 9 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal):  Europe:   North-America:   Asia:   Long track (18 countries in 14 events, of which 10 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia:   North-America:     
Compared to other sports with many events: 
Cross-country skiing (13 countries in 11 events (so far), of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America: Biathlon (12 countries in 11 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal [all European]): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America:  

I mostly agree, though I dispute your last point. Apart from Velzeboer’s 500m, the Dutch weren't favorites in their winning events; they simply had everything break in their favor. And in long track the women’s 1,500m was won by 0.06 seconds, and the men’s mass start succeeded only because the field, except for Thorup, failed to counter the most predictable Dutch strategy possible.
 
Furthermore, top 8 data from Milan proves speed skating is highly global, certainly no less than i.e. XC skiing or biathlon that also have 23 events combined. The competition is there, the Dutch skaters just seized the margins.
 
Short track (14 countries in 9 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal):  Europe:   North-America:   Asia:   Long track (18 countries in 14 events, of which 10 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia:   North-America:     
Compared to other sports with many events: 
Cross-country skiing (13 countries in 11 events (so far), of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America: Biathlon (12 countries in 11 events, of which 8 countries winning at least 1 medal [all European]): Europe:   Asia: no top 8 spots North-America:  

Before this games the 500 metres Women and Mass Start Men were the only two speed skating events the Dutch team had never won at the Olympics. So now the set is complete.

Let’s go! 10th (and final) gold medal for us these games, outperforming all expectations 

Silver for  Blondin in the final race of her Olympic career  

What a dream finish to Bergsma’s Olympic career at age 40! 
 
And  Thorup! 

What a dream finish to Bergsma’s Olympic career at age 40! 
 
And  Thorup! 

Nobody wanted to risk bringing Stolz in perfect position to the last sprint, and then this happens. 

What a dream finish to Bergsma’s Olympic career at age 40! 
 
And  Thorup! 

I'm shaking! (And I'm pissed that I didn't buy that ticket! )

Second medal in Winter Olympics history for Denmark and first since Nagano 1998! 

What a dream finish to Bergsma’s Olympic career at age 40! 
 
And  Thorup! 

What a race, what an Olympics, 5 gold medals, damn  
 
Itzhak de Laat is Olympic champion, I'm gonna read that sentence 52 more times to make sure it's true  

Pergher just missing out on a medal as well, but what an amazing result for her 

Pergher just missing out on a medal as well, but what an amazing result for her 

Pergher just missing out on a medal as well, but what an amazing result for her 

Yes, while Lamarche shows high consistency, a performance gap appears to exist between the top five skaters and the rest of the field. Lamarche finished 9th in the overall World Cup standings with an average placement of 11th, notably without any top 7 finishes during the season.
 
Several factors contribute to my prediction for her:
 
She finished only one point ahead of Silaeva and two points ahead of Wójcik, both of whom trended upward in the final World Cup weekend.
Leerdam competed in six of the nine races, outperforming Lamarche in every instance where they both competed.
Takagi almost never competes in the World Cup circuit, but delivers during big championships (e.g., her silver in Beijing 2022 out of nowhere).
Kim Min-Sun is an experienced skater with many wins on the 500m. We can see that other experienced athletes such as Lollobrigida, Bergsma, Maltais, and Dubreuil have all exceeded expectations in the past week.
Lee Na-Hyun and Boersma held higher average placements (4/7 in the top 6 and 3/7 in the top 7, respectively) but skipped the final two World Cup races, impacting their final standing relative to Lamarche.
 
I think today's field can be categorized into three distinct levels based on this season's results:
Leader: Femke Kok is in a league of her own
Podium Contenders: A group of four (Ziomek-Nogal, Jackson, Yoshida, and Leerdam) will most likely compete for the remaining podium spots.
The Mid-Field: The skaters ranked between 6th (Warmuth) and 19th (Hiller-Donnelly) consistently finish behind the top five but could finish in any order, as they have constantly traded positions throughout the season. Any of them could finish on the podium on an exceptional day and when the podium contenders fail.

Prediction for today´s women´s 500m:
 
Femke Kok  Kaja Ziomek-Nogal   Erin Jackson Yukino Yoshida  Jutta Leerdam  Sophie Warmuth Miho Takagi  Martyna Baran  Anna Boersma  Serena Pergher  Lee Na-Hyun  Kim Min-Sun  Andżelika Wójcik  Kristina Silaeva  Béatrice Lamarche  Tian Ruining  Chen Ying-Chu  Rio Yamada  Carolina Hiller-Donnelly Brooklyn McDougall  Wang Jingziqian  Julie Nistad Samsonsen  Sarah Warren  Ellia Smeding  Anna Ostlender  Fran Vanhoutte  Maybritt Vigl  Nikola Zdráhalová  Arina Ilyachshenko

Disgraceful if this sport remains but Nordic combined is axed. A nonsensical lottery, 

3 individual medals this tournament so far, 3 gold medals for