Dennis

We’ve just unwrapped our Christmas presents, now we’re watching speed skating with the family before having Christmas dinner together. Typical Dutch Christmas 

We’ve just unwrapped our Christmas presents, now we’re watching speed skating with the family before having Christmas dinner together. Typical Dutch Christmas 

And that's a wrap for the 5k and Kramer possibly made it  
 
Bergsma was....mediocre. Enough to most likely qualify, but nothing special. Roest was a class of his own  
 
 
Men   Women Selection order Distance Rank at OQT Athlete   Selection order Distance Rank at OQT Athlete 1        1.000 1     1      5.000 1   2        5.000 1 Patrick Roest   2  MS  1   3        1.500 1     3      3.000 1   4        1.000 2     4      3.000 2   5       10.000 1     5         500 1   6  MS  1     6      1.000 1 Jutta Leerdam 7        1.500 2     7      1.500 1   8           500 1     8      5.000 2   9        1.000 3     9      1.500 2   10        1.500 3     10      1.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 11        5.000 2 Jorrit Bergsma   11      3.000 3   12       10.000 2     12      1.500 3   13           500 2     13      1.000 3 Ireen Wüst 14        5.000 3 Sven Kramer   14         500 2   15           500 3     15         500 3  

We’ve just unwrapped our Christmas presents, now we’re watching speed skating with the family before having Christmas dinner together. Typical Dutch Christmas 

We’ve just unwrapped our Christmas presents, now we’re watching speed skating with the family before having Christmas dinner together. Typical Dutch Christmas 

Considering it's his second-fastest time ever, I don't think it is  
 
Immediate advantage of Jumbo's 'super suits'?  

…and the  Olympic trials have been cancelled due to COVID. No word yet on the effect that will have on the team’s selection.

First ever world swimming medal for Bosnia and Herzegovina after bronze medal for Lana Pudar in 200 butterfly. 

4 EGYPTIAN SWIMMERS IN FINALS TODAY  that's quite a big night for Egyptian Swimming 

In 2018. Norway gave up an event quota in the men's 500m and the quota from Russia were taken away because of the doping scandal. Four reserves replaced them. So keep your hopes up. 

Some countries only have 1 skater who met the qualification time. So let's say  Marten Liiv or  Cornelius Kersten gets injured/COVID or they decide to focus only on the 1.000m (unlikely), then there's no one from Estonia or GB who can replace him on the 500m. In that case, the quota will go to   Nil Llop.
 
On the 1.000m the same can happen with  Mathias Vosté,  Marten Liiv, Cornelius Kersten or potentially someone from .

In theory, there is a chance, but in practice I don't see that happen, unfortunately for Nil Llop.

Women’s mass start at the four continents championship. An 11 minute snoozer with six skaters.

Larisa Iordache after a new operation has retired from gymnastics. She made this decision a couple of weeks ago and will transition to working as an assistant coach alongside her former coaches. She was a fighter and maybe she never won an olympic title but definetly she was one of the best gymnast in the world. I really hope she will come back for Paris 2024 and she will fight for olympic gold.

One compromise solution could be that a quota is only transferable if a) the maximum number of athletes has not been reached after original allocation b) the athlete fulfilling the quota has met the qualification standard. 
 
I do agree with the principle that with the scarcity of available quotas, quotas should be allocated to specific athletes, not NOCs. 

I think it a very long and complicated process to determine the head-counts of each NOC but it's not definitely to be a cruel quotas cut as it seems. For example, Van De Poel earned two quotas on 5000m and 10000m for  but they will just send one person and Huang Yu-ting earned 3 quotas on 500/1000/1500m for  , also very likely just sent herself alone. So I think all depends and we have to wait trials results.

97 different skaters won at least one spot for their NOC

Maximum number of athletes per NOC:
 
Country Women Men Total 9 9 18 8 8 16 8 8 16 8 7 15 8 7 15 8 5 13 6 6 12 5 7 12 4 8 12 6 5 11 5 5 10 8 2 10 4 5 9 1 6 7 7 0 7 2 3 5 3 2 5 2 1 3 3 0 3 0 2 2 0 2 2 0 2 2 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1  
If all countries will use the maximum number of skaters, a total of 210 names will be sent to the IOC (108 women and 102 men), but the maximum number of qualification places is 166 (83 women and 83 men).
 
That should not be too much of an issue on the women's side as 77 different skaters won a quota for their NOC. On the men's side however, I expect that the quota of 83 is too little. I'm curious to see what will happen in that situation. According to the rules, it could lead to a reduction of event quota on the 500m, 1.000m and 1.500m.
 
@Benolympique

It looks as if Claudia Pechstein has qualified again on the mass start. She won her first Olympic medal in 1992 and will turn 50 three days after the mass start final in Beijing 2022. 

I prefer this system then. Of course it would be nice to see Denmark and New Zealand in the Olympics, but Russia 100% deserves to be there after the weird disqualification because they showed slightly too much skin.

A sportsman of the year award for Verstappen feels so wrong to me, but it's inevitable now. I'd much rather see Lavreysen win it personally.
 
I feel like Meuwly also has a chance for the coach of the year. The track relay teams have had a really good showing this year at the indoor Euros, Worls Relays and the Olympics. And both of the 400m teams are a good media presence as well.
 
The other categories are lock-ins I agree. 

The group with    has not been decided yet. That will be exciting tomorrow with   -  and then  - . 
 
All three countries need to win to be sure of the 1/4 finals.

It looks as if Claudia Pechstein has qualified again on the mass start. She won her first Olympic medal in 1992 and will turn 50 three days after the mass start final in Beijing 2022. 

I don't think there would have been a non-controversial way to end this race.

Stolz just casually skating a sub 1:07 on the 1.000m at age 17 
 
The previous junior world record was 1:07.76 skated by  Koki Kubo.
 
This makes Stolz one of the contenders for an Olympic medal.