bmo

https://ljubljanafrogs.si/en/posts/final-teams-qualified-for-the-2026-ifaf-flag-football-world-championships
 
Men’s Teams (16)
Germany (hosts) American Samoa Australia Austria Brazil Canada France Great Britain Israel Italy Japan Mexico Nigeria Panama Switzerland United States

Hi, Y'all.
 
Nice to meet everyone.  I'm in MI (obviously). 

I enjoy mostly every sport, but my favorites include Baseball, Ice Hockey, Sport Climbing, Curling & T20 Cricket. Looking to discuss the road to LA28, and the subsquent olympics beyond that. 

It was also nice to have actual crowds again. I think the Beijing organizers did the best they could given the COVID regulations that still existed in China at the time, but it sure did dampen the atmosphere *a lot*.

Yes. This was the best WOG since at least Sochi 2014. I only started paying attention to the Olympics after London 2012, so small sample size. But, this was the best WOG I can remember. European fans and atmosphere make everything better in my opinion.

Some new members for us to welcome 
 
 
@MichiganGold  nice to have you here on the road to LA    
 
@Learphollach welcome in! Great to have a fellow Irish on here . Glad to hear you enjoyed the Winter Olympics and hope you stay with us to enjoy the road to LA 

 
@Daniel999 from one Daniel to another, welcome to the forum. Glad to have you    


@Nashorn88 great to see another active member from Finland! We hope you stay and enjoy participating in the threads    
 
 

Where are you seeing ticket prices already? Edit: I see on the official page they've got that listed.  I was hoping for more event by event...but that seems to be coming in April.
 
I also haven't begun to look at maps yet.  I imagine that when we go, we'll also incorporate some other SoCal sightseeing (maybe even venturing to other parts of the state, national parks, etc.).  I've never been to Cali at all.  But yeah, geography will figure into all of this.

Yes! Thanks for this thread.
 
I just saw where the first ticket drop will be some time in April (crazy...two years ahead of time!).
 
My wife would love to see a women's basketball game (specifically Team USA...but I don't think we'll be able to know which game will be theirs), or women's volleyball.
 
I personally would love to see sport climbing (boulder, preferably) or table tennis. Perhaps even Modern Pentathlon (would get to see a variety of things).
 
Gymnastics would be fun, depending on the event.

Now that I've had half a day to recover from the traumatic hockey loss, I can answer this question better:
 
Favourite Moments from Canadian Athletes (not many but they still exist)
The Cross-Country skiing team delivering great performance after great performance and giving hope for a Canadian renaissance in the sport Rachel Homan finally overcoming her Olympic demons and winning a medal in curling Mikael Kingsbury winning the first dual moguls Olympic gold medal at capping his career with an Olympic gold Megan Oldham winning gold in freeski big air Seeing the emergence of Stephen Gogolev in men's figure skating Deanna Stellato-Dudek finally getting to live out her Olympic dream at 42 years old when it looked like it wouldn't be the case after an injury in a practice session Piper Gilles/Paul Poirier finally getting an Olympic medal in Ice Dance Courtney Sarault winning 4 medals after winning no medals in 2022 and almost quitting the sport in 2023 Laurent Dubreuil finally winning a medal in the 500m Valerie Maltais (at 35 years old) turning back the clock and having a career year winning 3 Olympic medals in speed skating Women's Team Pursuit winning back-to-back gold medals  
Favourite Moments from International Athletes:
 Lucas Pinheiro Braathen winning gold in the men's giant slalom  Johan-Olav Botn dedicating his win to Sivert Guttorm Bakken  Federica Brignone overcoming injury and winning 2 gold medals  Lisa Vittozzi winning biathlon gold on home soil  Seeing the incredible Bulgarian performances in biathlon  Elana Meyers Taylor finally winning Olympic gold  Klaebo dominance Nazgul the dog  Mikhail Shaidorov winning gold in men's figure skating  Alysa Liu winning gold after retiring from the sport in 2022 Men's Freeski big air final Seeing the emergence of  Kacper Tomasiak in ski jumping The parallel giant slalom events  Choi Ga-on winning halfpipe gold after a scary injury on her 1st run Even though it wasn't the result I wanted, the men's snowboard cross final had a thrilling finish  Francesca Lollobrigida stunning everyone with gold in the women's 3000m and 5000m In general, seeing all the countries that hadn't won a Winter Olympic medal ever or in a long time win a medal at these Games

From a  perspective:
 
Elana Meyers Taylor winning monobob, Alysa Liu winning women's figure skating, Shiffrin winning women's slalom & both our hockey teams winning gold
 
From an international perspective:
 
 Klaebo dominating cross country skiing events
 Shaidorov winning men's figure skating
 Franjo von Allmen dominating men's alpine skiing
 Kingsbury winning gold in dual moguls
 Netherlands dominating short track now??!?!?!
 Lucas winning gold for Brasil and South America
 
In reality, all the athletes are winners for sacrificing so much to participate in these Olympics. What an incredible games full of unpredictable and inspiring moments!

From a  perspective:
 
Elana Meyers Taylor winning monobob, Alysa Liu winning women's figure skating, Shiffrin winning women's slalom & both our hockey teams winning gold
 
From an international perspective:
 
 Klaebo dominating cross country skiing events
 Shaidorov winning men's figure skating
 Franjo von Allmen dominating men's alpine skiing
 Kingsbury winning gold in dual moguls
 Netherlands dominating short track now??!?!?!
 Lucas winning gold for Brasil and South America
 
In reality, all the athletes are winners for sacrificing so much to participate in these Olympics. What an incredible games full of unpredictable and inspiring moments!

Final thoughts...
 
Two medals in all...this is Japan's sport.  But we had some top finishes, and should see several of these guys and gals in four years.
 
17-year-old Ollie Martin - 4th place in Big Air
Jake Canter - Bronze in Slopestyle (Red Gerard and Ollie made it to Top 10, too)
Of course Chloe Kim showed out, earning Silver in HP.
Not too much luck in PGS, and in SBX, of course there was Baumgartner's 7th place finish, and Faye Thelen finished similarly for the ladies.

Final thoughts on Figure Skating...
 
Another whirlwind of emotions.
 
1) Team Event - I mean, everyone did exactly what they needed to do.  Even Kam/O'Shea performed when they needed to to get the points we needed.  (Hopefully that gave her some confidence!). Chock/Bates showed out, as they always do.  Amber was so great, Ilia was good (but a little shaken), and Amber...well...she continued to be inside her head too much unfortunately...but I'm glad she ultimately could get redemption in the Free Skate in the individual event later.  I really loved the team element here...my first time paying attention to the event.  (And don't let Japan find some ice dancers, or we'll really have to be scared.)
 
2) Pairs - I was glad to see Chan/Howe have a good event overall, eventually leapfrogging over Kam/O'Shea.
 
3) Men - Emotional time for Max Naumov in his short program.  (I actually missed his long program, but I think he fell a time or two).  And Ilia...well...I saw his interview after the Gala, and I hope what he said was true, that he realized his purpose is to bring joy to the viewers...so hopefully he can take a cue from Alysa, get out of his head, and go out there and do what we all know he can do.
 
4) Women - Ok, yes, Isabeau and Amber are good...but Alysa...what a moment.  The top two Japanese ladies were so good, and just like at the GPF, they made just small mistakes that allowed Alysa to end up on top.  A great moment for US Ladies Figure Skating!
 
5) Dance - Chock & Bates are the greatest.  'Nuff said.  (Their Gala performance was also stunning.)  (And yes, Cizeron/Beaudry Fournier are also fantastic.  Let's not complain that there's too much good art happening on the rink.)  (My wife is already saying that she hopes Chock/Bates make cute little ice dancing babies. )

Ok...biathlon final thoughts.
 
No medal...still.  But let's find some bright spots:
 
1) Highest finish for the Men's relay (fifth!).
 
2) Campbell was 8th in Pursuit.
 
Let's keep building, team!  See you in 2030!

Final curling thoughts...
 
Silver for Cory/Korey.
4th for our Women.
5th for our new team of Men.
 
I'd say we did quite nicely.  
 
This Saturday, I'm attending the semifinals of the USA National Championships in Charlotte.  With any luck, I might get to see Team Shuster in action.  And perhaps some of our Olympians will decide to come visit?  Looking forward to this!

Final thoughts...
 
We ended up 8th in the Men's Team and 7th in the Mixed Team.  Let's just keep building slowly but surely!

Bobsled final thoughts...
 
4th place for Del Duca in the 2-Man...great job!  Wish he could've podiumed, but nice work.
Then three medals for our women?!  Yes!  1-3 in Mono, and Kaillie with another Bronze in 2-Woman.
 
Great job, team.    (And mad props to all these moms, dads, 40+ year olds, etc.!)

Final CC thoughts...
 
Diggins - It sounds like she's proud of her performances in her final runs.  She gave it her all.  Glad she was able to bring home a little hardware.
 
Ben Ogden - What a surprise!  You're on my radar now, kid!  And another silver with Schumacher?  See you both hopefully in 2030!

MOST AND LEAST PREDICTABLE SPORTS
 
Below is a graph that shows you how we did as a group in the individual sports.  The lower the number, the lower the predictability.  The higher the number, the higher the predictability.
 
As for scoring, a score of 66% means on average, we guessed two medallists correctly, but the third medallist was not guessed at all.
A score of 50% means that we got one medallist completely correct, and then got the placement wrong for one other medallist, and the third medallist was unknown.  Or, it could mean we guessed the three podium finishers, just in the wrong order.
A score of 33% means that we got one medallist correct, but the other two were not guessed at all (even for other medals).
 

 
I think our top and bottom finishers are to be expected.
 
 
MOST AND LEAST PREDICTABLE DISCIPLINES
 
Events where we guessed the Gold Medallist 100%:

 
Events where we guessed the Gold Medallist 0% (nobody guessed it correctly, but maybe for another medal):

 
Our Average Gold Medal Correct Guess was 45%
 
 
Our Least Predictable Disciplines:

 
Our Most Predictable Disiplines:

 
Our average, across all disciplines, for total podium makeup is 48%.
 
Full Discipline Results by Predictability:


 
What I learned this Olympics: Though there are favorites...the Olympics causes anything to happen!   
 
Thanks for playing, everyone!  I won't be doing this in the future, as it took away from my enjoyment of the Olympics somewhat (both in the hosting and the predicting myself), but I look forward to the next Olympics cycle!
 
 

FINAL RESULTS
 
MOST CORRECT PODIUMS
GOLD - rafQ - 13
SILVER - orangeman - 12
BRONZE - mikto78 - 11
 
MOST CORRECT PODIUM PLACEMENTS
GOLD - valtellina - 129
GOLD - Emersons - 129
SILVER - orangeman - 127
 
MOST CORRECT PODIUM POINTS
GOLD - valtellina - 373
SILVER - rafQ - 372
BRONZE - Morten Jensen - 366
 
Full Leaderboard By Category
 
 
Note: A few of you have a couple of extra points added into your podium points score due to an unfound logic flaw.  Sorry about that!
 
 
 
DISCIPLINE-RELATED GROUP STATS COMING IN NEXT POST

And now that the WOG are over...I can return my attention to Summer Sports.   Got some catching up to do.  BRB in a few days.

NBC had a lovely special after the ceremony...even highlighted some non-USA athletes.  Perhaps a few Americans will know Klaebo's name now!  There was even a segment highlighting the Italian medallists, that this was a record year for them, too.   (Best of Milan Cortina, on Peacock, if you can access it.)

Plenty of moments, but while this one is fresh in my brain...
 
It was the audience singing the national anthem as they raised the  at the end of the men's Ice Hockey game earlier today.
 
Of course everyone knows about the divisiveness of American politics.  Here in the USA, we have so much fighting amongst ourselves, and the division is exhausting and at times worrisome.  Then, when you look abroad, I see the world looking at us, and much of what I hear is negativity towards us.  (This isn't unique to the current administration.)  That even includes being on forums like this one, whose aim is to celebrate Olympic sport and athletes from around the world as they compete in the Olympics, whose aim is to bring unity and good sportsmanship.
 
During the Olympics, it's a time where we in the USA come together.  Though half of my fellow Americans voted differently than I did, we all got to cheer when we scored that OT goal.  We all came together and sang our national anthem.  I don't know the hockey players at all.  They may have voted for our current president, or perhaps not.  Statistically, probably half of them did.  But that doesn't matter here.  We even have ads on TV right now saying "For two weeks, we all come together."
 
My country is more than its political leaders.  (I mean, half of Americans didn't even vote for our president.)  My country is full of beautiful stories, places, and people.  We have amazing athletes.  And when we win a gold medal, we celebrate.  Of course there are aspects of being an American that aren't good...but there's plenty to celebrate.  And I got to hear that audibly today.
 
When you on this forum see me and my fellow Americans celebrating a victory (whether that's in ice hockey or whatever random sport you don't care about), I hope what you see is us celebrating the accomplishments of our athletes.  I hope you don't see me as one who is promoting any political agenda.  (My political beliefs or who I voted for aren't relevant here.) I'm just a guy that likes to watch people from my country go out there and fight as hard as they can to win.  When we do, it's great, and I'll celebrate.  When we don't, I'll congratulate the victors and hope we can come back stronger next time.
 
This isn't a specific moment, but one thing I love most about international sport are the hugs that the athletes give each other after they finish.  They're competitors, and they each want to win...but ultimately, they just want to be their best and beat the best.  I love seeing the sportsmanship that is evident at most times.  So likewise, I hope we fans can be an extension of that Olympic spirit, promoting peace, excellence, and good sportsmanship as we all celebrate sport.
 
And yes, I also recognize there may be some who don't like it when America dominates certain sports.  I feel similarly when I see other countries dominating other areas.  I mean, besides the Germans, who didn't love it when the  sled came and stole bronze in the 4-man bob today?  I think back to the Athletics WCh when  randomly won a shot put medal, I think it was.  I love the underdog story, too, and I celebrate those moments.  Of course it stings if it's an underdog that beats , but again, congrats to the victor, and see you next time.   

Women's Monobob is up there. That was the only time I was able to get friends over to watch the games and that result was a shock gold medal for the US. 

But Alysa Liu's free skate is the winner. Her display of joy should be the standard for figure skating. 

State (Province) Medal Winning Olympians From Minnesota 12 Michigan 9 Colorado 7 California 7 New York 5 Massachusetts 5 Illinois 5 Ohio 4 Pennsylvania 3 Florida 3 Arizona 3 Wisconsin 2 Texas 2 New Hampshire 2 Missouri 2 Alaska 2 Wyoming 1 Washington 1 Virginia 1 Vermont 1 Utah 1 Oregon 1 North Dakota 1 Nebraska 1 Montana 1 Idaho 1 Connecticut 1 Alberta 1

Hello guys, I have read this comment and I'm sorry you feel this way. I have had no time to read all comments around all threads, but I hope if you read something bad about your country in the future you could report the post so I (or another moderator) could have a look and delete or edit the comment.
 
You are right about the contentious politics @clemsonbeav and some people are just not able to understand politics has nothing to do with sports, participating athletes and users' forums. And I think many people tend to support the "underdogs" and being USA the best nation in the world in sports lots of people support other or smaller countries, as they see  winning lots of medals everywhere.
 
But again, I hope nothing too bad has been posted about your country and if that happens I apologize and I feel free to report those posts. And I also hope this will not prevent you guys from taking part in the "open forum", it's very interesting to read your comments and point of view and I'm happy that finally we have some US users on Totallympics, because for many years we have lacked them and it was a shame not to have the best sports country in the world represented on Totallympics.
 
You will also be hosting the next Olympics and I hope you will be able to keep this club active not only during the Olympics but also in the lead up, following all sport sport events with other US users both here in the club and around the forum.
 
Being USA the host of the next Olympics you will have an easy path in most of the sports' qualifications, but you can still qualify for extra quota and follow the progress of your athletes and teams towards the Olympics.
 
With you two, @bmo, @Quaker2001, @Book and @Triplecast who have been active on a daily basis and followed with us the Olympics, and many other US users who could read this and other users who could come back, you can keep this club active all year around and make it a great place for Olympic sport fans who follow sports not only during the 16 Olympic days but all year round.
 
I think this club is becoming more active thanks to the amazing job of @clemsonbeav and I hope you will keep up the amazing job in the next months