NearPup

I could really use some boredom when it comes to US politics.

The Cortina track has officially opened today, with the first athletes taking pre-homolgation runs!

Not sure if it was discussed here, but Canada is now *narrowly* in a qualifying position in the ski mounteineering mixed relay with two qualifying races left to go.

will have a general election on April 28th. Polls currently show a close race between current caretaker PM Mark Carney (Liberal) and opposition leader Pierre Poilievre (Conservative).

That's more a reflection of how bloated freestyle skiing is as far as a discipline is concerned. It should really be three distinct disciplines (freestyle skiing for moguls and aerials, park and pipe for half-pipe, big air and slopestyle and skicross). I'm of the opinion that there should be a reorganization here, with freestyle skiing and snowboarding being eliminated as disciplines and alpine snowboarding, "classical freestyle", park & pipe and cross being the new disciplines (which is how the FIS really seems to think about and organize them anyway)

And I would also say that the biggest culprit for giving a bunch of medals for the "same thing" are biathlon and short track, not cross country skiing. The six cross country events are actually fairly distinct from each other in terms of both competition format and in terms of distance.

Hey now, mogul skiers are about to get two sets of medals for *literally* the same event but with two different competition format (and slightly different judging, admitedly). So lets not complain too much about that atm :P Once the ski cross team event is added to the Olympics the only freestyle athletes who won't have a chance for two sets of medals are half-pipe specialists, but even there, there is some limited overlap between half-pipe, big air and slopestyle (and hopefully a rails event at some point in the not so distant future).

This is correct, same rule that existed in 2022.

I live in Seattle, and Alaska (the airline I primarily fly) has a direct flight to Sun Valley.

Very glad I didn’t go then xD Doing afternoon tea (how British of me) in Victoria, BC instead

has no NOC criteria this year. The Biathlon federation is requiring a top 60 in a World Cup or a top 10 in an IBU cup over the entire qualification period. https://content-api.teambelgium.be/storage/files/file_fr/182.pdf https://teambelgium.sharepoint.com/sites/TopSportHub/HPM/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FTopSportHub%2FHPM%2FSel-Crit%2F1-OG%2FW-2026-MilanoCortina%2FCrit-National%2Fcritsel BTH MiCo 2026 FR version 1.0.pdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FTopSportHub%2FHPM%2FSel-Crit%2F1-OG%2FW-2026-MilanoCortina%2FCrit-National&p=true&ga=1

We would just need Japan and China to also join xD (TBH I would prefer swimming more to a Four Continents model and just hold that as counter programming for Europeans)

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/donald-trump-expresses-support-u-190437531.html If the US does indeed join the Commonwealth as an associate member this could change the CWGs quite a bit xD

Quotas through the nation cup. Men's: 6 quotas: 5 quotas: 4 quotas: Women's: 6 quotas: 5 quotas: 4 quotas:

The IBU has published the ranking after the final race and you are correct!

So far have all qualified for the women's tournament (along with host ). Very likely that and / will also qualify, with the last spot from the combined 2024 and 2025 worlds likely coming down to (who is currently very narrowly in a qualification position), or (who needs a very high finish after missing the 2024 worlds).

Also, has now officially qualified for the Olympics overnight by making the playoffs (along with host , , and ) Real chance that both and will have to go through the last change qualifier.

Ya, alpine snowboarding is definitiely the "lesser" of the snowboarding events in terms of competitiveness.

Kristi Coventry is the 10th IOC president.

I think Samaranch Jr, Coe and Coventry are the top three contenders in that order.

Reluctently rooting for Coventry, with no great enthusiasm and purely because I dislike the other options more.

Presumably every country will be leaving the IBA and joining World Boxing in the next few months.

This is a really common (mis?)translation from South Koreans. You see it *all the time* when people are talking about Taekwondo.

Homan has an eye infection, I wonder if that's affecting her.