NearPup

Now confirmed by the Iranian government.

Arrivederci

My not a sports fan mom, unprompted, brought up the lack of funding that Canadian athletes are receiving. So it’s definitively breaking through.

It is being reported that the Israeli government believes that they have killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Trump is :P

Feels like this calls into question the sanctity of the FIFA Peace Prize

And seemingly a pretty well deserved yellow card as well from looking at the replay. Hopefully Drury's injury isn't too bad.

Mikaël is now talking freely about the extend of his injury this Fall (in French): https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/2232726/ski-acrobatique-kingsbury-blessure-projets So when he missed the second Val St. Côme world cup it wasn't load management, he genuinely could not compete. He's officially not doing another world cup this season, he's undecided about whether or not he'll do the Canadian championships. He sounds like he's done (what difference does it make if I've won 100 or 104 world cups?) but he's refusing to officially rule out coming back to competition (he's only fully ruling out another Olympics).

Not sure if I'm relieved he's retiring and he won't play against Oskar again, or disappointment that we won't see the fireworks from a close game between those two teams again. (I know theoretically team Jacobs could qualify for worlds, but I kinda suspect the Olympic hangover will be too much for them to win the Brier, especially with Brad Gushue playing at home for the very last time)

Quite good commentary about the controversy around the locker room behavior from Julie Foudy and Abby Wambach:

As long as they start playing Handball on their ice or snow

Maybe half of Americans, but pretty clearly zero members of the men’s team given how the past couple days have gone :/ (and none of them seemed to have any problems making their win very political and an occasion to express pretty blatant sexism)

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*.

I was in premium economy as well, the extra five inches of leg room definitively helped me stay sane. For BA I was in business class and I just wasn't impressed at all, despite the cabin itself being really good (it was a 787-900 so their newer business class product). The service was just... not good enough for international business class - they actually made me appreciate Air Canada xD . With Condor I could forgive the service not being that good because of how little (relatively) I paid, and the seat was comfortable enough.

So, wanted to update on this now that I’m back home in Seattle to say I had a really good time in Milan. I ended up not going to events outside of Milan (I went to short track, speed skating and hockey), and it was probably a good decision to keep things simple for my first Olympics. Getting around in Milan was a breeze, and I feel things were pretty well organized at the venues (though the ice hockey venue definitively could have used a couple more weeks of work). I was especially pleased with the speed skating venue, given it’s a temporary track it looked really good once you were actually in your seat and things were well organized for spectators (even though it was a looooong walk to and from the train station). So ya, happy with the experience, as a newbie to both attending the Olympics and traveling in Europe. Def made me want to attend the French Alps in 2030 (and subject them to my horrible-for-a-native French accent xD ) Thanks to for being good hosts. As an aside, I now understand why people dislike British Airways, and Condor was surprisingly okay, though it was definitively a "you get what you paid for" situation (flew SEA-LHR to get to Europe and FRA-SEA on the way back). Edit: oh, and big shout-out to the volunteers who were universally lovely.

Ooooooof. Ya it be dire.

Why not let Canada host hockey and curling, Austria host alpine skiing, Germany hold luge, bobsleigh and skeleton and Norway host cross country skiing and ski jumping while we’re at it?

Alpine Skiing Return of the team parallel event Biathlon No change Bobsleigh Remove the two-man and just have monotone and four-man for both genders. Cross country skiing No change Curling No change Figure Skating No change Freestyle Skiing Add mixed ski cross team event, mixed dual moguls team event, and a rail event Ice hockey No change (yet) Luge No change Nordic combined Men’s team event back to four athletes Add one women’s individual event Add a mixed team event Short track No change Skeleton No change Ski jumping Men’s team event back to 4 athletes per team Add women’s team event Ski mountaineering Add individual and vertical races Snowboarding Add PSL Add a mixed team parallel event Add rail event Speed skating Remove the women’s 3000m and add a women’s 10000m Add the team sprint New Sports Cross country running Men’s and women’s individual and team events, mixed relay Cyclocross Men’s and women’s individual Freeride men’s and women’s ski men’s and women’s snowboard Ice climbing men’s and women’s speed men’s and women’s lead

Hey as long as they do it on hard packed snow instead of a tatami.

I never want to see a medal plaza ever again. The medal ceremonies were so important for me as a spectator, even the ones I really didn’t want to sit through (and no offense but the men’s 5000m relay def was one of them :P ) xD It gives closure to the event, basically.

Ya because it’s association -> assoc (pronounced a-sock) -> soccer (because at the time the English liked to add -er at the end of words). Rugby was called rugger at the time as well.

Both are incorrect anyway, it’s Association Football :P

lol, I actually really like soccer - it’s the sport I played the most seriously as a kid (swimming is the only thing that really came close there).

I’ve kind of given up on the World Cup (even though it’s happening literally in a city where I live), the ticket prices on the resale market are outrageous and I’ve yet to have an opportunity to buy tickets at the (still too high) face value. So the next big event I go see in person is probably going to be the LA games.

The period between Olympics is more fun on here than the Olympics proper anyway, at least IMO. (generally I find the Olympics themselves to be the worst time to be an Olympics fan, ironically)