NearPup

As long as Mia Manganello-Kilburg qualifies for the Mass Start at the US Olympic trials tomorrow either Bowe or Goetz can give up their spot in the 500m (Both are also qualified for the 1000m and Bowe is also qualified for the 1500m) to Jackson without the US going over their five skater quota limit.

70th career win for Kingsbury. He is now only sixteen victories away from Ingemar Stenmark's record of most FIS world cup victories among male athletes. Very achievable if he goes for another quad.

She is aiming for the 2026 Olympics, where she would be... 42.

US Nationals, women's single Mariah Bell, at the ripe old age of 25, won her first senior nationals. She is the oldest women to win in 95 years, and in all likelihood she will be the oldest American women to compete in women's single at the Olympics since 1928. Again, at the ancient age of 25. Karen Chen finished second and is also virtually guaranteed a spot at the Olympics. Isabeau Levito finished third, but is not age eligible for the Olympics. Gabriella Izzo, in fourth, is the third highest ranked age-eligible competitor. The last spot on the Olympic team will likely come down to her or Alysa Liu.

Ya, triple citizen ( ). Could have gotten a US passport too, she held a Green Card when she was younger and she actually learned to skate while she was living in the US.

Canadian Nationals, day 1 (Short program / rhythm dance) Men's Single (2 quotas available) Keegan Messing (84.38) Wesley Chiu (81.47) Joseph Phan (78.14) Roman Sadovsky (77.17) Corey Circelli (76.64) Bennet Toman (72.83) Nam Nguyen (71.27) Women's Single (1 quota available) Madeline Schizas (72.05) Véronik Mallet (59.35) Gabrielle Daleman (58.48) Michelle Long (57.14) Emily Bausback (56.82) Alison Schumacher (56.38) Katherine Medland-Spence (55.74) Pairs (2 quotas available) Kirsten Moore-Towers / Michael Marinaro (73.02) Evelyn Walsh / Trennt Michaud (66.88) Deanna Stellato-Dudek / Maxime Deschamps (63.54) (AFAIK Stellato-Dudek does not have Canadian citizenship) Vanessa James / Eric Radford (63.33) Lori-Ann Matte / Thierry Ferland (60.13) Patricia Andrew / Steven Adcock (56.37) Kelly Ann Laurin / Loucas Éthier (49.93) Ice Dance (3 quotas available) Piper Gilles / Paul Poirier (86.98) Laurence Fournier-Beaudry / Nikolaj Sørensen (81.04) Marjorie Lajoie / Zachary Lagha (76.67) Carolane Soucisse / Shane Firus (72.55) Marie-Jade Lauriault / Romain Le Gac (71.29) Haley Sales / Nikolas Wamsteeker (70.00) Molly Lanaghan / Dmitre Razgulajevs (67.51) Very close battles for the second spots in the men's single and the pairs event (and Messing is far from certain from being in the top two). Biggest dissapointment of the day was Nguyen, who is retiring at the end of the season. He had a really bad fall on his 3A which completly ruined his program. Very happy that Fournier-Beaudry / Sørensen, formerly of , will very likely finally make their Olympic debut. Also worth noting that Lauriault / Le Gac competed for at the 2018 Olympics.

Official decision: there is no reskate, Erin Jackson, the world number 1, is out unless someone ranked ahead of her gives up their spot. ...they are definitively changing the selection procedures for 2026.

Drama - US Speed Skating officials considering letting Jackson re-skate.

World number 1 in the women's 500m Erin Jackson is OUT of the Olympics after finishing third at US Olympic trials! Same top two as in the 1000m, Brittany Bowe first and Kimi Goetz second.

…in hindsight, they were sadly right.

In an investigation about doping which lead to all her Olympic medals being stripped. The US government did all that legwork, not the IOC or WADA.

…Marion Jones literally went to prison.

Alysa Liu has tested positive for COVID-19 and has withdrawn from US championships. She was in third place after the short.

I love how much respect the team event gets :P

Video evidence (requires a US VPN):

This is basically the hangover from a golden generation. Canada won world championship golds and Olympic medals in every single disciplines last decade. Everyone involved is retired, except for the least exciting and most problematic skater from that group (Radford). So this is a deep rebuild for sure. Still a couple fun battles to watch, and there is an infinite amount of drama around James/Radford for the people who like that kind of thing. At least the final flight in ice dance is going to be good xD That being said, I don't think Canada will ever have a group as special as Chan, Osmond, Duhamel / Radford, Virtue / Moir and Weaver / Poje. At times Canada has had a lot of depth in one discipline (mostly men's) but there was never a time where Canada had medal contenders in all four events at roughly the same time.

The Canadian Championships (and de-facto Olympic trials) are happening today and tomorrow. There is a free live-stream on gem.cbc.ca, and it does not appear to be geo-blocked. Good lineup of commentators, too (Ted Barton, Kaetlyn Osmond and Elladj Baldé).

Perks of being America’s lapdogs I guess.

will not send any athletes to the 2022 Olympics. One might think it’s because they didn’t qualify anyone because no North Korean athlete has left the country since the pandemic began, but officially they are not attending the Olympics in order to protest the United States-led diplomatic boycott. https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/01/767355f07da3-urgent-n-korea-vows-not-to-participate-in-beijing-winter-olympics.html And directly from the North Korean government, because this sounds too much like fake news: http://www.vok.rep.kp/index.php/Data_detail_common/NewsDetail/ien220106006/18/en Mirror not hosted in North Korea: https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1641532218-850353137/dprk-olympic-committee-and-ministry-of-physical-culture-and-sports-send-letter-to-their-chinese-counterparts

Olympic Trials, day 2 (1000m) Both track records were broken today. On the men's side, 17 year old Jordan Stolz destroyed the field with a 1:07.62, which is a top 10 low land time this season. He is officially qualified for the Olympics. Joey Mantia skated 1:09.00 for second place and a likely spot at the Olympics. On the women's side, Brittany Bowe skated 1:13.63 to guarantee herself a spot on the Olympic team. Kimi Goetz, who was a favourite to make the 2018 short track team before suffering an injury, finished second and will likely make the team.

Hopefully making Olympic trials for various countries available on the Olympic channel outside of said country becomes a trend.

And the winning race in the women's 3000m (again, required a VPN outside the US):

Well in the end the IOC dodged a bullet there...

Olympic trials, day 1. Mia Manganello-Kilburg won the women’s 3000m, likely qualifying her for Beijing. The men’s 5000m was a great three-way battle with only two spots available and only 0.17s between first and third place. Ethan Cepuran made up a second on the final lap and won by 0.04s to guarantee his spot at the Olympics. Casey Dawson finished second and will likely be names to the team. Emery Lehman, who was unlucky to not be in a competitive pair, misses out in third. Edit: link to the very exciting fourth men's pair in the 5000m (required a VPN for those outside the US):

Djokovic’s visa has been cancelled and he is in deportation proceedings.