NearPup

For the same reason the senior worlds are always in Europe: it’s where the ticket sales and the TV viewership is the best.

What an incredible failure by the organizing committee. The bubble can’t fail when you fail to create a bubble…

There are now eight people on the men's matrix. The 1500m is going to be a very nervous wait for N'tab...

Men Women Selection order Distance Rank at OQT Athlete Selection order Distance Rank at OQT Athlete 1 1.000 1 Thomas Krol 1 5.000 1 2 5.000 1 Patrick Roest 2 MS 1 3 1.500 1 3 3.000 1 Irene Schouten 4 1.000 2 Kai Verbij 4 3.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 5 10.000 1 Jorrit Bergsma 5 500 1 Femke Kok 6 MS 1 6 1.000 1 Jutta Leerdam 7 1.500 2 7 1.500 1 Antoinette de Jong 8 500 1 Merijn Scheperkamp 8 5.000 2 9 1.000 3 Hein Otterspeer 9 1.500 2 Ireen Wüst 10 1.500 3 10 1.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 11 5.000 2 Jorrit Bergsma 11 3.000 3 Carlijn Achtereekte 12 10.000 2 Patrick Roest 12 1.500 3 Marijke Groenewoud 13 500 2 Dai Dai Ntab 13 1.000 3 Ireen Wüst 14 5.000 3 Sven Kramer 14 500 2 Jutta Leerdam 15 500 3 Kai Verbij 15 500 3 Michelle de Jong

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 Irene Schouten 4 1.000 2 4 3.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 5 10.000 1 Jorrit Bergsma 5 500 1 Femke Kok 6 MS 1 6 1.000 1 Jutta Leerdam 7 1.500 2 7 1.500 1 Antoinette de Jong 8 500 1 Merijn Scheperkamp 8 5.000 2 9 1.000 3 9 1.500 2 Ireen Wüst 10 1.500 3 10 1.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 11 5.000 2 Jorrit Bergsma 11 3.000 3 Carlijn Achtereekte 12 10.000 2 Patrick Roest 12 1.500 3 Marijke Groenewoud 13 500 2 Dai Dai Ntab 13 1.000 3 Ireen Wüst 14 5.000 3 Sven Kramer 14 500 2 Jutta Leerdam 15 500 3 Kai Verbij 15 500 3 Michelle de Jong

Ya, I feel like I've heard "here comes Diggins!" on NBC and related Comcast networks a million times since 2018...

Guessing Michelle de Jong's Olympic qualification is going to be pretty marginal. Nice to see her on the matrix after missing out so agonizingly in the 1000m tho.

Oh, right, forgot he doesn't do that xD

lol NOS is making fun of van der Poel for not speaking Dutch. "If the Dutch produce a suit that is 20 seconds faster over the 10k then maybe they have a chance to beat me"

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 Irene Schouten 4 1.000 2 4 3.000 2 Antoinette de Jong 5 10.000 1 Jorrit Bergsma 5 500 1 6 MS 1 6 1.000 1 Jutta Leerdam 7 1.500 2 7 1.500 1 8 500 1 Merijn Scheperkamp 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 Carlijn Achtereekte 12 10.000 2 Patrick Roest 12 1.500 3 13 500 2 Dai Dai Ntab 13 1.000 3 Ireen Wüst 14 5.000 3 Sven Kramer 14 500 2 15 500 3 Kai Verbij 15 500 3

Bergsma wins the 10000m in a very solid 12:42, which clinches his spot on the Olympic team (not that it was ever really in doubt, he should also be selected for the mass start and the team pursuit). Roest is second, adding another distance. The day's big winner is Sven Kramer.

Especially since is arguable the favourite to win the short track relay... and Schulting is not so much the favourite to win the 500m in speed skating :P

Wait, Sven Kramer is competing in the 10,000m tomorrow? This changes everything (for NOS)!

Couple ones. In aerials, the skier is launched straight into the air and travels a very short distance horizontally. In big air the skier is launched forward moreso than upwards. Aerials is a lot like diving - every jump has a degree of difficulty based on the number of flips and spins. Every jump is judged based on form in the air and landing, and that is multiplied by the degree of difficulty to get a final score. Big air is scored more subjectively, with a 0-100 scale. There are no set degree of difficulty. Aerials tricks must be pencilled (i.e. the body of the aerialist should remain as straight as possible) to achieve high form scores. In big air pencilling leads to massive deductions. In big air grabbing the skis during tricks is one of the most important way to increase your score. Grabs are not permitted in aerials. In big air you tan takeoff forwards or backwards (switch). In aerials you can only takeoff forwards. In big air the judges take into consideration whether you did a trick in your natural or unnatural spin direction. This isn’t taken into account in aerials. Even though on the surface big air and aerials look very similar there is zero overlap between the competitors. The techniques used in both are quite different.

No requirement to use poles in big air :P

It would be a big upset if Norway doesn't win the medal table, and an even bigger upset if it isn't Norway or Germany.

This is very bad for Kramer's Olympic chances

Isn't N'tab ahead of Verbij?

Since the Olympic trials in speed skating are cancelled the process for selecting the team is up in the air, but this is more or less what I expect it to look like based on results this Fall: Laurent Dubreuil: 500, 1000 Alex Boisvert-Lacroix: 500 Connor Howe: 1000. 1500, TP Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu: 1000, MS Tyson Langelaar: 1500, TP Ted-Jan Bloemen: 5000, 10000, TP Graeme Fish: 10000 Jordan Belchos: MS, TP Marsha Hudey: 500 Kaylin Irvine: 500 Brooklyn McDougall: 500 Maddison Pearman: 1000 Valérie Maltais: 1000, 3000, MS, TP Ivanie Blondin: 1500, 3000, 5000, MS, TP Isabelle Weidemann: 1500, 3000, 5000, TP Alexa Scott could be selected in the 1000 or 1500 to give Blondin, Weidemann or Maltais a rest and/or as the alternate for the team pursuit.

Carlijn Achtereekte is one lucky skater, though to be fair she won the Olympics by whopping eight time the margin she got third at these trials xD

Breaking news: Sven Kramer's chances at Olympic qualifications are hurt by a fall from Hein Otterspeer and by Dai Dai N'tab being in first place after the first of two 500m races. Kai Verbij is second and Merijn Scheperkamp is third. This was actually a really impressive performance by N'tab, given Otterspeer false started and fell right in front of him at the start of the crossover.

A false start *and* a fall in N'tab's pair, and neither were him!

The MLG horns feel very out of place in speed skating, but especially to celebrate someone being 4th after 6 pairs.

This is a real farce...

The rest of the week NOS will talk about nothing other than how each skate influences the chances of Kramer being selected by the matrix. Every time there is a finish time they will show Kramer's 50000m victory in Pyeongchang and talk about how the result affects his chances of repeating. Whenever Kramer is in the arena they will show him at least once every ten minutes. If Kramer qualifies they will stop everything to have a parade and a fireworks display. I actually think that's reasonable. Because the 500m is a bit of a lottery N'tab inherently has a better chance of sneaking in a medal than Kramer does (even though both are extremely unlikely).