NearPup

They have finally (finally!) acknowledged their dumb "third athlete can't qualify by time ranking" rule. But they still manage to make it super confusing xD

Quebec is locking down tighter than the rest of Canada. Pro sports aren’t cancelled outright, my guess is that the logistics just weren’t workable. They had to get a special exemption from the provincial government just to hold the event. That was granted three days ago, but right after that the government tightened COVID rules.

The world record in the men’s 3000m is 3:37.28. I’m guessing these training races don’t count.

Multiple (as in, almost all) media outlets are reporting that the NHL and the NHLPA have agreed that sending players to the Olympics is not going to happen. At this rate we'll go ten years between best-on-best International ice hockey (2016 World Cup to 2026 Milan Olympics).

Oh I'll happily take the other side of that bet. Name your terms :P

The past decade or so has just been an incredible turnaround for Canadian swimming. This might be the best the team has ever looked entering a quad.

…and the Olympic trials have been cancelled due to COVID. No word yet on the effect that will have on the team’s selection.

I can't believe someone is supporting executing dissidents in 2021, if we're going to go with the most extreme elements of the coalitions of the winning candidate. Also, is Boric even a Communist? He certainly has Chile's Communist party in his coalition, but Boric himself has been pretty consistently opposed to the Nicaraguan, Cuban and Venezuelan governments as far as I can tell.

If the alternative was a normal presidential candidate, sure. If the alternative is a supporter of a former repressive dictator... bit of a different story.

I mean it's pretty clear why the NHL is pulling out - there is an increase in COVID cases, which is massively affecting their schedule (including a postponement of all cross border games) and the players and teams both have a big issue with the current Beijing playbook - specifically the possibility of having to quarantine three weeks if they test positive (without being able to fly back). There's just too much money on the line for this to work out unfortunately.

Allison Baver, a three time Olympian and a 2010 bronze medalist in the relay, is being accused of scamming ten million dollars in COVID aid from the US government to finance a movie. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/ex-olympic-speed-skating-medalist-charged-with-stealing-dollar10m-in-covid-19-aid-to-help-finance-elijah-wood-movie/ar-AARTM2M?li=BBnbfcL

Historically that works out marginally better than fascism at least... Seems like there was a real lack of mainstream options in the second round.

USA Olympic Team Men: Ryan Pivirotto Andrew Heo Women: Kristen Santos Maame Biney Corinne Stoddard Julie Letai Eunice Lee Biney is the only skater with Olympic experience (Pivirotto was on the 2018 Olympic team but didn't race). Santos is the elder statesmen of the team, but she didn't make the 2018 team because she was recovering from injury at the time and finished fourth at trials. Lee came out of absolutely nowhere to claim the final women's spot, she has literally never made a US national team for anything.

The Olympic trials will be held at the brand new “Centre de Glace” in Quebec City from December 27th to 31st. I believe this is the first time since 1984 that Calgary will not hold the Olympic trials.

@heywoodudoes it look like the new COVID restrictions in will affect the Olympic trials?

Article (through good old Google translate) seems to imply they are considering naming Makarainen and Berger co-champions.

They can send a maximum of nine skaters, however to be able to send nine skaters an NOC has to enter the maximum number of athletes in every event.

Pretty sure if did that they could only send 8 male skaters.

Would be a bit of a travesty to take Makarainen’s title away…

Women’s mass start at the four continents championship. An 11 minute snoozer with six skaters.

has earned the second Olympic spot. The third and final spot will be decided by a playoff between and

has won the second spot. The final spot in the women’s tournament will be decided in a playoff between and

In case anyone else wants to suffer through this complete abomination of a race:

DSC is one of the worst tie-breaker in sports and I absolutely hate it. Especially now that they have eliminated tie-breakers in International curling...

bizarrely won against the top three teams ( ) and lost to everyone else. Anyway, three way tie at the top, qualifies for the Olympics due to having a better DCS (bleh). and will play-off for the second Olympic spot, the loser of that game will play-off against for the final Olympic spot. The number of NOCs is now final at 14, one up from Pyeongchang.