NearPup

Russia toyed with that idea but ultimately fast track citizenship didn't come through. Jason Gunnlaugson, ultimately the 2013 Canadian Olympic trials runner-up, came very close to representing Russia at the 2014 Olympics. Actually, my home state, Texas, once won the American women's curling championship with a team made up of Canadian expats.

Mitch McConell, the senate majority leader and arguably the most powerful Republican lawmaker in the country, has (finally) congratulated Joe Biden on being the president elect.

Aerials vs big air is actually kind of funny. On the surface they are very similar but there is literally zero overlap between the athletes, and the judging is also very different (if you did an aerials trick in a big air contest you’d get very low scores, and vice versa). The culture around them is extremely different, too. I actually think of all the Olympic snowboard / freestyle skiing events slopestyle is the most important, because it best replicates the kind of thing a recreational snowboarder or freestyle skier does (but at a bigger scale, obviously).

Alpine snowboarding is a European thing at this point, it has no real support in North America. Vic Wild became Russian because the US didn't invest any money in alpine snowboarding. Snowboardcross is truly an FIS thing now, but for everything freestyle related the FIS is a second rate organizer. Their biggest freestyle world cups, like their events in Laxx, are FIS-sanctioned but aren't really FIS events. The Aspen X-Games are the de facto world championships for the discipline. The only real purpose of freestyle snowboarding world cups is Olympic qualification. You really can't judge the health of freestyle snowboarding by how FIS events are going, the snowboarding community tolerate the FIS because of the Olympics but they don't view them as important or influential. Most snowboarders agree on your assessment of alpine snowboarding though - something that was cool 20 years ago but that basically nobody actually does anymore. It's entirely kept alive by the FIS.

Always felt it would be a way better system to have a double elimination system for those tournaments.

Her husband is Benjamin Maier, someone who members of this forum may be familiar with :D

Ya, just having two guys in the top 30 is a big win.

Strong result from the Canadian boys so far.

The TQOs are basically the least predictable events in sports xD

The only sailing event that gets much coverage in Canada is the America’s Cup. Volvo Ocean race does get some coverage, too, but not as much.

Offshore sailing is at high sea, doesn’t have the fleet race format (it’s just a single race) and they aim for the race to last about three days nonstop.

I'm sure this will improve TV ratings vs. having a smaller tour that Finland and Sweden participate in.

Don't shoot me but I actually really like the idea of a race walk relay.

Other than weightlifting being murdered and road cycling quotas going way down this isn't as bad as I expected. Sad the 50km walk got cut, but not surprised.

Track Cycling quotas are basically identical - the men lost three spots, women gained four spots. Presumably qualification will be almost identical to what it was in 2020.

Lowlight: men's road race in cycling will have 90 starters.

Honestly kinda shocked they aren't including the mixed skeet event.

I think weightlifting is clearly on it's way out.

"Extreme" "Canoeing" has been approved.

Men's 50km walk is eliminated. Potentially to be replaced with a mixed race walk relay.

Boxing now has 7 men's events and six women's events.

Weightlifting got cut to 120 athletes, and to five weight classes per gender O.o

Very nervous about what events got cut.

Exactly 50% male and female quotas.

Events got cut, only 329 events.