NearPup

Those two are honestly so cute together. This video from when Vonn retired always makes me giggle: https://twitter.com/PKSubban1/status/1095383459483340800?s=20

I would really like to see the IOC have a pool of tripartite spots that can be awarded in any individual events at the Winter Olympics, since often times countries without much of a winter sports tradition have their strongest athletes in sports where it is very difficult to qualify.

I agree that there should be two parallels alpine snowboard events (doesn’t require any additional venues or athletes), but it should be worth noting that big air and slopestyle already share all their athletes. At this point there isn’t much crossover between slopestyle/big air and half-pipe, only a handful of athletes do all three. Aerials is actually extremely different from anything else on the freestyle program and is extremely specialized (it sort of looks like big air but the technique is entirely different). There is essentially zero overlap between athletes in aerials and any other sport.

Huh, it’s now actually quite difficult to have five short track speed skaters qualified (you need 8/9 individual quotas plus a relay quota to guarantee a fifth skater).

Sure, though aerials at the last few Olympics (since Vancouver) has also been really hurt by NOCs refusing quotas because they had better medal hopes in other events.

Random good news: the per-country maximum in freestyle skiing went up from 30 to 32 (but only for countries taking part in the mixed team aerials event). Should really be a max of 40 per country (the 30 per country limit caused many events to have unused quotas), but an improvement is an improvement.

They need to keep it high so the cuts won’t be as painful when they add women’s events in 2026.

Bobsleigh: Bobsleigh Qualification System.pdf Skeleton: Skeleton Qualification System.pdf Quotas: 2-man bobsleigh: 30 competitors. 2 NOCs with 3 sleds, 7 NOCs with 2 sleds and 10 NOCs with 1 sled. 4-man bobsleigh: 28 competitors. 2 NOCs with 3 sleds, 7 NOCs with 2 sleds and 8 NOCs with 1 sled. Male pilots must be in the top 50. Monobob: 16 competitors. 4 NOCs with 2 sleds, 12 NOCs with 1 sled. 2-woman: 20 competitors, 2 NOCs with 3 sleds, 4 NOCs with 2 sleds, 6 NOCs with 1 sled. Female pilots must be in the top 40. Men’s Skeleton: 25 competitors. 2 NOCs with 3 athletes, 6 NOCs with 2 athletes, 7 NOCs with 1 athlete. Top 60 eligible. Women’s Skeleton: 25 competitors, 2 NOCs with 3 athletes, 4 NOCs with 2 athletes, 11 NOCs with 1 athlete. Top 45 eligible. There no longer appears to be any reserved continental spots in bobsleigh or skeleton.

...I actually really like the industrial landscape.

Tahiti is a fine location for surfing. They won’t bring in too many athletes, officials and spectators. It won’t be good for in person spectating but so what, the Olympics are mostly a TV event anyway. It may sound ridiculous but it actually makes a lot of sense. The most important thing for a surfing venue is the quality of the waves. For the time of year this venue has the best waves anywhere in France. I am really happy that Olympic surfing appears to be treated with the respect it deserves.

Or Olympic Athletes from the Former Russian SSR, if we are going the (North) Macedonian route.

She is currently on track to have a better career than Mikaël Kingsbury.

Hungary’s coach, Lina Zhang Jing, wants to quit over allegedly anti-China comments from Csaba Burjan. https://www.reuters.com/article/speedskating-hungary-china/speed-skating-chinese-coach-resigns-over-hungarian-speed-skaters-china-comment-idUSL8N28E1LA

Egypt is now officially banned from weightlifting for the Tokyo 2020 games after losing it’s appeal to the CAS.

Only one of those gold medals was won in an event that countries take particularly seriously in an Olympic qualification year. Anyone with even a hint of an injury would have skipped the team and synchro events.

Normally yes, but there are only three chances to qualify (and the last chance European tournament will be extremely competitive). He had an unfortunate incident once, it could have happened again this time.

Very nice to see Ondra qualify after his unfortunate and controversial near-miss at Worlds.

Ah yes, the famously anglosphere dominated sports of sports climbing and karate. Honestly only Surfing is anglosphere dominated of the sports being added.

Best ever results for Canada in a Davis Cup.

Who possibly could have foreseen that problem, except everybody other than the organizers?

forfeited their doubles match against the to rest for the quarterfinals. This means the US got a 6-0, 6-0 victory, which may help them get a best runner-up spot.

The system was designed to give more meaningful International matches to all teams going to the Olympics in 2020. That’s why every teams, even Japan and the US, are participating in the final qualification tournament. It’s somehow the most sensible of FIBA’s four qualification systems for these Olympics so I am not inclined to complain too much...

This line of Edwards' victory speech is pretty funny. For anyone not fluent in Southern, that's essentially a very polite way to insult somebody.

Democrat John Bel Edwards just won re-election as governor of the state of Louisiana, despite president Trump heavily campaigning against him.

I actually currently don't hold a Canadian passport (lost it, ironically the day I applied for a US passport) so it's actually easier for me to prove American citizenship than Canadian citizenship at the moment :P The Canadian government is super nice and is charging a 45$ "you are a moron who lost their passport" fee on top of the renewal fee and the renewing from abroad fee D: