NearPup

That was meant to go to the hockey hall of fame :O xD

Yes, and yes.

There sure is, first time too! As long as Canada, the US, Japan, China and South Korea send their A team it will still be more competitive than the European championships.

I mean yes, but the point of having a PR team is to hide that fact.

The IOC really needs to hire PR people who don’t make them sound like a bunch of out of touch donkeys.

Same thing when an Austrian wins?

Did anybody actually prefer the mass start format to the pursuit format for the final climb?

Canada sure got bailed out by that camera and the weird wording of the delay of game rule. Should have been a penalty by the spirit of the rule.

Marchant finished fifth. Amazing result for him.

Posting because we already have our first doping scandal of 2020! Laurine Lecavelier (Figure Skating) has tested positive for cocaine. https://www.lequipe.fr/Patinage-artistique/Actualites/Patinage-artistique-laurine-lecavelier-controlee-positive-a-la-cocaine/1094887

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.