NearPup

Ya, it’s kind of a small prize pool for a “world championship”.

Does she even have a good chance to qualify? I don’t get the impression the UK is all that strong in skateboarding.

The problem isn’t the groups. The problem is that there is no ranking round, so there is very little opportunity for group B reams to finish ahead of group A teams, short of beating one of the top 3 teams in group A... This would actually be a really easy fix.

Incredible, Woods ends his more than 11 year long major draught. Quite the scenes. Tiger Woods has a real shot at making the Olympics now. That would make the IOC pretty happy...

Why not just keep the (useless) points from the first three sprints and just re-run the last four laps? xD

I honestly think Sweden being relegated isn’t that shocking. They have been on a strady decline for a while now. Finland has always been a better team, and for a few years now Switzerland and Russia have been as good if not better than Sweden. With the emergence of Japan and the Czech Republic, along with the resurgence of Germany, this was only a matter of time. This is not a fluke, Sweden is simply not firmly a top 8 team in the world anymore. Hopefully this will force the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation to make the proper investments, because right now the state of elite women’s hockey in Sweden is shameful.

After 1/11 events, the following athletes are provisionally in a qualifying position from the World Surf League. Note: athletes from Hawaii are marked with (HAW) and athletes from French Polynesia with (PYF) as they compete separately in Surfing. Men Itali Ferreira Kolohe Andino Jordy Smith (HAW) John John Florence Gabriel Medina Wade Carmichael Owen Wright (PYF) Michel Bourez Kanoa Igarashi Jérémy Florès The countries who will qualify from the WSL are already almost predetermined. Only Leonardo Fioravanti can change the status quo, but he appears to be one of the weaker athlete on tour. The WSL is very, very heavy on Australians, Americans and Brazilians and the selection battles between those athletes will be the real story. Women Caroline Marks (HAW) Carissa Moore Sally Fitzgibbons Stephanie Gilmore Tatiana Weston-Webb Johanne Defay Brisa Hennessy Paige Hareb As far as country quotas go, the only question is whether can get a second quota and, if so, which of , or will qualify. Silvana Lima, the second Brazilian, is injured but should be able to qualify if she regains her form. The only other qualification battle worth watching is the bloodbath that will be the American qualification process: they have 7 athletes in the top 12.

Sweden is a back to back world champion. With his fourth world title as a skip (only the second person to achieve this) Niklas Edin is, in my opinion, without a doubt the best non-Canadian curler ever.

The finals will be Canada vs Sweden for a third year in a row, with the undisputed two best teams in the world (Team Edin and Team Koe) going head to head. Should be pretty good.

If anyone wants to follow the Canadian trials, SwimSwam has good live recaps every night. However this wouldn’t be a good thread for it since, if it’s anything like the last three times, Swimming Canada requires athletes to meet the FINA standard at the Olympic Trials. Prior times only matter if you get added for a relay or you get some sort of exemption (very rare). Edit: this has apparently changed, though it will be at the discretion of Swimming Canada whether or not to nominate athletes who haven’t achieved the A stamdard during Olympic trials. Not sure how likely they are to so it in practice.

Brazil has won the Hong Kong Women’s 7s tournament, which means they are qualified as one of the 11 core teams for the 2019/2020 Women’s Rugby 7s world series.

Being a little more serious, the only swimming event I would currently like seeing added to the Olympics is the mixed open water swimming relay (4x2.5km).

Not that big of a shock. Shuster’s team can be very inconsistent in International events. The Dutch team has gotten pretty good over the past two seasons.

IMO they got 3/4 right, which isn’t too too bad all things considered.

Alex Harvey (Cross Countey skiing) has retired after the world cup finals.

...do we really think that China is having good results in SHOTGUN SHOOTING because of doping? Come on guys.

Nah, it’s a pretty common strategy.

He isn’t but there is no way to move forward as long as he is still there.

That’s basically my opinion too. One such event in a season is fine. When like half the season constitutes of “stage” world cup... it really cheapens everything.

The whole “stage” world cup idea is so stupid, especially for sprint races.

NBC has VODs for both (behind a paywall).

I actually like it, despite how ridiculous it is. More short track is always a good thing :P

Is it just me or was the camera work during the relays just shockingly bad? Also why aren’t they having a mixed relay at these championships given that it’s an Olympic event now?

Some shock results at the Canada 7s: beat and beat !!!!!

Good thing we have wind compensation, right guys? Maybe we should have snow compensation, too.