NearPup

For women's Nordic Combined it's a matter of 2022 or 2026, not a matter of if. I think it needs a couple world championships under it's belt, so I think 2026 would be better, but I can easily see the IOC hurry things along and add it for 2022 since it's the last remaining discipline in the Olympics (winter or summer) that doesn't have women. To be perfectly honest I don't care about Nordic Combined enough to have strong feelings either way. For the same reason I wouldn't be surprised at all if women's doubles luge gets added for 2022 despite never having been held at high level (or any levels, really), and if it doesn't get added I think it should make people worry about the future of doubles luge in general. I do think women's Ski Jumping is ready for a second event, though. The caliber isn't nearly as high as men's Ski Jumping, sure, but it's comparable to a lot of winter sports and depth seems to be developing fast. You wouldn't even need to add any athletes to add a large hill event.

So that explains the media reports that Nigeria qualified.

Is that the case for all B division races or just the 5000/10000m?

This is what the quota situation looks like after the second of four world cups. I exclude the time ranking for all events except the men's 10000m and the women's 5000m. Max number of athletes is 3 per event for the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and the 3000/5000m while it's 2 per event for the 5000/10000m and the mass start. A country can have up to ten skaters if they qualify in every event, otherwise the limit is eight. Women: 500m 1000m 1500m 3000m 5000m MS TP MAX 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 X 10 2 2 1 2 7 1 1 1 1 1 2 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 X 4 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 X 10 3 1 X 4 1 3 3 3 2 2 X 10 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 X 4 2 3 3 3 2 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 3 2 2 2 1 2 8 Men: 500m 1000m 1500m 5000m 10000m MS TP MAX 1 1 2 1 1 3 2 2 2 2 1 X 10 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 2 2 7 3 2 1 X 6 3 1 3 2 8 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 2 X 10 1 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 8 1 1 2 X 4 1 1 3 2 1 1 X 9 1 1 1 1 4 2 3 3 1 1 1 X 10 1 1 1 3 3 2 8

Olympic time ranking for the women's 5000m and the men's 10000m (top 12, two per country): Women: Claudia Pechstein - 6:56.60 Ivanie Blondin - 6:57.34 Esmee Visser - 6:58.04 Martina Sáblíková - 6:59.95 Isabelle Weidemann - 7:00.82 Irene Schouten - 7:01.03 Natalia Voronia - 7:02.40 Anna Yurakova - 7:06.33 Nana Tagaki - 7:08.77 Misaki Oshigiri - 7:09.56 Marina Zueva - 7:11.39 Carlijn Schoutens - 7:11.45 Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic are now guaranteed at least one quota each in the women's 5000m. Men: Sven Kramer - 12:50.97 Ted-Jan Bloemen - 12:52.64 Davide Ghiotto - 12:53.63 Jouke Hoogeveen - 12:56.62 Alexander Rumyantsev - 12:57.45 Nicola Tumolero - 13:02.11 Sverre Lunde Pedersen - 13:02.42 Patrick Beckert - 13:04.97 Peter Michael - 13:07.20 Moritz Geirseiter - 13:08.87 Seung-Hoon Lee - 13:09.26 Jordan Belchos - 13:10.30 The Netherlands is guaranteed two quotas (the maximum) in the men's 10000m. Canada and Italy are guaranteed at least one quota.

Looks like is completely in the clear to qualify in women's short track, the women's 1000m didn't qualify allocate any new athlete quota so the total number of women's quota remains under 60.

My thoughts: Ski Jumping Mixed Team Competition - I'd rather see them apply for a women's team competition or a women's large hill competition. ·Ladies’ Nordic Combined Individual Competition - whatever, if not in 2022 it will be in for 2026. It's absolutely necessary to do this for the sport to stay in the Olympics. Freestyle Ski Big Air Men’s and Ladies’ - uses existing athletes (from slopestyle) and venue (from snowboard big air) so why not? · Alpine Skiing Individual Parallel Event - I'm okay with this as long as they don't remove any of the existing event (that noise about getting rid of the Super G has got to stop). It makes for a good TV event TBH. · Freestyle Ski Aerials Mixed Team Event - meh, the format is stupid. · Snowboard Cross Team Event - I actually really like this event. · Snowboard Mixed Team Parallel Event - never seen this event. Seems like an odd format. · Snowboard Parallel Slalom - I think removing the parallel slalom was a mistake (it uses the same venue and athletes as the PGS) so I'd definitively bring that back. · Telemark Parallel Sprint and Team Parallel Sprint - no idea how popular Telemark skiing is in Europe.

There where 14 non-relay qualifiers in the women's 1500m in Sochi and they where still four short of reaching the max total quota, while in Vancouver they had 15 non-relay qualifiers in the women's 1500m and they where seven short of reaching the max quota, so she's probably fine.

That would be a lot of fun xD

The problem Azerbaijan has is that whenever they develop their own athlete they go abroad to represent another country xD As for Bobsleigh, here is the quote from the document: "Selected pilots must have been participating and ranked in a minimum of 5 IBSF races on at least 3 different tracks in the period between 15 October 2016 and 14 January 2018. In addition the pilot must have been ranked in at least 3 of the 5 above mentioned races on a minimum of 2 different tracks during the 2017/2018 season by 14 January 2018 and must have been ranked among the top 50 in the Twoman and Four-man or Top 40 in the Women’s Bobsleigh in the IBSF Ranking List per event (IBSF Discipline Ranking List) of the season 2017/2018 by 14 January 2018." So maybe all you need is to have been in the top 40 at any point during the season?

Team event is done unless there are last minute switches in GP allocation (and some miracles). I don't think Australia (11th eligible team) has any mathematical shot at catching either South Korea or Israel.

Worth remembering that the world cup ranking is not what is used for Olympic qualification. For Vancouver and Sochi the added points from two of the world cups (I believe the last two of the season, but I don't remember 100%) where used. For Pyeongchang while all four world cups are qualifying events only an athlete's / team's best three events count for each distance.

Curling is actually not over, the last two men's and women's quotas are getting decided at a tournament in December.

The Netherlands will definitively get quotas, probably 3. Keep in mind on top of the 20 athletes qualified by world cup ranking there are 16 spots available for the best performers in Calgary and Salt Lake City via the time ranking, it's not that hard for a good speed skating nation to qualify three spots in the 500/1000/1500. The real question is if the Netherlands will send any 500m specialists or if they will simply use the 500m as a warm-up race. My guess is that they won't be sending any 500m specialists.

I'll believe it when someone other than the Daily Mail says so.

This is what the quota situation looks like after the first of four world cups, excluding the time ranking which ads 16 places for the 500m/1000m/1500m, 8 places for the 3000/5000m, 4 places for the 5000/10000m and 2 places for the team pursuit. Max number of athletes is 3 per event for the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and the 3000/5000m while it's 2 per event for the 5000/10000m and the mass start. A country can have up to ten skaters if they qualify in every event, otherwise the limit is eight. Women: 500m 1000m 1500m 3000m 5000m MS TP Max 1 1 2 4 1 1 3 2 3 2 1 2 X 10 2 1 2 5 1 1 2 1 1 2 8 1 1 1 2 1 X 4 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 X 10 1 1 2 3 1 1 X 5 1 3 3 3 2 2 X 10 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 X 3 2 2 3 3 2 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 2 2 8 Men: 500m 1000m 1500m 5000m 10000m MS TP Max 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 2 1 2 1 1 X 10 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 5 2 1 1 X 4 3 1 2 1 2 8 1 1 3 3 1 2 X 9 1 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 8 1 1 2 X 4 1 1 3 2 1 1 X 9 1 1 2 1 5 2 3 3 2 1 X 10 1 1 2 3 3 2 8

This Milan venue is quite nice, despite the fog. Not the highest quality contest though in terms of caliber of competition.

At least it's going to be fair on the women's side because Kodaira is going to win regardless of the format Men's race is going to be a lottery.

The US federation had a really good proposal for sprints. They wanted both the 500m and the 1000m to be contested over a two run, best time counts (similar to half pipe / slopestyle) with one try on the inner and one try on the outer. Obviously the ISU went the other way, but I actually prefer that idea to the two run format. The 500m especially is just too high variance for a one run format at the godamn Olympics. There are like 15 people who can win on a given day.

Really interesting that the FEI publishes the draft / comment process. I don't think any of the IF is as transparent with how they review their qualification process. I really wish all the IFs where this transparent. Also, lol @ this comment from the Dutch Federation, which is clearly out for blood: "so that we can ensure quality and increase [sic] the risk of accidents". Also the Canadian Fed is still bitter about not having a dressage team in Rio xD

Oh hi. I'm Canadian, I live in the US now. You get a cookie if you can find my (now pretty inactive) GamesBids account

What's the point of even holding that "world" championship? It's going to be a joke.

FWIW it doesn't look like anything overlaps with the men's 50km race except the parallel snowboarding finals (and even that ends less than an hour into the 50km race) so it's not like it doesn't have a good spot on the schedule. The women's 30km free actually overlaps entirely with the men's hockey final so arguable the 50km actually had the better spot on the schedule. It's actually kinda crazy how bad the scheduling is for the last day, they only have four events yet you will always have two events at once (four man bobsleigh and women's curling also overlap).

I think some of those uniforms are actually pretty good - Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Finland and Norway I really like. I have mixed feelings about Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Canada. USA and Japan are meh, Slovakia's is just bad. Can Nike not have the contract for Beijing please?

Shame it couldn't be Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark in the same group.