NearPup

Broderick Thompson just won his first ever world cup medal, starting 35th, by finishing third in the first Beaver Creek Super G. This is his first top-20 finish in a non-Alpine Combined event.

Broderick Thompson just won his first ever world cup medal, starting 35th, by finishing third in the first Beaver Creek Super G. This is his first top-20 finish in a non-Alpine Combined event.

Italy do it since 2018

Stealing a joke from Twitter: the fenestration of Prague.

China didn’t send him because they wanted to give experience to younger players.

Stealing a joke from Twitter: the fenestration of Prague.

So apparently you must meet a standard to even try to qualify for the Olympics now? Lol

Major overactions of the weekend  - 
1. Eckhoff is the worst biathlete ever, will she ever learn to shoot well?
2. The French are trash and will never win a race this year.
3. Canada is going to dominate!
4. Sweden will win every race outside of the races the Canadians win.  Except for Stina Nillson, she should go do Nordic Combined.
 
Did I sum it up the overactions?
 

Quotas distribution by my friends and my understanding of the document and past experience of 2018 WOG.(mainly credit to @Function CR Lee).
 
Some notes of it:
1. BEL's Mixed relay berth is replaced by 13th POL because only 1 men and 1 women qualified
2. POL got an extra men's quota and KAZ got an extra women's quota to fulfill the minimum mixed relay requirement, ie 2 men and 2 women.
3. POL got an extra women's quota because after procedure 2 still one more women's quota available so it gave to the only women's relay team not full yet.

After a complete emotional roller coaster of a final, on par with the 2010 women's Olympic finals for drama, Team Jones has defeated Team Fleury in an extra end game. Jones decided to give up a point in the ninth to keep hammer, then missed a relatively easy shot for two in the 10th and then had to watch as Fleury missed a makeable shot for the win in the 11th.
 
So team Canada is:
Skip: Jennifer Jones (Sochi 2014, gold medal) Third: Kaitlyn Lawes (Sochi 2014, gold medal and Pyeongchang 2018, gold medal in mixed doubles) Second: Jocelyn Peterman (first Olympics, Olympic trials runner-up in 2017) Lead: Dawn McEwen (Sochi 2014, gold medal) Alternate: Lisa Weagle (Pyeongchang 2018)  
Kaitlyn Lawes will be the first curler with a chance to win a third Olympic gold medal, and is the first Canadian curler to qualify for three Olympics.

After a complete emotional roller coaster of a final, on par with the 2010 women's Olympic finals for drama, Team Jones has defeated Team Fleury in an extra end game. Jones decided to give up a point in the ninth to keep hammer, then missed a relatively easy shot for two in the 10th and then had to watch as Fleury missed a makeable shot for the win in the 11th.
 
So team Canada is:
Skip: Jennifer Jones (Sochi 2014, gold medal) Third: Kaitlyn Lawes (Sochi 2014, gold medal and Pyeongchang 2018, gold medal in mixed doubles) Second: Jocelyn Peterman (first Olympics, Olympic trials runner-up in 2017) Lead: Dawn McEwen (Sochi 2014, gold medal) Alternate: Lisa Weagle (Pyeongchang 2018)  
Kaitlyn Lawes will be the first curler with a chance to win a third Olympic gold medal, and is the first Canadian curler to qualify for three Olympics.

I'd argue selecting one of our NHL teams would make Canada weaker overall .
 
Though they would have the advantage of having team synergy vs. hoping everyone gels together by the fourth game...

Gow family 39/40 for the day.
 
 Kobonoki heading for a big PB.
 
French have great ski speed.

Going off the Tokyo 2020 qualification system, these are the changes I’d make.
 
24 quotas - Teams qualification same as Tokyo 2020
5 quotas - Top 5 (Individual Ranking) non-qualified fencers from NOCs without representation in the event (no continental restrictions)
4 quotas - winners of the 4 zonal tournaments
1 quota - winner of a new international last chance qualifier tournament
1 quota - host country if unqualified (if host country is qualified quota could be reallocated using results from LCQ or Individual Ranking)
1 quota - universality invitation (if no NOCs are eligible, then reallocation with same criteria used above)

In men's epee- there are too few quotas, too many competitive athletes and teams (probably at least 20 teams could challenge for medals on a good day). Reducing the number of teams there is even more ridiculous. But for the rest, which is still 10 out of 12 events...
 
The Swedish claim that "many world class fencers failed to qualify with this system and this is bad" and then proceed to suggest a system where way more world class fencers would be cut.  Almost all top fencers who failed to qualify this time - which is the only time with a full programme of 12 events- did so because of compatriots ahead of them in the ranking, how many countries with a "world class fencer" in an event failed to qualify ? Let's see, looking at the ranking at end of the OQR.
 
W Foil: no country with a top 30 fencer failed to qualify
 
M Foil: the only non qualified with a top 30 fencers was POL (Siess #21)
 
W Epee: GER had Ndolo at #25
 
M Sabre: no country with a top 30 failed to qualify
 
W Sabre: ROU had Pascu #16, ESP at #24.
 
An average of 1 country with a top 30 fencer non qualifying in that event (notice: all of them European) is not that bad.
 
 
Secondly: what would change if the qualification system really had as priority the individual qualification, and not giving free spots for diversity's sake * ? Let's give a spot to the top 34 fencers (max. 3 per country) and consider a team qualified only if they have 3 fencers qualified, and see how many spots the so called "top teams" would lose: none, instead they would have taken more spots- FRA in place of HKG in W epee, KOR instead of HKG in M foil and so on. 7-8 teams per event would qualify in this case, with some other countries qualifying 2 individuals.
 
 
* Like in the Swedish simulation, where plenty of Africans who barely scored 1 point in world cups would qualify, because yeah more countries.
 
 

and  won their only Olympic gold medals in 2016 and 2020 respectively in a fencing team event. There is a lot of depth in fencing  events, the reason we see so many American and South Korean medals is that it’s much easier to qualify out of those continents. Qualifying in fencing team events is already half the battle because it isn’t rare for the sixth best team in the world to miss out.
 
The qualification system is really only “broken” for European fencers, who have to face a truly brutal path to the Olympics.

Men’s Olympic Trials  
 
The men’s finals will be contested between Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs.
 
This means the Kevin-Brad rotation will continue. Since 2002 the men’s Olympic team has been skipped by a Kevin, then a Brad:
 
2002: Kevin Martin 2006: Brad Gushue 2010: Kevin Martin 2014: Brad Jacobs 2018: Kevin Koe 2022: Brad Gushue or Brad Jacobs

Men’s Olympic Trials  
 
The men’s finals will be contested between Brad Gushue and Brad Jacobs.
 
This means the Kevin-Brad rotation will continue. Since 2002 the men’s Olympic team has been skipped by a Kevin, then a Brad:
 
2002: Kevin Martin 2006: Brad Gushue 2010: Kevin Martin 2014: Brad Jacobs 2018: Kevin Koe 2022: Brad Gushue or Brad Jacobs

no, please...we already experienced the 4 weapons rotation (and it was a disaster for the sport and for the athletes involved)...
 
let's not give those idiots any chance to cut anything short, being the number of events nor the Countries' full access to every event...

if "evolving" means destroying hundred+ years of tradition in a perfectly working (and growing) sport, then it's rather the IOC to be targeted and the idiots in charge to be dismissed before it's too late...

Until Canada actually qualifies we’re all going to be incredibly paranoid. Canada has a long history of underperforming the low expectations they had put on them in big moments. This is very much a new team, but I think we’ve seen teams wearing the Maple Leaf give themselves away cheaply too often to not be worried.

Canadian Olympic Trials (Women's event)
We have an almighty mess!
 
First, Team Fleury has beaten Jennifer Jones and is only the second women's team and third team overall to go undefeated during the round robin. The only men's team to go undefeated was Brad Jacobs in 2013, he went on to win the trials and the Olympics. The only women's team to go undefeated? Well that was a team skipped by Chelsea Carey, in 2017. If you only follow curling in the Olympics you probably don't know who Chelsea Carey is. That's because she actually lost the finals to Rachel Homan's team.
 
Well, some fun trivia here: there are two people on Team Fleury's bench who are sure to be extremely nervous during the finals. That's because the team's coach, Sherry Middaugh, was the skip of the team that lost the 2013 finals and the team's alternate, Chelsea Carey, was as mentioned above the skip that went a perfect 8-0 during round robin only to lose the finals in 2017. Both have an opportunity for some measure of redemption. It would actually be a great story is Carey managed to make it to the Olympics after losing the 2017 trials final and then having a horror quad in terms of results and team stability (why is she an alternate at trials? Her team disbanded completely last year).
 
Now, here is what the playing order looks like:
Team Kerri Einarson takes on Casey Scheidegger in tie-breaker #1 The winner of tie-breaker #1 takes on team Krista McCarville in tie-breaker #2 The winner of tie-breaker # 2 takes on team Jennifer Jones in the semi-finals The winner of the semi-finals takes on team Tracy Fleury  
On current form Fleury is the favourite, but curling is a funny game and this final match will be by far the most pressure packed game in the career of any of the four starting players. If they can get through that test they will be a scary team at the Olympics.

Canadian Olympic Trials (Women's event)
We have an almighty mess!
 
First, Team Fleury has beaten Jennifer Jones and is only the second women's team and third team overall to go undefeated during the round robin. The only men's team to go undefeated was Brad Jacobs in 2013, he went on to win the trials and the Olympics. The only women's team to go undefeated? Well that was a team skipped by Chelsea Carey, in 2017. If you only follow curling in the Olympics you probably don't know who Chelsea Carey is. That's because she actually lost the finals to Rachel Homan's team.
 
Well, some fun trivia here: there are two people on Team Fleury's bench who are sure to be extremely nervous during the finals. That's because the team's coach, Sherry Middaugh, was the skip of the team that lost the 2013 finals and the team's alternate, Chelsea Carey, was as mentioned above the skip that went a perfect 8-0 during round robin only to lose the finals in 2017. Both have an opportunity for some measure of redemption. It would actually be a great story is Carey managed to make it to the Olympics after losing the 2017 trials final and then having a horror quad in terms of results and team stability (why is she an alternate at trials? Her team disbanded completely last year).
 
Now, here is what the playing order looks like:
Team Kerri Einarson takes on Casey Scheidegger in tie-breaker #1 The winner of tie-breaker #1 takes on team Krista McCarville in tie-breaker #2 The winner of tie-breaker # 2 takes on team Jennifer Jones in the semi-finals The winner of the semi-finals takes on team Tracy Fleury  
On current form Fleury is the favourite, but curling is a funny game and this final match will be by far the most pressure packed game in the career of any of the four starting players. If they can get through that test they will be a scary team at the Olympics.

Until Canada actually qualifies we’re all going to be incredibly paranoid. Canada has a long history of underperforming the low expectations they had put on them in big moments. This is very much a new team, but I think we’ve seen teams wearing the Maple Leaf give themselves away cheaply too often to not be worried.

I thought that too before I actually started watching it. I was once one of those school children that was sent to fill some seats (2005 Canadian junior championships) and we were all so bored. Worst field trip I've ever been on. But that's because none of us really understood what was going on. Now that I know the rules and have an understanding of the strategy I really enjoy watching it.