JoshMartini007

That's one way to get around the ageism issue.

So comparing these numbers with 2018 (according to Wikipedia) we have the following changes Alpine - -1 Biathlon - -2 Bobsleigh - 0 Cross-Country - -2 Curling - 0 Figure skating - -4 Freestyle skiing -+2 Hockey - 0 Luge - -2 Nordic - 0 Short track - 0 Skeleton - -3 Ski jumping - +2 Snowboarding - +2 Speed skating - -3 Slight increases in freestyle skiing, ski jumping and snowboarding while slight decreases in alpine, biathlon, cross-country, figure skating, luge, skeleton and speed skating.

Money is a big issue. Also for some nations funding is tied to performance at the Olympics and it's better to have five top 10 results than five top 10 results + one 30th result.

Again the issue is without using my rule where nations qualified via D.2 or D.3 are not eligible for a D.1 quota the FIS would just make 80 men and 80 female quotas the basic quota and we are back to the same place. The IOC won't allow FIS to decrease the universality quotas so your options are either a low ranked "mid-tier" nation athlete or a top tier nation getting most of the quotas it deserves.

Sounds about right, definitely a Quebec sport

That won't save as many quotas as you think, FIS would just subtract the "exotic" nations quotas from the overall count. A better system would be only award the basic quota to nations which have not qualified a male/female athlete. This gets rid of the +1 quotas for the middle tier nations.

Hoping for a few medals with this team...

Winter sports do need a more diverse set of tripartite quotas. Not all nations perform alpine/cross-country skiing.

Denmark declined its men's quota

Hopefully Hungary's athlete is better than Elizabeth Swaney was in 2018.

If I am reading this correctly, New Zealand's Campbell Wright has 44.94 IBU Qualifying Points which satisfies the NOC's requirement of getting < 140 IBU Qualifying Points Edit: It looks like the federation can override the nomination if they don't feel Wright can establish a top 16 result. His best performance among eligible events was 25th, but if he can argue that he is still competitive he could still be selected

I don't think the Netherlands will be as dominant as they were in the last two Olympics. I'm thinking 5 golds.

Most likely, using speed skating as an example, 192 athletes competed at the 2019 World Championships (the one before COVID) while only 166 are allowed to compete here.

Unless she competes in both events (which are held one day apart in different countries) it would be difficult to qualify. She would probably need to crack into the top 15 if my calculations are correct (and hope Brazil has an average day)

Yes, as long as the athlete met the minimum standards of the FIL

In hindsight, Alberta was a bad choice for a host given their relative lax stance on COVID compared with the rest of the nation.

In terms of total medals, Norway is the big favourite and it's hard to see them not winning the most medals. By golds, Norway is still the favourite, but maybe their biathlon or cross-country skiing team have a horrible games and miss out in a bunch of gold medals which could allow Germany or Russia to finish atop the medal count.

Nice to see a Canadian man winning a medal (that's not a mixed relay) in swimming. Hopefully they will continue to grow like the women.

Based on the qualification document, the Netherlands either needs to finish in the top 12 in the ranking list or have a top 8 World Cup result. They only have two more races remaining and their best result is 11th. Seems unlikely, but possible...

Skateboarding and sport climbing as core sports are not surprising, both have been linked heavily to the modernization of the games. Given the next three hosts are all big surfing nations it makes sense to make it a core sport and then evaluate it in 12 years. The three axed sports all have current issues and while the universality of boxing and weightlifting will be missed I do think it's a ploy by the IOC to force AIBA/UIPM/IWF's hand and make changes just like they did with wrestling.

I agree, I would go with 4 member teams in eventing and jumping and have 12 and 15 teams respectively.

If a sex shop was going to sponsor an Olympic sport, curling makes sense. HURRY! HURRY HARD! HAAARD!!! woah... woah...

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...

Pretty much, Europe only gets 3 individual quotas on top of what they qualify in the team events, which is typically 3-5 spots. With taking at least an individual quota it doesn't leave a lot of room for the other nations.

Until the IOC can get its act together and bring back the missing 1000-1500 athletes (or start removing sports) it might be best for fencing to drop the team events. Honestly, events with less than 10 entrants should not be happening