JoshMartini007

The website had Italy winning silver in biathlon (women's 15km individual) and bronze in alpine skiing (men's downhill). Funny enough neither of them happened, though Italy did win a medal in both sports. The issue with Gracenote is that it only shows the top three and ignores how close other competitors are. For the bigger nations these eventually even themselves out, but for mid-size nations like Italy it wouldn't take much to turn a 4-5th place prediction into a medal. This is why the Netherlands are doing a lot better, I imagine most of their speed skaters were ranked in at least the top 8 in Gracenote's formula.

Comparing Gracenote's predictions to completed events here are the nations which have over/underperformed so far (by total medals). (+3) (+3) (+3) (+2) (+2) (+2) (+1) (+1) (+1) (+1) (0) (0) (0) (0) (0) (-1) (-1) (-1) (-1) (-2) (-2) (-2) (-2) (-3) (-3)

That was poorly written. Own the Podium being funded by the government is no secret and catching dopers should be the priority of all nations.

Good day for Canada, winning three medals, including a gold in the 10,000m speed skating event. Both ice hockey teams got their win as did men's curling. Women's curling on the other hand had a bad start to the tournament, losing both games. It's not over for them, but they need to use the mixed doubles team as inspiration and try to turn things around. Tomorrow will be another quiet day, but women's skeleton will begin along with men's figure skating and of course curling will be in action.

Medal for the team this time.

Bloemen's father is Canadian so it wasn't like he randomly chose the country.

Shooting isn't very athletic yet no one is trying to remove it from the games. Heck, bridge and chess are recognized sports by the IOC so there's no reason why e-sports wouldn't theoretically be recognized. The main issue is that there is no unifying federation. Different games are rarely played in the same event (with the exception of fighting games and events like EVO).

There was a World Mind Games, though I think the 2016 version was cancelled.

All teams advance, the three winners and best second place go to the quarter-finals the other eight will play a qualification round 5th vs. 12th, 6th vs. 11th, 7th vs. 10th and 8th vs. 9th.

I agree my ranking for medal chances would be men's 10000m > luge relay > pairs figure skating > men's snowboardcross

I always felt that there should have been some kind of qualification events. I'd imagine they would also need to be in the top 300 (the article is vague on whether Europe/Oceania also needs to fulfill that requirement). Abigail Tere-Apisah from Papua New Guinea is currently ranked 333 so she would be the most likely to reach that level.

As expected quiet day for Canada in terms of medals, with the doubles luge finishing in fifth. Men's curling is off to a great start with two victories and the pairs figure skating is 3rd after the short skate though seven pairs are within three points and will fight tomorrow for bronze. Tomorrow has the potential for being a big day for Canada.

Austria is relatively safe for silver, they would have to make a major mistake to lose it. On paper Canada should get bronze, but their lead isn't that significant so their chances are a lot lower.

Outdoor venues would be nice. Many venues used for the Olympics can be used for other sports/activities. The issue for host cities is that the IOC wants the seating capacity to be high. The smallest venue for the 2020 Olympics is 5000 seats with many of them reaching over 10,000 seats. Most cities don't need multiple 10,000 seat venues which is why most host cities are left with "white elephant" venues. I bet many cities would be willing to host if the IOC allowed some events to be held at ~2000 seat venues.

They technically don't border the Mediterranean, but neither do Andorra nor San Marino. Macedonia and Serbia don't either, but they get a pass because they were all part of Yugoslavia when they joined. By adding Portugal you could make an argument for nations like Bulgaria or Jordan to join. I imagine Israel and Palestine don't compete for political reasons. I guess the UK could technically compete because of Gibraltar, but I doubt Spain would want that (even if it was just a Gibraltar team)

Unless someone builds an indoor alpine stadium the changes in weather throughout an event will always play a factor. You play the hand you were dealt and most athletes understand this. If not you'll get people complaining about the sun being in everyone's eyes for a 30 minute block before moving into a better angle.

Overall a very good day for Canada, we grabbed curling gold and won medals in the two "maybe events." Good win for our women's ice hockey team and good initial races in short track. It's a shame that Canada failed to advance to the finals in men's snowboard half-pipe. Tomorrow will be a quiet day, only men's doubles luge has a chance (and even then it's a very small one). The day will however set things up for a few events; men's curling will have its first two matches and pairs figure skating will have its short program.

I guess we over emphasized the team part. It looks like you can win if you take two great curlers and stick them on the same team.

Yeah all the Germans need is three clean runs to win a medal in the relay. Canada is looking good for the relay too, hopefully they can pull off a medal after finishing in fourth in 2014.

The short track giveth and the short track takes away. I love the sport, but in the end it sucks to have any medal favourites because there are so many ways for things to go wrong.

Yeah they repeatedly lose to U15 AAA men's teams.

I hope alpine skiing is held today or else my Olympic day ends at ~6:30pm, maybe I can go to bed super early and wake up at 3am, but then I'd have to decide between curling finals, a potential medal in luge or short track speed skating.

A good day for Canada with two golds and a silver. Our group of figure skaters will probably be the best Canada will have at the same time for a very long time. After a shaky start Canada was able to defeat Norway and advance to the finals. Women's singles in luge has us in a good position, but things are quite close. I was a bit disappointed in women's snowboard half-pipe with no Canadians advancing to the finals.

There's a bit more strategy in the team event.Finishing first in a stage isn't the goal, finishing ahead of a certain athlete(s) is the goal (sometimes that goal ends up being the same). This could mean an athlete can perform a simpler routine, sometimes they may have to perform a harder routine. I feel the points should be 10-8-6-4-2 in the free skate, Canada more or less had gold locked up after the short program because we needed two of our skaters to screw up to fail to win.

France obviously has a federation or else they wouldn't be able to send athletes in the sport. "Active participation" can be difficult to measure, is one person enough? I say yes, but having more is better. It's just that once you pass a certain number it stops mattering. American Football has a lot of people playing, but it's concentrated in the United States.