JoshMartini007

It is on the cold side, but it has been a while since we've had a below 0C Olympics, the last three games were the warmest ever (though that's what you get when you place the Olympics in the warmest part of Canada and Russia at that time of year).

It is the Winter Olympics after all.

South Korea may surprise (win a match) at the Olympics. That's something I didn't expect when the nation won the Olympics back in 2011.

Funding for the men's sevens team (which indirectly helps the 15s team) was stopped after the team failed to reach the Olympics. 15s receives no funding whatsoever so as other nations continue to develop we'll be left behind.

The Canadian men have been pretty bad recently. Still give Uruguay credit, their improvement allowed them to defeat us. I don't have hope to win the repechage, it'll likely go to the European team.

It could backfire. I remember the US speed skating team getting new suits before the 2014 Olympics. It got so bad that they actually flew the old suits to Sochi for them to wear.

Hello there's a debate going on Wikipedia on how to manage "Yugoslavia at the Olympics" and "Serbia and Montenegro at the Olympics" and I'm wondering what your opinions are. Currently the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's results are listed with Serbia and Montenegro, a user wants to move those results to Yugoslavia's page because both are referred to as "Yugoslavia" while leaving Serbia and Montenegro by itself. From what I can tell FR Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro are simply name changes so I feel if there is a change Serbia and Montenegro should also go on Yugoslavia's page. I however don't see SFR Yugoslavia and FR Yugoslavia being a name change, but more like the Soviet Union or Czechoslovakia. Am I wrong?

You can't prove innocence, only guilt. It's why we say not guilty instead of innocent in court.

It's still easy enough to argue that the workers were under orders to rig the samples of top athletes. That's the issue of this whole thing, we know it was done, but evidence that ties to a specific athlete is a lot harder. Still there was enough evidence to find a decent portion guilty which seems to be forgotten in all this. The bottles not being tampered with is a big thing. DNA contamination is interesting, but can be proven one way or the other (it's less likely the sample was contaminated if a significant portion was the wrong DNA)

The ruling was expected. Just because the Moscow lab protected those athletes doesn't mean the athletes were doping (essentially it wasn't beyond reasonable doubt). If you were the lab and were successful at covering things up you might as well cover all of your best athletes. I imagine those active athletes have been tested for the last two seasons in other labs so at the very least they're clean now.

Usually there are a bunch of missed/incorrect athletes when the site first updates so I wouldn't worry. Though I'd keep my eye on it.

That's so random. Did someone from Taiwan get hit by a car before the Olympics?

Those places gained admission before the IOC made stronger rules (because colonization was coming to an end). It's one of the reasons why Curacao couldn't compete after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles.

Likely not since the IOC has rather strict requirements. Unless a new area declares independence and gets international recognition the most likely place to become a member right now would be Western Sahara and that's quite unlikely. Still it's always fun to see smaller regions compete. The Commonwealth Games will have a bunch and the Central American and Caribbean Games will include a few places for the first time this year.

Aviron = rowing. I have no idea why it says equestrian. The FEI has already confirmed all the quotas Doing a quick look, both archery and rugby sevens don't say it's at the African Youth Games, but both events are in Algiers during the same time period. Also rugby sevens has a TBC so it isn't confirmed yet.

Equestrian is already done Africa's qualifiers are Egypt, Mauritius, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Also sailing is already spoken for in other events. I didn't know about beach volleyball, that's helpful. Also the following sports are also listed as giving quotas to the Youth Olympics: archery, rowing and rugby sevens. Athletics is also likely to provide quotas (though not confirmed)

I feel it will be one of those rules that will be broken and very little will be done. Which is a good thing. Legit athletes shouldn't be punished.

It more has to do with South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand being so good. Of the 51 tournaments between Australia's wins 40 of them were won by one of those three nations.

I never had to run in the snow for cross country, but mud was quite common if it was rainy. Also big hills, rocks and tree roots are a must or else it isn't any different than road racing with a bunch of trees.

Here is the qualification manual (website has a Spanish version) for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games if any one is interested. Some events will act as qualifiers to the 2019 Pan American Games.

Cross country is already extreme relative to road/track racing. You can reuse the mountain biking course if you want to make things more interesting.

I was curious here's a quick "world series ranking" I've made. It uses the last four completed seasons (not the 2017-2018 season) and weighs the most recent season (2016-17) more heavily (in a 100%-75%-50%-25% way). 1. South Africa - 435.25 2. Fiji - 403.75 3. New Zealand - 376.50 4. England - 332.50 5. Australia - 302.50 6. United States - 281.00 7. Argentina - 238.00 8. Scotland - 234.00 9. Canada - 184.00 10. Kenya - 180.50 11. France - 177.25 12. Samoa - 169.50 13. Wales - 157.25 14. Russia - 50.00* 15. Portugal - 36.25* 16. Japan - 30.50* 17. Spain - 5.00* * Nation did not participate in all 4 seasons.

Australia is good, but not the best. You are correct that just with the sheer number of World Series events that they should have won more often. Since their last win the following weaker nations have won. x2 Samoa has won a couple of times, but they were as good as Australia a few years ago (now not so much)

According to the file they are competing in men's 5000m and women's team pursuit in speed skating. Wikipedia must be outdated.

The United States will send a team of 242 athletes It is the largest delegation of any nation ever for a Winter Olympics.They will also compete in 97/102 events. Here is a list of athletes and the events they are expected to compete in