Werloc

You can update us to 9, because it's official: https://www.15min.lt/sportas/naujiena/ziemos-sportas/lietuva-apsisprende-i-ziemos-olimpines-zaidynes-deleguoja-devynis-atletus-295-913010 Tomas Kaukėnas (Biathlon) (2nd Olympics) Vytautas Strolia (Biathlon) (2nd Olympics, Sochi 2014 CC skiing) Diana Rasimovičiūtė (Biathlon) (5th Olympics) Natalija Kočergina (Biathlon) (1st Olympics) Modestas Vaičiulis (Cross-Country Skiing) (2nd Olympics, 2010 Vancouver, missed Sochi) Mantas Strolia (Cross-Country Skiing) (2nd Olympics, 2010 Vancouver, missed Sochi) Marija Kaznačenko (Cross-Country Skiing) (1st Olympics) Andrej Drukarov (Alpine Skiing) (1st Olympics, beat Rokas Zaveckas for the spot, Andrej is our youngest member at 18 yo. Ieva Januškevičiūtė (Alpine Skiing) (2nd Olympics) Apparently, there is still a theoretical chance, because our Lithuanian figure skating pair is the first pair on the list among non-qualifiers, so if there's an injury or something, there's a possibility that they would go.

What everyone expected, has just been confirmed, Lithuania is sending these four athletes: Tomas Kaukėnas (2nd Olympic Games, best Olympic performance is 23rd place in 2014) Vytautas Strolia (2nd Olympic Games, he went to Sochi as a cross-country skier and then he switched to Biathlon) Natalija Kočergina (1st Olympic Games, she was closest to qualifying when she was 301st in the Cross-Country skier rankings, when 300 went to the Olympics) Diana Rasimovičiūtė (5th Olympic Games, best Olympic performance is 18th place in 2006)

Well, we missed our chances in Short Track Speed Skating and Figure Skating.

If anyone is wondering, our team size is 9 (4 biathlon, 3 cross-country skiing and 2 alpine skiing)

I would survive with that

Or even better. Lukas Hofer

Hopefully it won't be Martin or Johannes in first place tomorrow. I'm getting my hopes up for Schempp, it's his special venue.

I thought all of the teams must be sorted out before the European Championships?

Tomorrow's sprint start list fiesta! After some below average performances, Mesotitsch is out of the Austrian team and Grosseger is back in. Roesch is finally back in World Cup racing as Claude takes a step back. Chepelin is brought back in for Belarus after some good performances in the IBU cup and he replaces Smolski. One switch for Bulgaria, whilst Canada starts with their B team that includes: Davies, Campbell, Hudec and Millar. Crnkovic for Croatia is starting tomorrow with his final Olympic attempt. Kristeijn replaces Hosek for the Czech Republic, whilst Lessing replaces Zakhna for Estonia. One thing that I'd like to bring attention to is Team France. With Jacquelin and Simon Fourcade in the team tomorrow, that means that Beatrix is out of the Olympics. One change for team Japan, one change for team Kazakhstan and Lapshin is back for Korea. Tomas Kaukėnas is off to Olympic preparations for team Lithuania and that means that youngster Linas Banys will start in his first ever World Cup time trial (he started in two relays prior to tomorrow) The most interesting game is starting tomorrow as Norway brings out all of their best for the final sprint. (Unfortunately, Gjesbakk wasn't really given a chance after his 7th place) One switch for Romania and a couple of changes for Russia, Volkov and Shopin are replaced by Tsvetkov and Babikov. A change for team Slovenia as Bauer is back after missing Rupholding, whilst Weger also comes back after missing Rupholding and he replaced Tambornino for Switzerland. Sweden's B team is in action tomorrow with: Hallstroem, Stenersen, Arwidson and Soederhielm. And finally, Team USA is starting with the full 5 athletes, adding Nordgren and Currier in the mix.

Honestly, I wasn't entirely sure if I'd be writing this message in this season, but we just won our first World Cup points in the women's field. Thanks for this nice surprise Natalija Kočergina!

Woah, that sounded pretty unbelievable, but all those three times that she got into points she did have at least one miss. That's a very long time of not shooting clear

Perhaps in relays. Not entirely sure if that happened during a World Cup race.

Gontier and Preuss still keeping this alive.

Will this be enough for the first Lithuanian women points of the season though?

And Tiril Eckhoff is back!

Woah Woah Woah! Natalija Kočergina in 19th after the second shoot.

Dorin-Habert is back

I wanted to make a joke with shooting at cross-country skiing, but I didn't think of anything witty enough, so you're winning with the Nordic Combined

You actually did not miss anything yet I think everything before the grand final is pre-filmed and only the voting is live. The show will be broadcasted this Saturday and you can watch it on lrt.lt (19:00 UK time). Aaaaand, if you don't want to torture yourself with our selection, the videos will be uploaded on Youtube probably on Sunday or Monday.

Well, yeah Although I can't deny, that it's fairly weird how Germany kept the exact same team throughout the entire season. (when Dahlmeier became healthy)

Also, why do these become longer with every race???

The final pre-Olympic World Cup stage, where athletes can test themselves for the last time, a place where some Olympic teams will be finally decided and a place that some athletes decided to skip for the Olympic preparations. Ladies & Gentlemen, I bring you the hottest start list news for the women's sprint: Hauser and Innerhofer are the only two Austrians that remain in the team, as Zdouc and Hoffmanm were replaced by Rieder and Hartweger. Pisareva replaces Yurkevich for Belarus and Popova replaces Kadeva for Bulgaria. Seems that Canada's A Team has already returned to Canmore for the Olympic preparations, leaving Beaudry, Bankes and Moser in the start list. Zhang is replaced by Tang for China and Davidova is brought back in for the Czech Republic, replacing Johanidesova. Beilmann is brought in for Estonia after a brilliant IBU cup race as Grete Gaim says goodbye to the Olympic bid and prepares for the European Championships. Last attempt for Padial-Hernandez from Spain to score enough IBU points for the Olympics. Team Finland is small, but tough, because Mari Laukkanen joins Kaisa Makarainen and Laura Toivanen after a short absence from world cup racing. Dorin-Habert is back in the French team and Justine Braisaz is starting tomorrow after a disappointing mass start race after sickness. Another change is that sadly, Chloe Chevalier is off the team and SImon is brought in. Yet for another world cup, team Germany remains absolutely the same. Meaning that the only person that ever got a chance besides these six ladies was Karolin Horchler, whilst Dahlmeier was sick. Szoecs for Hungary is attempting to do the same thing as Hernandez. Alexia Runggaldier is finally back after a very long sickness, but that sadly means that there'll be no Karin Oberhofer Tanaka is in for Japan, replacing Mitsuhashi and Korea is bringing in their best tomorrow with Frolina, Avvakumova and Mun. As for Lithuania, Diana Rasimovičiūtė is supposedly going on a training camp for the Olympics and which is why Gabrielė Leščinskaitė is getting a start tomorrow. Hilde Fenne is back in the team for Norway, Tandrevold perhaps taking a rest/wanting to skip Antholz. Drastic changes for Team Poland as their A team is probably on a training camp, they're sending Zuk, Mitoraj, Piton and Maka to represent tomorrow. Yurlova is back for Russia, replacing Slivko and Irene Cadurisch is back after some great performances in IBU cup, replacing Aita Gasparin. Sweden is also one of the teams that sent their B team and tomorrow's starters are: Nilsson, Alifiravets, Skottheim, Andersson and Lindqvist. Vita Semerenko is back for Ukraine and joined by Abramova, as Zhurakov steps back and Pidrushina is missing after the DNF in Rupholding. Finally, USA is starting with four women and it's Reid and Dreissigacker joining Dunklee and Egan.

I'm heartbroken. Throughout all of my work, I've noticed about Dolores just a few minutes ago. I grew up with their music, this actually hits me very hard...

Sadly, only phones from Lithuania. So even our massive diaspora never gets to participate in choosing the artist.

Oh yeah, I'll definitely need it on Saturday, because I still need a few points from the people's vote if I want to pass to the next round.