Werloc

True that. We in Lithuania are really trying hard to be involved, even though we don't have the winters anymore. During December, there were only a couple of days when the temperature fell below 0 and January ain't looking promising either, since we've only had one day of snow this month accompanied by some rain on other days. Even though we're failing at cross-country skiing, trying to rebuild our figure skating, pretending that we are alpine skiing and forming teams in curling, it's nice to see that we're still involved even if it's very poorly funded. Short Track Speed Skating was on the rise, but after multiple injuries, our skater failed to qualify to OG, but there are a good amount of youngsters with pretty decent results that are training and might be ready to challenge in four years time. What I am impressed the most about is our biathlon. How we went from having 1 woman starter like 7 years ago, to 1+1 woman/man starter 6 years ago, to 3+3 and relays nowadays. It shows how well we embraced the system. Unfortunately, the future does not seem bright as our youngsters are still very young and inexperienced and there might not be anything left of the women's team after this Olympic season, because most of the team is already near at the age of retirement + years of disappointing results and unluckily the middle of the pyramid fell apart as from the five girls that we've had (whom would be capable to qualify to WC by now) there's only Gabrielė Leščinskaitė left, one went to cc skiing and 3 left the sport. It would be miserably sad to abandon so many years of work as our other two girls are not yet strong enough for WC qualifications. (Long rant )

Time to fund the search for an active bilingual Chinese user.

Lithuania sending 5 athletes: The regulars Rokas Suslavičius, Deivid Demkov and Gabrielė Leščinskaitė Then they're sending Ana Jesipionok as well, which makes me think that Dindaitė is sick, because they drive around these two girls everywhere together And lastly, Romanov is brought in from the junior team as I suspect that Linas Banys might be sick as well, since there's no other reason to keep him out of this race unless he's secretly starting in the relay instead of Suslavičius

One of the problems with cross-country skiing is that they're not showing any effort to draw in more nations in the game. That's where IBU has them beat by a huge margin. For example, no quota limitations with endless starters from Scandinavian countries and friends, the score system that only rewards the 30 best, no league similar to the IBU cup that deprives most athletes from the necessary experience needed to make a transition to the World Cup where they usually finish in the bottom 10 if they actually ever make it there. And it's not as exciting anymore to see 5-6 Norwegians in the top 10 of every race, with some Swedes and Finns in between. I think what cross-country skiing still has going for them are the sprint races and the 50k.

OMG, the lists are back!!!! 2018 off to a great start, I wonder which country will win Thanks @Dragon for your efforts.

Well, their dad is a marketing genious

Two 16 and 19 y.o. American boys from California (coming to live in a place that has 5000~ citizens) that are a pretty big deal as their brother is in The Lakers and the 16yo might get drafted in NBA. Also, in the United States they are called The Kardashians of Basketball, so hope that helps paint a picture

Welp, Lithuania is turned upside down with the arrival of the Ball family to Prienai a couple of days ago. They've brought their entire filming crew to continue their reality show and their family tagged along as well. There's 6-7 different articles on our sports website every day, a huge outlash of many different media outlets all over Youtube and the Internet. The ESPN coverage uploads 4-ish videos a day on the Ball family in Lithuania. ESPN basically flew over a guy to live in a 5 star resort simply to follow around the family whilst they are there. Everybody is discussing it here, whilst I'm cringing at our older generation's broken English in every interview and the fact that Prienai even in Lithuanian terms is a village.

Well, it's not like Guigonnat or Jacquelin built strong cases for themselves in this race either. The selection process is still pretty much wide open. As for the Czechs, it seems that this slow start to the season was all a rouse and it looks like they're ready to cause some trouble now.

Well, first pursuit for Tomas Kaukėnas this season, so I guess we have that. Vytautas Strolia didn't cope with the shooting and now he'll be 61st with 0.1s away from tomorrow's pursuit. Pretty nice to see Svendsen doing well, would be fun if he could take down Fourcade tomorrow. Both Boes and Hofer in very good positions for the pursuit, but a pretty bad performance for the Germans again. Both Gow brothers in points as well. And lastly, Beatrix just punched a ticket to the IBU cup probably.

Woah, that's some super fast shooting by Tomas Kaukėnas. Got like 5 seconds off Tarjei Boe just from his range time and the time itself is very competitive for points, if he does not miss of course.

I've shot from a rifle once, but never in my life had I ever been on skis. Heck, if 2022 doesn't work out, we can always try Curling for Africa. There has been more than several occasions in which I held a broom

I think that with our unfathomable skills, we would definitely need to find a different, even more desperate country. On the other hand, if you put on a pair of skis and get yourself a rifle, the IBU cup doors are open for The Netherlands and you don't even need to change your nationality. Now if I moved to The Netherlands and we also grabbed @dezbee2008 and @Bohemia , wholla, we have ourselves a mixed relay for the 2022 Olympics.

I heard that team Belgium is recruiting anyone who finds the qualification to World Cup teams fairly difficult

Well, I'm not going to stop watching my favourite sport simply because some random guy from Germany claims that Kuzmina is doped.

Thanks, that's very interesting. I was following some of Simon's results and had a feeling that he might get relegated from World Cup, but that must be a detrimental blow to his confidence yet again. As for Team USA, women's nation cup score looks very worrying for them, especially since they'll be losing a handful of points to their competition after the relay as well, they might lose 1-2 starting quota's for next season if they focus on the Olympics too much. And finally, welcome to the forum, always nice to see the biathlon family growing here.

Back with the "biathlon news" and men's sprint already starts off very interesting with Dominik Landertinger back in the world cup for his first WC race for Austria. Although Eder is missing as well as Grossegger, who is most likely replaced by Mesotitch. Chepelin and Bocharnikov back for Belarus, starting 4, unlike only three in Annecy. As @stefanbg already mentioned, Anev is missing from tomorrow's race. Canada starts Campbell instead of Smith. Estonia brings back Lessing. France missing Simon Fourcade and brings in Jacquellin. Germany is missing Erik Lesser and Nawrath, bringing in only Rees and starting with 5 Italy is moving up from 4 to 5 starters adding Montello. Kazakhstan bringing back their men's A team. Korea changes one starter, whilst Latvia is missing Rastorgujevs. SVENDSEN IS BACK!!! for Norway and Bjoerndalen is starting too, so Gjesbakk and Bjoentegaard are let go. One switch for Poland, as well as Russia bringing back Volkov, whilst dropping Garanichev. Switzerland goes up from 4 to 5 starters, adding Tambornino and Jaeger, Dolder missing. Otcenas and Kazar going back home to participate in the local IBU cup. Whole Ukraine's A Team is back and ready to start tomorrow. And seems that Team USA is really having some struggles (perhaps it's financial ones?) as they've only sent two men for tomorrows race (they've only sent two women as well) and it's Burke and Doherty, dropping Bailley, Nordgren and Schrommer, so it's fair to assume there'll be no relays on Sunday for Team USA.

Few months later "I said that I will quit biathlon if she wins a medal at the Olympics, I never said anything about quitting if she won two medals".

Woah, Team Norway was completely non-existant today On the other hand, brilliant team performances for Canada, Japan, Sweden and Poland! Nice to see the Czech Republic being relevant for the first time in this season. And lastly, very excited that Makarainen got a podium again as well as Laukkanen with a pretty decent place for the pursuit and of course Lehtonen with a career best in world cup and a qualification to tomorrow's pursuit.

But what if Gontier or Oberhofer, for example, outperform her during Oberhof/Rupholding/Antholz? Or is Runggaldier's spot for OG completely safe?

Well, I got a bit lazy there, because there's an addition in the Belarus team as well

Ooh, I looked up that 2014/15 Oberhof is actually the only podium that Nicole Gontier has ever had. Favourable venues sometimes work magic.

You know that we're both waiting for Oberhofer

Some news about Oberhof (Whose in and whose out) So, for women's sprint we see that Austrian women seem to be healthy now as they are starting with 4 athletes instead of 1 in Annecy. Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Czech Republic starting with their full teams with no real changes. Estonia swaps out Talihaerm and Lethla for Oja and Gaim (This is going to be the 1st world cup race for Gaim this season) Lehtonen back for Finland and Chloe Chevalier swapped out with Simon for France. Seems that Alexia Runggaldier is still having issues (perhaps @Gianlu33 can elaborate?) as she is not on the start list, but Italy decided to bring in Nicole Gontier. Kazakhstan's A team is back in Oberhof. 1 swap for Korea and 1 swap for Lithuania, whilst Latvia is not starting with Bendika. Norway, probably the country that has started the most athletes this season, keeps Eckhoff from Annecy and then brings back Solemdal, Fenne, Tandrevold from earlier world cups as well as introducing Kalkenberg. Hojnisz is back for Poland, whilst Starykh is swapped out with Virolainen for Russia. Slovenia starting only with Erzen as Switzerland brings back Elisa Gasparin. As @hckosice already mentioned, only Kuzmina starting for Slovakia tomorrow and for Sweden, Oeberg is swapped out with Hoegberg. And fhe final change is that USA is starting only with Dunklee and Egan tomorrow. So, dear biathlon fans, let's hope for a fun and entertaining race tomorrow, Oberhof usually delivers

Well, I think everyone saw this coming, but 1. Biathlon (It's a sport that I follow religiously for half of my life, skipped school on multiple occasions just to run home fast enough to watch the Biathlon races) Then, when you take away the guns, with a very big margin below we have: 2. Cross-country skiing (I remember being invested in CC a lot more a few years back. I'd use to watch pretty much every race and never skipped a Tour De Ski, but nowadays, I don't really care for it, I sometimes look up the results, but I don't remember the last time I actually sat down and watched it, I guess it'll happen during Olympics) 3. Shot-Track Speed Skating (I remember enjoying it when I was younger, but it's usually a sport that doesn't get too much media coverage, so not that easy to be very invested in the sport, but it still beats other sports for me)