Quaker2001

That was the most insane weekend of playoff football I can remember.  Saved the best for last with Bills-Chiefs.  That was a new level of insane

And both #1 seeds have now been eliminated as the 2nd game of the night ends in the same fashion as the first.. 49ers with a field goal to win it.  Perhaps we've seen the last of Aaron Rodgers as a Green Bay Packer

Who Dey!

Google doc of Team USA.. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K0iM-5DhTGr4Hr4b7E6InpRJU2JRrNRXgTKBIPGKtYQ/edit#gid=523776772
 
From that list, 222 total athletes

Google doc of Team USA.. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1K0iM-5DhTGr4Hr4b7E6InpRJU2JRrNRXgTKBIPGKtYQ/edit#gid=523776772
 
From that list, 222 total athletes

So this just happened..
 
 

So this just happened..
 
 

Huge upset at the US trials.. Erin Jackson had a slip on the backstretch and finishes outside of the top 2 for the 500m.  She will miss the Olympics barring some crazy circumstance

If Oslo had stuck around and was in the final vote, they would have beaten Almaty running away with it.  Almaty had a very good bid which is why they came so close to beating Beijing, but it's still in a smallish Central Asian country that is dealing with political issues right now.

No, Oslo should have been selected.  But the IOC and their miles long list of demands scared them off.  The IOC deserves all of the blame here for that.  Plus, it's not like the situation in Kazakhstan is that great right now.  Obviously almost anything would be preferable to China, but that wouldn't have been a much better option

Because there's a difference between caring about winter sports and supporting a winter sports event coming to your country.  Italy has a lot of the infrastructure in place and isn't as far spread as the Stockholm bid was.  I wanted them to get the Olympics to have a games in Sweden, but even though I know Swedes love their winter sports, I can understand why they wouldn't be so excited to partner with the IOC.  Especially when it would required having events from Are to Sigulda.

Heard that one before... Trump caught with secret bottle of Coke after insisting he was boycotting brand over Georgia voting rights

Darn straight!  Her confidence level has to be through the roof right now that she's now won 2 sprints to the line.  It's interesting, Chad Salmela (US TV cross-country/biathlon analyst and the one who gave us the "HERE COMES DIGGINS!" call said last year that most Americans probably know her first from having won the team sprint 4 years ago.  But most in the ski community know her as a Tour de Ski champ who also won an Olympic medal.  Would be amazing if she could do both in same year!!

And in PDF form from the World Curling Federation.. https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.worldcurling.org/media.worldcurling.org/wcf_worldcurling/2021/12/22144608/OWG2022_Curling_Playing-Schedules.pdf

As noted in your first article, there's still a lot to be sorted out with the USOPC regarding LA2028.  If Salt Lake had their way, they'd be bidding for 2030 without hesitation.  They would have bid for 2022 if the USOPC had left them.. wouldn't that have been something.  More important to Salt Lake to host sooner rather than later so their venues don't age anymore than they already have.  Probably would be better for the USOPC to have them target 2034, and same goes for the IOC since they have yet to award TV rights for 2034, so the value of those would obviously go way up if they were selling a US host.  That Salt Lake is preparing for 2030 is simply a factor that it comes before 2034.  Easier to plan for that and reset the numbers for 2034 than to do it the other way around.  And if the IOC is left without another solid bidder (which they might be if Sapporo doesn't have enough public support), then SLC can save the day for 2030

You should be sure.  Tokyo was held during a surge in the pandemic and they completed every event.  What chaos at the short course worlds?  Yes, a number of athletes couldn't compete.  Yet, every event was held.  If that's "how bad it could get," then the Olympics should be a lot easier with all the safety protocols they're likely to have in place.
 
Please stop fear-mongering.  We all know COVID is a serious issue, but it's not going to get the IOC or China to say "you know what, let's postpone the Olympics, we can't have them now"

Wonder if he'd think that if the next Olympics wasn't in France.

Can't speak for other countries, but in this one, the Olympic committee is not tied to the government.  So the government can't force the athletes to boycott here.  The USOPC changed their bylaws to stop outside influences from affecting their ability to compete.  And needless to say, athletes don't want to be told they can't compete.

Point 1 and 2: that's completely academic. The US government, and it increasingly looks like some other Western governments, aren't doing a diplomatic boycott of the IOC. The US isn't snubbing the IOC as they are organizing the 2028 Summer games and are the front runner to be awarded either the 2030 or 2034 Winter games. Literally nobody cares if the formal invitation came from the IOC or the PRC's government, everybody knows this is a spat between a handful of Western countries and the PRC's government.
 
As for point 3... I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that "the International Olympic Committee who are politically neutral" is a joke. Like, I know that's what they claim about themselves, but nobody actually believes them right?

Fucks given by the IOC or the Chinese organizers continue to remain steady at 0.  Much like Tokyo, these Olympics are going to happen no matter how loud the screaming is to cancel them

Costs a lot of money to earn that money.  Especially for a Winter Olympics which require a lot of specialized venues that many cities or countries don't necessarily have ready to go.  Not so easy to find that city/country, particularly considering how awful the IOC is these days.  Of course we won't see a boycott.  But we did see Norway show interest in hosting the 2022 Olympics, only for public support to drop and for their bid committee to scoff at the IOC's miles long list of demands.  I'm still surprised they managed to find 2 European bids for 2026 after all of them dropped out of the running for 2022.
 
LOL that you buy into the "NBC hardly shows anything not involving the US" narrative because that is a giant heaping pile of bullshit.  Yea, they'll promote the hell out of the biggest stars and occasionally shove certain sports to cable, but the American public is really dumb.  All the people who said "I can't find what I want to watch" probably spent about 14 seconds and then gave up.  Didn't take a masters degree to know when things are on and if you factor in cable, there were tons of sports that didn't involve the United States.
 
As for soccer, speaking of NBC, that's an awful lot of money for a sport Americans don't care about.. Premier League, NBC Sports Extend TV Rights Contract in Deal Reportedly Worth $2.7B

Salt Lake City is ready to jump all over 2030.  So the IOC has absolutely nothing to worry about.  They have the United States and maybe if Sapporo can get public support (much easier said than done), they're an option as well.  
 
Different this time around though.  A lot of the political strife they dealt with in the 70s wasn't of their own making.  These days, there's a lot of animosity towards the IOC that isn't going away any time soon.  Cities and countries are flat out rejecting them.  For well over a decade, we've seen the field of interested cities slowly dwindle, especially when it comes to the Winter Olympics.  As long as they have 1 willing partner each time, that's all that matters, so they'll probably be fine.

2-0 
 
Dos a cero!

2-0 
 
Dos a cero!

From the IIHF...
 
Olympic schedule announced
 
Men's field is all set.  Women's field still has 3 teams to qualify.  And remember the women's tournament has expanded to 10 teams, so they'll start play the day before the opening ceremony.  Men's format is identical to the last 3 Olympics