OlympicsFan

Very sad day, Althaus was definitely the better athlete today, but the judges didn't want it to be. Lundby is bound to come down like Vogt did after a couple of years, hopefully that's when Althaus will be finally rewarded.

Weird question ... In NK/SJ we still have 5 events and in each of them Germany has maybe 50 % to win gold, in CC we have 4 events left and in each of them Norway has about 80 % to win them. I think a better question would be whether Norway is more likely to sweep the remaining CC events than Germany is to win 4 of the 5 remaining events in SJ/NK. I think Germany should win NK team, SJ mixed team and SJ men's individual, but NK men's individual and women's SJ individual are open.

Ouch ... third final for Germany and third missed quote place ... In the end i am sure that all important german athletes will qualify and that Germany will win at least 3 medals in Tokyo, but at the moment it's still frustrating.

Chill ... cadet team events are the worst predictor for success at senior level + Italy did great in the individual competitions.

At the beggining of those world championships i was very disappointed to not see River Radamus win a medal, but now he is finally performing at his best. Probably the best male talent those last couple of years together with Kristoffersen and Noel. Edit: Also amazing to see Belgium having a world-class talent, would be amazing if he could do well at senior level.

"The level has actually gone up to the point some hills struggle with the starting gates, some hills are already at Level 1 and can't be modified anymore." Yeah and the equipment surely has nothing to do with that ... The fact that guys like Kasai/Amann were/are able to compete well into their 50s/40s only allows one conclusion: The level has clearly decreased over the last couple of years.

Germany on a roll! Heatcock in the semifinal together with 3 italian guys. 2nd event on the mens side and 2nd gold for Germany? Without knowing anything about those 4 guys i would say that there is roughly a 25 % chance.

Of course right before the tournament started he was the favorite, but before the season started noone would have placed any bet on him. Back when Morgenstern/Schlierenzauer and so on were still active this guy would have been lucky to even make the 2nd round, but like i said many times before: The level has dramatically dropped, Austria is gone, Norway is gone, Slovenia is gone, Kasai is gone, Freund is gone ... nowadays you have a good shot at a podium if you can safely land 2 jumps in a row.

You seem to know his gf pretty well?

Peier winning a medal here would be the biggest shocker since Koboyashi winning the 4-hills tournament.

1) Schuster will leave after this season anyway, so he doesnt give a shit 2) Leyhe and Wellinger were on the same level the last couple of days, but Wellinger has more experience, so it wasnt a shocking decision. Tomorrow in the team Lehye will replace Wellinger, so Germany should be fine.

Ultra disappointing first round from a german perspective. The level of competition remains historically low, if it stays like that next year, then Ahonen/Kasai can probably win the overall world cup.

I feel you ... It makes me really sad that tax money is wasted on cross-country/speed skating, would be much better to completely shut down the financing for those sports.

Got all the medallists right, but completely wrong order ... I predicted 1) Bolshunov 2) Sundby 3) Roethe ...

What an interesting race on the womens side ... at least for the first 500 m ... Is Johaug the one who got caught or was that Bjoergen?

Bet contest: Cross-country: 1: Yes 2: No 3: No 4: No 5: Yes 17: Yes

My prediction was that Diggins, Falla and Nilsson would win the medals. Falla and Nilsson should finish top 2, bronze should go to someone else from Sweden.

Carl in the final? Very surprised to see this, never really considered her a sprinter. She will finish 5th or 6th in the final, but it's probably a good sign for the next couple of races. Is it just me or did women's sprint use to have much more depth? I normally don't watch cross-country, but to me it seems as if there are maybe 3 or 4 true world class sprinters at the moment.

Congrats to Hrovat! She isn't a generational talent, but she certainly has the potential to be a regular on the (giant) slalom podium in a couple of years. Sadly for her both Vlhova and Shiffrin are still young + Bassino, Holdener, Meillard and the austrian girls are all still pretty young. Overall slovenia is doing an amazing job in recent years, they might very well be a top 5 nation in a couple of years, especially if Vlhova keeps progressing at the same rate. Nullmeyer's development has been a bit disappointing, 2 years ago she won bronze but seems to have stagnated after that. On the men's side Rösti improved from his bronze medal last year, but for me the bigger story is McGrath from Norway. Being 2 years younger than the competition should be a huge disadvantage in the downhill, so he must be a huge talent to still fight for the medals already.

I think this time there are far less questions you can easily answer with YES or NO, this is probably good for the "competition", but bad for my chances of winning. There are 2 questions i don't like: 1) Will Klaebo be the last athlete for the norwegian relay 2) Will at least one event be postponed by at least 1 hour For me those 2 questions are about guessing and don't have much to do with actual knowledge (of course you could say that Klaebo is the best sprinter in the world and therefore should always be the last athlete in a relay, but noone here knows what plans the norwegian coach has).

I think then you have to rephrase the question. If someone from the gold winning polish team in men's ski jumping from 2 years ago wins a gold medal in a different event here, it can't be considered defending his title and therefore shouldn't count.

Let's say a relay with 2 athletes with 3 names wins a medal, does it count as 2 medals for the question mentioned by the italian guy above?

Not true according to FIS live timing ... There it says that Jessica Anderson from GB won with a margin of 40,74 seconds ahead of Robinson, the only thing suspicious here is that apparently she only needed 14,75 seconds to finish the second run ...

Winning at junior worlds doesnt have to mean much for future success at senior level, but someone doing it while being 3 years younger than most of the competition is almost a safe sign that we are looking at a cant miss level of talent. Dvornik was also born in 2001, she seems to be a very good talent too. Disappointed by the whole italian team, Honkanen, Danioth and Hirtl-Stanggassinger.

[hide] Cross-country Skiing (20) 1- Norway will win gold in both Men's and Women's Individual Sprint [YES - 1] 2- Sweden will win 2 medals in Women's Individual Sprint [NO - 1] 3- Norway will have at least 5 athletes in the final in the Men's and Women's Individual Sprint (Example: 3 Men and 2 Women qualify for the final. Bet won/yes) [YES - 10] 4- Sophie Caldwell will qualify for the final in the Women's Individual Sprint [YES - 1] 5- Andrew Young will be in Top 25 in the qualification for the Men's Individual Sprint [YES - 10] 6- Therese Johaug will win 4 gold medals [YES - 1] 7- Therese Johaug will win Women's 10km C with 35 or fewer seconds to second place [NO - 1] 8- Norway will win more or the same amount of medals in total as Canada, Finland, Italy, Russia and USA [YES - 10] 9- Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo will run the 4th leg for Norway's Relay [YES - 10] 10- Finland will win at least two or more Individual medals [NO - 1] 11- Sindre Bjoernestad Skar will represent Norway in the Teamsprint [YES - 1] 12- At least 2 or more athletes from the Women's 5km C will be slower than the winner of the Men's 10km C [NO - 1] 13- No male athlete from Sweden will win a medal (Including Relay) [YES - 1] 14- The winner of the Men's Skiathlon will be in Top 10 after the first 15km [YES - 1] 15- The same nation will lead after every leg exchange (including finish line) in the Men's or Women's Relay [YES - 1] 16- A nation will sweep a podium in any event [NO - 10] 17- At least one athlete will be 10 or more seconds after a heat winner in the Men's or Women's Individual Sprint [YES - 1] 18- The winner of the Men's 50km will win with 3 or fewer seconds to second place [YES - 1] 19- The winner time of the Men's 50km will be 1:50:00 or under [YES - 10] 20- Ebba Andersson will win more or the same amount of medals as Charlotte Kalla [YES - 1] Nordic Combined (15) 1- An Athlete will win 2 or more gold medals. [YES - 10] 2- Jarl Magnus Riiber will be Top 3 after the ski jumping in both Individual events [YES - 1] 3- Franz-Josef Rehrl will lead after the ski jumping in at least one of the Individual events [YES - 1] 4- Austria will have at least 3 or more athletes in Top 10 after the ski jumping in one of the two Individual events [YES - 1] 5- Alessandro Pittin will be in Top 35 after the ski jumping in at least one of the Individual events [YES - 1] 6- Szczepan Kupczak will fall at least 25 places back in the Cross-Country Skiing (Example: 5th after ski jumping, ends 30th. Bet won/yes) [NO - 1] 7- Ilka Herola will overtake at least 15 athletes in the Cross-Country Skiing [NO - 1] 8- Johannes Rydzek and Fabian Riessle will represent Germany in the Team Sprint [NO - 1] 9- Germany will have at least 2 or more athletes on the podium in the same event [YES - 1] 10- Japan will win at least one medal [YES - 10] 11- Finland will win a medal in the Team Sprint [NO - 1] 12- At least 2/4 events will be decided in a sprint (3 or fewer seconds) between first and second place [NO - 1] 13- The podium for the Team Event will be; 1. Germany, 2. Norway, 3. Austria [NO - 1] 14- Vinzenz Geiger will be the highest-placed German athlete in at least one Individual event [YES - 1] 15- Austria will win at least one gold medal in the Individual events [NO - 10] Ski Jumping (15) 1- Ryoyu Kobayashi will not win a gold medal in any of the Individual events [NO - 1] 2- Poland will have 3 or more athletes in Top 10 in at least one the Individual events [YES - 1] 3- Maren Lundby will win with 7 or more points to second place in Women's Individual event. [NO - 1] 4- Stefan Kraft will win at least 3 medals [NO - 10] 5- At least one defending champion (from 2017) will win a gold medal (including gold winners from team events) [YES - 1] 6- Vladimir Zografski will qualify for the second round in both Individual events [NO - 1] 7- Killian Peier will be in Top 12 in at least one of the Individual events [NO - 1] 8- Marcus Eisenbichler will be the highest-ranked German athlete in both Individual events [NO - 1] 9- The podium in the Mixed Team event will be; 1.Germany 2. Norway, 3. Japan [YES - 1] 10- Halvor Egner Granerud will be the highest-placed Norwegian athlete in at least one of the Individual events [NO - 1] 11- Nika Kriznar will be the only athlete born in 2000 or later to be in Top 10 in the Women's Individual event [NO - 1] 12- Norway will win a medal in all team events, Men, Women and Mixed [NO - 10] 13- Finland will qualify for the final round (last 4 jumps) in the Men's Team event [NO - 10] 14- Austria will win at least one gold medal in any event [NO - 1] 15- The leading athlete/nation in at least 4/6 events after the first round, will end up winning the gold medal (First round in a team event will be after the first jump from every athlete on the team) [NO - 1] General/Overall (6) 1- Top 3 of the Overall medal table will be; 1. Norway, 2. Germany, 3. Austria [NO - 10] 2- At least one event will be postponed with 1 hour or more during the WCH [NO - 1] 3- Austria will win at least one gold medal [YES - 1] 4- Norway will win a medal in at least 18/22 events [YES - 10] 5- Sweden and Finland will win more or the same amount medals as Germany overall [NO - 10] 6- Athletes with three names will win at least 12 or more medals in all events (Only the official name on fis.com will count. Examples: Franz-Josef Rehrl, Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, Daniela Iraschko-Stolz) [YES - 10] [/hide]