OlympicsFan

This was an amazing for Germany: - 4th best nation overall (behind Austria, Italy and Switzerland) - No nation had more different (individual) medalists - Most individual medals since 1994 - First time since 1994 that two different men won individual medals - Emma Aicher became the first woman since 1995 that won medals in both the downhill and slalom On the men's side Steen Olsen and Franzoni (both born 2001) were the clear standouts, Ax Swartz (born 2004) was also super impressive. On the women's side Aicher (born 2003) was the biggest star, followed by Egger (born 2001) and Ljutic (born 2004). France, Slovenia and to some degree Norway (great men's team, but only one individual medalist and not too convincing on the women's side) were rather disappointing in my opinion.

Would be extremely weird. Spain must pay insane money for him to go there. I am sure he could have gone to pretty much any world-class country (or France) for a lot of money.

Promising start for Germany, only the 2nd time in the history of junior worlds (after 1988) that Germany won a medal in both downhill races. Especially promising since Aicher on the women's side will be able to compete 2 more years at junior worlds while Vogt on the men's side will be able to compete one more year at junior worlds. Other german women since 2000 who won a downhill medal at junior worlds: Maria Höfl-Riesch, Viktoria Rebensburg, Kira Weidle (all of them went on to make downhill world cup podiums)

The results of the cadet european championships are insane from an hungarian perspective: Men's sabre: Bronze, 6th, 7th Men's foil: Gold, Silver Men's epee: - Women's sabre: Gold, 5th, 6th Women's foil: Silver Women's epee: Gold, 6th, 7th - They won half the individual events - They won a medal in 5 of the 6 individual events - They had 3 athletes in the top 7 in half of the individual events

Great news. Sadly i don't see a way that Norway won't find someone else they can dope to the top.

On the women's side it should be an easy gold for Prevc, on the men's side Austria might very well finish 1-4. Austrian men seem to be lightyears ahead of everyone else at this level. Notable absances: Women: Pagnier , Makhinia , Bjørseth Men: Sadreev I think all of them could have gone for a medal, Sadreev might have even been the favorite for gold.

The logic of the countries abstaining makes me rather angry. In a time of conflict you have to chose sides. Not chosing sides means siding with the aggressor. Their voting behavior clearly shows that they don't take the west very seriously. I am sure that most/all of those countries are more dependant on western than russian business, but they think that Russia is far more likely to cut ties with them over their vote. I think if the west would sanction all countries that abstain, the vote would look very differently.

1) I am shocked to see how little most people seem to know about Eritrea. 2) Afganistan's vote probably isn't the Taliban's vote. I think their representatives are still part of the old "government".

1) Germany winning medals in women’s epee and women’s Sabre is very „unusual“. 2) Germany winning as many individual medals as Italy is very very unusual. 3) Russia only winning 1 individual medal might be the biggest surprise in the history of sports. From a german perspective: The gold for Heathcock was expected, he is the biggest German talent since Leonie Ebert (who has been very disappointing for the past 2 or 3 years).

Sadly not unrealistic (in my opinion). Two thoughts: 1) Would anyone start nuclear war over Putin dropping an atomic bomb on Ukraine/Poland/Germany? 2) Even if a nuclear war happens, there will probably be survivors. It will be difficult to build civilization up again if the whole earth is unhabitable, so it would be great if everyone could agree on sparing a certain area (an island like Australia/New Zealand/GB/Japan) in order to rebuild civilization there.

The german men are doomed unless Engelmann becomes really good real quick. The juniors are lightyears off the pace. Norway on the other hand seems to have a never ending pipeline of great talents on the men's side. France and Italy also should have a bright future. On the women's side there doesn't seem to be a special talent at junior level, but Italy and France seem to have really nice depth. Austria and Switzerland also seem promising, i think in the future the women's side will be more competitve (more nations fighting for podiums) than the men's side.

No, realistically the best since at least 2014 and only half the individual events are done.

You usually seem like a rather intelligent person, but this is an almost shockingly bad troll attempt: 1) You mean the embarrassing depth that led to a relay bronze at the olympics (and an individual gold) ... ? 2) You realize that she is only the 3rd best talent in Germany in this age group alone? 3) You realize that another german girl just won gold in the junior individual? 4) You realize that most medalists at youth level (roughly 2/3 in my estimate) never amount to anything? My current estimate would be that she is maybe a fringe top 10 talent in Germany, so not one of the most likely candidates to make the german senior team (especially given her lack of skiing speed). Either way this whole "discussion" is silly. Croatia is completely irrelevant in biathlon and this girl is at least 5 years away from being good enough of having any impact in the world cup, it makes zero sense to "fight" over her at the moment.

I SPECIFICALLY SAID THAT I FEEL THE SAME WAY WHEN GERMANY IS PROFITING FROM IT, because i knew that someone like you wouldn't even bother trying to lead a discussion and would rather try to play the "but X did Y" card. I am amazed that there are people out there with such limited mental capabilities*. AGAIN: I absolutely am not in favor or eastern/southern european people coming to Germany to do the shit that german people don't want to do (and then of course in turn for example ukrainian people will go to Poland and fill the holes of the polish people that left for Germany, which of course then creates holes in Ukraine and so on ...)

I am amazed that you go through all this trouble instead of just shutting this thread down. Thanks on behalf of all the people who (for some reason) feel the need to talk about the conflict on this website.

Don't see how this would change anything for Ukraine (at least short term). The only thing western countries realistically could do to help Ukraine short term is to deliver weapons/intelligence.

It is disgusting when people profit from the system of a certain country (financed by tax payers) and then compete for another country (that gets the rewards). Same is true in other areas as well. Every year there are many people who finish their medicine studies in Germany (financed by tax payers) and then go to Switzerland because they can earn more there, those are disgusting human beings. I also feel the same way about people who only live in certain places to dodge taxes (for example Alexander Zverev, Novak Djokovic or many formula 1 drivers), they are disgusting human beings as well and it is braindead to think that any of them feel patriotic. At least in sport (with the X per nation rule) you can argue that it is good when all the best athletes get to compete.

Maybe if she won't be good enough to make the german team. Would still be a disgusting decision of course.

Absolutely disgusting. I hope german skiing federation will use all power they have to fuck FIS.

Impressive that Germany won a medal in 5 out of the 6 races so far*. The german women are in a very good place. Crazy that the 3rd best talent (Moric) is the only girl who won 2 medals in 2 races so far. * This is already the best result for Germany in terms of individual medals since 2014 (when they won 7 individual medals). The last time Germany won 8 or more individual medals was in 2010 (when they won 8 individual medals).

Some things i noticed while looking through past results: - I would say roughly one third of the medalists at youth level become good at senior level - Unsurprisingly (for people who follow biathlon) it usually takes many years (5+ years) for medalists at youth/junior level to become good at senior level, although of course there are exemptions (for example Davidova, Dahlmeier* or Öberg) - Looking at the 2009 junior women's results is almost surreal and shows what an historic talent Miriam Gössner was: She finished 2nd in the sprint with 5 misses (8 seconds behind first place, the first and third placed athlete both had only 1 miss) and first in the pursuit with 8 misses (the second and third placed athlete had 7 misses combined) - Looking at the result of men's junior sprint in 2009 is pretty crazy, the following athletes all finished top 16: Hofer, Windisch, Weger, T. Boe, Schempp, Doll, Lesser, Beatrix, Semenov, Lapshin (pretty insane group for Germany) * Looking at her junior results it had to be pretty clear that she was a special talent. She won a bronze at junior worlds in 2011 (roughly half a year after turning 17), the equivalent this year would be a girl born in August of 2004 winning a medal at junior level (while in reality the youngest medalist at youth level so far was born in August 2004). Of all the girls competing this year, Tannheimer from Germany is probably the closest, she had the 2nd fastest skiing speed in the individual and was born in August 2005.

Some more thoughts: 1) To me it looks as if Putin is (very) ill. Maybe he knows that he won't have a lot more time, so nothing is off the table. 2) I don't think that this will end after Ukraine and i am not sure how afraid Putin is of attacking a NATO/EU state. Moldova sadly seems like a likely victim. 3) Whatever sanctions the west will impose on Russia, the same sanctions have to be imposed on Belarus as well.

I feel really sorry for the ukrainian people who did nothing to cause this. It might be justifiable for other countries not to get involved in the fight, but it makes me lose trust in our system even more when i see that western countries can't even agree on sanctions. I don't believe that this is the will of the normal people. I absolutely don't see why western nations can't just ban Russia from everything. Why still allow russian people to enter western nations? Why still allow russian companies to do business here? I understand that countries are somewhat dependant on russian gas, but this absolutely doesn't explain why they can't agree on sanctions that would barely be felt by their own people. It's not as if Russia is a super important market (considering that the russian GDP is just marginally bigger than the one of Australia).

Horrible performance by the german men today, the women were ok. Not sure who the best talent on the men's side is, but on the women's side it clearly is Michelon (who will be able to compete at junior level for two more years and already is at the top when it comes to skiing speed).

I am shook. The german women have crazy depth and Albert Engelmann really is the most promising male german talent in a long time. A bit disappointed that Grotian didn't do better, but i think she doesn't quite have the endurance yet. I think the sprint is better suited for her. Also i thought that Grotian would be the one, but Tannheimer might actually be it. Tannheimer is one year younger than Grotian and already faster, she will be able to come back two more times to compete at youth level. Andersson and Zorc also seem like decent talents, although the fact that Tannheimer is equaling their skiing speed while being two years younger should put their talent into perspective. Overall i am very happy from a german perspective (although of course Russia and France not competing means that all german talents would probably have finished 3-5 spots lower if everyone would have competed). Finally the german talents have superior skiing speed. Hopefully they will be able to translate it to senior level.