OlympicsFan

Breaking news: The schedule is horrible, nothing between women's cross-country skiing and luge team relay. They could just compromise the schedule (maybe only have the whole session lasting 6 hours or so and only have the whole olympics lasting 10 days) and not first have 1 biathlon race every day and then nothing for like a week.

Noone said that ... but a) unlike others they have been caught before and b) they completely dominate (or at least used to) an endurance sport. If a small nation dominates an endurance sport like Norway in cross-country skiing or the Netherlands in speed skating, then doping is the only logical explanation.

I am more skeptical about the future. Hennig had a real medal chance here. Sweden and Norway (Johaug excluded) were/are inexistant and Germany still couldn't win a medal (while even Austria was able to do it), i don't think it will ever get easier to win individual medals. Also there is always some german athlete with great progression, but then that athlete disappears and someone else takes his/her place, so you could say that there is progression at the individual level, but the program as a whole stagnates. On the men's side you had Notz who was supposed to become world-class, then you had Brugger and now you have Moch. They all hit a wall at some point.

I see that Russia is still doing Russia things (sadly nothing surprising). Doping children is GDR level shit. The solution to deal with their nonsense is obvious, but IOC is corrupt, so obviously nothing will happen. Crazy how desperate for recognition you have to be to go this far. I guess when your economy and science are shit you have nothing else than sport and war to feel important.

So how is cheering for a russian doper better than cheering for a norwegian doper?

Johaug alone can make up at least 20 seconds probably and the 3 other norwegians shouldn't be so far behind over 5k against the 2nd/3rd/4th best athlete from Sweden/Russia/USA. I think Norway could still win gold. This definitely makes cross-country skiing far more interesting and as a neutral you have to hope that Norway won't be able to turn it around very quickly.

You don't have to go back too far to find similar results. In 2010 two norwegians finished 41st and 42nd in men's 15 km freestyle and a norwegian also finished 49th in women's 10 km freestyle.

It will probably be about hiding Fraebel/whoever on the second leg. In the end it will be the same as always for german cross-country skiing: "Außer Spesen nichts gewesen"

Not sure how Russia is fighting for gold, but not Norway/Sweden and how you didn't even mention Germany in the fight for 4th ... This time it seems rather open, Finland/Russia/Sweden/Norway could all win gold and Germany/USA could surprise for a medal.

So your solution is to cheer for a russian ... ?

Yes, especially after you already won a medal here ...

Hennig must want to kill someone. Beaten by a known doper, two finish miracle grandmas and a russian ...

Lol ... imagine having a medal conversion rate of 500 % and to still complain. Germany on the other hand had two world cup leaders (Nörl and Baumeister) and won a grand total of 0 medals. If Canada would have the luck of Germany you would still be at zero medals. Austria is having completely absurd olympics as well. You could probably put an austrian jersey on me and i could win any competition. Even nobodies like Greiderer, Stadlhuber or Strolz win medals for them.

Don’t agree: 1) Don’t you think that Weng and Krüger would have participated if they would have thought that they were good enough to win a medal? Also I don’t think either of them could have won a medal in sprint and I also don’t think that Krüger could have won a medal in skiathlon. MAYBE Weng could have won a medal in skiathlon. 2) Norway still won a medal in Nordic combined without Riiber. I don’t think it anyone EXPECTED two medals in this event for them. 3) They lost 4 medals in cross-country skiing alone compared to 2018. 4) Pretty crazy that they are so far „behind schedule“ despite winning a medal in every biathlon event so far. 5) I am not sure if Norway would have won a medal in mixed ski jumping if no team would have been disqualified. 6) I don’t really see them making up the lost ground in alpine skiing or cross-country skiing, but they could make it up in biathlon. In 2018 they only won 4 medals in the remaining 9 races and I could definitely see them winning one medal per race this time.

After the same events in 2018 Germany had 4 golds and 11 medals in total, so 3 medals less and 1 gold more. Interestingly Germany again: - Won silver in women’s ski jumping - Gold in luge doubles (and 2 medals in total) - Gold and silver in women’s luge individual - A medal in biathlon women’s individual - Gold in men’s Nordic combined normal hill - A medal in men’s luge individual -> So far Germany didn’t win any medals in any „new“ events, but they lost gold in men’s ski jumping normal hill individual and two medals in women’s snowboard PGS I guess this shows that there is almost no development in most sports. Hopefully there will be at least some new medals (men’s snowboardcross, men’s skeleton, alpine skiing).

Taubitz looks like a risk and it would be unfair for the other athletes in the relay to risk a medal just to give Taubitz another chance not to crash. Geisenberger seems like a safer pick. This might have been the only gold medal chance Taubitz will ever get, considering the amount of talent coming through (Berreiter, Egle, Prock, Schulte).

Not even close. Probably more like South Korea in archery.

Kind of crazy that Shiffrin has "only" one olympic medal in slalom so far and it came at her first olympics when she was still 18 ... Based on her world cup dominance she should (have) end(ed) her career with at least 3 golds in slalom. Kind of reminds me of Viktoria Rebensburg (although she obviously never was this dominant) who won her only olympic gold in giant slalom at her first olympics. At this point you probably wouldn't even bet on Shiffrin winning a medal in 2026. Would be kind of crazy if Shiffrin would end her career with less olympic slalom medals than Wendy Holdener. Edit: The gaps today were really "interesting". Between Nullmeyer in 22nd and Della Mea in 30th there were 2.57 seconds and between Vlhova in 1st and Nullmeyer in 22nd there were "only" 2.98 seconds.

I just looked at who had the fastest training runs: Men: Alexander Tretiakov 1:00.33 Wengang Yan 1:00.36 Christopher Grotheer 1:00.42 Axel Jungk 1:00.49 Zheng Yin 1:00.50 Women: Janine Flock 1:01.75 Hannah Neise 1:01.88 Anna Fernstädt 1:01.94 Dan Zhao 1:01.96 Jacqueline Lölling 1:02.03 (Tina Hermann 1:02.08) Would be quite fitting if Germany would have 4 women in the top 6 but no medal, especially if Fernstädt would win gold.

Who the hell is Meryeta Odine? I guess not only eastern european/chinese athletes come out of nowhere to win olympic medals ... Edit: Her best results this season were 4th and 10th ... Canada is having an insane conversion rates when it comes to medal chances. Even their shitty athletes somehow win medals.

Definitely, Rydzek is the big question mark. If he is remotely close to his best in cross-country skiing, then he should win it.

I think Slovenia actually has some promising talents in nordic combined. Wouldn't be shocked if Slovenia would be a top 5 nation in nordic combined (and biathlon) in 5 years.

Luckily i didn't watch the race, but now i can say that i would have preferred Dürr to miss a gate. Leading at the last intermediate and then not winning any medal ... this has to break you. I would be shocked if she wouldn't end her career after this season. At least Germany already has a replacement in Emma Aicher (who probably should have finished top 10 today if she wouldn't have become too cautious half way through the second run). Vlhova certainly was the most deserving champion, but i still would have liked to see her without a medal.

Insane olympics for Italy indeed. Now even their complete nobodies, who never did anything in their career, are suddenly getting close to the medals. Maybe next their guy in skeleton will challenge for a medal ...

We all know how the second run will end: Gold for Sweden/Slovenia (not sure about the other medalist, maybe Austria, but certainly not Germany) I am not sure whether i prefer Dürr crashing or just being too slow for a medal ...