OlympicsFan

German women back to their usual (snail) self, blowing two medal chances in one race. Still don't understand why biathlon has a medal event that is based on the result of another medal event. Makes zero sense for biathlon to be the only? sport to have this. Why not use the downhill results in alpine skiing as first part of the alpine combined results while we are at it?

Pretty smart of Australia to focus on technical sports (snowboard, freestyle skiing, bob, skeleton), seems like they "stole" GB's strategy. I think at some point Germany will have to adapt the same strategy. Interestingly neither GB nor Australia were/are remotely competitive in luge.

If german women don't win gold and silver/bronze, they should all instantly retire. They clearly had superior material today. Neise would have been in the lead without her big mistakes at the end of run 2, she clearly has the highest ceiling on this track. You really have to thank whoever designed this LONG track, it clearly helps athletes who aren't great at the start.

Not that surprising ... Interestingly Austria won the medal table at 3 of the 5 last olympics and the two other times the medal table was won by Croatia and Germany of all countries ...

Sorry to tell you, but this is a horrible pick. Top 10 would already be a very good result for her (this is not downhill). Why isn’t Goggia an option?

Now that Björgen retired you actually might be right.

Fischnaller in snowboard might also do it.

I don't really see the connection. Crystal globe is just adding up points, it seems pretty fair as long as there is the same amount of races in every discipline while the combined always has favored slalom specialists. Someone who wins 8 out of 10 slaloms has a case to be considered a better athlete than someone who won 6 out of 10 downhills (and to get some kind of recognition for being the best athlete of the season). You could say that the alpine combined, where the best slalom skiers are usually at the top, is a bit like nordic combined where the best cross-country skiers usually always end up at the top. The difference is that noone is specializing in the alpine combined, so basically you are just giving an extra medal chance to athletes who are already medal contenders in the downhill or the slalom. In the nordic combined no ski jumpers/cross-country skiers are competitive. If the alpine combined would be designed in a way that makes it (close to) impossible for slalom/downhill specialists to win medals, then it would make sense to keep it, but i don't see how you could do it. In this century (5 olympics) 60 % of the medalists in the alpine combined won a medal in one of the other events as well. Only 1/6 of the medalists in the combined didn't finish at least top 8 in an other event at the same olympics.

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.