OlympicsFan

Did that really happen? I always thought that her cheeks looked suspicious, but didn’t think that the Norwegians would go that far. Are there any Norwegian elite athletes who didn’t need serious „treatment“ during some point of their career? You really have to admire that they were able to become world class „despite“ all that ...

Maybe, Russia should be close to their second relay. I very much doubt that the second Norwegian relay could beat the Russian relay at full force. The third Norwegian relay could definitely beat all other relays though (except for the Russian relay). Just looking at the gaps clearly shows you how pathetic the level of competition is in cross-country. Not sure why this sport should have 3 more events than alpine skiing (once the combined won’t be Olympic anymore). The longer the distance, the more boring it usually gets.

Thanks. Always wished Germany would do the same. Instead you have older guys/girls who are better than the younger athletes, but not good enough to ever become world class, blocking their spots.

I think the athletes with the most points at junior level will get a wildcard for the World Cup Final. Currently it looks good for Claude on the men’s side and Baserga/Bened on the women’s side.

Competition starts today. There will be a livestream on the official website. Sadly there will only be 3 competitions for each gender (Super G, slalom, giant slalom). Surprisingly GB (on the men’s side) and Croatia (on the women’s side) could win some medals.

What an insanely unlucky result for Germany. Without that stupid mistake during that first shooting, Kaiser easily would have won silver. Still it is nice to see that Germany has 3 world class talents in this age group, only France and Italy are looking stronger. Out of all the guys here Perrot is probably the biggest talent.

Does anyone know why France is so good in biathlon? From what I remember biathlon isn’t very popular over there and they don’t necessarily have a huge tradition in cross-country either. Do they have better training conditions than Germany for example?

Hard to imagine Claude not winning a medal. Too bad that Kaiser had that mistake during the first shooting, otherwise he only would have been 10 seconds behind Claude.

Switzerland has a pretty solid team, so it may not be easy to make the team. Goreeva on the other hand should definitely compete in the World Cup soon. I hope that Repinc will also soon join the Slovenian team.

Not surprising to see Greenland without a medal (so far), more surprised to see Sweden without a medal. I think Sweden, Belarus and Czech Republic are the most likely to join the medal table. The guy from New Zealand could do it as well, but he needs to have a decent shooting result.

Thanks to the absence of Bjorgen and Kalla, the dominance of Dopehaug has become even more boring. Everyone except 1 woman more than 1 minute back.

May sound harsh, but the German women should all retire as soon as possible. They are so far away when it comes to skiing speed that there is absolutely no hope for them at senior level. I don’t know what the german Coaches do professionally, but they definitely shouldn’t be paid for coaching. I am completely shocked how it is possible that every single athlete is that horrible in cross-country skiing. I doubt that they would be any slower if their coaches would actively try to sabotage them (which already might be the case). Compared to them Janina Hettich looks like a transcendental talent in cross-country skiing.

Women’s junior sprint: Gold for Baserga (0 misses) Silver for Passler (1 miss) Bronze for Arnekleiv (1 miss) Goreeva (3 misses) from Russia with superior skiing speed, would have won gold with 1 miss.

Okay and the fact that nobody will retire anytime soon is bad because? Also impressive that you know about the future planning of all of those women.

Yes, the two German grandmas Ramona Hofmeister (born in 1996, first in World Cup) and Cheyenne Loch (born in 1994, 3rd in World Cup) are about to retire as well.

Already 8 different nations with medals (6 of those already with multiple medals). Norway and Sweden still without medal, so we should definitely get to 10 different nations winning at least one medal. Very impressive race again by Irodov, maybe he can be the first? athlete to win all individual golds. Slovenia has both top end talents (Repinc, Cisar) and good depth, they could definitely finish top 3 in medal table. Maybe someone from Italy knows if Piller Cottrer is related to the former cross country skier?

Would have been interesting to see Ledecka vs. the Young Russian. Quite funny that the Germans dominate the World Cup (and possibly the World champs), but might very well end up with a bronze medal at the Olympics at best.

Was it really expected for the German women to dominate? I think the young Russian is the huge favorite and will win gold unless she falls, but maybe this is only the case for PS tomorrow?

Way much info than I wanted ... I guess his „retarding“ is just a trick to impress the ladies.

So you are constantly replying to your own comments? Sounds like a fun job ... Also doesn’t seem smart admitting that you are a bot. Not sure what the forum policy is, but I think bots should be banned from the site?

Interesting take. Riethmüller doesn’t seem to have improved in skiing from last year, which is a bad sign. Today multiple younger guys (Zingerle, Perrot) had better skiing times than him. Also at the youth level there was a german guy who finished 5th (and would have won gold with one less miss), much better than Riethmüller. On the women’s side Grotian had a top 5 skiing time despite being 2 years younger than many of her competitors.

Who are you? Bye!

The empire strikes back in the most important of all Olympic events!

Okay ... you were suspiciously active in this thread for someone who doesn’t care. I have no problem with Zyla winning the gold medal, I feel like he deserved it towards the end of his career after being a journeyman for most of it. Also always liked his „retarding“ around, what do you feed that guy?

Aged well ...