OlympicsFan

a) Sorry, not sure what you are trying to say. b) I don’t wonder why Norway is able to develop world class speed skaters unlike Germany. Germany doesn’t develop world class speed skaters because they don’t want to and they don’t want to, because thanks to the GDR past German coaches are too „scared“ to develop a doping program. Other nations don’t have that „baggage“.

I just heard that Pichler was involved in „developing“ him. I think this is all the proof one needs.

I don’t think you can apply normal „logic“ today. The conditions will be special thanks to the temperatures, we might have a very soft course, which would Help lighter athletes (Herola). The German coach just said that he hopes for a hard course, because the German athletes are generally on the heavier side. Personally I wouldn’t be shocked to see Herola/Geiger on the podium.

Agreed, the funny thing is that thanks to this, the men have 2 team competitions and the women have only 1, so it promotes inequality. In my opinion there absolutely shouldn’t be normal team events/relays and mixed team events/relays. In some cases it makes sense to have a mixed team event/relay instead of normal relays/team events (if it increases the number of nations that can compete for a medal), not sure about ski jumping though. Quite interesting that there actually might be more competition on the women’s side. I think having a women’s team competition might also be good for the level of competition in the long run, because nations will have to develop 4 good athletes in order to compete for a medal. I really hope that we won’t have 7 ski jumping competitions at the Olympics in the long run (2 x 2 individual competitions + 3 team competitions), there is absolutely no way that ski jumping should have that many events, when for example figure skating only has 5 events (and one of those actually shouldn’t be an Olympic event). Personally I would like to see less events overall, but sadly this won’t happen (thanks to monetary reasons).

Forgot to ask: Is the mixed an Olympic event?

Which 10 nations do you have in mind? Last year 12 different nations won a medal and surprisingly Sweden wasn’t one of them. I doubt that Bulgaria will medal again and Belarus/USA each won only one bronze last year, on the other hand this time nations like Kazakhstan, Ukraine or New Zealand could medal. The following individual medalists will be young enough to return (in the same age category): - Amy Baserga (won bronze in junior women individual) - Linda Zingerle (won gold in youth women sprint and bronze in youth women pursuit) - Oceane Michelon (won bronze in youth women sprint) - Anastasia Shevchenko (won gold in junior women sprint and gold in junior women pursuit) - Aasne Skrede (won silver in junior women sprint and silver in women junior pursuit) - Danilo Riethmüller (won gold in junior men pursuit) - Alex Cisar (won bronze in junior men pursuit) From a German perspective I hope that Danilo Riethmüller will win at least one medal again. Not sure about the women’s side though, there doesn’t seem to be a special talent. Germany seems to have the same problem as usual: They just aren’t competitive in cross-country. I guess on the women’s side Zingerle should dominate at youth level and Shevchenko/Aasne should dominate at junior level, on the men’s side it looks more open.

True, I don’t see them beating Norway or Austria, but they could beat every other nation.

Agreed. I honestly can’t believe what is going on. Now we might have 3 olympics in a row without a bidding process. Everyone knows that IOC officials are corrupt and always have been, but I can’t believe that they don’t Even bother anymore to hide it, they must feel untouchable. I hope that countries will boycott the 2032 games if there won’t be a fair process to determine the host. Sadly this won’t happen though ...

Why do you feel the need to make absurd statements like that? a) Of the countries I mentioned Turkey (2020), Italy (2004), Canada (2008) and Spain (2012, 2016, 2020) all handed in bids that got a lot of votes (which is pretty much the definition of handing in a „legitimate“ bid). Germany (2000) and Russia (2012) also bid at one point. b) How can you judge which countries would have handed in „legitimate“ bids, when those countries weren’t even given the chance to hand in a bid?

Yes, I meant Olympic events. I think before the start of the event, 2 medals seemed like their best case scenario and this was basically their only gold medal chance.

Here is a list of countries that have a bigger population than Australia and won’t have hosted summer Olympics between 2000 and 2032: Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Russia, Canada, India, Mexico, Turkey Do you really think that Australia should host summer Olympics twice during that period while all the aforementioned countries didn’t even host them once combined? Of course you could argue that some hosted Winter Olympics recently, but I am not sure why you should throw those two things together.

I never said that they shouldn’t host, but that they shouldn’t host again so soon. The Olympics are a global event and Never were only about Sport (otherwise I doubt that we for example would have had olympics in Sochi), so if a country with 25 million people hosts them twice in 32 years while a country with 1.5 billion people has hosted them only once, it doesn’t really represent the weight of those nations. 25 million people get to enjoy the Olympics twice in 32 years in their home country, while India and China combined (3 billion people) have only hosted the Olympics once combined. It is also difficult to say that they only host it because no one else wants to, when in fact other nations wanted to host but got excluded before even being able to bid.

Area doesn’t matter, GDP and population size do.

Insane start for Slovenia. They might have already exceeded their expectations.

Some interesting stat i read today (maybe someone is interested): The last 4 german male gold medalists at junior world championships were: Tom Barth (sprint 2011) Johannes Kühn (pursuit 2011) Max Barchwitz (individual 2020) Danilo Riethmüller (pursuit 2020) I was quite surprised when I read this, I would have thought that Germany had many more individual world champions during that time (Russia won 10 golds during that time and Norway won 7). Will be interesting to see how Barchwitz and especially Riethmüller will develop.

I wasn’t talking about sporting relevance (which you would have known if you would have bothered to ask instead of making assumptions). I was referring to political relevance/population size. Countries like Austria or Switzerland are also regularly doing great at Winter Olympics, but that doesn’t mean that they should host Olympics twice in such a short period. The Netherlands are a comparable country, but no one would think that they should host the Olympics two times out of nine editions.

Crazy that this horrible comment got two upvotes ... at least it is a good reminder of who not to take seriously. a) Germany hosted the Olympics before (Berlin and Munich) b) You have no idea which countries I consider relevant c) Germany is actually planning to bid for the Olympics in 2032 and has bid for Olympics between 2000 and now

I hope that Brisbane won’t be the host. The city isn’t glamorous at all and Australia already hosted the Olympics in 2000, a tiny and pretty irrelevant country shouldn’t host the Summer Olympics twice in such a short period. Not sure what other candidates we have, but it’s difficult for me to believe that there wouldn’t be a better option. Also I don’t like the idea of 3 olympics in a row just being handed out without any real bidding process.

I really would have liked to see a bet contest for the Nordic skiing world championships. This was always my favorite kind of prediction contest. Hopefully we will have something like that for the next Olympics.

I guess that depends on your understanding of what it means to know who someone was, but I think far more than 5 % of people could tell you what field of research she was in and when she lived. I think till this day she is only one of 2 or 3 people who won more than one Nobel prize and at that time that was pretty unthinkable, especially for a woman.

I think even they aren’t delusional enough to think that he can take the gold from Murray.

It indeed was very exciting and surprising to see him having a miracle turnaround after his life-threatening injury mid-tournament.

Too bad this guy seems to have inherited all of Fourcade‘s antics, makes it hard to cheer for him. Hopefully he will grow up soon and stop being a diva.

Agreed, a proven doper stealing a medal from clean athletes would be wonderful to see ... You certainly have a very unconventional understanding of the law and „justice“.

Really curious case. Not surprising that his competitors had that opinion. Also funny to see that people think that an Italian judge declaring him innocent is some kind of proof for his innocence. Someone who knowingly doped before shouldn’t be allowed to compete again and it is beyond me how anyone who loves sport can be happy about the prospect of him competing again.