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It is also confirmed at the Short Track World Cup in Budapest we will see , , and . Think North Korea in particular has a decent chance to qualify. Other nations there that haven't qualified for Pyeongchang yet are , and . No , or . Thailand should be at the Asian World Cups in November as they were last year. Latter two odds are slimmer but possible, Qatar has an athlete who got 4 seconds off qualifying time a year ago, far better than their athletes at the Asian Winter Games. Indonesia as mentioned already has athletes qualified. UPDATE: The Indonesian athletes have scheduled a meeting with the federation on Thursday. So far it seems the federation is considering sending them to the short track WCs in Shanghai/Seoul. Very interesting! If they pull off a Bradbury type result even the Olympics would be possible.

I have been talking to the Indonesian short track athletes from the SEA Games (Steveanus and Johannes Wihardja). Both of them have managed to get under 47.000 seconds in the 500m and thus are under the limit for World Cup competition. Steveanus actually managed to get under 46 seconds and is on about the same level as the top skaters in Singapore/Malaysia. Apparently the federation didn't enter them for the first two World Cups, probably because they got the qualifying times at very late notice, but they have both said they will ask the federation to send them to the third and fourth World Cups in November (Shanghai and Seoul). I gave them all the information from ISU regarding those competitions. Qualifying for the Olympics would still be possible but would require lots of luck/two solid results as the top 3 results are taken into account. Then again, in short track, anything's possible. Will keep this post updated.

Apparently they approved the Dominican Republic at this year's 'spring meeting' and they have an 'autumn meeting' in October so maybe Jordan will be approved there?

Just out of interest what are the 'free' events?

Hahahaha yep! Though in my experience NOCs tend to be overly optimistic so I've given them 5% in my list for now.

The Jordanian federation has said: Hope all is well and thanks for your email. Indeed we currently have a skier (Suhail Azzam) working on qualification for Winter Olympic 2018, he's one of the 2 Jordanian athletes who participated in the Sapporo Asian Winter Games. Jordan is also in the process of registering with FIS (Skiing International Federation). I have cc'd members of our committee for winter sports, media team and Suhail himself on this email so you can get more information. He has been dedicated to training for the last month and a half and should be training for another 2 months until he starts competition in December. His main issue will be time as he will have to log a low enough FIS total before the deadline in January. Jordan has never qualified for non-exibition Winter Olympic sport, so this gives him an edge and with no others from Jordan attempting to qualify if he improves slightly between now and competition he should have a 40-50% chance of qualification. Will keep you updated once he completes his first competition. Please note that we are also working to grow our scouting for Jordanians around the world who have the potential of participating in the Youth Olympic Games 2020 and Winter Olympics 2022. Best Regards, Nasser Majali Secretary General Jordan Olympic Committee So maybe alpine skiing. Based on the AWG though I'd say at least this year it's a long shot bid.

Oh, god, I think it is. He is in fact Dominica-Republican... Would be interesting to see a battle of vs . Shame they wouldn't be in the same sport.

Dominican Republic just registered an Alpine skiier. Interesting... https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography.html?sector=AL&listid=&competitorid=222608

Right, that makes sense. Cheers. I didn't really factor sprints into this.

Yep quota list is all wrong Lithuania has an extra male quota as well. It's strange. But yet it doesn't actually say in the rules anywhere that the extra athlete has to have below 100? Does it?

Yeah.. quite a shame really. But she'll have plenty of time in the future to improve. I'm just a bit puzzled as in the CC rules it only says if one athlete is in the top 300 the country gets an additional quota. The 100 point limit only seems mentioned regarding the events not the 10/15k and the sprint. Or did I understand it wrong?

Ah. That won't happen then.

The rules say that any NOC with an athlete in the top 300 ranked list can enter an additional athlete. Jacqueline Mourao is 400, 10 FIS points behind 300. Doable? Does that mean if she makes it Bruna could get in?

I want to see Bruna at the Olympics so go Bruna!

Yeah I'll only do the 10/15k, the 4x10 and the sprints. Maybe 50k too Why else do you think so many athletes are switching

In cross country it should be interesting. I don't think it'll be that hard to keep track of her.

Hmmm okay. Thanks very much. I imagine they'll have shooting graphics on a big screen somewhere They will be going all out to attract spectators after all. I wonder what the atmosphere will be like. I'm also hoping mostly to get to ski jumping, alpine, short track and a good ice hockey game.

In your experience is XC and biathlon fun to watch in real life? I never have. How does it compare to the TV?

I might be going as well! If we meet, definitely at the Women's 10km. I'll try getting a Brazilian flag...

American Samoa told me they are scouting a bobsled team for the 2022 or 2026 Games. Just out of interest. (I emailed every federation, will update on the interesting ones).

For those of you interested in the Puerto Rico situation they sent me this: The guidelines to participate are highly subjective. Because all Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee is very sensitive to mainland U.S. persons using them as a back door into the Olympics. In an Olympic year, I typically get a couple of e-mails from people who think our federation is some sort of sports fantasy camp, and promise to “promote” Puerto Rico if they go to the Olympics. So, to answer your question, with the current political environment, a prospective Olympic competitor for Puerto Rico would have to be born on the island, have multi-generational Puerto Rican ancestry, and be somewhat of a threat to win a medal. We had a native-born 50-point slalom skier who should have gone to both Vancouver and Sochi; however, because she was more American than Puerto Rican, they wouldn’t send her. Charles Flaherty is definitely American. His family are bona-fide residents of Puerto Rico, but he’s still facing an uphill battle to go to Korea. We hope he can convince the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee (COPUR) to send him, but nobody is holding their breath… :-/ David Steele

Yup. Think he has. Shame about the Cayman Islander too, he could have been quite competitive. He's dropped out though since he's starting a virtual reality business that fixes eye disorders!

She will compete at the Olympic qualification event. But yeah it's a long shot. 10% is quite generous.

Here's a possibly helpful guide to which debuting/returning/otherwise unlikely (unsure of qualification) countries we may see and how likely it is we'll see them: (Estimates are my own. Only countries with currently active athletes registered with their respective bodies are included.) Alpine Skiing: >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% >95% 90% (you never know) 80% 80% 70% 40% 20-30% 20% (qualified, but unlikely to go) 15% 10% (qualified, but near-impossible to go) 10% 10% 5% 5% 5% (in the unlikely event he resumes competition he should get in) 3% 1% 0.1% 0.01% Cross-Country Skiing: >95% >95% 95% 95% 55% 35% 30% 30% 25% 25% 10% (unsure if active, but did start competing on short notice before Sochi) 5% 5% 2% Freestyle Skiing: 30% 20% 20% 15% 5% (could maybe make it if he decided to, but it is unlikely) Snowboarding: 30% 5% Figure Skating: 60% 60% 40% 30% 5% Speed Skating: 75% 40% Short Track: 75% 35% 30% 30% 30% 10% 0.01% Bobsleigh: 65% 55% 1% (they did say they'd come back sometime...) Skeleton: 35% 25% Luge: 30% (active, but has said he's struggling with funding to get to 2018)

We won first in the Team Sprint, Dvorak/Portyk. And we had another young guy place 3rd in the provisional competition round. Know it's not the world cup but still very encouraging!