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He also raced in the North American Cup in skeleton last season http://www.ibsf.org/en/athletes/athlete/264075/UPRIMNY

Apparently he is a businessman living in Salt Lake City, and also a squash player. I guess it's possible that someone has a same name, but come on, what are the odds?
 
Something tells me that he is the mastermind behind these Bogota races.

Another successful day for Project Bogota (except for the Mexican skier).
 
270 for Pita today.

I am sure the IOC won't block his participation if he qualifies, after all Jordan didn't even have a FIS NF until recently.

Also for the 2017 Asian Winter Games Jordan only registered way after the deadline (approx.2 weeks before the games started) and the OC allowed both of them to compete. 

That has to be one of the weirdest races ever. I love it!

I always love how Czech/Slovak names sound so silly in English  
Kateřina Smutná...

Damn. Was hoping the Czech women could squeeze in somehow. Always so close...  
Then again I'm hoping Russia doesn't get banned. Just because the hockey tournament would lose all of its flare. The Czechs for one would lose arguably their most heated rival.

Totally agree. In the Summer Games there is a free pass for no level athletes... The athlete from Iraq who barely failed to qualify for 2006 in men's skeleton also comes to mind. With only 20 quotas it's ridiculously difficult. In biathlon, it's worse- any rejected quotas don't even get reallocated. 
The only sports that actually encourage less able athletes from exotic nations are alpine and cross country skiing. I mean I do think there should be limits in that people can actually ski, but other than a demonstrated ability to do so (maybe successfully completing x number of races) I don't think there should be many more requirements. 
If you let absolute anyone in, this happens. Apparently some athletes only learned the basics of skiing once arriving in Albertville  
 

Totally agree. In the Summer Games there is a free pass for no level athletes... The athlete from Iraq who barely failed to qualify for 2006 in men's skeleton also comes to mind. With only 20 quotas it's ridiculously difficult. In biathlon, it's worse- any rejected quotas don't even get reallocated. 
The only sports that actually encourage less able athletes from exotic nations are alpine and cross country skiing. I mean I do think there should be limits in that people can actually ski, but other than a demonstrated ability to do so (maybe successfully completing x number of races) I don't think there should be many more requirements. 
If you let absolute anyone in, this happens. Apparently some athletes only learned the basics of skiing once arriving in Albertville  
 

There's only one real Gabi in the world of biathlon and she competes in the IBU Cup for now. 

This was such a cool race! Solemdal getting on the podium after years of depression, being overweight and everything and now, when she finally got everything in her life back in order, the result is there! Valj Semerenko getting a fantastic result after her cancer, Paulina Fialkova with a non-Slovak-like 1 miss and a fantastic 5th place, Mona Brorsson with a great result in front of her hometown fans.
 
And let's not forget 31st place and a staggering 55 IBU points for Amanda Lightfoot, who - thanks to this result - would be wise to start brushing up on her Korean! 

I've just seen an e-mail from one of the skeleton women who is trying to qualify, to a journalist
"I have to be ranked in the top 45 once the ranking list has been cleared of countries who have more athletes than than quota places available
For example if there are 10 Germans in the rankings list, the maximum they can qualify is 3 so the rest are removed.
The process continues so if Great Britain have 5 in the ranking list and they may only have 2 qualification places so 3 are removed and so all other athletes are moved up.
This continues until it's cleaned of all the athletes who can't qualify due to a country exceeding its quota places"

Those five sports are apparently in Tokyo 2020 only (non-core sports) and will have to reapply for Paris.

what do you  think this game i created bestmen VS @heywoodu @dcro @Agger  and  @vinipereira
 
 
 

 
 
 
download it here
you open the file ,clic on Index and start the game
 
 

 

Cricket would be good for the IOC because India is the biggest country in cricket and also the one big country left where the Olympics need a boost in interest.
However attempts at getting a cricket competition at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games have been poor.
Lack of effort by the strong nations killed it at both.
India, Australia and England are more interested in making money at their own tournaments than expanding the sport.

My views
5,10,17 Problems with drug taking ruin their chances
4,6 Not competitive at the top level
15 A sport where only one sex competes is not going to be added any more
20 Too expensive

1. If MLB players can come, yes please, otherwise, no thanks
2. Noooo sir
3. Noooooooo sir
4. Meh, not bad but I doubt it's competitive internationally speaking
5. That'd be awesome if the best participate (way better than karate and/or wushu or something), but MMA in a 2-week tournament form is just not viable unless you have some amateur competition, which would suck, so in that case, no
6. If NFL players can come it's a 99,999% certain US gold medal, if not, it would be a crappy competition, so no
7. Quite fun to watch, no problem, but let's first see how it works out in Tokyo
8. Not bad, quite competitive among different nations
9. No, no, and again, no, I've barely ever seen so little happening in a 'combat' sport
10. Makes weightlifting look like the cleanest sport ever, so no thanks
11. Never heard of it, which sort of means it's rather small on an international level
12. No thanks
13. Meh
14. The 'barely ever' in 9 is only surpassed by wushu, the biggest bit of non-sporting action I've ever seen in sports, keep that in the living room or something
15. Women-only, meaning it might actually have a tiny chance (unlike if it was men-only), but with only a handful decent nations, meh
16. Those handful of countries don't justify adding it
17. Too expensive, since you need to build and entirely new anti-doping lab
18. No opinion about it
19. No thanks, that does not sound interesting as a sport...at all
20. Quite a cool sport, but rather expensive and absolutely, extremely elitist, doubt it has a chance

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1051981/exclusive-almost-impossible-for-some-axed-events-to-return-to-olympics-issf-president-says
They’re looking at the 50m prone and other events to possibly come back too. Just need women to start doing them...

And only one extra round needed in standing, nice job Bruna 

Sadly she got lapped around 200 meters before handing over to Mika Picin, meaning the race was over for them  
 

Could be good news for the athlete from Ghana, too. As it stands he's over 100th, and needs to be in the top 60.
 
UPDATE: This is the Men's Skeleton Ranking List, but I've included only the top 3 athletes from each nation. Not sure if they would all count or if only the top 3 athletes from the top 2 NOCs would count, but this is the worst-case scenario for the Ghanian, and he still makes it (though only just) in the top 60. Since there are no other Africans- he just needs to hold his position and he's made it. 
1    KOR YUN Sungbin    435 2    LAT DUKURS Martins    435 3    GER JUNGK Axel    392 4    RUS TRETIAKOV Alexander    376 5    LAT DUKURS Tomass    368 6    RUS TREGUBOV Nikita (Junior)    344 7    GER GROTHEER Christopher    336 8    AUT GUGGENBERGER Matthias    296 9    USA ANTOINE Matthew    288 10    GER GASSNER Alexander    248 13  CHN GENG Wenqiang (Junior)    230 14  KOR KIM Jisoo    224 15  CAN GRESZCZYSZYN Dave    224 16  CAN BOYER Kevin    224 18    GBR WYATT Marcus    206 19    NZL THORNBURY Rhys    202 20    RUS KULIKOV Pavel    202 21    GBR PARSONS Dominic Edward    196 22    CAN ROONEY Patrick    188 26    USA WEST Greg    170 27    USA DALY John    168 29    UKR HERASKEVYCH Vladyslav (Junior)    152 31    KOR JUNG Seunggi (Junior)    150 32    GBR RICE Jeremy    149 35    AUS FARROW John    142 36    AUT AUER Alexander    140 39    LAT NETLAUS Krists (Junior)    140 40    ESP MIRAMBELL Ander    136 44    JPN MIYAJIMA Katsuyuki (Junior)    125 46    ITA CECCHINI Joseph Luke    120 47    AUT MAIER Samuel (Junior)    120 48    JPN TAKAHASHI Hiroatsu    118 50    SUI AUDERSET Ronald    110 54    JPN SASAHARA Yuki    100 58    ROU VELICU Dorin    88 62    ISR SELIGSTEIN Joel    83 63    SUI ROHRER Marco    81 66    AUS TIMMINGS Nicholas    72 67    SWE OTTOSSON Rasmus    72 68    ISR EDELMAN Adam    71 71    ITA RETTENMYER Nicholas Adam    70 73    CHN YAN Wengang (Junior)    68 75    AUS TIMMINGS Dean    66 77    SUI GRAF Riet    66 80    ITA SCHWAERZER Manuel (Junior)    59 82    NOR HESTENGEN Alexander (Junior)    58 87    CHN CHEN Wenhao (Junior)    52 88    POL JAKOBCZYK Michal (Junior)    50 89    ISR SIDNEY Lawrence    50 90    LUX BAUER Jeff    48 91    ROU PACIOIANU Mihai Daniel (Junior)    48 94    ROU ENACHE Mihail Sebastian (Junior)    42 95    IRL DOYLE Brendan    42 96    JAM WATSON Anthony    38 97    TPE CHIANG Chun-Hung (Junior)    38 98    NOR HANSSEN Alex    36 99    BUL BANGIEV Marin    34 100    NOR SCHEIE Hakon (Junior)    34 102    POL POLYVACH VLADYSLAV (Junior)    28 106    GHA FRIMPONG Akwasi    24 107    SWE SAHLIN Ludvig (Junior)    23 108    SLO LORENCIC Denis    22 109    SWE ADLERS Carl (Junior)    20 110    NED ZEEGERS Bram (Junior)    20 119    MEX SOSA Reynaldo Arturo    11 120    NZL DELLA SANTINA Joe    9 121    ESP BELLVER CATALAN Sergi (Junior)    5 122    BRA PADUA Guilherme Augusto da Cunha    3 123    BEL FREELING Colin (Junior)

Could be good news for the athlete from Ghana, too. As it stands he's over 100th, and needs to be in the top 60.
 
UPDATE: This is the Men's Skeleton Ranking List, but I've included only the top 3 athletes from each nation. Not sure if they would all count or if only the top 3 athletes from the top 2 NOCs would count, but this is the worst-case scenario for the Ghanian, and he still makes it (though only just) in the top 60. Since there are no other Africans- he just needs to hold his position and he's made it. 
1    KOR YUN Sungbin    435 2    LAT DUKURS Martins    435 3    GER JUNGK Axel    392 4    RUS TRETIAKOV Alexander    376 5    LAT DUKURS Tomass    368 6    RUS TREGUBOV Nikita (Junior)    344 7    GER GROTHEER Christopher    336 8    AUT GUGGENBERGER Matthias    296 9    USA ANTOINE Matthew    288 10    GER GASSNER Alexander    248 13  CHN GENG Wenqiang (Junior)    230 14  KOR KIM Jisoo    224 15  CAN GRESZCZYSZYN Dave    224 16  CAN BOYER Kevin    224 18    GBR WYATT Marcus    206 19    NZL THORNBURY Rhys    202 20    RUS KULIKOV Pavel    202 21    GBR PARSONS Dominic Edward    196 22    CAN ROONEY Patrick    188 26    USA WEST Greg    170 27    USA DALY John    168 29    UKR HERASKEVYCH Vladyslav (Junior)    152 31    KOR JUNG Seunggi (Junior)    150 32    GBR RICE Jeremy    149 35    AUS FARROW John    142 36    AUT AUER Alexander    140 39    LAT NETLAUS Krists (Junior)    140 40    ESP MIRAMBELL Ander    136 44    JPN MIYAJIMA Katsuyuki (Junior)    125 46    ITA CECCHINI Joseph Luke    120 47    AUT MAIER Samuel (Junior)    120 48    JPN TAKAHASHI Hiroatsu    118 50    SUI AUDERSET Ronald    110 54    JPN SASAHARA Yuki    100 58    ROU VELICU Dorin    88 62    ISR SELIGSTEIN Joel    83 63    SUI ROHRER Marco    81 66    AUS TIMMINGS Nicholas    72 67    SWE OTTOSSON Rasmus    72 68    ISR EDELMAN Adam    71 71    ITA RETTENMYER Nicholas Adam    70 73    CHN YAN Wengang (Junior)    68 75    AUS TIMMINGS Dean    66 77    SUI GRAF Riet    66 80    ITA SCHWAERZER Manuel (Junior)    59 82    NOR HESTENGEN Alexander (Junior)    58 87    CHN CHEN Wenhao (Junior)    52 88    POL JAKOBCZYK Michal (Junior)    50 89    ISR SIDNEY Lawrence    50 90    LUX BAUER Jeff    48 91    ROU PACIOIANU Mihai Daniel (Junior)    48 94    ROU ENACHE Mihail Sebastian (Junior)    42 95    IRL DOYLE Brendan    42 96    JAM WATSON Anthony    38 97    TPE CHIANG Chun-Hung (Junior)    38 98    NOR HANSSEN Alex    36 99    BUL BANGIEV Marin    34 100    NOR SCHEIE Hakon (Junior)    34 102    POL POLYVACH VLADYSLAV (Junior)    28 106    GHA FRIMPONG Akwasi    24 107    SWE SAHLIN Ludvig (Junior)    23 108    SLO LORENCIC Denis    22 109    SWE ADLERS Carl (Junior)    20 110    NED ZEEGERS Bram (Junior)    20 119    MEX SOSA Reynaldo Arturo    11 120    NZL DELLA SANTINA Joe    9 121    ESP BELLVER CATALAN Sergi (Junior)    5 122    BRA PADUA Guilherme Augusto da Cunha    3 123    BEL FREELING Colin (Junior)

Could be good news for the athlete from Ghana, too. As it stands he's over 100th, and needs to be in the top 60.
 
UPDATE: This is the Men's Skeleton Ranking List, but I've included only the top 3 athletes from each nation. Not sure if they would all count or if only the top 3 athletes from the top 2 NOCs would count, but this is the worst-case scenario for the Ghanian, and he still makes it (though only just) in the top 60. Since there are no other Africans- he just needs to hold his position and he's made it. 
1    KOR YUN Sungbin    435 2    LAT DUKURS Martins    435 3    GER JUNGK Axel    392 4    RUS TRETIAKOV Alexander    376 5    LAT DUKURS Tomass    368 6    RUS TREGUBOV Nikita (Junior)    344 7    GER GROTHEER Christopher    336 8    AUT GUGGENBERGER Matthias    296 9    USA ANTOINE Matthew    288 10    GER GASSNER Alexander    248 13  CHN GENG Wenqiang (Junior)    230 14  KOR KIM Jisoo    224 15  CAN GRESZCZYSZYN Dave    224 16  CAN BOYER Kevin    224 18    GBR WYATT Marcus    206 19    NZL THORNBURY Rhys    202 20    RUS KULIKOV Pavel    202 21    GBR PARSONS Dominic Edward    196 22    CAN ROONEY Patrick    188 26    USA WEST Greg    170 27    USA DALY John    168 29    UKR HERASKEVYCH Vladyslav (Junior)    152 31    KOR JUNG Seunggi (Junior)    150 32    GBR RICE Jeremy    149 35    AUS FARROW John    142 36    AUT AUER Alexander    140 39    LAT NETLAUS Krists (Junior)    140 40    ESP MIRAMBELL Ander    136 44    JPN MIYAJIMA Katsuyuki (Junior)    125 46    ITA CECCHINI Joseph Luke    120 47    AUT MAIER Samuel (Junior)    120 48    JPN TAKAHASHI Hiroatsu    118 50    SUI AUDERSET Ronald    110 54    JPN SASAHARA Yuki    100 58    ROU VELICU Dorin    88 62    ISR SELIGSTEIN Joel    83 63    SUI ROHRER Marco    81 66    AUS TIMMINGS Nicholas    72 67    SWE OTTOSSON Rasmus    72 68    ISR EDELMAN Adam    71 71    ITA RETTENMYER Nicholas Adam    70 73    CHN YAN Wengang (Junior)    68 75    AUS TIMMINGS Dean    66 77    SUI GRAF Riet    66 80    ITA SCHWAERZER Manuel (Junior)    59 82    NOR HESTENGEN Alexander (Junior)    58 87    CHN CHEN Wenhao (Junior)    52 88    POL JAKOBCZYK Michal (Junior)    50 89    ISR SIDNEY Lawrence    50 90    LUX BAUER Jeff    48 91    ROU PACIOIANU Mihai Daniel (Junior)    48 94    ROU ENACHE Mihail Sebastian (Junior)    42 95    IRL DOYLE Brendan    42 96    JAM WATSON Anthony    38 97    TPE CHIANG Chun-Hung (Junior)    38 98    NOR HANSSEN Alex    36 99    BUL BANGIEV Marin    34 100    NOR SCHEIE Hakon (Junior)    34 102    POL POLYVACH VLADYSLAV (Junior)    28 106    GHA FRIMPONG Akwasi    24 107    SWE SAHLIN Ludvig (Junior)    23 108    SLO LORENCIC Denis    22 109    SWE ADLERS Carl (Junior)    20 110    NED ZEEGERS Bram (Junior)    20 119    MEX SOSA Reynaldo Arturo    11 120    NZL DELLA SANTINA Joe    9 121    ESP BELLVER CATALAN Sergi (Junior)    5 122    BRA PADUA Guilherme Augusto da Cunha    3 123    BEL FREELING Colin (Junior)

Could be good news for the athlete from Ghana, too. As it stands he's over 100th, and needs to be in the top 60.
 
UPDATE: This is the Men's Skeleton Ranking List, but I've included only the top 3 athletes from each nation. Not sure if they would all count or if only the top 3 athletes from the top 2 NOCs would count, but this is the worst-case scenario for the Ghanian, and he still makes it (though only just) in the top 60. Since there are no other Africans- he just needs to hold his position and he's made it. 
1    KOR YUN Sungbin    435 2    LAT DUKURS Martins    435 3    GER JUNGK Axel    392 4    RUS TRETIAKOV Alexander    376 5    LAT DUKURS Tomass    368 6    RUS TREGUBOV Nikita (Junior)    344 7    GER GROTHEER Christopher    336 8    AUT GUGGENBERGER Matthias    296 9    USA ANTOINE Matthew    288 10    GER GASSNER Alexander    248 13  CHN GENG Wenqiang (Junior)    230 14  KOR KIM Jisoo    224 15  CAN GRESZCZYSZYN Dave    224 16  CAN BOYER Kevin    224 18    GBR WYATT Marcus    206 19    NZL THORNBURY Rhys    202 20    RUS KULIKOV Pavel    202 21    GBR PARSONS Dominic Edward    196 22    CAN ROONEY Patrick    188 26    USA WEST Greg    170 27    USA DALY John    168 29    UKR HERASKEVYCH Vladyslav (Junior)    152 31    KOR JUNG Seunggi (Junior)    150 32    GBR RICE Jeremy    149 35    AUS FARROW John    142 36    AUT AUER Alexander    140 39    LAT NETLAUS Krists (Junior)    140 40    ESP MIRAMBELL Ander    136 44    JPN MIYAJIMA Katsuyuki (Junior)    125 46    ITA CECCHINI Joseph Luke    120 47    AUT MAIER Samuel (Junior)    120 48    JPN TAKAHASHI Hiroatsu    118 50    SUI AUDERSET Ronald    110 54    JPN SASAHARA Yuki    100 58    ROU VELICU Dorin    88 62    ISR SELIGSTEIN Joel    83 63    SUI ROHRER Marco    81 66    AUS TIMMINGS Nicholas    72 67    SWE OTTOSSON Rasmus    72 68    ISR EDELMAN Adam    71 71    ITA RETTENMYER Nicholas Adam    70 73    CHN YAN Wengang (Junior)    68 75    AUS TIMMINGS Dean    66 77    SUI GRAF Riet    66 80    ITA SCHWAERZER Manuel (Junior)    59 82    NOR HESTENGEN Alexander (Junior)    58 87    CHN CHEN Wenhao (Junior)    52 88    POL JAKOBCZYK Michal (Junior)    50 89    ISR SIDNEY Lawrence    50 90    LUX BAUER Jeff    48 91    ROU PACIOIANU Mihai Daniel (Junior)    48 94    ROU ENACHE Mihail Sebastian (Junior)    42 95    IRL DOYLE Brendan    42 96    JAM WATSON Anthony    38 97    TPE CHIANG Chun-Hung (Junior)    38 98    NOR HANSSEN Alex    36 99    BUL BANGIEV Marin    34 100    NOR SCHEIE Hakon (Junior)    34 102    POL POLYVACH VLADYSLAV (Junior)    28 106    GHA FRIMPONG Akwasi    24 107    SWE SAHLIN Ludvig (Junior)    23 108    SLO LORENCIC Denis    22 109    SWE ADLERS Carl (Junior)    20 110    NED ZEEGERS Bram (Junior)    20 119    MEX SOSA Reynaldo Arturo    11 120    NZL DELLA SANTINA Joe    9 121    ESP BELLVER CATALAN Sergi (Junior)    5 122    BRA PADUA Guilherme Augusto da Cunha    3 123    BEL FREELING Colin (Junior)

My thoughts:
 Ski Jumping Mixed Team Competition - I'd rather see them apply for a women's team competition or a women's large hill competition. ·Ladies’ Nordic Combined Individual Competition - whatever, if not in 2022 it will be in for 2026. It's absolutely necessary to do this for the sport to stay in the Olympics.  Freestyle Ski Big Air Men’s and Ladies’ - uses existing athletes (from slopestyle) and venue (from snowboard big air) so why not? ·         Alpine Skiing Individual Parallel Event - I'm okay with this as long as they don't remove any of the existing event (that noise about getting rid of the Super G has got to stop). It makes for a good TV event TBH.
·         Freestyle Ski Aerials Mixed Team Event - meh, the format is stupid.
·         Snowboard Cross Team Event - I actually really like this event.
·         Snowboard Mixed Team Parallel Event - never seen this event. Seems like an odd format.
·         Snowboard Parallel Slalom - I think removing the parallel slalom was a mistake (it uses the same venue and athletes as the PGS) so I'd definitively bring that back.
·         Telemark Parallel Sprint and Team Parallel Sprint - no idea how popular Telemark skiing is in Europe.