FancyFenchel

Look who's getting closer and closer to walking again
 
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbZsVkjuIoz/?utm_medium=copy_link
 
Fun fact: the rehabilitation process, which started last week, is basically entirely being done at Papendal, the Dutch national training center in tons of Olympic sports. The doctor and the physiotherapists there have taken Bruna in to treat her and help her get back to a normal level of sports fitness, awesome people! And the doctor happens to be the doctor of both the Dutch athletics federation and......the Dutch skiing federation, I kid you not  The world is tiny.

Simon Desthieux (Biathlon, ) 

Russian cat banned 🚫 
 
 

my reaction to this question is
 
we had 3 athletes, one of them tested positive for doping, another one tested positive for COVID and the last one scored a DNF. that summarizes our performance in winter sports.
 
I follow winter sports for a bit less than 2 decades (thanks to Eurosport) and I always hoped one day some of them develop in my country but I just know it will never happen. nobody takes wintersports serious here. we had TV coverage this year. mostly because there was nothing else to show in the morning/afternoon but that's it. absolutely no coverage in news websites. newspapers etc (except that our flag bearer doping scandal)

I am really sorry for the innocent Russian athletes. 
 
but I am also convinced it is the right thing to ban Russia (and Belarus) as it is one way to make the Russian public aware that something is going wrong. 
There are still too many people in Russia not even aware that something is going on. Maybe they will notice when Rusdia is banned from all sporting events. 

It comes down to the universality of sanctions. Putin did something that made most of the world unite instantly. Whataboutism does nothing here except deflect from the war that is happening right now.

It's foolish to think that the US would ever get this kind of treatment if they start a war anywhere. I wouldn't even blame racism why there wouldn't be boycotts in the case of another war in the Middle East similar to Iraq. People are only up in arms about this war because they see Ukraine as a democratic country that wants to join the West. If Russia would have invaded Belarus the international reaction wouldn't be anywhere near as dramatic. Sure, people were protesting against wars initiated by the US, but in the end it's our ideology (democracy, freedom) against a country or countries with an opposing ideology. If the US invades Iran the next day in the name of protecting freedom and democracy and whatever bullshit casus belli they fabricate this time, Europe would join them, and nobody would even talk about sanctions. 

I think “war of conquest” is a pretty decent line. In Crimea there was conquest but certainly no war (it was more a bloodless coup than anything else). If Putin had just done a “peacekeeping” escapade in the Donbas I think most of the world would have waved their fingers but not have reacted too strongly.
 
But invading a country that quite clearly does not want to be invaded for the clear goal of annexing it (Putin sort of discredited any plausible deniability with his speech)? Wherever the line is, surely that is beyond it?

No. I want it to be a way out of the ban that has been imposed by more and more federations and recommended by the IOC.
Most sanctions sadly hurts the people just as much or even more than the leaders starting the wars. I'm pretty sure that a ban in sports will be tough on the Russian leaders as well considering how Putin and co. have used sports for politics, but it will certainly be tough on athletes and fans in Russia. Giving them a way out doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me (then we should certainly also be ready to support them if it give them trouble in their own country).
It's a gray area, no doubt, but I'm sure there could be a way of letting some athletes get a chance.
 
This should (and will) start a discussion on when to actually ban nations. Could have been the US and supporting nations (including my own) when invading Iraq, questioning on Israel, India-Pakistan and others. I don't know

Sport is always mixed with politics (as almost everything in life, actually), but IMO athletes should never be banned from competition due to a political decision (whatever it is) from their government. Punish the national federation, get rid of the name, the flag, the anthem, whatever you want, but let them compete. 
 
Also, I think Rublev signing "no war" on a camera sends a more powerful message than banning him from competition.

I mean…those athletes are representing a political entity. Their uniforms (in normal non-WADA sanction times) are adorned with the same flags as those of the soldiers invading another country, preventing athletes another country from being able to participate in, or even think about, sport.
 
I understand the desire to see athletes from Russia or Belarus at competitions, but these are two counties that have repeatedly, and flagrantly, violated the rules of the Olympic Movement.
 
Russia has broken the Olympic Truce three times in only two decades. They’ve also run a state-sponsored doping program, and had numerous other doping issues before and since that program was discovered. They also attempted to manipulate evidence during the investigation into those issues.
 
Belarus has repeatedly discriminated against athletes on a political basis. They are also actively aiding a country in breaking the Olympic Truce.
 
Like it or not, at base level, athletes are representatives of their countries in international sports. If your country is engaging in activity counter to the values of the Olympic Movement, it’s hard to argue your country deserves to be included in international competition.

Why Azerbaïdjan has not been banned by any sport federation ? Lack of twitter outrage ? ...

Why you always choose events, I have no idea about?

FIFA, иди на хуй!

I understand and I know it as well. I never said i am happy to have them here, I am just saiyng that currently i feel safer to have them here than to have russia as neighbor.
 
do not get me wrong, never was a fan of usa politics, they did a lot of bad in the world, ruined many lands and lives around the globe, nobody is denying that. but when it come to my country and my eighbors, one fact is true for central europeans, from all powerhouses only russians (ussr) attacked us, agressed us in the middle of the night (interesting similarities here) killed innocent people in czechia and slovakia, many families lost their members for nothing just because we did not want to be commies anymore... and under typical bs "excuses" help peacefully save our czechoslovak brothers (again interesting similarities with today actions) occupied us without any reason, so quite logical people here are more afraid of russia´s brothers peacemaking missions than from any other powerhouse
 
 

my 2 cents (and I know anybody would never agree with me...but it's just my personal opinion/taste )...
 
Alpine skiing
- Only the 4 traditional events (slalom, GS, super-G, downhill) for both men and women
- NO team event, no combined, no mixed gender events
 
Biathlon
- Drop the pursuit
- Mass Start featuring heats and final and not leaving it to the privileged biathletes who have done well in previous events
- NO supersprint nor single mixed relay or any other mixed farce they might think about...
 
Bobsleigh
- Get rid of monobob, the women's game depth is so poor that 2-woman bob is even too much...fuck the gender equality
- NO more "research & development allowed"...standard sleds and equipment provided by IBSF only for all the 3 remaining events...
 
Cross-country skiing
- Relay: Don't change anything
- Team sprint: OUT (because it's all but a sprint event)
- Skiathlon: OUT(technically it's pure nonsense)
- only 2 real endurance races, both as time trial (and always in the same technique: 30km men/15km women freestyle, 50km men/30km women classic, because that's always been the epic race of them all, and the Games must feature that race)
- Individual sprint for pure specialists (so, always in freestyle; lenght between 1000m and 1100m, no more than that and no climbs and downhills, a totally flat terrain)
 
Curling
- No mixed gender events. point. Men and women's teams are more than enough (if you want more action, make the traditional game more attractive using some of the rules currently in play in the mixed event)...
 
Figure skating
- Get rid of the team event
 
Freestyle skiing
- Moguls & Aerials: OUT
- Big Air: OUT
- Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Skicross individual events for both men and women are more than enough
 
Hockey
- increase the depth of the game or throw the women's hockey out...at the moment, only USA vs CAN is a barely watchable matchup...
 
Luge
- women's doubles instead of the team relay...it's already the direction towards they're going, just accelerate that...
- add men and women's singles in Natural Track Luge (there's already more depth in these events now than in artificial track's...imagine if it would become an olympic discipline)...
- also here, no more "research & development"...standard equipment for all lugers provided by FIL only
 
Nordic Combined
- get rid of normal hills...therefore, men's individual race, men's team event and women's individula event (all of them on the large hill) are more than enough (once the game has enough depth at the top level, the women's team even can easily be added)...
 
Short track speed skating
- NO mixed gender relay
- Increase to at least 12 (16 would be a lot better) the number of teams taking part into the men and women's relays, so to have 3 competitive rounds instead of only 2...
 
Skeleton
- It's OK as it is...but once again, standard equipment for every rider provided by IBSF only
 
Ski Jumping
- Get rid of normal hill: men and women's individual and team events (all of them on the large hill) are more than enough
- if you didn't understand the refrain yet, NO mixed gender event
 
Snowboarding
- Big Air: OUT
- Mixed Team Snowboardcross: OUT
- men and women's individual Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Snowboardcross are more than enough
- in the alpine section of the sport, no more PGS, but PSL and GS (like the old one, the same rules of the alpine skiing "cousin") for both men and women
 
Speed Skating
- Keep only the 5 traditional distances (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000/5000m, 5000m/10000m) for both men and women
- 500m events absolutely to be held over 2 races (with skaters going on both inner and outer lane once)
- Get rid of every other thing...
 
Ski Mountaineering
- OK the individual races for both men and women over the Sprint and Classic distance
- NO mixed relay, but 4-man and 4-woman's relays over the Classic relay distance (every leg being half the Classic individual race)
 
p.s. happy to see the men and women's Individual events in Ice Climbing to be added to the program and the number of athletes allowed to compete at the Games increased by a few hundreds
 
 
p.s. I forgot one thing: FUCK THE GENDER EQUALITY!!! 

Twitter shut down Donald Trump, but the Russians are free to use it to threaten all their neighbours.

Well there was some excitement in the end.

The biggest drama during this race was Johaug trying and failing to wave the  flag.

Now it is even Čínočeskoslovensko!

Don't forget, the IOC used "bribes" to get LA to wait until 2028.  

Now it is even Čínočeskoslovensko!

Now it is even Čínočeskoslovensko!

Now it is even Čínočeskoslovensko!

Petterson
 
No one talked about his great result.
 
No one gets lapped.