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Always interesting to hear curling commentators taking long pauses in their commentating (especially the male commentator). "Yeah... Scotland... Did make the run... On... One of the guards."

Then we shall also see Brazilian snowboarding team expanding soon.

And of course, the General Assembly ended with a whole bunch of new rules being adopted. It's getting to the point of being beyond ridiculous, with rules getting tweaked EVERY YEAR in recent times. For example, missing a flag on cross-country jump will no longer give you 50 penalties, but only 15. So, for the first time in forever, missing a flag is less of a fault then good old-fashioned refusal. Missing a flag used to be penalized with elimination, but then in 2016 they introduced 50-penalty ruling, which turned out to be a joke anyway, with penalties often getting dubiously removed on appeals. Especially if you are an "important rider". But then during this summer Piggy French didn't have her 50 pens removed (there must have been some very strong evidence), and immediately everyone started complaining about 50 penalties being too big, because such things can NOT be happening to British team riders. Among other new rulings, FEI suddenly felt like introducing a new rule for eventing show jumping too. One time penalty will be now given for every two seconds over the time allowed, instead of every second like it was basically since forever.

And then some complain about the Brazilian winter sports budget.

Guyana defeated Brazil in second match also (despite being down 7:4 going into the 10th end). With this win, Guyana qualified for the global qualification event. Let's hope there will be a live stream.

FEI Olympic Group qualification events The FEI Board (formerly Bureau) agreed that allocation of the Group C Jumping and Dressage qualifiers would be postponed due to transport issues for horses to access the proposed locations in Budapest (HUN) and Moscow (RUS). The proposal is for a decision to be taken during the Board teleconference on 19 December following further evaluation on the health requirements from the Olympic Group C nations and recommendations based on a thorough review of both venues by the FEI Veterinary Director and the relevant Discipline Directors. The Jumping qualifier for Group F was allocated to Rabat (MAR) in October 2019. The Group G Jumping qualifier will be in Valkenswaard (NED), following a proposal from the regional group. The Dressage Committee will identify an event in Europe that can host a Dressage qualifier for Group F. There is no requirement for a Group G qualifier following Australia’s qualification at the FEI World Equestrian Games™ in Tryon 2018. The Eventing qualifier for Group C will be held in Baborowko (POL) from 23-26 May 2019. As all Group F and G Eventing teams are based in Europe a qualifier will be identified to host a CCI 3* next spring in Europe. This will also be allocated on 19 December. https://inside.fei.org/news/final-decisions-fei-board-person-meeting

Unique chance to hear people discussing curling tactics in Lithuanian.

Apparently it's very exciting.

If you enjoy watching old men trying to be hip, then today's FEI General Assembly might be your thing.

Nope, he attempted to qualify for Pyeongchang. And unless he is a fellow time traveller, this is not his debut.

Well, yes. Just like a concept of systematic doping isn't a "fair-play consideration" for IOC.

Chinese Taipei is named "Chinese" because of politics, so I don't see your point.

Western European League, Stage 5 (Stuttgart, Germany) Pieter Devos (Apart) - 0/0/49.05 Max Kuhner (PSG Final) - 0/0/56.62 Christian Ahlmann (Tokyo) - 0/0/57.68 Full results... WEL Standings

Interesting how a "guaranteed gold medalist" is struggling to be inside top 10 at Europe Cup. In one of the races he wasn't even the best Chinese.

Dressage will use the heat system for Grand Prix (6 groups of 10 athletes; top 8 teams advance to team finals; best 2 from each group + 6 lucky losers to individual final). Team Final will be based solely on Grand Prix Special results, so it will be a lot like team gymnastics final with 8 teams all starting from 0. As for jumping, individual competition will now be held before team competition. There will be only two individual rounds + (probably huge) jump-off for individual medals. Team competition will also have two rounds, with top 10 (out of 20) teams qualifying for the second one, and scores starting from 0... Full regulations are available here... https://inside.fei.org/system/files/Olympic Regulations Tokyo2020 Equestrian 5.7.18 X Final version NFs 9July.pdf

FEI finally updated the dressage qualification system and Australia is now given their rightful place. Also, the venues and dates for all remaining direct qualifiers should be decided by November 20 at the General Assembly. Additionally, the new Olympic formats for dressage and jumping will be officially tested at the Hagen CSIOY/CDIOY in June of 2019.

vs 9:1 after only 5 ends.

Like anyone would care to repair a place where Bibs 50 and 51 dropped out (and 52 and 53...)...

And of course there are special repairements before Kristoferssen.

Same place, lol.

We haven't had a leader for this long in years.

Actually yes. It's like watching Team Jazzu all over again.

What a gift from Spain.

Estonians literally didn't make one good shot since I joined.