dcro

Rumor has it the Chinese relay may finish the race before the Closing Ceremony, after all.

The whole Russian coaching scene is known to be at war with each other constantly. They don't care about Russia winning. They care about their skaters winning. So, they will not be looking to replace Tutberidze should she get sanctioned (by the ISU). They will sooner have a field day.

I have to say I had enjoyed the Nordic combined competition in Beijing very much. Watched everything on delay, and yet everything was exciting. Too bad the men's side of the sport is probably getting massacred in the next months (more likely than not), but at least it was a decent final hurrah then.

Unbelievable that people are actually blaming the 'West' for Valieva's performance today. Unbelievable. Again. To reiterate. She already had a relatively poor free skate at the Europeans. Her score from then (January) would have been enough only for the bronze today. Even without the whole doping affair, she was never before under this kind of pressure to deliver, so this is really not that surprising... However, I do think it's also possible Eteri "kindly" asked her to take a dive. Medal ceremony is now not delayed indefinitely, so this will take a lot of heat of Valieva (but really mostly Eteri). Most of her mistakes were step-outs, which is interesting, and her reaction at the very end was certainly curious to say the least.

Well, she is the Cruella after all. In terms of excitement, I preferred her program.

What a run that was from Gisin. She appeared to be floating on the snow. Crazy to think Shiffrin still has only three Olympic medals total. Despite all the expectations, time and time again it seems emulating Janica's feat from Salt Lake is next to impossible.

Not for the altitudes in a desert.

Six quotas were never used.

Almost like she is a Belarusian agent... Oh. Wait.

I am genuinely curious how will the Chinese girls cope on the ski cross tomorrow. Will they even be capable of going over some of the kickers? The course is somewhat easier than the one in Pyeongchang though.

At any rate, hopefully something will be learnt from all this. Maximum altitude has to be capped for endurance events. Especially if there are other risk factors involved such as extreme low temperature, low humidity.

What a chance missed for Valentina. 4th placed athlete from her QF qualified on time and she finished just behind. Turned out to be the 25th place in the final analysis. Considering she just barely qualified in both events (1500 m on reallocation), I'd say two Top 25 results are an amazing achievement for our debut. Hopefully it's a start of something good. EDIT: Apparently she broke both her PB and NR today, and by a margin. Couldn't have asked for more.

The only previous team participation from Torino was in the men's team sprint, when the guys placed 22nd in the final analysis (24 teams were entered). Interestingly, Belarus did not start that day too. Are they boycotting WOG team events with Croatia? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-country_skiing_at_the_2006_Winter_Olympics_–_Men's_team_sprint

That seems highly unlikely imo (just watched the race now). The downhills are way too easy on this course to cause some serious accident.

Yay, we get the much-desired Top 20 result. Best ever in cross-country. Also our first participation in any team event at the Winter Olympics since Torino. Very pleased for Maeki. Perfect strategy with Niskanen pushing the pace and Joni saving his effort for the key leg.

He is like PSY. Desperately trying to recreate his one hit wonder.

Slightly late for work so of course McGrath has to climb the course for no reason.

Okay, I change my mind, the moment when Luca Aerni took a sigh of relief seeing the almighty S. Kolega going behind him will be the moment of this Olympics.

This will be the highlight of our Olympics!

This course is unworthy of the Olympic Games.

That's too bad... Guess Boris Vain is off to the pilot school then.

Wow, Martin Haven totally misread Rinaldi's reaction after the fourth run. He looked utterly disappointed for making a cheap mistake he avoided in previous runs, and dropping one place. Oh well. Still a great result for Monaco! Bronze for Hafer? This is becoming ridiculous. Hafer would be the first to say that the two-man is his weak event. Clean sweep is virtually guaranteed for the four-man.

Why didn't Riiber just jump the camera track when he realized he was going the wrong way? He has already added distance to his race by that point, so surely he would not have been disqualified?

Just as I suspected all along. Arguably their least competitive sport has been ski jumping, with Nordic combined being a close second.

Not the worst performance of the season for Valieva. She did worse in the free skate at the Europeans, finishing less than a point ahead of Anna.