dcro

Funny how the USA selected Andrew Blaser to be their representative, since he is clearly only the third best American slider. He just got lucky not to make the WC team. Collecting points was so much easier on the weaker North American Cup (and on familiar tracks).

Be careful though. Sui Wenjing is known to have had lingering injury problems for years now. Clean skates are not a guarantee for them.

I don't think so. Costa Rica received a reallocation in Tokyo for taekwondo on the day of the draw. It was also a case of an athlete testing positive.

So if the reallocations are still happening (I assume they are), Brazil should receive their third spot...

Have a feeling it will be one of the Irish (their snowboarder or free skier). Small chance it turns out to be Maloney. Carillo can beat Bychenko in M figure skating.

I'l probably watch a bit of everything except ice hockey.

Anything ITG related is broken and always has been.

Mostly just neighbours who are too scared to not attend.

Never heard of him. And seems like our NOC hasn't heard of him either, as he would have been the best flag bearer available for Beijing. We will never build a hockey team, so good on him to pursue career elsewhere.

Like most Europeans, I will be following the Olympics on the Eurosport Player. I am considering reverting back to the national broadcaster for some sports though, as I watched almost everything during the Tokyo Olympics with OBS commentators, which feels weird in retrospect. OBS commentators are really not that great. Also, as planned, I will not be taking any vacation days. This will limit my experience to the night sessions / late-afternoon replays during weekdays, and full-day programs only on weekends. On the bright side, this should stop me from burning out...

Grand total of 10 athletes between these nations. Many of them 0, including Tajikistan with all those magnificant mountains....

Bleh. We will have flagbearers after all. Leona Popović, our best female skier in the last 10 years, will be forced to awkwardly share the flag with a cross-country skiing man who got selected thanks to his head coach father, and who of course has no results to speak of and zero future prospects. Yay equality!!! p.s. Since our male alpine skiers are arriving after the Opening ceremony, our NOC literally had only this one male athlete to "choose"....

Keep in mind that teams are mostly just preparing to leave at this point. This will be just the tip of an iceberg in terms of athletes testing positive.

What possible reason is there behind this? Hollywood?

The story has caught the news cycle here... https://sport.hrt.hr/ostali-sportovi/brazilska-nordijka-zbog-prometne-nesrece-ostala-bez-zoi-ja-5047045

Yeah, I got hasty with my judgement against James/Radford, but then remembered Walsh/Michaud are not exactly a jackpot this season. They competed at the GP in Japan, for instance, where they just didn't look comfortable... At all. Every element looked off. But then again, J/R are definitely not medal contenders for Beijing. They will finish top 8, at best, which makes Radford's decision to come out of retirement odd.

I am in disbelief. This is too much. Praying for a speedy recovery.

Damn, they must have consulted Olivia Pope for this.

Well, considering how extravagant the ski jumping hill is, I guess by that logic 99.9999999% of the Chinese must care about it.

Australia will likely accept is Slovakia declines. And if not Australia... then Chile (rank #425)? Further nations coming up down the reallocation list who might be interested: . Interesting. I wonder if they will just start maxing out the host quota when it becomes too late for everyone else (due to restrictions).

It's not a glitch. Sweden initially accepted 7 quotas, then selected 5 athletes, and now they refused one of those 7 quotas. This is so utterly cruel to athletes hoping for a reallocation. I guess they already need negative tests, so Sweden playing cat and mouse with their quotas should be punished.

It's not.

What a cruel twist for my liking. Both Crnković and Kočergina end up as first reserves.

Well, that was early in the season when he was breaking through ranks and skiing under less pressure. Yesterday's early DNF was so expected. And it's not something one can fix in a month or so. Chances are that he will either DNF in Beijing, or that he will be just slow.

Good. We will be expecting some goulash.