Federer91

Bit of a strange incident in the Women's race this morning as WC Leader  Natalie Armbruster seemingly fainted on the long climb - eventually got up & finished, but she wasn't moving for a while.

Snow or Ice or GTFO! Sometimes i wish i was in these organization's structures, so i can give them a piece of my mind. 

Done with the voting.  As with every contest i re-arranged the placing numerous times before reaching a conclusion. 

It's not even Four Hills and  Zografski has set his PB for World Cup points already! His previous best season was 2012/13 

Vonn winning by a second doesn't speak well for the state of women's alpine skiing.

I will definitely vote on Sunday evening as well. This time for real.  Need to fill my final ranking, as i have a couple of clashes, but will be traveling on the weekend, so will finalize things when i get home.

Great 6th place for Gismondi  Beating almost all Norwegians and some of the Swedes is a superb performance.

Despite total domination by the Norwegian men (and yes, it's exhausting and boring), the accomplishments this weekend of Emil Iversen and Einar Hedegart are worth highlighting, despite them being Norwegian. 
 
Iversen was dropped by the Norwegian national team after the opener in Beitostølen 2 weeks ago and was not taken to Ruka. Instead, he won both the 10k and 20k Interval Classic starts in Gålå in the Norwegian Cup last week, which granted him a spot on the start line in Trondheim. He took full advantage of that opportunity and finished on the podium in the skiathlon, and finished just off the podium in today's 10k Interval Freestyle. This definitely puts his name in serious contention for a spot on the Olympic team, which looked incredibly doubtful just a few days ago. 
 
Einar Hedegart, the 24-year-old biathlete who decided to challenge the stereotype that biathletes are inferior skiers to their cross-country counterparts, just won the 10k Interval Start against all of Norway's best in a de facto Olympic trial. 
 
Yes, it's exhausting seeing nothing but Norwegian flags on the men's side, but there can be excitement just beneath the surface at times.

Great 6th place for Gismondi  Beating almost all Norwegians and some of the Swedes is a superb performance.

If this was 6-7 years ago I would have said "Fantastic, I will have luge on my Eurosport again".
 
But after a couple of seasons of watching live and whenever I wanted on free YouTube, to go back to sporadic random runs being shown and most likely on delays is going to be frustrating  Because Eurosport is not going to prioritize luge at all for live broadcasts.

JTB and TB announce retirement and everyone outside Norge pop open the champagne and say "finally". Then Norge enter Botn and Uldal, who are the next incarnation of JTB and Taraj Boe 

Italian hopes for LA 2028 done and dusted...
 
Local prosecutor in  Trapani requested a 10-year sentence against Antonino Pizzolato (and 3 friends of him) because of a supposed rape against a  tourist, down in Sicily   (and it looks he'll be almost certainly convicted, there's no sign he can be named not guilty by the evidence)
 
https://www.oasport.it/2025/12/nino-pizzolato-chiesti-dieci-anni-di-reclusione-le-motivazioni-della-procura-di-trapani/
 
I know he's quite an idiot, but I never thought he was so disgustingly an asshole 

Bump for the Luge World Cup starting this weekend, starting at Winterberg rather than Igls for technical reasons (lazy Austrians ).   Since we are now going to Winterberg twice this season, this particular weekend will not count towards Olympic Quals, as discussed already,
 
There has been some changes for us oldsters, so maybe a guide for beginners as well.
 
Broadcasting 
Good and perhaps not so good news. There is a new deal with Discovery/Eurosport. All three days of the weekend are now being covered including the Friday races which usually are not shown.    Unfortunately, not clear whether the FTA option via YouTube and/or the FIL Page will still exist, or will be geo-blocked.  Hopefully also they will stick with the excellent commentary format of one pro comms person on-site paired with a willing volunteer from the non-competing athletes.  
 
Race formats
There are four sets of races now.
 
Nations Cup on Friday - the Qualifying races for the Saturday / Sunday World Cup.  Top sleds are pre-qualified so don't take part here.  
 
Mixed Races on Friday - These races are for the smaller nations who don't have large enough teams to participate in the Team Relays.  Nations can either compete as a pair or as single nation partnerships along the lines of old historic friendships like /, /, /, / etc.
World Cup Races on Saturday and Sunday - The standard four formats of Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, Women's Doubles
 
Team Relay on Sunday - Always exciting relays races in which the big nations run one team from each of the WC formats.  Unlike every other form of Winter Sports team event, this is the one in which it is quite normal for even the biggest and best teams to seriously mess up & either disqualify themselves or have some kind of significant time delay.  
 
Sprint races - Everyone hates them so hopefully they have been killed. 
 
Beer
The race track at Winterberg is sponsored by a brewery and in the past winners have been given very large glasses of the product!  Unfortunately, this is the alcohol-free version of the beer. 

Bumping the thread so people are reminded. By the looks of the voting i think an extension would be required. Maybe till Sunday, or even next week. 

They unveiled the route for the 2026 Giro and it's way softer, than what we have seen in recent times. But it's going to finish in my home town, so that's fine by me. 

Cancelling a round in Kuusamo.. so what else is new   Zografski with a 4th and a new PB, but it's a real bummer that he doesn't have the chance to jump for a podium. This jury has really become quite pathetic the last few years. 

Good start of the season for  Zografski, though the rare occasion there is a Normal hill on the schedule is always to his benefit. Will see if he can stabilize a top 15-20 placing in the coming starts.
 
Also a nice surprise to see  Tomasiak doing well. I don't know what is the general feeling in Poland about their current state in ski-jumping, but i'm seeing a big problem for them. The time of the seemingly eternal old dogs Stoch, Kubacki, Zyla and Kot is coming to an end (for some even at the end of this season) and there is practically no one coming up to replace them. 
 
I don't think they will become the next Finland and drop out completely from the scene, but so many years without a breakthrough young guy has to be very concerning. Zniszczol, Wolny, Stekala were all failed prospects. While Wasek had a very good last season, his consistency is still a question mark.

Getting close to the Games, so I think some updates here will be welcomed 

I don't know why they didn't have these ECH a week early and have practically the whole TV time to themselves. Next week the schedule is much more crowded with the other winter sports kicking the season. Sometime i think if we made the calendar it would be much more beneficial to over a dozen sports.

Barely any snow even in Lillehammer  It's again looking bleak for a nice white winter, especially in my region..

I don't know why they didn't have these ECH a week early and have practically the whole TV time to themselves. Next week the schedule is much more crowded with the other winter sports kicking the season. Sometime i think if we made the calendar it would be much more beneficial to over a dozen sports.

I don't know why they didn't have these ECH a week early and have practically the whole TV time to themselves. Next week the schedule is much more crowded with the other winter sports kicking the season. Sometime i think if we made the calendar it would be much more beneficial to over a dozen sports.

BULGARIA  
 
DIA - "Грехове" (Sins)
 

 

 
 
English Lyrics:
 
 

Im still listening Veno Neveno, even i show the videoclip to my family for your tradicional music and clothing.
           

The return of DIA in the contest, to the joy of one @konig if i remember correctly