Dunadan

I think this is also due to the fact that LEN created another similar tournament (Europa Cup http://www2.len.eu/?p=10647), so other teams decided to focus on this Europa Cup.

San Marino

I believe it's almost certain that the alpine combined will be replaced by a parallel event. This is from last May and you can read the draft calendar for 2020-21 (PDF), updated in October. A women's 2 run downhill is already scheduled in February 2018, and more are supposed to be held in 2020-21 according to that draft.

INTERNATIONAL SURFING ASSOCIATION AND WORLD SURF LEAGUE REACH LANDMARK AGREEMENT ON OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION The International Surfing Association (ISA) today announced an agreement with the World Surf League (WSL) on the qualification principles for surfing in the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020, ensuring the participation of the world’s best surfers from the WSL Championship Tour (CT) as well as promoting universal opportunities for surfers around the world. In principle, the agreement will see up to 18 of the 40 places at the Games reserved for WSL Championship Tour (CT) surfers (10 men and eight women), with the remaining 22 places determined at the 2019 and 2020 ISA World Surfing Games, the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, and a single slot (each for men and women) for the host nation (Japan). With the support of the WSL, the ISA eligibility rules for Olympic participation will require surfers to make themselves available for their national teams to compete in the ISA World Surfing Games in 2019 and 2020 and, if selected by their National Federation, to participate. The final decision on the complete process is subject to the approval of the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its meeting in February 2018. Full article https://www.isasurf.org/international-surfing-association-and-world-surf-league-reach-landmark-agreement-on-olympic-qualification/

She has a 6th place as best result https://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography.html?sector=FS&competitorid=178908&type=result&category=WC&season=ALL&sort=P&discipline=ALL&position=&place=&Submit=Search&limit=50

This reminds me of Gilberto Simoni's cocaine candies from Perù.

If I understand correctly, the rules say that the Danish team could: a) remove the Italian stone or b) "place all stones where it reasonably considers the stones would have come to rest had the moving stone not been touched". So in my opinion the Italians wanted them to "play fair" and choose option b. But of course no one cares about fair play.

Announcement of the mascot design candidates I hope that the Japanese children vote A or B. C is creepy.

The draw is tomorrow. Same system used for the men, so we have: POOL A: Japan, Netherlands POOL B: China, Italy POOL C: USA, Russia POOL D: Serbia, Brazil POT 3: Dominican Republic, Korea, Argentina, Turkey POT 4: Germany, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Bulgaria POT 5: Cameroon, Canada, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan POT 6: Cuba, Mexico, Kenya, Trinidad & Tobago FORMULA: The 24 teams have been divided into four pools of six teams playing in a Round Robin system with the top four teams in each pool advancing to the second round. The 16 teams will be split into two pools of eight (Pool A and D four best teams in one group, and Pool C and B four best teams in the other one). The top three teams in each of the two second round pools will advance to the third round. The four winners will be placed in the two pools with the second and third-placed teams drawn. The round will consist of a Round Robin system with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the semifinals. A 5thrank match will take place on the same day as semifinals. The 103rd and last match of the tournament will be the final.

I don't know how they will decide the 2nd round pools...probably 2 teams from pool A vs 2 teams from pool C in Italy and 2 teams from pool B vs 2 teams from pool D in Bulgaria, but which ones?

They changed it to "Jerusalem"... apparently they already had an alternative plan (start in Sicily, 3 more stages in Southern Italy), it would have been funny to see Froome's reaction . Calimero was (and is) very famous for being the protagonist of TV commercials almost 60 years ago, when there were only 10 minutes of commercials per day and they never repeated the same one twice. (hello Eurosport).

The draw is tomorrow. Apparently two teams will be placed in each group using a serpentine system based on the world ranking, with Italy in Pool A and Bulgaria in Pool D. So we should have: POOL A (in Italy): Italy, Argentina POOL B (in Bulgaria): Brazil, Canada POOL C (in Italy): USA, Russia POOL D (in Bulgaria): Bulgaria, Poland and then a draw with POT 3: Iran, France, Serbia, Japan POT 4: Egypt, Belgium, Cuba, Australia POT 5: Finland, China, Slovenia, Tunisia POT 6: Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Cameroon, Dominican Republic And this is the formula

Giro d'Italia 2018 stage profiles http://www.cicloweb.it/2017/11/29/anteprima-altimetrie-giro-2018/ Froome confirmed that he is going to participate.

Sergei CHUDINOV, Aleksei NEGODAILO, Dmitrii TRUNENKOV, Yana ROMANOVA and Olga VILUKHINA are found to have committed anti-doping rule violations pursuant to Article 2 of The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules applicable to the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, in 2014, and are disqualified from the events in which they participated. In addition, the five athletes are declared ineligible to be accredited in any capacity for all editions of the Games of the Olympiad and the Olympic Winter Games subsequent to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.

ISU published the quotas http://isu.org/communications

It was not meant for you.

I have no desire to reply to certain users (I remind you that some of this people who wrote a couple of posts above pretending to be objective are the same who kept replying me with dozens of messages about the "cowardice of the Italian army" when talking about volleyball ) so here's two answers to the nonsense I'm reading here: - Italy NT played quite different styles of football, even in the last 20 years. It's quite impossible to dislike ALL of them; - football has a big part in the Italian society and also economy, much more than Sweden for example...that's why this is considered a "drama" and not just sports (every other sport is "just a sport"...Hell, even I have to admit that objectively it would be better to be out of the next few Olympics rather than missing a football WC).Here's some data from 2016

Wayde van Niekerk out 6 months after rugby injury

Yes, hopefully he is the last one. Unlucky injuries happening lately to several athletes.

The season is already over for Samuel Costa. He announced that

Start list for tomorrow Vonn and Gut are in! Brignone out

I received my (glass) diamond

Arianna Fontana (short track speed skating) http://www.gazzetta.it/Sport-Invernali/20-10-2017/olimpiadi-pyeongchang-2018-portabandiera-l-italia-sara-arianna-fontana-23015682366.shtml