avlar

It should be fine now, can you please confirm?

And first ever  podium in this sports at the WC level!

Dolidovich had her best result yet today, she may have a real shot at the olympics as a refugee entry.

yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss, a STROLIA 20 OUT OF 20 HAS FINALLY HAPPENED . 

And what about this? )))
 
 

Biden had no idea, and neither does Trump. Each for different reasons: Biden feared World War III, while Trump wants to do business with Russia. It would take someone like Reagan to put more pressure on Russia, and that would also be a strategy for years, not 1-2.

Geez Men's Team Sprint Final extremely gravity-affected, fallers all over the place.
 
Catastrophic 2nd place for  behind Lord God Almighty.

OK, weird format for the Park City World Cup coming up this weekend.  All First Runs will be held on Friday, but the Singles Second Runs and the Team Relay will be on Saturday.
 
Friday 12 December
10:00 (18:00) Nations Cup (not televised)
15:10 (23:10) Men’s Singles, 1st run
16:35 (00:25) Women’s Singles, 1st run
18:00 (02:00) Men’s Doubles, 1st run
18:50 (02:50) Women’s Doubles, 1st run
19:45 (03:45) Men’s Doubles, 2nd run
20:25 (04:25) Women’s Doubles, 2nd run
 
Saturday, 13 December 2025
16:15 (00:15) Men’s Singles, 2nd run
17:20 (01:20) Women’s Singles, 2nd run
19:00 (03:00) Team Relay (12 teams)
 
 

Unexpected boost for Team .  They are at least going to have a credible excuse if anyone fails any drug tests.  
 
American rapper Snoop Dogg has been named an 'honorary coach' for Team USA at next year's Winter Olympics.
 
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) announced on Thursday the 54-year-old will take on "a volunteer role celebrating and supporting America's athletes off the field of play".
 
Snoop Dogg named 'honorary coach' for Team US at Winter Olympics - BBC Sport

Statement from the president of the russian Luge federation (yesterday):


"Our team is in Kazakhstan and is preparing to apply for U.S. visas. We are setting an example for our entire country, especially for the younger generation. They see that a difficult path is not a reason to give up. It teaches perseverance. In this perseverance lies our shared strength, our mission to millions of young people for whom sports are a guiding point and a shining star. I believe in our country, in our strong-spirited guys. I sincerely love and respect our president, Vladimir Putin. He is the best president in the world. May God grant him strength and good health."


 
Do they deserve neutral status?

I would say - he did not share some part of "the profit" with someone from above )

I did not think it would happen again but...

I created similar post for Paris - 2024 https://totallympics.com/forums/topic/27489-ain-athletes-qualification-for-paris-2024-olympic-games-and-reallocation-of-quotas-post1-updated-1507/#comments 
I was not sure if that reallocations would really happen but the reality was even more serious than the expectations.
According to this research 43% of the neutral statuses issued by the IFs were fake AIN  - https://razom22.com/neutrality-research/ 
And the figures are based on the IOC decisions - not on the evaluations by Ukrainian NOC or sport ministry.

Right now the situation is absolutely unclear. As usually ))

Some notes:
1. Russians will not reject quotas for 2026 as they did for 2024 in judo and wrestling.
2. AINERP may be more loyal to russians due to the new member - Watanabe. His federation issued AIN status to Melnikova who took part in the primaries of the russian ruling party, had phots with Z and e .t.c.
3. I do not expect a lot of reallocations becaues of the total small number of the rus/blr athletes in qualification events right now.
4. BUT, even with these small numbers we see that FIS allowed to compete several incompliant persons. 
 
 
 
Short notes from the IOC statement before Paris - 2024:
 
1. IOC`s decisions to reject quotas are final.
2. IOC`s decisions to approve quotas are not final - new facts may lead to the rejection of invitation.
3. IOC`s decisions cannot be appealed - NOCs were not invited to the Games, so it is a good will to invite individual athletes... or not
 

russians
Sports Athlete(s) Discipline Possible Reallocation NOC IOC Decision + IF reallocation if happened Figure skating Adeliia PETROSIAN Women's singles Stefania Yakovleva Confirmed by IOC Figure skating Petr GUMENNIK Men's singles Davide Lewton Brain Confirmed by IOC Cross country Dariya NEPRYAEVA * Cross country ?   Pending Cross country Savelii KOROSTELEV * Cross country ?   Pending Speed Skating Kseniia KORZHOVA 3000 m Greta Myers Pending Speed Skating Anastasiia SEMENOVA Mass Start Julia Nizan  Pending Short Track Alena KRYLOVA 500 m, 1000 m 1500(W)

Pending Short Track Ivan POSASHKOV 1000 m, 1500m 1500(W)

Pending Ski mountaineering Nikita FILIPPOV Sprint ? ? Pending * - the only possible options right now.
 

belorussians
 
 
Sports Athlete(s) Discipline Possible Reallocation NOC IOC Decision + IF reallocation if happened Figure skating Viktoriya SAFONOVA Women's singles Stefania Yakovleva Confirmed by IOC Speed Skating Marina ZUEVA 3000 m 
5000m Greta Myers
Violette Braun
Pending  

And will bet that the IBU is a lot richer than the FIS because their wealth is based on German TV contracts.  

It's unfortunate that, as we that host, we can't even choose one quota if we need 1; we have to qualify as usual. In 2006, we had about 17 people in the cross- country and now they won't even let us choose up to 12. The miss of a 6th quota will be a real problem for us, because there will basically be no reserve for the relay- Mocellini is only a sprinter. Unless we're looking to use a reserve for the relay instead of the classic sprinter Mocellini, but as the host country, we shouldn't have such dilemmas... We should be able to choose our quota in each discipline, because we have to qualify normally and don't take places from the host country's pool.

Don't give them ideas for 2030

Now to have a musical act perform for each country in Pot 1....

I will never understand why do they think that we need musical performances in draws. Nobody cares, not the people at the building, not us watching it. WHY

"Now in just six months time...we will start the draw."

Does Donald actually think this makes him look good? That's actually so sad in a way, he looks like a kid that's being tricked into believing he acomplished something.

All FIFA ranking seems strange ............ sometimes 

A moment to recall.

Today we will see Trump instead of Robin Williams
 
 

I think they incorrectly translated Ukrainian word "nahorody" - it is not a full synonym of "medal". Its cocrrect translation is "award".

Meanwhile russian tennis playes switched for

Potapova -> 

Rakhimova -> 
 

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. 

Found this jewel
 
The last 3 minutes of the  -  Vancouver 2010 semifinal
 
The only minute when Canada was feeling some fear during the whole tournament