De_Gambassi

Soooo... is it now possible for the IOC to life ban anyone caught in doping offence (regardless of nationality) ? If so, it would mean a quasi life ban for athletes in most olympic sports.

Amateur.

Sure, they do: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1060916/exclusive-wada-vice-president-claims-current-anti-doping-situation-untenable#.WnNnn86rMbY.twitter But, really what is Sweden anyway, if not a blonder version of Britain ?

[hide] Sporting Rivalries and Medals (15) 1- On Day 1, the first 5 Gold Medals will be awarded to athletes from 5 different countries. [YES - 1] 2- At least 27 countries will win a Medal, surpassing the Sochi 2014 Games' total. [YES - 1] 3- At least 2 events will not result in the common 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze Medal Podium finish. [NO - 1] 4- South Korea will finish in the top five on the medal table. [NO - 8] 5- Canada will finish ahead of the USA in the medal table. [YES - 1] 6- By total medals won, Norway & Germany will win more than Canada & the United States, who in turn will win more than Japan & South Korea. [YES - 1] 7- At least one nation will win their first ever Gold Medal at a Winter Olympics. [YES - 1] 8- Excluding DNFs, at least one irish athlete will finish ahead of a briton. [NO - 1] 9- A nation will win six or more medals without winning gold. [YES - 1] 10- Austria will finish ahead of Switzerland in the medal table. [YES - 8] 11- We will have at least 5 Gold Medal winners being less than 18 years young on that given day. [NO - 1] 12- At least 3 Torino 2006 medalists will win a Medal in PyeongChang. [NO - 1] 13- At least one medal event will be postponed to another day. [YES - 1] 14- More women than men will win medals for the nation that will rank 1st on the medal table. [YES - 1] 15- At least 3 nations will win 10 or more gold medals. [NO - 8] Alpine Skiing (5) 16- Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) will win at least 3 Gold Medals. [NO - 8] 17- Norway will win the most medals on the Men's side. [YES - 1] 18- At least 33% of the starters in Men's Slalom will not reach the finish on the first run. [YES - 8] 19- Naoki Yuasa (JPN) will finish both legs in the Men's Slalom. [YES - 1] 20- The podium of at least one event will feature only countries associated with the Alpine Region (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Slovenia and/or Switzerland). [YES - 8] Biathlon (5) 21- Johannes Thingnes Boe (NOR) will win more medals than Martin Fourcade (FRA) during the whole 2018 Winter Olympics. [NO - 1] 22- Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK) will win her third olympic Sprint title in a row. [NO - 1] 23- An athlete who finished 21st or worst in the Sprint will win a Pursuit medal. [NO - 8] 24- There will be a Gold Medalist in the individual races with 1 or more misses on the shooting range. [YES - 8] 25- The Ukrainian team will win more total medals than Italy. [NO - 1] Bobsleigh (2) 26- Germany will win at least 6 medals between all events. [NO - 8] 27- Humphries (CAN) will win her third gold medal in two-women's bobsleigh. [YES - 1] Cross-country Skiing (5) 28- On the Women's side, all 6 Gold Medals will go to Norway. [NO - 8] 29- Overall, medals will not go to more than 6 nations. [YES - 1] 30- Swiss athletes will win more total medals than Olympic Athletes from Russia. [YES - 8] 31- The Men's Sprint will see a medalist who finished 21st-30th in the Qualification. [NO - 8] 32- The athlete leading the Men's Skiathlon at half-point will eventually win it. [NO - 1] Curling (3) 33- Canada will defend its Gold Medals in both the Men's and Women's events. [YES - 1] 34- A team from Asia will medal in any Curling event. [NO - 9] 35- The italian men's team will win at least 2 games. [NO - 1] Figure Skating (3) 36- The north korean pair will finish ahead of their south korean counterpart. [NO - 1] 37- Spain will win its first ever medal in Figure Skating. [YES - 1] 38- No nation will win medals in both Men's and Women's Singles. [NO - 1] Freestyle Skiing (5) 39- Devin Logan (USA) will win both the Women's Slopestyle and the Women's Halfpipe. [NO - 9] 40- Dominique Ohaco (CHI) will achieve Chile's best ever Winter Olympic result - bettering 11th place in Men's Alpine Combined from 1998. [YES - 1] 41- Sweden will be represented in the Women's Ski Cross Final by at least 2 athletes. [NO - 9] 42- No athlete who was victorious at the 2018 Winter X Games will win a Gold Medal in Pyeongchang. [NO - 1] 43- South Korea will win at least 1 medal, while Australia will win at least 3. [NO - 9] Ice Hockey (5) 44- A team from Group B will defeat a team from Group A in the Quarterfinals of the Women's Tournament.[YES - 1] 45- At least one match in the Men's Tournament will finish scoreless in regular time (60 Minutes). [NO - 9] 46- The Women's Unified Korean Team will win a match. [NO - 1] 47- Russia will win the Gold Medal in the Men's Tournament. [NO - 1] 48- Sweden will finish ahead of Finland in the Men's Tournament. [YES - 1] Luge (2) 49- Germany will win all 4 Gold Medals. [NO - 9] 50- In at least one event the eventual winner won't be in first place after the first run. [YES - 1] Nordic Combined (2) 51- In both Individual events, the first-placed Athlete(s) after Ski Jumping will not win a Medal. [NO - 1] 52- Germany will sweep (win Gold, Silver and Bronze) at least one of the individual events. [NO - 9] Skeleton (2) 53- The margin of the Men's and Women's winners to the Silver Medalists combined will add up to at least 1 second. [YES - 1] 54- South Korea will win its first ever Gold Medal in Skeleton. [YES - 1] Ski Jumping (3) 55- Poland will win at least one gold medal. [YES - 1] 56- At least two athletes will win medals in both men's individual events. [NO - 1] 57- The podium in the Women's Normal Hill will feature at least 2 of the following athletes: Katharina Althaus (GER), Sara Takanashi (JPN), Maren Lundby (NOR). [YES - 9] Short Track Speed Skating (3) 58- In all individual events, at least 3 participants will be relegated or disqualified in the A-Finals. [NO - 1] 59- South Korea will win all 8 Gold Medals. [NO - 9] 60- Two different athletes will win a medal for Hungary. [NO - 1] Snowboarding (5) 61- Czech Republic will win at least one Gold Medal. [NO - 1] 62- There will be an athlete who will win at least 2 Gold Medals. [NO - 9] 63- The winner in the Men's Halfpipe will receive a higher score than the winner of the same event at the 2014 Winter Olympics (higher than 94,75). [YES - 9] 64- Both Snowboard Cross events (Men + Women) will be won by european athletes. [NO - 1] 65- In his sixth consecutive Winter Olympics, Jasey-Jay Anderson (CAN) will win a Medal. [NO - 1] Speed Skating (5) 66- There will be a clean sweep (to win Gold, Silver and Bronze) by the dutch in at least one event. [NO - 1] 67- At least 5 men will clock under 13 minutes in the Men's 10,000m. [YES - 1] 68- The Bronze Medal winning team in any Team Pursuit will clock a faster time than either of the Finalists.[NO - 1] 69- Four continents will win a medal. [NO - 9] 70- At least 2 athletes will win 2 or more individual Gold Medals. [NO - 1] [/hide]

So, we were at least two to recognize the song . It did crack me up when I heared it for the last goal I must admit .

Well, CAS did said that today's deicision didn't necesseraly mean that the 28 ones were "innocents" (contrary to what Russians will like to believe) BUT, if there is not enough evidences for CAS to sanction these athletes, why would there be enough evidences to strip them of the "privilege of an invitation" to Pyeongchang ? If the IOC sticks with the exclusion of these 28 athletes, I dont see how the CAS could come with a different decisision (ie: we can't vouch for the innoncence of these guys, but as it stands we do not have enough evidences to strip theml of the "priviliege of an invitation". Let them in) EDIT: Maybe, they will consider that the IOC beeing the one inviting russian athletes (and not the Russian OC), they can invite or not invite them on whatever criterias they chosse apropiate. We'll see. Back to popcorn.

Men's Floorball world championships Qualifications are on We are playing against ... Sweden and are losing 33 to 1 Still 12 minutes to go and plenty of goals to be scored Edit: 43 to 1 is the final score. That may very well be the worst defeat of any french NT ever Oh, well you have to start somewhere

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Men's Downhill Day 1 February 11th, 2018 Max Franz Vincent Kriechmayr Matthias Mayer x Hannes Reichelt Adrien Theaux Thomas Dressen Peter Fill Dominik Paris Kjetil Jansrud Aksel Lund Svindal x Beat Feuz x Gilles Roulin Any Athlete from North America Any Other Athlete Women's Giant Slalom Day 2 February 12th, 2018 Any Athlete from Austria Tessa Worley x Victoria Rebensburg x Federica Brignone x Sofia Goggia Manuela Moelgg Ragnhild Mowinckel Tina Robnik Estelle Alphand Sara Hector Lara Gut Mikaela Shiffrin Any Other Athlete Men's Super-Combined Day 3 February 13th, 2018 Romed Baumann Marcel Hirscher Matthias Mayer Victor Muffat-Jeandet x Alexis Pinturault x Peter Fill x Dominik Paris Kjetil Jansrud Luca Aerni Mauro Caviezel Pavel Tirkhichev Any Other Athlete Women's Slalom Day 4 February 14th, 2018 Bernadette Schild x Any Athlete from Germany Any Athlete from Italy Nina Haver-Loeseth Petra Vlhova x Estelle Alphand Frida Hansdotter Anna Swenn-Larsson Wendy Holdener Melanie Meillard Mikaela Shiffrin x Any Other Athlete Men's Super-G Day 5 February 15th, 2018 Max Franz Vincent Kriechmayr x Matthias Mayer Hannes Reichelt Any Athlete from Canada Adrien Theaux Thomas Dressen Josef Ferstl x Peter Fill Dominik Paris Aleksander Aamodt Kilde Kjetil Jansrud x Aksel Lund Svindal Beat Feuz Any Other Athlete Women's Super-G Day 6 February 17th, 2018 Nicole Schmidhofer Anna Veith Any Athlete from France Victoria Rebensburg Federica Brignone x Sofia Goggia Johanna Schnarff Tina Weirather x Ragnhild Mowinckel Michelle Gissin Lara Gut x Any Other Athlete Men's Giant Slalom Day 7 February 18th, 2018 Manuel Feller x Marcel Hirscher x Alexis Pinturault Luca De Aliprandini Henrik Kristoffersen x Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen Zan Kranjec Matts Olsson Justin Murisier Ted Ligety Any Other Athlete Women's Downhill Day 8 February 21st, 2018 Cornelia Hutter Nicole Schmidhofer Ramona Sieberhofen Any Athlete from France Sofia Goggia x Tina Weirather x Ragnhild Mowinckel Michelle Gisin Lara Gut Mikaela Shiffrin Lindsey Vonn x Jacqueline Wiles Any Other Athlete Men's Slalom Day 9 February 22nd, 2018 Manuel Feller Marcel Hirscher x Michael Matt Alexis Pinturault Dave Ryding x Stefano Gross Sebastian Foss-Solevaag Henrik Kristoffersen x Andre Myhrer Luca Aerni Daniel Yule Any Other Athlete Women's Super-Combined Day 10 February 23rd, 2018 Ricarda Haaser Anne-Sophie Barthet Federica Brignone Sofia Goggia Marusa Ferk Denise Feierabend Michelle Gisin Wendy Holdener x Mikaela Shiffrin Any Athlete from North America x Any Other Athlete x Team Event Day 11 February 24th, 2018 Austria x Canada France Germany Italy x Norway Slovakia Sweden Switzerland United States x Any Other Athlete [/hide]

Honnestly, I don't think they'll let it go for free (or almost). They're playing with the future of the sport here, and I think they know it. IMO, it's more likely that we will never see on a bike again, that seeing him flying on the Giro/Tour roads this year. Maybe, I'm too much of an optismist. We will see.

Step 3 of mourning: Bargaining

The sweden performance in second half looks awfully familliar to the french first half two days ago.

All right, I didn't think about that... Still, a minimum of effort should be asked (I don't necesseraly mean the area by that, but mostly the decorum)

Granted, there are a few of them. But this is like not even trying. Why not a combined weapons world cup btw ? Each stage could take a week and be an oportunity to make somthing out of it.

Such a low profile sport The shittest high school basketball team in Baltimore has probably a better set-up than this.

We should stop giving ideas to the IOC.

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1060598/extreme-cross-country-running-to-be-rolled-out-in-time-for-paris-2024-inclusion-bid They'll turn Cross Country into Parkour by the sound of it Urban Cross Country here we come

Yeah, I guess Argentina is the prime exemple of fifteen and seven results not necesseraly correlate with each others. Ireland too, who did not even enter a team at the last seven world cup.

Rugby (union) is a relative minor sport in Australia.

Is he younger than 60 ?

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Women's 7.5km Sprint Day 1 February 10th, 2018 Darya Domracheva x Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier x Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina x Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 10km Sprint Day 2 February 11th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade x Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe x Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger x Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete Women's 10km Pursuit Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Darya Domracheva x Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier x Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer x Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 12.5km Pursuit Day 3 February 12th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade x Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe x Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak x Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete Women's 15km Individual Day 4 February 14th, 2018 Darya Domracheva Veronika Vitkova Kaisa Makarainen Anais Bescond x Justine Braisaz Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier x Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer Tiril Eckhoff Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko x Any Other Athlete Men's 20km Individual Day 5 February 15th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade x Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen x Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete x Women's 12.5km Mass Start Day 6 February 17th, 2018 Darya Domracheva Veronika Vitkova x Kaisa Makarainen Anais Bescond Justine Braisaz x Marie Dorin-Habert Laura Dahlmeier Denise Herrmann Franziska Hildebrand Franziska Preuss Dorothea Wierer Tiril Eckhoff x Anastasiya Kuzmina Valentyna Semerenko Any Other Athlete Men's 15km Mass Start Day 7 February 18th, 2018 Julian Eberhard Simon Eder Ondrej Moravec Simon Desthieux Martin Fourcade x Antonin Guigonnat Arndt Peiffer x Simon Schempp Lukas Hofer Dominik Windisch Johannes Thingnes Boe x Tarjei Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Jakov Fak Benjamin Weger Anton Babikov Any Other Athlete 2x6km Women's + 2x7.5km Men's Mixed Relay Day 8 February 20th, 2018 Austria Belarus Czech Republic Finland France x Germany Italy x Norway x Slovakia Sweden Switzerland Ukraine Any Other Nation Women's 4x6km Relay Day 9 February 22nd, 2018 Belarus Canada Czech Republic France Germany x Italy x Norway Poland Slovakia Sweden Ukraine x Any Other Nation Men's 4x7.5km Relay Day 10 February 23rd, 2018 Austria Canada Czech Republic France x Germany x Italy Norway x Slovenia Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United States Any Other Nation [/hide]

Natural Track Parallel Doubles Luge ! OK, YT is teaching me that he might not be the best thing that could happen to the sport

Is there any fundemntal difference between natural and artifical tracks ? If not, natural tracks becoming the prime luge event sounds like the best thing that could ever happen to the sport. Unless... (What that tinfoil hat is doing on my head ?)

Which by itself is all kind of amazing. How did they manage to keep the tradition alive ?