De_Gambassi

It's not the officilal one, but it is from l'Equipe (and thus the most talked about). Actually, Fourcade never won it from l'Equipe (in 2014, he was beaten by Lavilénie who just beat the WR that year) and is ranked 4th this year after Mayer and Bosse. I've never understood these rankings anyway. Apples and oranges really. For anyone interested, here are the top ten by l'Equipe: Men: 1. Teddy Riner 2. P-A Bosse 3. Kevin Mayer 4. Martin Fourcade 5. AS Monaco (allright then...) 6. Yohann Diniz 7. Kylian Mbappé 8. Thomas Coville (Sailing) 9. Armel Le Cleac'h (Sailing) 10.. Sébastien Augier & J. Ingrassia (WRC) Women: 1. Tessa Worley 2. Caroline Garcia 3. Clarisse Agbegnenou (They love their judo at l'Equipe apparently) 4. Aurélie Muller 5. Mélina Robert Michon 6. Eugénie le Sommer (Football) (I've no idea why) 7. Tess Ledeux (Freestyle skiing) 8. Perrine Laffont (Freestyle skiing) 9. Helena Clark (Basketball) 10. Koumba Larroque (Wrestling) (Might be a first fot this sport) Not even one guy or a girl from Handball... Yeah, whatever.

Probably short-lived and very limited in scope. PS; there were allready a couple of ice rinks in South Africa back then.

Probably not... It's not made of ice neither. Edit: It was built in 2012.

Soooo... Using that method on lat year world cups rankings (except for short track where I used this year world cup as it's allready over) and last world championships for hockey and curling. I came up with these results: Medals: 1. GER : 29.8 2. CAN : 26.75 3. NOR : 27.4 4. USA : 26.2 5. RUS : 21.35 6. FRA : 19.45 7. AUT : 16.1 8. NED : 14.65 9. ITA : 13.55 (!!) 10. SUI: 12.8 11. SWE: 9.95 Golds: 1. GER : 10.55 2. NOR: 10.15 3. CAN: 9.65 4. USA : 8,15 5. FRA: 7.6 6. RUS: 6.8 7. AUT : 5.3 8. NED : 5 9. ITA : 3.65 10. SUI: 3.45 11. SWE: 2.95 There are many shortcomings (no dedicated rankings for many events, last year results, same odd ratio regardless of event, missing countries, etc.), but here it is.

No, 2-6 is really too low, 6-8 sounds about right. - 1-2 in biathlon - 1 in xc skiing - 2-3 in alpine skiing - 1 in snowboarding - 1 in short track - 0-1 in speed/figure skating Italy probaby has a disproportionate proportion of outsides chances vs cleat medal favorites that's why they doesen't show up in the gracenote medals table. Gracenote (or anyone trying to do the same thing) should try to rank the top 6/8 in each event assignating each position with an odd to win a medal (from 85% to 5% per exemple), we would end up with a table closer to the truth IMHO.

If they go for the neutral thing,, doest it mean we will see neutral relays and neutral teams ?

Yes, nothing is guaranteed for these sports post Tokyo. Obviously, beeing at Tokyo is by itself a solid argument for future inclusions but it's not a foregone conclusion either.

By the way, 4 days ago, the swiss government delayed its decision on possible support of Sion 2026.

It's over, 'no' won... Edit: the city of Innsbruck voted against by two third. It's dead.

With 84% ot the votes counted, the 'No' is leading by 5,000 votes. The city of Innsbruck yet to come: https://wahlen.tirol.gv.at/volksbefragung_olympia_2026/index.html

I'd love for Contin to have a medal if only that he gets a tribune to call out its federation....

Apparatently, the federation decided not to registerer him a few weeks prior to Sochi without noticing Fernandez. When the federation was publicly called out at Sochi, they answer that they made the call with his coach, Bart Veldkamp, which was not the case. Overall it's a inept federation run by a corupt little, little man, David Gailhaguet, which should have nothing to do with sport. A federation that is letting to die everything not called figure skating. Bottom line: burn with fire.

Not to "forget" to register one of your very few athletes to one of the discipline would be a good start. http://www.leparisien.fr/JO-hiver/sotchi-2014-en-direct/sotchi-2014-ewen-fernandez-patineur-oublie-par-sa-federation-17-02-2014-3598975.php (try your luck with google translate).

If Puigdemont is idiot enough to proclame unilateral independance, then, Catalonia won't be recognised by France or any other international recognised state, thus making such a proposal moot. (same for any UE integration btw). Anyway, even if Catalonia was to secede legally from Spain (and then become an international recognised state), as it stands it would be impossible for FC Barcelona (or any other sports club) to integrate the top league from scratch. They would be asked to start from the very bottom (tier 17th or something)...

The Pyeongchang french team presentation is underway. Between 114 and 115 athletes are expected (106 in Vancouver, 116 in Sochi). The skiing federation is looking at 20 medals. For the ice sport federation, not to look complety stupid would be a good achievment. Outfits (Lacoste):

Did you mean Ski mountaineering which will be featured at Lausanne 2020 ?

Here's one for @hckosice : https://www.canoeicf.com/news/estanguet-urges-canoe-slalom-be-bold-guarantee-future-growth Please, don't be too excited

Yeah... show me the receipt first please...

Apparently, it'll only be a temporary venue. Which is also an option that Sion 2026 is looking at, alongside a foreign rink and an outdoor venue. They will defintly not built a permanent speed skating rink in any case at least. It's a trend the sliding sports and speed skating should be nervous of btw. If future WOG host cities are not even going to built new sliding or speed skating tracks, then what's left for the future of their sports (and for any possible expansion) ?

Speaking of Agenda 2020... Sion 2026 is even proposing to hold the speed skating events outside of the country, in Germany... or even in The Netherlands (in french) . The speed skating arena beeing the only venue Sion 2026 is missing. Could we see the first bidding candidate with zero venue needed to be buit ?

By July 2019 and the 134th IOC session (Milano), we will know where the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be hold. The bidding process is yet to be officially started, but two cities are for now considered as the front runners. Two cities with a very Agenda 2020 feeling (even more so Sion who proposes venues from Lausanne to St Moritz). . Sion (SUI) http://sion2026.ch/ (fr/de) .Innsbruck (AUT) http://www.olympia2026.at/ (de) .Other Potential bidding cities : Lillehammer, Calgary, Salt Lake, Almaty, Gratz, etc. What are your thoughts ? Is agenda going to save the Winter OG ? EDIT: Innsbruck is dead after public vote

Cookson out with 8 votes (out of 45) Lappartient (FRA) is the new UCI president

Sorcery ?

In the old forum, we had a thread called "sports and tragedy" (something like that), maybe it'll be better to revive it ?

I believe there is no turning back at this point in Catalonia...