De_Gambassi

Roy Jones Jr has his 1988 Olympic gold medal, because his opponent in that final didn't consider himself the winner.
 
 

These are live on YT and the FIS-Ski Website
 
FIS Cross Country - YouTube

Meant to ask this during the Olympics, but how many of you non-USA peeps are familiar with this song?  In case you don't know, this was written for the LA84 games by John Williams, renowned film score composer (Star Wars, Superman, Jurassic Park, etc.).  NBC now uses this all the time in their Olympic promos, intros, etc.
 
I had a friend who moved from the US to England, and when the Olympics came on, he commented that he missed this song.  So, perhaps this song is unknown to non-USers...but I have a sneaky suspicion that you Olympics nerds might have heard it.  
 
 
 
Another one NBC uses (though I just learned myself that this was originally by French-American Leo Arnaud, called Bugler's Dream, dating back to the 1964 Tokyo games...apparently in 1996, John Williams combined it with Olympic Fanfare): 
 
 
The combined version:
 
Edit: I'm hoping to make it to an athletics session at LA28 so I can be in the stadium where he directed the orchestra to perform this song during the Opening Ceremony.  Williams is still alive, and at 94, I hope he can hang in there two more years to see the Olympics return to LA and receive some honor.  He also composed music for Atlanta '96, and the opening theme of Summon the Heroes also gets used by NBC a lot:  
 
 

Some changes that I've noticed:
 
3x3 Basketball: With the expanded 12 team field, one extra team per gender qualifies through world rankings, one extra team qualifies through the universality driven tournament and there's now an Olympic Qualifier series to award the final quotas.
 
Beach Volleyball: Continental qualifiers have have priority over the World championship and World Rankings quotas and there's now Olympic Qualifier Series quotas.
 
Canoe Sprint: World ranking system now in place and will be used instead of awarding world championship quotas.
 
Road Cycling: 2 nations ranking quotas per gender moved to universality.
 
Track Cycling: Sprint and Keirin ranking list is now combined and will award 14 quotas per gender. Previously it was 7+7. Team pursuit down to 8 quotas from 10. 2 of the quotas have been moved to madison (one additional team) and 6 to the omnium.
 
Fencing: Can get a Continental quota of you finished in the top 24 of the rankings. It was previously top 16. 
 
Hockey: 2 pro league quotas replace two qualification tournament quotas.
 
Judo: 5 less universality places and 4 more Continental places. For men, there's two more spots for Asia, one less for Oceania and 1 more for the Americas. For the women, there's one more spot for Europe, one less for Oceania and two more for Asia.
 
Modern Pentathlon: Less quotas awarded through world rankings as a result of quota cuts.
 
Open Water Swimming: Introduction of world ranking qualifier.
 
Sailing: In general, seems to be more quotas awarded at the last chance regatta and less quotas at the World Championships
 
Shooting: One less quota handed out at each World Championship and the return of World Cup qualifiers.
 
Swimming: Olympic qualification and consideration times renamed to A and B standard. B standard is now 1% slower than the A standard compared to 0.5% in 2024. Stroke 50s have their own direct qualification events and have minimum time standards instead of A and B standards. Qualification times have been nuked again. B standard selection process has also changed.
 
Volleyball: New revised format. Continental championships first, then world championships followed by world rankings. In 2024, it was 3 qualification tournaments and then world rankings. Only 3 countries per gender will qualify by world rankings now compared to 5 in 2024

High Jumping session of Ukrainian Indoor Athletics Championship.
 
 
Mahuchck, Levchenko, Herashchenko, Doroshcjuk and others.
 
* In case of russian attack alert the event will be paused and the athletes will go to the shelter, as it happened yesterday. It will be resumed when it is safe
 
 

National record with 233.5m for Marco Heinis (NC or Ski flying)
 
 

Francesca Lollobrigida revealed in an interview why she's struggling so bad this season 
 
she's got a virus (she didn't specify which one, mononucleosis might be an educated guess), debilitating her since the beginning of the season and making her think even about possible retirement before the Home Olympics
 
luckily, she didn't, but of course she's not competitive for the medals (and this hurts a lot our speedskating and our Olympics in general)
 
an extract of the interview (in Italian):
 
https://www.oasport.it/2026/01/francesca-lollobrigida-uninfezione-virale-mi-ha-messo-ko-nei-mesi-piu-importanti-ho-pensato-anche-di-smettere/

Indians have rediscovered hockey due to recent Olympic and Asian level successes. One of the catalyst was a sports movie called 'Chak De! India' (meaning Go India in Punjabi) which is a underdog movie on the women's team. The movie songs has become an iconic patriotic song to motivate our athletes in sports events and the movie title 'Chak De' has become a slogan in itself. 
The movie is available in Netflix France as well - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0871510/

has poured money into Hockey and popularity of the sport has grown. The state government of Odisha has even adopted hockey and the previous two editions of World Cup was held there. won bronze medals in 2020 and 2024 too.
For  its more about adminstrative mismanagement and all their sports is declining

India and Pakistan totally losing the plot in this sport, sad.

Moi 
La FDJ avec son programme de supporters avait déniché 50 pélos en octobre pour faire le trajet à Inzell sur un week-end sans compétition. Avec des prix un minimum attractifs (ou pas tant que ça) tu peux facilement t'arranger pour faire un truc un peu massif si les résultats suivent avant. Ca reste les JO "à domicile". Et mine de rien ça reste une discipline cousine du roller, et la seule chance pour ses athlètes de briller au niveau olympique, et on est un pays de roller en plus de ça (plus de licenciés à la FFRS qu'en boxe, tir à l'arc ou triathlon).

Finnish ski association released a statement. Translated using DeepL.

You can find it here in finnish:
https://hiihtoliitto.fi/hiihtoliitto-pyytaa-fisn-eettista-toimielinta-selvittamaan-olympiasprintin-tapahtumat/


The Ski Association lodged a protest against the competition because, after the competition, it emerged that FIS had granted the Norwegian service team permission to bring a waxing table into the service area during the sprint skiing stage, even though this was not permitted under the advance instructions given by FIS to the teams and not even brought into the supervised service area. FIS did not inform other national teams about the possibility of using waxing pads. In addition, after the competition, it became apparent that the US national team had brought prohibited liquids into the service area. According to the rules, bringing any kind of liquid into the supervised service area was strictly prohibited, but no action was taken. Norwegian and US skiers won all the medals in the competition. The FIS later apologized for its actions and admitted that mistakes had been made in both cases.
 
According to Marleena Valtasola, Executive Director of the Finnish Ski Association, the FIS has not yet given the Ski Association a decision on Finland's protest.
 
"Despite several requests, we have not received a decision on our protest or answers to related questions. According to Norwegian media reports, FIS has rejected our complaint, but we have not been given any official decision. We interpret this to mean that the FIS has not even agreed to consider the matter. We find this very strange, considering that the FIS has publicly admitted that a mistake was made in the competition," says Valtasola. There has been public discussion about the protest deadline having been exceeded. However, the deadline for protests is one month after the end of the competition when a rule violation only becomes apparent after the competition. Our protest should therefore have been considered.
 
As a follow-up, we will ask the FIS's independent ethics body to investigate the matter and its handling. This body does not take a position on the results of the competition or the competition rules, so we are not demanding that the performances of the Norwegian or American skiers be invalidated. Rather, our demand is to investigate the events of the competition from the perspective of fairness, says Valtasola. It cannot be the case that some competitors are subject to different rules than others. In our opinion, it is also unacceptable for the protest to be simply swept under the carpet. Actions must be based on fair rules.
 
Through its actions, the Ski Association wants to promote fair competition and ensure that all athletes and teams have equal opportunities to compete for victory in the future.
 
We chose this course of action because it is the best solution from a sporting perspective and we believe that it offers the greatest opportunity to influence the future. Above all, it is a question of reviewing the integrity of the FIS's operations. This will no longer affect the results of the Olympic competition, but this must not happen again in the future; things must be handled better," says Valtasola.
 
The Finnish Olympic Committee supports the actions of the Ski Association.
 
"A clear mistake was made in the Olympic competition, which placed athletes in an unequal position. Such a significant error should be followed by more than just an apology, so we think it is good that the Ski Association is thoroughly investigating the matter with the FIS, says Janne Hänninen, Director of Elite Sports at the Olympic Committee.
 

Thank you for your great work ! 28 extra Top 8 for us is a fantastic performance !

Nah, it was and still is and outdoor stadium
 
1992 :


 
Today :
 

Yes, it was converted to an athletic track right after the games.

Dans 4 ans, nous accueillerons de nouveau les Jeux Olympiques. Cela mérite bien son thread d'autant plus qu'il risque d'y avoir beaucoup de choses à dire 
 
Pour se mettre dans le bain, deux articles d'Eurosport sur ce que pourrait être l'équipe olympique 2030
 
https://www.eurosport.fr/jeux-olympiques/jeux-olympiques-milan-cortina-2026/2026/jo-milan-cortina-2026-et-maintenant-place-a-la-generation-2030-premiere-partie_sto23273461/story.shtml
 
https://www.eurosport.fr/jeux-olympiques/jeux-olympiques-milan-cortina-2026/2026/jo-milan-cortina-2026-et-maintenant-place-a-la-generation-2030-deuxieme-partie_sto23273583/story.shtml
 

Biggest changes in the number of top 8 if compared to 2022.
 
Positive:
+29
+28
+13
+12
+10
+10
+8
+8
 +8
 
Negative:
-8
-6
-5
-5
 
 
 

Final table:
 
  NOC   points gold silver bronze 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th total 1 NOR Norway 446 18 12 11 11 9 15 5 6 87 2 USA United States 414 12 12 9 12 15 9 10 13 92 3 ITA Italy 361 10 6 14 9 14 10 9 6 78 4 GER Germany 310 8 10 8 14 3 6 10 8 67 5 FRA France 291 8 9 6 9 10 7 7 8 64 6 CAN Canada 265 5 7 9 3 14 9 9 6 62 7 SUI Switzerland 265 6 9 8 8 5 9 8 3 56 8 AUT Austria 233 5 8 5 5 9 4 12 10 58 9 JPN Japan 232 5 7 12 6 1 8 4 5 48 10 NED Netherlands 210 10 7 3 6 5 1 3 4 39 11 CHN China 197 5 4 6 5 7 5 8 9 49 12 SWE Sweden 178 8 6 4 4 4 1 4 1 32 13 KOR South Korea 103 3 4 3 2 2 2 2 5 23 14 GBR Great Britain 88 3 1 1 5 2 4 3 0 19 15 FIN Finland 86 0 1 5 3 3 4 4 2 22 16 AUS Australia 77 3 2 1 2 3 1 2 4 18 17 CZE Czechia 67 2 2 1 0 4 2 2 5 18 18 POL Poland 55 0 3 1 2 0 3 2 5 16 19 SLO Slovenia 42 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 8 20 LAT Latvia 37 0 1 1 3 2 0 0 1 8 21 NZL New Zealand 33 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 5 11 22 BEL Belgium 27 0 0 1 1 1 3 1 1 8 23 AIN   26 0 1 0 1 1 3 0 1 7 24 ESP Spain 24 1 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 4 25 KAZ Kazakhstan 20 1 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 8 26 BUL Bulgaria 19 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 0 4 27 EST Estonia 14 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 0 4 28 GEO Georgia 12 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 29 DEN Denmark 9 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 30 UKR Ukraine 9 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 4 31 BRA Brazil 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 32 HUN Hungary 8 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 3 33 SVK Slovakia 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 34 ROU Romania 4 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 35 LTU Lithuania 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 36 HKG Hong Kong 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 37 IRL Ireland 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1  
 

Alpine skiing (10)
 
*No changes. I don't regret neither the old combined events, nor the team event. I think we have the best possible outcome now. Schedule could be revisited though.
 
Biathlon (11)
 
* Single mixed relay instead of regular mixed relay. If you want a third relay, let's have one with a different format. Two teams per country
 
Bobsleigh (4 -> 3)
 
* Drop that Monobob nonsense. It's ok, if we don't have the exact same number of events between males and females. Two teams per country (sorry Germany), push for standardized bobsleighs in two-woman and two-men.
 
Cross-country skiing (12 -> 14)
 
 
* Have both free and classical sprint events
* Make sure you have real sprint courses, and no Klaebo-sprint courses
 
 
Curling (3)
 
*As a pure two-weeks-every-four-years curling guy, I prefer the mixed format over the longest one, but I assume purists will disagree, so it's ok 
 
Figure skating (5 -> 4)
 
*Drop the team event or come with something better. As it stands, it's too much artificial.
 
Freestyle skiing (15 -> 13)
 
 
* Remove aerials altogether. It was ok to have gymnasts doing crazy stuff on air for a time, but with the inclusion of other crazy stuff from actual skiers, it became pointless
* Keep dual moguls, but tweak it so that speed becomes way more prevalent
* Add mixed skicross event
 
 
Ice hockey (2)
 
- ok -
 
Luge (5)
 
* Drop the women's double, not competitive enough.
 
Nordic combined (3 -> 4)
 
* Keept it !
* Add one women's events, no need for more
* Make one of the men's event a Mass Start
* Add one woman to the relay
 
Short-track speed skating (9)
 
- ok -
 
Skeleton (3)
 
- ok -
 
Ski jumping (6 -> 5)
 
* Have only one mixed team event and that's it.
 
Ski mountaineering (3 -> 5)
 
* Make it a core sport ! (I believe it brings enough variety to the program to keep it for good)
* Have sprint events ont the longest relay course
* Add individual events
 
Snowboarding (11 -> 14)
 
* Add a parallel slalom team event
* Add freeride events
 
Speed skating (14 -> 13)
 
* Drop the Mass Start, it's not your sport ! 
* Bring an all-around team event, or possibly both individual all-around events if the athletes are up for it. 
 
Bandy (as an additional sport) (0-1)
 
* Men only, and if it makes sense for the host country.
 
 
TOTAL: 116 -> 118/119

And why not Judo also ? Tnank you for the proposal Seb Coe 
 
https://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/jeux-olympiques/le-judo-et-le-vtt-bientot-aux-jo-d-hiver-le-projet-fou-pour-la-prochaine-edition-des-jeux-2030-en-france_AV-202510090454.html

The return of the best thread at the end of each olympics 

With a single medal, better ranking for  compared to 2024 Summer Olympics (19 vs. 20) 

Women's only:
 
1.  6-6-3
2.  6-4-0
3.  6-3-8
4.  6-2-4
 
Men's only: 
 
1.  14-5-8
2.  4-7-1
3.  4-3-6
 
 
Mixed only: 
 
1.  3-0-1
2.  2-2-0
3.  2-0-0

The return of the best thread at the end of each olympics