heywoodu

Oh wow, that is horrible for - I assume - Dylan Longridge.

Not sure Romania understood that message, or am I wrong and did they not just announce 7 (!) flag bearers?!

Really wonder who has (officially) declined one then. I know Germany earlier said they would likely do so, but no idea if that's official yet. Might also raise a tiny bit of hope for Gaia Brunello..

As someone who is always very strongly against officials taking away these honors from athletes (like small nations often do), no thanks

I assume like basically all countries they will choose two, and I would be highly surprised if Braathen isn't one of them

It's annoying IBU isn't like FIS in this sense. FIS' page is perfect to keep track of things, IBU has....nothing. As far as I know we have to simply wait for them to say the final list or something.

She has been having a shitty season, especially due to illness, so Ruhpolding absolutely wasn't her normal level. Last season she was way better (and healthier) and due to that she still has a chance on reallocation. But for that I'd refer to the biathlon thread so we can keep it about Nordic combined here

We'll see, who knows having a woman at the head will be the saving grace for Nordic combined by letting the women in after these Olympics.

Yeah, I am still going to hold on to the hope that IOC is not going completely nuts and cutting off one of the most classic Olympic winter sports (after all, as a serious competitive event it basically precedes both cross-country skiing and ski jumping).

I'm mostly surprised even had a quota, who knew. Don't get me wrong, I'd have found it super cool to see him at the Olympics, but I think it's four years too early. Well, or more, since actually demanded at least one top-8 in the World Cup.

20 years ago everything was easier, including qualifying for the Olympics as a 'small nation' athlete...things change

After and now also and have accepted a reallocated women's quota, three left which should go to Switzerland, France and Austria. How horrible it must be to be the 5th Australian right now (Maddie Hooker, I'd guess), knowing you're next in line if anyone rejects anything and so theoretically still having a chance, but also knowing that's just not going to happen

Because unfortunately emotions don't count in actually giving the quotas Italy could have had two more quotas, if they had performed better and were placed higher on the ranking. I'd love to see these guys there, but don't think host quotas should be used for that.

The host quotas are not to ensure the host nation has the biggest possible team, they're to ensure they are represented in all sports. Italy doesn't get host quota in for example cross-country skiing, because they don't need them, they already qualify through the usual way.

Somewhat annoyingly there's some comments on some social media about how the Brazilian ranking favored those who are good in sprints (i.e. Bruna), over those who are good at distance races, and so the ranking 'was unfair'. Sigh. To be clear: the internal ranking consisted of three (3) classic sprints and also three (3) freestyle distance races within the qualifying period. Average of those 6 results decided. Not a weighted average or anything, simply an outright average. In case more than one athlete reached the A criteria, there would be a ranking that does in fact favor a discipline - distance. That ranking would consist of 2 classic sprints, 2 freestyle distance races and 2 'wildcards' which would be any discipline. Considering the number of points in distance races is nearly always lower, that would favor whoever is better in distance races. And that makes sense, because with A criteria, one would actually do 3 distance races and 2 sprints. However, with no A criteria, one will do 2 sprints and 1 distance race at the Olympics. So even though the ranking that decided things now did not in fact favor sprints, it would not even be bad if it did, since there will be more sprints than distance races. I guess it's disappointed talking for people who had hoped to see someone else qualify and don't really know how the qualifying system works in reality. That's fine, although I'd generally try to be more respectful.

She was specifically strong in distance classic though, while the 10k interval will be freestyle... I would probably go for this list: Janatova Havlickova Jaklova Schuetzova Antosova Beranova Milerska as 7th But that's after just a quick look, I'm not that deep into all of their results and specialties, I must admit.

To be clear, am I seeing and reading this correctly that Brazil needs three women's quota to be rejected in order for Gaia to be in, assuming the ranking on Wikipedia is correct (which I hope, since it seems to be the only reliable place to get the list in an easy to use format)?

What are the criteria, do you know? Speaking from a performance point of view, one would assume Antosova should be in the first 6 anyway...

Looks like Switzerland, Italy, France, Canada, Czech Republic, Austria and Estonia will get one more women's quota and France, Finland and USA one more men's quota, if the last few countries don't do anything weird.

Italy accepted them all, surprise

Japan has dropped 3 out of 4 women's quota (and accepted al 3 men's quota) Makes you wonder what their criteria were exactly, since they've got 10 women under 100 FIS points, and plenty more of course with A criteria.

Surprise, Norway accepted all 16 quota Only a few to go for the women: Great Britain Germany Italy Japan Macedonia Malta Sweden

I wonder what they are, since their man isn't necessarilly way better. Although he may have had a better World Cup result I guess.

Tried to find anything, but I couldn't. I am just beyond shocked rejected their women's quota, considering Nina Riedener has the A criterium and so is allowed to start in every single individual race, and even if she is injured (unlikely, she competed last weekend in the World Cup), 16-year old Annina Ühli is under 2 points away from A criterium and has already beating Riedener. What the hell.

What the hell, right when they actually have two athletes instead of one who would be very much capable of being highly competitive in the 'small nations fight'