heywoodu

Interesting qualifiers for the women's tournament at Lakeside. For example, representing Canada, we've got oldie Patricia Farrell who, not joking, can barely reach the T20 There's also Casey Gallagher, who apparently tries to seduce viewers by licking her lips every time she throws:

Any job offerings for becoming Dorothea Wierer's new coach? https://streamable.com/q8z6

I would say either 2 or 5 guys, not 3 6-20 in the Nations Cup get 5 quota (maybe 10-20, not sure, I know the 20th place is the last one to get 5 quota), whereas 21st and 22nd get 2 quota.

I think Canada might have a better score in speed skating than the silver and bronze of 2014 (even without TJ Flowers)

Yes it is (and since my parents met there, it's the reason for my existence ) But a reallocation still won't give you a top-8 or two top-16 finishes, which is what she needs according to our NOC's standards, so it really is highly unlikely unfortunately.

You mean Jelinkova will be in Pyeongchang as spectator or something? Because much as I'd like to see it, I really doubt she'll get one top-8 or two top-16 finishes which is what she needs to qualify Nah, China is way more dominant in table tennis than we are in speed skating...there's a ton of countries with real medal chances in speed skating, whereas China could basically win all three team medals if they could enter three teams (Korfball, that's where we dominate like India in kabaddi..)

Netherlands Ski Sports Alpine Skiing (0) - No Dutch skier is going to get one top-8 or two top-16 finishes in a World Cup and/or the World Championships unless some miracle happens. Cross Country Skiing (0) - As far as I know, we don't have serious FIS-level XC skiers apart from maybe a few who compete in local German/Austrian competitions. Ski Jumping (0) - We only have Lars Antonissen in the Continental Cup, I'd say it's highly unlikely for him to get a top-8 or two top-16 finishes in the World Cup. Nordic Combined (0) - No athletes. Freestyle Skiing (0) - No athletes of top-8/16-level as far as I know. Snowboarding (2) - Cheryl Maas should make it in big air and/or slopestyle and maybe there's some hope for Glenn de Bois in boardercross and Michelle Dekker in parallel giant slalom. I guess there's some freestyle snowboarder, but I don't really care about that sport so, let's just keep it with a total of two, Maas and someone else. Biathlon (0) - All we have are youngsters Jarl Hengstmengl and sister Lilian and Carine Leijn. I believe they can go for the Olympics in 2022, but 2018 is just too early for these teenagers. Skating Sports Speed Skating (20) - Apparently the maximum is 10 men and 10 women and I'd be very surprised if we don't get that maximum. Apart from the women's 500m, we have top-5 skaters in basically every distance and more than one top-10 skater in all of them. Short Track Speed Skating (10) - If I'm not mistaken, 5 men and 5 women are the maximum and I hope we can get that. Now that Jorien ter Mors isn't doing short track anymore it might be a little harder, but with Suzanne Schulting rising up it might be possible. Who knows. Figure Skating (0) - Nah. Sleigh Sports Luge (0) - Nope. Skeleton (1) - Kimberley Bos was the big sensation of last year's World Championships, her debut at the highest level where she finished 8th. It was at her favourite track, but I believe she has a very real chance to qualify for the Olympics if she keeps growing like this. Bobsleigh (0) - Meh. Team Sports Curling (0) - The men have a theoretical chance, but that's more likely to stay theoretical. Ice Hockey (0) - No. Total Optimistic Prediction - (35) Maybe if Joska le Conté manages to join Kimberley Bos in skeleton and we find a total of 3 snowboarders. Total Pessimistic Prediction - (27) Only the 20 speed skaters, one snowboarder, 3 short track men and 3 short track women. Total Realistic Prediction - (33)

Biathlon in some countries is just a real mystery

By the way, one result of under 150 points is sufficient as well to be eligible (so: average of under 180 or at least one result of under 150), so with her 109 points last weekend she is already eligible

They take the average of the three best results in the past three trimesters. IBU has slightly changed the way they publish IBU Qualifying Points (I mean the format of the PDF is a little different), and my Excel sheet doesn't like it, so I'm waiting for my Excel magician to solve the problem so I can start adding results and keeping the list up to date

@Werloc Didn't you say somewhere that Diana Rasimoviciute has divorced from Ilmars Bricis? She's on tomorrow's startlist as Diana Rasimoviciute-Brice

All those photos of hundreds/thousands of fans near the stadium are very sad of course, but I gotta say that one of the most touching photos I've seen this year only has one person on it...

That's what the Norwegian anti-doping is going for, isn't it? The sports authorities still have to decide. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/f53199a1c4e345ee80caef55ff0ec89a/anti-doping-norway-proposes-14-month-doping-ban-johaug

Now reading reports that Neto (defender) has been found alive by rescue workers.

Apparently Danilo has died as well..

Grim as it may sound, I would choose for no trophy being awarded at all.

So goalkeepers Jakson Follman and Danilo, defender Alan Ruschel, a journalist and a stewardess survived. One more person initially survived, but died of his/her wounds later. It's like a Cindarella story gone horribly wrong...I remember following Brazilian football 6-7 years ago and I remember Chapecoense was one of those small Serie D/C teams, and now all of a sudden they were in the Copa Sudamericana final, to end the whole bizarre couple of years with this.. horrible.

BBC/The Guardian saying that the Colombian police has confirmed there are 76 deaths..

Cool, I thought it would be this year But yeah now that you mention it, I remember they said 2019..

So far it's not even on the schedule

Well it was somewhat of an example, but not an unrealistic one. Obviously a Dutch commentator isn't going to pronounce every Croatian or Japanese name exactly correct and a Croatian or Japanese commentator isn't going to pronounce every Dutch name correct, that's logical But there's "pronouncing a name with the accent of your own language" and "coming up with something totally different" Luckily Felix Loch's name is short and magically he's able to pronounce it, but don't even start thinking about the likes of Natalie Geisenberger, Summer Britcher, Eliza Cauce or, God forbid, Dominik Fischnaller. Oh, and Tobias Arlt becomes "Tobias Artol". Every. Single. Time.

That's different for every country/"commentary region" of course Luge is by far the worst here...as in, the commentator is simply literally unable to pronounce most of the names. He just can not pronounce them. Think of "Birgit Platzer" becoming "Bisse Passe" and Semen Pavlichenko morphing into "Seje Pavjovich" or something...it's like stabbing a knife in your ear, horrible. On the other hand, biathlon is quite alright (although I prefer German TV) with ex-biathlete Herbert Cool as our commentator. At least the good thing is that they will probably focus on a rather diverse range of sports in the winter, maybe a bit more than the Germans would and for sure more than the Dutch would. On Dutch NOS speed skating is one of the few sports that's being broadcast live (including super interesting special reports like "Sven Kramer has arrived at the stadium") and in biathlon Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is the only biathlete ever apparently In short: I'm glad Eurosport has the rights, I'm just sad I won't be able to watch the Winter Olympics on German TV where I watch most of my winter sports.

Damn you, I was just going to edit my post with "Oh well, it's not on ice so who cares " but you beat me

No Netherlands

Not yet, first I get to enjoy ARD and ZDF during all winters except for two weeks in 2018