heywoodu

By the way, not expecting too much from Bruna today (neither is she). It's classic style, which she's normally pretty good at, but in classic you do need to kick your foot against the snow fairly strong to get the best grip your skis can offer, but exactly that - pushing down hard with the feet - is still a significant problem with the foot that was partially crushed last year. We'll see what happens, but yesterday she kept 29 women behind her and if she can do something similar today that would already be amazing. I'm hoping for 20 women or so behind her, so top-80 or so today And even much more than in freestyle, the preparation of the skis is absolutely crucial, so hopefully they're done good, but that's out of her control of course.

By the way, 212 FIS points for Bruna today. Not only did she qualify for the 10k (and now we're trying to see if she'll actually compete in it, her boss already said he'll help in paying for the longer stay), 212 is the best ever points result in a somewhat big international race for her She has dozens of South American races, both on snow and on rollerskis, with better points of course, but I'm not really counting those, and I'm not really counting the Balkan Cup races in Serbia of last winter neither, since the Balkan Cup is basically the points farming competition of the world So race one after nearly dying in a car crash, and it's arguably the best race of her career, wow.

Good thing Polona Klemencic keeps it with biathlon.

He already has quite some support if I'm not mistaken, a rather professional team he trains with back home in France (not sure if it's his team or he trains with the team, but I believe the Dutch commentator mentioned a fairly known French coach)

Just missed her call because her boss was calling me (to say free days are no problem if she wants to stay for the 10k ), so I couldn't confirm it yet, but I'm 99% sure I heard a HUGE scream from Bruna in the background when one of the athletes finished a few seconds slower (and so Bruna's top-10 was as good as sure)

Yeah that was cool to see! I don't care if you finish 1st or 25th, if you finish the way Beyrami did, 100% fighting to the limit, you've automatically got my respect

And rightfully so, her finish was fantastic! Diggins-like in terms of going to the limit

Wow

Oh sorry, I misunderstood! I was checking the FIS points list a few days ago, and saw that in the most recent points list, she has no points anymore. Not 0 (that's for World Cup winners), but she wasn't in the list with any amount of points. The distance races generally start in reversed points order: worst points first, best points last. The question was where athletes with NO points would start, so I checked the start list of the qualifying 5k in Oberstdorf two years ago, and there were two no-point-athletes in the women's race there...who started before all the athletes with any amount of points. We didn't know if there would be other no-point-athletes here of course, but it did mean that in the same rules, she'd have a big chance to have bib 1, and that's what happened

Ah too bad, so Bruna missing a year of competition already automatically makes those two events an impossibility. Oh well, considering expenses are paid by the federation only for the two qualifying races (and so staying for the team sprint of Sunday would already be expensive because we have to pay that ourselves), I don't think she'd do the 10k anyway, let alone the races even later in the program if it was even possible

But with a certain amount of points, I believe. Like a double criterion.

By the way, does anyone know actually what is necessary for athletes tomorrow to qualify for the main race? FIS documentation is poor, to say it in a very positive way.

We live together (in my parents' house, but looking for our own place), that helps

Oh wow, looks like Eurosport.com will have a live stream of the opening ceremony

Y'all, guess who will carry the Brazilian flag in the opening ceremony tonight! I'm hoping this live stream is a real thing and not one of those gazillion fake YouTube 'live streams'

One day to go, which means: tonight is Team Captain's Meeting night, with the start list being made up and then we finally know who are competing! Considering Bruna's injury status is over, she now has no FIS points in the most recent list, which either means she'll start very early or very late. As per usual rules, that should be very early for the 5k race, in Oberstdorf two years ago the two athletes with no FIS points were the first ones to start. That could mean Bruna might even have bib #1 tomorrow, which would be absolutely awesome First up is tonight's opening ceremony though!

Doesn't that make perfect sense though? I mean, not selling your paintings = no income, so no income tax. Selling your paintings = income, so income tax. Unless I am misunderstanding it, which is realistic since I barely even understand Dutch tax laws and stuff (I really need to learn more about those things)

That I absolutely agree with One would assume the drivers know though. If you know there can be a caution in the final lap, you might change from timing the move right, to making sure you're in front if at all possible. Or of course stick in second and time your move, but while taking the risk for a caution.

I saw people on a Dutch forum be confused as well, just like the Dutch commentator, but I don't really get how it's so confusing I mean, caution in the last lap = end of race = first car wins, it was fairly straightforward.... I don't like this new thing, because the caution was entirely unnecessary in the first place and so they could easily have raced until the line (and then thrown the caution of course, just to keep things safe), but as much as I disagree with the rule, I didn't find it confusing to be honest

Today was a great example of why the one-run thing is absolute bullshit btw. The red course was visibly way worse than the blue course, Caviezel was the best in the final and only lost because he was on the wrong course... Anyhow, not like they're going to change it to a more logical format Edit: not to take anything away from Kwiatkowski btw, he was impressive today of course

In other words, the freestyle events might just as well be taken off the programme, because even the freestyle events don't want it

Oh come on, I'm watching all the indoor tour meets and she does it in national championships, which I wasn't really going to watch because I forgot, in Apeldoorn of all places? But holy smokes, what a time. How many of those 80's women's records are left to be taken out now?

Fantastic race by Lunder as well.

Simon throwing some coins in the parking meter.

Tandrevold just pulled the brakes on the Simon-train