heywoodu

Oh absolutely. My point isn't so much about the French women not being strong enough for medals, but more for the French men also being strong enough for medals Of course it can go many ways in the end, but France does have absolutely huge potential all across the board at the moment. More so than, say, Norway, which depends much more on certain athletes scoring big.

To be fair, I do think both French relays have a more than serious chance for a medal, including gold. The women because of their depth, and the men because if Jacquelin and Fillon Maillet have a good day, they basically only need two 'alright' performances from the rest. If Jacquelin and Fillon Maillet have a good day and the other two are actually good as well, France is nearly unbeatable. In the women's team nobody seems to stick out like Jacquelin and Fillon Maillet can, but their 3rd and 4th athletes seem better than the men's 3rd and 4th athletes, so...

But that's a sample of like three races, a majority of which was largely done with athletes who aren't even active anymore. The statistics don't really speak at all there

A couple of days, yes. So let's hope!

It's now out in the open, so: Monday @brunamoura was selected and announced as part of the Brazilian team for Beijing. The same day she did a COVID test.....which came back positive. Long story short, now we're hoping hard for a test to be negative in time for her to still make it to the Olympics before the Brazilian authorities need to make an (understandable) decision to go for a replacement athlete. So, we wait and we keep hoping. There isn't really anything she realistically could have done differently to avoid it, so it's pure bad luck...hopefully there's some good luck coming soon.

Since it's on social media now anyway, a bit more explanation about the 'little battle' mentioned: https://www.instagram.com/p/CY__hFEPmtX/

Yeah, he has been part of the (originally Australian/Brazilian and sometimes slightly Spanish/Irish) Bormolini team for a few years already, and I don't see them letting him go anytime soon It seems to work for him though, better than for anyone else in the organization. But it also makes me wonder what would be possible if he could at some point join something bigger.

Now I'm curious if he'll stay with the team/coach he has been with for the past few years, or if he'll try and join a bigger team or something.

That must be Canada-specific then, since everywhere else nothing happens until a country actively refuses or accepts a reallocated spot...

Nasty fall from Josef Ferstl in the Kitzbühel downhill training today. He does seem to be relatively ok, according to his own statement, but this weekend sounds doubtful.

Theoretically, yes (in case Bulina has under 150 IBU points, which I believe she does?).

Yep. And it's not like they're not good enough...I mean, they're no medal contenders of course, but they are definitely fine skiers. But the way I understood it is they (the women, at least) needed to get under 70 FIS points in a classic race according to some internal criteria. Which they were planning to do last week, until a bunch of stronger outsiders came along and their chances to do so were basically gone. Possibly same thing, but different number for the men.

They declined everything Two women's spots, one men's. Presumably because the races in Zlatibor last week were....kind of messed up for them by the presence of all kinds of outsiders (Spain, Brazil and such).

So it should be Polona Klemencic and Lena Repinc, maximum? Hmm, I thought those quotas for the nations outside the top-12 were based on the individual ranking (which they are), but were for the NOC instead of the specific athlete (with the NOC then able to decide which eligible athlete uses the quota). Interesting situation, now I'm curious how it's actually going to be!

Ziva's points are no problem at all. The minimum is under 150 IBU points and her total is 88.44 at the moment, so that's easily enough. The bigger question is: what about the much better placed Lena Repinc?!

That's the whole point

To be fair, I do think the Slovaks would have seen it and I do think Sara Ponya had plans for the Lebanon races anyway, so no worries

Then Brazil's chances for a third women's ticket could have possibly improved due to nobody contacting the Slovaks and Sara Ponya?

Kazakhstan accepted.

And has always had to do everything alone, if I'm not mistaken. No help at all from the Dutch federation.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CY3aG7Kom-O/?utm_medium=copy_link Eva Urevc tested positive.

Latvia has just accepted their 5th women's quota...

Poland is the first to accept a reallocated women's quota.

They want to avoid the Tokyo drama and really want to make sure my uncle Bob and your aunt Betty aren't in that flight this time?

Possibly. I have no idea if she was paying attention to this at all, so I've at least pointed her towards this potential situation. I really do hope this would open the way to the 30k for her while still leaving Latvia with a full relay team. Win-win, one might say.