heywoodu

Beune ain't making it in the 5k. She's being talked about as the big victim of these trials or something, but don't forget she's still going for double gold at the Olympics The actual victims are the ones who aren't making the Olympics, period.

And, to be clear, he was better after Turin than before

12/16 it is in the end, but Rock was just truly demolished - and had a good show of sportsmanship by simply acknowledging that.

Oooh no, broke the streak by not finishing 143 for the match, missed D16

11/11 Surely it's not gonna happen...surely it isn't? This is already the longest ever streak of one-dart doubles

And we go on, it's 10/10 now, it's hard to describe how truly insane this is Rock's reactions say it all, he just has no idea what's happening to him, every single dart at a double is going in.

Justin Hood, one of the big surprises of the championships, is demolishing Josh Rock so far with a truly, truly bizarre performance: he's scoring quite well, but has now won three sets, so nine legs, with a grand total of nine darts for a double. That's correct, he has hit all nine doubles with his first dart, 100% on the doubles, unbelievable

Why would prequalified athletes skate at the trials?

Yep, it is insane, although I was a little annoyed by Mark Tuitert saying this is 'unique in the Netherlands, unique in sports even' - no it's literally not unique in sports But the tension....unbelievable. I'm noticing I feel the tension even worse now that we're in the middle of our own Olympic qualifying process here, it makes the trials both more and less fun to watch And I find it harder to sympathize with athletes like Beune, who miss out on a distance but not on the Olympics, then on athletes who miss out on the Olympics althogether...

My personally favourite system would be something where there is a certain set of high criteria to be pre-selected (like winning at least all but one of the World Cups in a certain distance before the trials), which would really only pre-select the absolute top - disadvantage is that you're somewhat forcing them to be in peak shape for one and a half month or so, which isn't good for Olympic performance, although they can choose to go for the trials of course. Rest of the spots would then be done by trials. That too would have it's drawbacks though. Focus on the World Cup qualifiers would be almost the same as it is for trials now, as one would need to qualify to have a chance of being pre-selected.

Fabris was better in the years after the Olympics than in the years before.

There is no 'NED men's team' I mean, there is a national coach, but it's not really like a national team, more of a collective of riders from different teams who happen to suit up in the same orange during international races. But yes, the 'coach' (more like manager of the team I think, he certainly isn't actually training athletes) of the national team is Rintje Ritsma, the blond guy. Not Gerard van Velde, who you refer to with the 1000m gold (who is also a coach nowadays)

I wouldn't say Veldkamp was too weak, he certainly proved he wasn't, but he did want to avoid the extreme Dutch selection races, yes. Bloemen had multiple reasons, including his dad being Canadian, him wanting to join a certain coach and simply wanted to go to a more 'relaxed' environment.

Braathen's move hurts more than just Norway (it's nice for the Brazilian fans I guess, not necesarily so much for the athletes) But that's another topic, let's mostly keep it to speed skating here

Yes, like in most places, winters are on average getting less cold, and skating on lakes and such is becoming rare. But no, that won't really affect the number of athletes, indoor skating is too common for that

Always lovely to see Kjeld Nuis so insanely angry. Yes, he qualified, but his for-now girlfriend Joy Beune didn't (on the 1500m, she will go to the Olympics, no worries) and now he calls the entire system bullshit and everyone he likes - including himself - should have been pre-selected.

Kjeld Nuis beat team mate Tim Prins in an amazing finish for 3rd place...Prins missed the Olympics by 0,005 seconds. Ouch.

Uh, yeah, that is exactly my question too

Discussion is already going on online about whether that should count as a 'calamity' (no, it shouldn't).

Kok vs Rijpma-De Jong is one of the more epic races I have seen in quite a while

1:53.02 Rijpma-De Jong 1:53.03 Kok 1:53.05 Groenewoud 1:53.22 Beune Wow

And that's Groenewoud beating Beune in the 1500m. Still four to go, including the rather surprising track record holder Femke Kok.

A bit of context: he was already quite a big talent, steadily improving (13:10 debut 10k last year for example), but had a bad accident this summer. During a training camp in Andorra, he was cycling and went downhill, when a car was for whatever reason making a 180 in the middle of a turn, which he could simply not avoid anymore (especially on the wet road). Broke several vertebrae, back injury, etc, spent three days in hospital there and still in September he could only do indoor cycling as training. Then he had good national championships in October, especially given the circumstances, but he was nowhere near fully fit yet, which he now certainly seems to be

Right in the middle of the final qualifying weekend for the Olympics With 18:00 as time there is at least a chance I can post my votes myself, let's see how things go.

Marrit Fledderus is the tragedy of this year, double false start Annoying starter, he let everything go the whole time, even when riders were clearly moving, but now he calls it off..