heywoodu

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..

Alright.

If you're capable of skating 12:35 at this very, very high air pressure, you are at the very least someone with an outside shot, if not more. For those new to the Olympics: it's not like a regular competition, there's insane extra pressure and everything, you simply can not just look at the fastest times of the past 1-2 years and say "well, that's gonna be the result". 12:35 in these conditions is absolutely at least as good, if not better, than for example Semirunniy's 12:28 in a 4-way start.

Nicola Tumolero (!) has Olympic bronze, and so does Ghiotto. Fabris in 2006 certainly wasn't someone you could expect to win a medal. There's no reason to be so unbelievably negative man

If you're capable of skating 12:45 at this very, very high air pressure, you are at the very least someone with an outside shot. For those new to the Olympics: it's not like a regular competition, there's insane extra pressure and everything, you simply can not just look at the fastest times of the past 1-2 years and say "well, that's gonna be the result".

Stefano Donagrandi and Ippolito Sanfratello of all places have an Olympic gold medal hanging at home Just....dude. Seriously. Dude.

But let's keep it to speed skating in the speed skating thread

12:36 for Stijn van de Bunt, arguably even more impressive than his 5k, wow. Just wow, nearly a national record! What a guy.

That's an error indeed Better translation would be: "By the way, Kok is guaranteed a spot in case she finishes in the top-3."

But we used to at least have multiple countries and some cool long A to B stages and such.

Tour de Ski is underway Too bad nowadays it's just nothing special anymore and basically just two regular World Cup events, but still kinda nice.

After yesterday I'm somewhat worried about Joy Beune's shape, but if she gets back to her earlier form, that would not surprise me neither, no

Meanwhile is on course for I guess it's worst speed skating results, at least among the men, in many, many years. Zero chance for gold in the 500, 1000 and 1500 meters, obviously no chance in the 5000 as well and not even a remote chance in the 10k. Team pursuit is also very mediocre. Perhaps a miracle in the mass start, who knows.

Yeah, no, like I said: there's basically no chance at all Italian speed skaters will even get a top-6. I'd be surprised if they even get a single top-10 in Milan.

Yeah, you've decided to keep going on this ultrapessimist streak? Alrighty. I honestly don't think any Italian skater can even get into the top-6 in any event at all, it's a miracle they qualified

Whoops

3:50 incoming for Beune

34.14 for Sebas Diniz, wow After a, for Dutch sprinters, unreal 9.48 opening.