heywoodu

Happy holidays to you as well

Didn't know there was controversy around for example Melissa Bishop, who beat her in two global finals in two years

1. Denmark 2. Johannes Dale 3. Kaori Sakamoto 4. Viktor Hovland 5. Canada 6. France 7. USA 8. USA 9. Coco Gauff 10. Texas Rangers 11. Novak Djokovic 12. Max Verstappen

Yeah, I'm fine with the cross for the YOG, but just would have liked to see a bit more than this. The entire YOG program now is smaller than some World Cup weekends. It should at the very least have a mass start distance event, like the skiathlon indeed. Wouldn't say I'd be much impressed with another sprint event, with the individual sprint and only 5k in the relays the short-distance specialists, even for youth athletes, already have (relatively) enough to shine. Would have been better to add a skiathlon of at least 10k, youth athletes are young, but not incapable of racing

Apparently Norway has, for whatever reason, refused every single quota in cross-country skiing and alpine skiing

Which is excellent in the cross-country skiing. The Brazilian federation already made their choice for the one boy and one girl long ago (despite the fight in the boys' race still going on, they wanted to have one person to focus on, as per their usual modus operandi), but strangely suddenly switched the boys' choice one or two weeks ago, basically out of nowhere and without really any clear reason. Now that they've got two spots for both the boys (so both can go) and the girls (where the choice really is super easy), that problem is solved nicely

What's going on with the cross-country skiing program being cut to almost nothing? It's only an individual sprint, an individual short-distance race and a mixed relay...and that's all. At least alpine skiing has a somewhat decent program, but damn. I know it's the Youth Olympics, but one would hope the 'development' part would be more in terms of the athletes than the program still being underdeveloped Not that this, or the whole scheduling thing, will matter at all here in the Netherlands. It's the Youth Olympics, nobody will even know it's going on except for people who are on super niche forums like this one (which is how I know)

Yeah, too bad, definitely one of my all-time highlights in sports. I even decided to wake Bruna up from her post-training nap because I felt this was such a historic moment, she really shouldn't miss it It is fun to see everyone's opinions though. Plenty of people won't even know this happened, while someone else's sports moments (like the Edin one mentioned) may make me go "Huh?" in return

That's a matter of opinion of course. As someone who is neither Italian nor a big follower of tennis, I very much find it understandable given the historic value of it. Much more so than for example one of gazillion swimming relays, but that's the thing: other people might value that one more, and that's fine too

Dear Lord, how could I oversee Jordan Stolz, the premature reincarnation of Eric Heiden? See? That's why I need to write things down

I always think the 'sports moment of the year' category is by far the most open and diverse There's honestly going to be dozens of moments that made me go "wow!" this year, which I just can't remember off the top of my head. Like I said before, I really need to write those things down when they happen

Merry Christmas everyone, may the food be tasty As for gifts: some people in the Netherlands participate in it, others don't, as always because especially for families with children there was 5 December As for my own family: we've got a few presents under the tree, which will be opened on New Year's Eve for practical reasons - my sister and her boyfriend can't come on Christmas due to my sister having to work night shifts at the hospital, so they'll visit on New Year's Eve and then we open the Christmas presents.

BEST MALE ATHLETE for sportsmen in Olympic sports #1: Mathieu van der Poel (road cycling) #2: Johannes Thingnes Bø (biathlon) #3: Noah Lyles (athletics) #4: Marco Odermatt (alpine skiing) #5: Leon Marchand (swimming) #6: BEST FEMALE ATHLETE for sportswomen in Olympic sports #1: Faith Kipyegon (athletics) #2: Mollie O'Callaghan (swimming) #3: Xandra Velzeboer (shorttrack skating) #4: Simone Biles (artistic gymnastics) #5: #6: BEST NON-OLYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Non-Olympic sports and disciplines #1: Max Verstappen (F1) #2: Francesco Bagnaia (MotoGP) #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST PARALYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes with a disability #1: Aline Rocha (wheelchair racing, cross-country skiing) #2: #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST YOUTH ATHLETE for athletes up to 18 years old (born after January 1st, 2005) (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: #2: #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST MEN'S TEAM for national men's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Team Jumbo-Visma (road cycling) #2: Men's cross-country skiing relay #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST WOMEN'S TEAM for national women's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Women's cross-country skiing relay #2: Women's shorttrack relay #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST DOUBLES/PAIR OR MIXED TEAM for doubles and pairs or mixed teams and groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: #2: #3: #4: #5: #6: BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR for the most improved athlete (aged 19 or over) or national team (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Alexandria Loutitt (ski jumping) #2: Qin Haiyang (swimming) #3: Pietro Sighel (shorttrack skating) #4: Cian Uijtdebroeks (road cycling) #5: Olav Kooij (road cycling) #6: Laurence St-Germain (alpine skiing) COMEBACK OF THE YEAR for athletes or national teams who made a comeback performance in 2023 (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Bruna Moura (cross-country skiing) #2: Simone Biles (artistic gymnastics) #3: #4: #5: #6: SPORT MOMENT OF THE YEAR for any sport moment from 2023 #1: Mathieu van der Poel's solo ride to the road cycling world title #2: Not one single moment, but the 2023 MotoGP season #3: Laurence St Germain's sensational world title on the slalom (alpine skiing) #4: #5: #6:

Or Guri Hetland, born Guri Knotten, for her 7th place in the cross-country skiing World Cup in Engelberg in 1999 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guri_Hetland

Singular If I can manage to double my average speed (I'm not training, so that'd be a challenge), I'd almost be slightly competitive in a national competition

Guri who? I mean, I watch every World Cup, most of the IBU Cups and check all the results up to Junior Cup and even Alpen Cups, but I don't think I've ever heard of Guri Knotten

I'll try to think of my votes tomorrow, although...yeah, insanely difficult

I'd rather blame both. The welfare system in general is more than excellent, especially compared to plenty of countries where even if you physically can't work (sick, injured, whatever), you're out of luck and will have to make do with nearly nothing. The problem with the welfare system is not 'everything', it's mostly the way how easily millions go to certain countries, often by simply spending a week or so working, and then just taking the money and taking a few months vacation until they need to come for the next week of work to finance the next few months In terms of helping out the people within who actually need it, it works fairly well. Not great, but...somewhat ok. But I'd mostly blame the people more who shamelessly abuse it, both people within the country as well as was the case with the Bulgarian gangs (presumably some other countries too, but since it was largely Bulgarians, it's literally mentioned as 'de Bulgarenfraude', which probably doesn't need translation That all being said, I'm still glad I'm not the one in charge of making the rules, because it is absolutely going to be impossible to find a set of rules that is actually fair for everyone and whichever set of rules one creates, people are going to say it's wrong.

Curious what happens if Wilders does indeed become prime minister, he doesn't strike me as the type who'd be easily willing to overlook the massive Bulgarian fraud by all the people who 'worked' here for a few days, then went back, claimed welfare money for a whole year or so and funneled millions and millions of euros from here to there

For some countries that's the same in non-YOG years. Brazil for example quite literally only starts for the IBU money and equipment (both in the Junior Cup and nowadays also in the IBU Cup), although of course officially it's for stuff like "improving talents" and whatnot. They don't ever train shooting outside of the few days during the season, they have broken rifles and they just use the free equipment for everything and nothing, but with YOG....nah, not much to do with that, and somehow I doubt it's different for the likes of Chile (who's girls needed WAY more than double the time of the sprint winners so far) or Macedonia

To be fair, quite a large number won't make it to the third or even second athlete For example the Brazilian girls are there, but since the guys start first, I am not sure they're even actually going to the venue today (like when Brazil started in the mixed relay in an IBU Cup some years ago, it was woman-woman-man-man, and the second of the two men wasn't even in the same country )

Well, that is...something Kinda sucks that you may be the best team in the world, but not even have a chance to play at the YOG because the other gender's team is also the best in the world and your NOC picked that one...

NOC's have to choose whether to enter the boys' or girls' tournament instead of both if they qualified in both?

Right. Well, that sucks, although I guess Canada doesn't want it's athletes competing internationally yet then, because if they did, obviously they'd have gotten the quotas

RIP Captain Holt https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/andre-braugher-dead-brooklyn-nine-nine-1235835771/