rafalgorka

Today women's alpine combined is cancelled.

MEXICO   
 
 
Ski Sports
 
Alpine Skiing  (2) - One of each gender. Mexican born Rodolfo Dickson (a native of Puerto Vallarta, adopted by Canadians) already has achieved qualification in Giant Slalom, and currently, Sarah Schleper just needs another valid result in that same event to qualify for her 5th Olympics (first 3 representing her birth country). No other athlete is near the eligilibity right now, but von Hohenlohe is still competing at 62  so who knows
Cross Country Skiing  (1 ) - Probably the only winter discipline in Mexico that had a boom after Pyeongchang, with many people giving it a try; however, only one competitor, Jonathan Soto has managed to score less than 300 in a race during 2020/2021. The Mexican federation is targeting to have another participation in 2022, so if he manages to repeat that result at World Championships and some other competitions, he might join the Mexican delegation. 
Ski Jumping  (0) - No active competitors
Nordic Combined  (0) - No active competitors
Freestyle Skiing  (0) - Only an active athlete in Moguls, but he won't qualify.
Snowboarding  (0) - No active competitors
Biathlon  (0) - A couple men made their debut at this sport last month, but they obviously will not make it.
 
 
Skating Sports
 
Speed Skating  (0) - I was surprised to discover we had a couple of skaters back in 2002-2006, but obviously weren't good enough to qualify, and sadly, we'll have to wait for an Olympic debut, as there are no active skaters.
Short Track Speed Skating  (0) - No Mexican skater has made their debut in this discipline.
Figure Skating  (1) -  If Donovan Carrillo improvement continued despite the pandemic, he could be the first Mexican skater in the Olympics in 30 years; On the women's side, Andrea Montesinos is still learning and given the level of powerhouses, it'll be quite difficult for her to have a real shot.
 
 
Sleigh Sports
 
Luge  (0) - No way, as Mexico isn't even a member of FIL
Skeleton  (0) - There aren't training facilities for the sport in the country since 2011, so all interest has been lost, sadly.
Bobsleigh  (0) - Read above
 
 
Team Sports
 
Curling  (0) - Mexican teams are still newbies in the scene, so no chance.
Ice Hockey  (0) - Mexican men have already been eliminated. Our women side can only hope to avoid big defeats against the Ducth & Poles and beat Turkey in October.
 
 
 
Total Optimistic Prediction  -  (4)
Total Pessimistic Prediction  - (0)
 
Total Realistic Prediction  -  (2)

A rare opportunity to watch (almost full) replay of the women's combined from Salt Lake 2002.
 

and return to last ever 3 TCH Winter Olympic medals
 
Enjoy
 
Petr Barna (Bronze)
Figure Skating - M Singles
 
paradoxically more famous for his Exhibitions programs
 

 
His Free Skating which moved him into the Bronze medal position
 
 
Ice Hockey (Bronze)
 
Highlights of all TCH matches
Preliminary Round: TCH-NOR 10-1 (Right during the Opening Ceremony), TCH-FRA 6-4, TCH-EUN 4-3, TCH-CAN 1-5, TCH-SUI 4-2
QF: TCH-SWE 3-1, SF: TCH-CAN 2-4, Bronze: TCH-USA 6-1
 

 
 
Ski Jumping - Team Event (Bronze)
Tomáš Goder/František Jež/Jaroslav Sakala/Jiří Parma
 
Full Replay from TV
 
 

Snowboarding FIS Snowboard Cross World Championships 2021  
Idre (SWE) - 9 February 2021 - 12 February 2021  
 
Official Website Programme Results System Results Database Facebook Page Discussion Thread

PSD Bank Indoor Meeting, Dortmund, Feb. 7, 2021 
 
Women's Long Jump:
Khaddi Sagnia (6.82m)
 
https://ergebnisse.leichtathletik.de/Competitions/CurrentList/236735/4210

Sarah Sjostrom has broken her elbow 
 
https://swimswam.com/multi-olympic-medal-contender-sarah-sjostrom-breaks-elbow/

Larissa Iapichino (18) today recorded 6.70m and 6.75m in the women's Long Jump in her first official outing of the indoor season in Ancona...
after the lone star of a 6.80m jump (outdoor, of course) last Summer, she looks more stable and reliable on this kind of measures right now...
so far, 6.75m is the second best jump of the indoor world campaign after Mihambo's 6.77m last night in Berlin...

Two-Women Bobsleigh 2021 wch results added
21.02.06 beijing day by day wch 21.docx

Short explaination how I prepare the start lists file:
 
(English Wikipedia is my best friend here)
and remember: Q is sb who qualified, q is sb who I predict to qualify
 
Archery - English Wikipedia Tokyo 2020 qualification website
Artistic swimming - English Wikipedia
Athletics - World Athletics (IAAF) road to Tokyo 2020 olympics rankings - in ind events: athletes with minimum achieved and then next athletes according to the ranking until we have a full quota for an event; in relays - 8 relays already qualified via wch 2019 and then 8 next relays according to ranking
Badminton - Olympic ranking simulation on English wikipedia
Baseball - En wiki
Basketball M and W, 3x3 M and W - En wiki, W basketball quali finished
Boxing - En wiki
Canoeing - En wiki
Cycling - En wiki again (road and track cycling - quali finished)
Diving - En wiki
Equestrian - En wiki (quali finished)
Fencing - Facebook: Fencing - Qualification for Tokyo 2020 Olympics site
Field hockey - En wiki (M and W quali finished)
Football - En wiki
Golf - olympic rankings simulation on IGF website
Gymnastics - En wiki
Handball - En wiki
Judo - olympic rankings simulation on IJF website
Karate - En wiki
Modern pentathlon - En wiki
Rowing - En wiki
Rugby sevens - En wiki
Sailing - En wiki
Shooting - En wiki
Skateboarding - I HAVEN'T DONE IT YET
Softball - En wiki, quali finished
Sport climbing - En wiki, quali finished
Surfing - En wiki
Swimming - that's complicated. In ind events I use En wiki again, but then I use FINA rankings website and find swimmers with OQT time achieved (I know FINA rankings are not good but you can easily make a ranking from 01/03/2019 to "today" there, I will use SwimSwam rankings in future, as well. And I will look how the trials go in particular countries. In relays - 12 teams qualified from 2019 wch and 4 best times from FINA rankings
Table tennis - En wiki again
Taekwondo - En wiki
Tennis - In singles, it is relatively easily: top 56 from ATP or WTA rankings, max 4 players from one country and then 8 additional players according to En wiki rules, Singles are easy part here, I have done it already and I will update these rankings after AO. But M, W and mixed doubles - I HAVEN'T DONE IT YET. This is very difficult to predict.
Triathlon - Olympic rankings simulation on ITU website
Volleyball indoor - En wiki, quali finished
Volleyball beach - En wiki for a few pairs already qualified and then FIVB beach volleyball olympic ranking simulation website
Water polo - En wiki (W quali finished)
Weightlifting - I haven't done it yet, I think this is the most difficult sport to predict the start lists and you all know why. Very difficult quali system and then ... all the doping rules... I am afraid I will not be able to prepare the potential start lists here until the very last moment
Wrestling - guess what?... ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA
 
That's how it works.
It probably has many mistakes. I'm waiting for all your ideas and comments on this.
 
And remember - all the events are in calendar order, first the events which start on day -2, then the ones which start on day -1, then day 0, then day 1 and so on.. It is strange order, I know, but I like it.
 
But - and you obviously know that, but I'll say it - if you want to check e.g. all the POL potential start lists you just do "POL" Ctrl+F and you have it. And then step two: you do "POLAND" Ctrl+F and you have the team sports.
 
The same with e.g. "ATHLETICS" Ctrl+F
 
I know all ot this data is everywhere on the internet, but I just want to have it in one place.
 
I think 50-60% events are done already, but this early draft ofc.
 
More to come this evening,
 
Have a good weekend, everyone.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pretty sure this is new, but maybe it was available in the past. Anyways, Olympic Channel uploaded the Albertville 1992 Opening Ceremonies: https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/video/detail/opening-ceremony-albertville-1992-great-winter-olympic-moments/

??Gleb Piskunov (Hammer Throw) 77.72 m.
On February 6, at the Moldova Open Throwing Championship, ex-world champion among juniors, ex-European champion among juniors Gleb Piskunov won the Moldova Open Throwing Championship, moving to the second position of a very experienced host Sergei Margiev

Sally Pearson Shield, QSAC, Nathan, Brisbane, Feb. 6, 2021 
 
Women's 100m Hurdles:
 Elizabeth Clay (12.84)
 

Ok. so our Biathlon site wrote an article about the Olympic qualification, here is the translated one
Link to the article in slovak https://www.slovenskybiatlon.sk/spravodajstvo/slovensko/1420-casto-piseme-o-vybojovani-si-styroch-miesteniek-na-oh-ako-prebieha-kvalifikacia
 
Time to look closely to the new Biathlon Qualification process.
 
 
First let took a closer look at how the qualification actually takes place. If you classify yourself as a PRO level fan (you know almost everything in biathlon), you can skip the first five paragraphs.
 
Qualification for previous Olympic Games was very simple and practically identical to both World Championships qualification and World Cup qualifiers. In each Individual, sprint and relay races, the points of the three best competitors of every nation are counted in the Nations Ranking. The winner gets 160 points, the second 154, the third 148 points ... and from the eleventh place to the eighty it goes down by one single point down, so it stops at 61 points for the eighty ranked bathlete. But then it breaks and every other competitor has two points less than the previous one, so the 110th biathlete has only one point and then everyone who crossed to the finish line gets 1 point as well.
 
In the relays, the winning country gets 420 points and then it gradually decreases. For the tenth place it is, for example, 220 points, for the twentieth 120. Scoring is the same in mixed relays, with the difference that men and women divide those points in half. So, for example, if the Norwegians win the mixed relay, women will get 210 points, and men will get 210 points. There is no difference whether it is a 2 + 2 mixed relay or 1 + 1 mixed singles relay.
 
In the current season, 25 World Cup events are counted for the Nations Ranking for both women and men, including the World Championships in Pokljuka. At the end of the season, the final counts looks like this: The first five countries can enter six competitors in the World Cup for the entire following season, countries from sixth to tenth enter five, from eleventh to seventeen-four, from eighteenth to twenty-third three, and 24th and The 25th country will receive two places. The IBU can still award a wild card to eight other countries, which can fiels one competitor at a time. Thus, a total of 113 biathletes from 33 countries can compete in one WC race, but they also have to fulfilled personal result quotas. This is quite difficult to calculate, we will not explain it here. Briefly, the competitor needs at least one 50-60 place in the IBU Cup to qualify for the WC race.
 
But for the world championships, quotas are stricter for stronger countries and more benevolent for the weakest. In practice, this means that up to the first fifteen countries they are allowed to enter four competitors, then the national teams from 16th to 25th place three, from 26th to 30th place two and the IBU still reserves the right to another ten wild cards for smaller countries. So a total of 110 biathletes from up to 40 countries can compete at a WCh race. At the same time, the performers need to meet the required personal quota, but is also easier to achieve, you only need to place around 80-90. places in the IBU Cup.
 
Every race is different, so it is not possible to determine exactly. It is therefore true that in the 2020/2021 season, Slovakia is fighting hardly for quotas for next year's World Cup races. Based on last year's ranking, we can enter three men and three women, because last year we finished on the 20th, respectively. 18th place. It is therefore logical that we want to reach the Top 17 so that four biathletes can start. Men are currently in 18th place and women in 20th place.
 
 
And now lets move on the
 
Changed qualification to WOG Beijing 2022
 
Usually there would be a parallel fight for quotas like for the world championship, ie as you read above, with exactly the same system, only the amount of quotas deadline are only again with slightly shifted deadlines.
 
Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the need for a more up-to-date reflection of the performance of different countries in competitions under the five circles, the IBU decided to make a change and the qualification model for the Beijing Olympics 2022 was modified and approved just before the new season, the 28th of November 2020.
 
Again, the Nations Ranking decides, but not its ranking at the end of the 20/21 season as it was originally planned, but each country counts only the twelve best results from: 6 sprint races 1 individual race 3 relay races 1 mixed relay race 2 + 2 and 1 single mixed relay race 1 + 1; from the whole season 20/21, as well as the first six stages of the World Cup 21/22. The qualification will therefore end after the Ruhpolding stage on 16 January 2022.
 
The breakdown is as follows: The first twenty countries will get four places to start in all races, including relays. And the IBU will award twelve wild cards to the strongest athletes whose countries have not qualified. Maximum two places per country. Thus, a total of 92 women and men should start in each individual race at the Olympics. Interestingly, the document does not say anything about the host country, China, which is not competing at all this season.
 
 
It is therefore absolutely crucial for our biathlon that we somehow manage to finish into the Top 20 in both categories, because not having the relays at the Olympics could be a significant breakthrough in our biathlon, also in terms of its funding (contribution from the governement + sponsors), which would was very difficult to get.
 
The pandemic is currently helping but also harming us at the same time, as the Fialková sisters were left out and we are completely on the edge with women, although the virus has also affected other countries like Bulgarians, Slovenes and Chinese women cannot fully entered some races. In mens the Bulgarians. If we take a closer look at these qualifying criteria, we will find by logical reasoning that about a third of the starts will count, and as has been said, only the best ones. Many average or below-average races will therefore be irrelevant. In practice, this means, for example, that our men have three decent relays behind them, in which they won 16th, 13th and 12th place. Since three are counted, they are only interested in the result of 15th and higher. And with this model, it is better to totally ruin two starts in individual disciplines, but to score massively in one with all three competitors. And we have the biggest problems with that. If we get to a better result, usually with only one competitor, the other two will only help him cosmetically. That is the only way we can lose the relays at the Olympics but at same time we can also be in the 17th or 18th place in the classic nations ranking.
 
 
As the qualification is about one third right now, and it wasn't until Anterselva that the first weaker races began possible to be cut, the standings look almost identical to the classic nation rankings. If this starts to differ, we will inform you and publish the rankings from time to time. It is true that after each race we will continue to publish the traditional nations rankings, whom on the basis all the quotas for WC races are determined.
 
 
MEN OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION CURRENT STANDING
 
1. NOR NÓRSKO  4714 0 2. FRA FRANCÚZSKO 4316 -398 3. GER NEMECKO 4060 -654 4. SWE ŠVÉDSKO 4021 -693 5. RUS RUSKO 3880 -834 6. AUT RAKÚSKO 3532 -1182 7. ITA TALIANSKO 3468 -1246 8. BLR BIELORUSKO 3195 -1519 9. UKR UKRAJINA 3096 -1618 10. SUI ŠVAJČIARSKO 2962 -1752 11. SLO SLOVINSKO 2920 -1794 12. CZE ČESKO 2890 -1824 13. FIN FÍNSKO 2860 -1854 14. CAN KANADA 2700 -2014 15. USA SPOJENÉ ŠTÁTY 2649 -2065 16. LTU LITVA 2316 -2398 17. BEL BELGICKO 2003 -2711 18. SVK SLOVENSKO 1955 -2759 19. EST ESTÓNSKO 1859 -2855 20. LAT LOTYŠSKO 1795 -2919 21. POL POĽSKO 1714 -3000 22. JPN JAPONSKO 1574 -3140 23. BUL BULHARSKO 1543 -3171 24. KAZ KAZACHSTAN 1290 -3424 25. ROU RUMUNSKO 1023 -3691 26. MDA MOLDAVSKO 647 -4067 27. SRB SRBSKO 338 -4376 28. GRE GRÉCKO 216 -4498 29. CRO CHORVÁTSKO 181 -4533  
WOMEN OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION CURRENT STANDING
 
1. SWE ŠVÉDSKO 4303 0 2. FRA FRANCÚZSKO 4248 -55 3. NOR NÓRSKO 4247 -56 4. GER NEMECKO 4156 -147 5. RUS RUSKO 3961 -342 6. BLR BIELORUSKO 3770 -533 7. AUT RAKÚSKO 3521 -782 8. ITA TALIANSKO 3499 -804 9. UKR UKRAJINA 3378 -925 10. SUI ŠVAJČIARSKO 3183 -1120 11. CZE ČESKO 3046 -1257 12. USA SPOJENÉ ŠTÁTY 2817 -1486 13. POL POĽSKO 2711 -1592 14. CAN KANADA 2706 -1597 15. EST ESTÓNSKO 2455 -1848 16. FIN FÍNSKO 2371 -1932 17. JPN JAPONSKO 1974 -2329 18. KAZ KAZACHSTAN 1664 -2639 19. SVK SLOVENSKO 1591 -2712 20. KOR KÓREA 1586 -2717 21. BUL BULHARSKO 1471 -2832 22. SLO SLOVINSKO 1370 -2933 23. LTU LITVA 995 -3308 24. LAT LOTYŠSKO 924 -3379 25. BEL BELGICKO 613 -3690 26. ROU RUMUNSKO 446 -3857 27. MDA MOLDAVSKO 292 -4011 28. GBR VEĽKÁ BRITÁNIA 217 -4086 29. CRO CHORVÁTSKO 158 -4145 30. AUS AUSTRÁLIA 107 -4196 31. GRL GRÓNSKO 84 -4219

1 year to go!!! Hopefully...

It´s official.
 
The 2021 IIHF Top Division World Championships will take place only in Riga, Latvia.
 
All 16 teams will play in a special bubble including two venues only 150 meters apart. No team will be relegated.
 
 
 
 
The Council of the International Hockey Federation (IIHF) decided on Tuesday that the world championship Top Division will take place only in Riga, Latvia, at the end of May and start of June 2021. The information was confirmed by the official IIHF website.
 
Nothing has changed at the date of the tournament, it will take place from May 21 to June 6. Originally, the championship was to take place in Minsk, Belarus, but the unfavorable political situation in the country meant that in the first half of January 2021, even under pressure from its sponsors, the IIHF decided to deprive Belarusians of the right to host the world's hockey elite. Immediately afterwards, the search for a substitute venue began, and Bratislava and the Danish Herning also came into play.
 
However, the IIHF eventually decided to organize the entire tournament only in Riga.
 
The Preliminary B-group of the tournament will take place in the main stadium, the Riga Arena, the Preliminary A-group also with the Slovak team in the Riga Olympic Sports Center (150meters from Riga Arena), which will also host two quarter-final matches.
 
The IIHF has decided that the two-fields Daugava Stadium, which is currently being renovated, will be used for trainings for tournament participants. All 16 national teams will be accommodated in one hotel. The IIHF did not make any changes to the tournament schedule and format.
 
Slovakia will present itself in the preliminary A-group with Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Great Britain and newly promoted team Belarus.
 
The International Hockey Federation also stated that, the tournament is now possible to be organized more easily in the so-called "bubble", as the two competition stadiums are only 150 meters apart and all teams will live in one facility.
 
"I would like to thank our members from Denmark and Slovakia for their willingness to host the World Championships with minimal preparation. However, the IIHF Council believes that organizing a championship in one country is the best solution. We have the opportunity to prepare a so-called bubble and, if it will be possible, we will be also happy to welcome fans in the stands, "said René Fasel, the incumbent president of the IIHF, on the federation's website.
 
Since there no lower divisions tournaments this year, it was already confirmed that no team will be relegated from this year championship.
 
 

I have just paid for Eurosport Player with Tokyo 2021 on my mind. And I hope I will not be disappointed. ;-)

ESP player is indeed the best bet.
 
Back in Rio I had to rely on BBC coverage via paid VPN. It worked out fine, but there was a lot of British hype of course.

eurosport tv rights started in 2018, in 2016 it was up to the single national tv to put a streaming platform in place...
 
nothing to say about the coverage, they had all the feeds of every single race, normally with multiple commentaries (all the events that were shown on the linear tv channels in the various countries had their commentary put on the streams, too)...
 
what I didn't like at all, it was the fact that the tv pictures were awful*, since they only had 25 frame per second, which makes any sport almost unwatchble to me...
 
the English commentary was also a disaster for 95% of the events (it was the IBC's one, not the usual Eurosport commentators)...
 
and the worst thing of them all, the app for apple tv 4/4K was highly unstable, I had to uninstall and reinstall that app at least twice a day...
 
so, the idea was amazing, the actual result was to say the least reviewable...
 
I hope the picture quality improves a lot by the next Olympics (right now, it's better than 2 years ago, but still a bit under par if compared to the best OTT services in the world in these terms -NHL.tv and MLB.tv), but what I think does really need to change upsidedown are the apps for connected device...some of them (amazon fire tv stick, for instance) are just impossible to be used because they just can't manage the framerate correctly and the app design is a pure mess...
 
*it wasn't just because of my internet broadband connection, at that time I had a 200mbps FTTC connection, which worked at max speed with all the streaming services I tried (now I'm on a gigabit FTTH true fiber connection)...
 
p.s. don't get scared more than necessary...I'm well known to be a very, very diffcult man to be satisfied under this technical point of view...

@Maxim Fastovsky do you got any clue who is “still to come” in this Olympic Games?

Ryszard Szurkowski - the most famous Polish cyclist in history - passed away at the age of 75 today.
 
Double Olympic TTT silver medallist, 1973 amateur World Champion & 4 time winner of the Peace Race.
 
 

Wasn't sure where to post this, it's not completely "off topic", but couldn't find a thread where it would fit.
 
Anyway, I'm interested in experiences of people that had Eurosport Player during 2018 Olympic games, and even better, 2016 Summer ones, but not sure if ES player was a thing back then? Was it a thing in 2018 during Winter games?
 
In Croatia, our TV stations will have a terrible coverage of Tokyo games, that's for sure, and lots and lots of events will not be broadcasted, live or replays. So, I'm hoping that ESP might help there. Big wish is that every event will be available, but that probably will not be the case. 
 
So, how was it in 2018? And how it might be in 2021? Cheers.

2018 was in Eurosport Player, all races, all matches, all events live and possibility of replays 24/7 during the whole games, it was awesome.
 
2016 was only in our national TV, but their website had streaming of all matches/races/events, basically everything that was covered by the cameras. But except the competitions which were also televised in one of the 2 RTVS TV channels the remaining streams were without commentators.
 
Sochi 2014 was in one of our payed TV (except ice hockey tournaments which were strictly covered by the public TV), so it was even more awful, even if all streams on the TV Markíza website were commented if I remember well, however you had to pay around 10 euro for the whole games
 
London 2012 was great with our public TV, their site and everything available also in youtube, just like Vancouver 2010 my fav games