SalamAkhi

Not too confident, hope Lapierre will try to make the difference before the sprint because up against Mäki or Furger 

Who said there is no suspense in XC skiing  ?

More position changes than in a biathlon relay 

3 hours ago, JonPhi said:

This season the European Indoors are very important for qualification for the olympics. They bring more points than a normal competition outdoor, so it would be hopeful to reach a good place here, if you not the limit from WA.

Yeah, forgot about that too 

Even worse then, athletes that could obtain a good result and extremly valuable points for the world ranking are denied a participation ...

2 hours ago, JonPhi said:

Is that something new?
I‘m also very disappointed that Leduc get no place. She was really close the the French limit and is still in the TOP 20 in Europe and has to potential to make it even through to the final. 
Also surprised that Zahi is in the Team, after her injury in Karlsruhe.

Not easy to keep up with the policy. They were very harsh and then started to open the team to newcomers but now they close it again ... I mean EIC is not the most important target of the year, what is the point here ?

52 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Does anyone know why France is so good in biathlon? From what I remember biathlon isn’t very popular over there and they don’t necessarily have a huge tradition in cross-country either. Do they have better training conditions than Germany for example?

Despite a somehow weak tradition in cross country, we have some regions almost entirely revolving around it (Vosges, Jura, some parts of the French Alps). Not a lot of people do pratice cross contry skiing, but those who do fare really well, and as Grassmarket said, the elite athletes policy is to do best with the few we have.

The national circuit is empty of over-25yo athletes, either you are good enough to join the national team, or you quit. 

Biathlon is really getting popular, as you could see last time Le Grand Bornand hosted the WC, thanks to free to air broadcasting and the great results of the NT. Mostly Tv coverage for France has had its share of great athletes since the 90's.

Lipowitz on his way to gold ... depends how he finishes, since Cisar had a very good last lap.

But if he hits 5 in the last standing, Emilien Claude will probably be favorite to get the win 

Bened wins with the only perfect shooting, well deserved. She's shown some talent behind the rifle ...

Hope she can bring a bit of precision in the A team  

1 hour ago, OlympicsFan said:

Thanks. There are just too many medal contenders, you could probably name all Norwegian/Russian athletes too. I think there are just more competitive athletes at this level compared to youth level.

At least for the Russians we have some benchmarks (IBU Cup), Serokhvostov is probably the fastest athlete in the field but so unsure on the range. As for the Norwegians, not very much to compare to ...

40 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Norway will compete in the junior events tomorrow. Some names to look for:

Women: Bened (France), Botet (France), Passler (Italy), Trabucchi (Italy), Gandler (Austria), Baserga (Switzerland) and Shevchenko (Russia, the big favorite)

Sadly Skrede from Norway, who would have been the biggest rival for Shevchenko, won’t compete.

Men: Claude (France), Mahon (France), Vidmar (Slovenia), Cisar (Slovenia), Hartweg (Switzerland), Zingerle (Italy) and hopefully (from a German perspective) Riethmüller. 
Sadly Bionaz from Italy (who would have been one of the. Ingest favorites) won’t compete.

 

Goreeva (Russia) and Chauveau (France) were amongst the fastest in the IBU Cup (juniors and seniors combined) in January, not to overlook. On this format Slettermark (Greenland) will be in the mix too. Look at Halvarsson and Johansson for Sweden too.

For the men Bionaz is not here, but the same can be said for Giacomel and above all, Filip Andersen (Norway). Perrot (France) to follow also, keep an eye on Kireyev (Kazakhstan) and Stefansson (Sweden).

1 minute ago, OlympicsFan said:

What are you trying to say?

Seems pretty obvious ... 

6 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

All the German officials were perfectly clear about the situation before the start of this competition. Nobody expected a medal in women’s ski jumping for example. You clearly didn’t inform yourself about what the expectations were in Germany. Also I don’t really care about the situation in Slovenia and Germany should never compare itself to Slovenia.

Great, you don't have to compare the two teams in the standings of your home WC then 

What a performance from Claudel 

Did really well in classic and 4th time in the skating part of the race ! Very promising for the 10k  

So the French Federation decided not to invite our best jumpers, whom, I guess, were given an invite from EA (R.Diallo 6th in the wTJ, H.Kpatcha 8th in the wLJ, JB Bertrand 10th in the mLJ) ... at least Celia Perron is now in for the pentathlon (Henriette Jaeger is out due to Covid), well deserved after she was "robbed" her spot by some obscure host-nation quota 

So 26 athletes, very limited roster, what a shame. Paris is 3 years from now and they're still reluctant to send young guns showing great promises. Those who make it to Poland have good chances to deliver though ...

38 minutes ago, Werloc said:

So at the moment the known line-up in men's high jump is three Ukrainians, two Lithuanians and one athlete from UK and Italy.

 

Belarus, Bulgaria and Germany might send some, but that still doens't sound like a lot, since they're holding qualifications.

 

Most other countries have already announced their teams, so perhaps some Scandinavian jumpers, France? 

Ahahahah, I HIGHLY doubt France will send an athlete in HJ ...

If we do 

1 hour ago, Grassmarket said:

Too bad, but after his sensational run last week, he’s obviously got his eye on higher things.  Don’t think we’ll be seeing many star names overall - except , who always put out their best for home events.  But it’s good to have an event which is mostly about the youngsters & Pavel Maslák.

Nah, we will see most of them.

Mayer and Thiam are confirmed, mPV will be stacked, Ingebrigtsens, Mahuchikh, wLJ etc

Gutted ... why did they take that much of a risk before the first tournament in one year ... I guess we will not be part of the second one next week also.

At least the girls can play and prepare for the OG qualifiers, but compared to their male counterparts the road to Tokyo is very clear considering the level of the repechages.

2 hours ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

France and Belarus not competing for a medal today, just namesake participation wish they weren't allowed to participate at all. 

Lol, you're not a fine analyst are you ?

It was probably the best pair for this format considering also Guigonnat didn't run yesterday ...

Good for Italy but quite undeserved gold.

Gold for Bassino ... 

Kind of deserved for Faivre, he didn't looked as bad on the blue course as some others ...

2 hours ago, OlympicsFan said:

Mironova could still win a medal sadly.

No medal for her, not been tested positive either ... unlike a certain D.H 

Just now, phelps said:

because their opponents inherited the advantage by beating the higher seed...

 

so, actually it's not always the lower bib, but the skier filling the space of the supposed lower bib at the start of the knockout stage (if the no.16 beats the no., then it's like he gets the no.1 for the rest of the event, for instance)...

The King is dead, long live the King

Faivre starting on the blue -> very good 

Ok, I didn't read well  

Just now, phelps said:

when they're tied, the fastest in the 2nd run goes through to the next round...

What at load of shit ... At least the gap was 0.48 here, and not the mandatory 0.50. 

Actually the lower bib doesn't get to start on the blue first. Look at Liensberger here or Gstrein in the quarter ...

So what makes the difference when they are even ?