SalamAkhi

Winning in speed skating, fluent English (not Dutch it seems), something is off with this guy.

Good thing is that this will shed light upon the sport in France. Bear in mind not even one press article mentioned the WC start this week and the Games are 99% going to be held outside of the country in 2030 without much turmoil. Bad thing is that now people who knew nothing of the sport besides "you race on ice and the Dutch win in the end" will expect him to win in Milano ...

Surprising indeed, but at 19 Loubineaud was still three years away from recording his first races on ice.

Alright, he should have gone sub-6', this won't last

Under WR-pace with 800m to go but we seemingly were to expect a "6'07" then. Boy was recording only sub-29'' laps but 5'04 ads to 6'07 for some. As if 5000 wasn't the easiest race to read.

This is quite likely though. French skaters should already plan their flight to Italy/the Netherlands for their home Games, how encouraging. There goes your question mark. Is the commentator able to count though ?

Maybe we can get some help from the Netherlands, in exchange for the amazing privilege of hosting the Olympics

You Dutch have more than enough to feed yourself with A divisions though, same cannot be said for every country Yeah I was really looking forward to seeing them skate (which I can't but nevermind). Sadly Violette Braun is 21st time-wise, and I doubt those time will be beaten - we'll see in Calgary and probably Heerenveen for the Chinese/Japanese I guess - so wrong end of the stick for her ...

Disastrous coverage. Still don't get why there is no broadcast of the B races, which they definitely can do. The "live results" is a joke, times are all over the place.

So Fercoq gets past the prelims in the 500m, is illegally brought down in the heats while he was taking up the third spot (could even have secured a q by time) so he's assigned ... a 4th position on the line for the repêchage heat, behind guys who finished 4th in their prelim race. Make it make sense please. The starting position draw is do dumb. Why consider sheer time and not the spot you finish in first ? Why penalize athletes with a terrible position on the line (even if you manage to climb back up your time will be shit and you'll get the same awful position in the next round, against better athletes) though they were "no time" through no fault of their own ? The advancement system is not that bright either. You get free bye if you're tripped in the battle for second in a race where only the first gets the Q, but you're not advanced if you were fighting for third when the race offer 2 Q.

So we're training with Italy (who are not doing that bad) and we've never been that awful. Great.

Going well for Slovenia. They're overperforming as of now (+20) when their direct opponents, Turkey (-27,5) and Ireland (-28) are under-par.

You're complaining far too much

We agree on the outcome. Now calling Loubineaud mid is a bit of a stretch, 12'44 and 6'07 tell he's definitely no slouch. But he won't be able to fight with Bergsma or Swings in a sprint. He was on a downward trajectory in Bejing looking at his 5000 time, so judging his abilities on this mere race isn't really fair. I hope he'll try and change his tactics, which can only lead you so far, in next WC races. He needs to have a back-up plan (and use his teammate, Belloir or an other).

2nd win of the season. No doubt the best year ever for French speed skating with a women's team building in the same time. For Loubineaud these things will happen (like Contin) : 1. He'll draw attention to himself in French media. Which is good because at least there is a project. They don't talk about the sport at all, especially with no rink in France, which suffers from a "poor" image like "ah the Dutch sport, they win all the medals, they exist at Winter Games only because of it, too much medals distributed, it's unfair" (like we didn't boost our total thanks to biathlon and its inflated program). 2. With the Olympics around the corner those media will start to evoke a shot at a medal. 3. If he manages to be successful early in the Olympic season, the bubble will inflate. 4. He won't medal in Milan. The bubble will explode, people will laugh "ah ah all of this for that, typical French Lose mentality". I hope he will. But World Cup and championships are two different beasts. No doubt the Italians will sort a plan out, the Dutch will have to cooperate and appoint a leader, Médard will work for Swings, etc. He won't have an easy way out and I fear he's got no chance if it ends in a massive sprint.

Résultats satisfaisants pour ces deuxièmes CDF délocalisés. Pas de grandes envolées chez les hommes mais la confirmation du potentiel du junior Arthur Lebeaupin, en espérant qu'il puisse au moins prendre part aux Mondiaux de sa catégorie. Chez les filles des records nationaux battus dans toutes les épreuves dont le 500m où Mathilde Pédronno passe sous les 40'' et s'acquitte des minima internationaux. Championnats d'Europe allround ce week-end au mythique Thialf. Deux garçons : Mathieu Belloir et Valentin Thiébault (Loubineaud forfait pour retrouver la forme). Une fille : Julia Nizan (Violette Braun a des examens apparemment). Elle était un peu en dedans lors des France, peut-être pour axer la préparation sur ces championnats "à la maison" (elle s'entraine aux Pays-Bas) ? ---- Et sinon en skeleton Lucas Defayet obtient son meilleur résultat en carrière à Winterberg : 11ème. Avec une grosse deuxième manche et des temps au départ très intéressants. Saint-Moritz vendredi, piste assez "ouverte" aux belles performances.

That was the IBU Cup winner spot, guaranteed for the first two weeks (won by Michelon last year). Galmace Paulin will definitely not get a spot in January. If someone has to be demoted, it would be Chauveau, to make room for Botet. Galmace Paulin is like 5th or 6th in the pecking order at the moment.

Likely for Tannheimer, quite unlikely for Galmace Paulin. She's far from being assured to even start in the WC before turning 20. Basically she'd have to get a spot this season, which could actually happen if she takes the extra-ticket at the JWCH. Anyway I don't see her making her way to gold in Oslo. Tänglander has a few seasons to do it, we'll see. Quite surprisingly so, indeed. Barring her horrendous finish Richard would have made it 2 in one go. We should have some more names in the list in 2025.

Thought we were the best at complaining and seeing the worst outcome but you seem to beat us fair and square here. I don't actually see any real difference between Italy and France. We're not less relying on individual as you are, except maybe in biathlon and some niche like ski/snowboardcross. Even in biathlon the pipeline is rather dry on the men's side. You comparison between Giacomel and Perrot remains an individual paralleling, other factors can explain the discrepancy. You're clearly overestimating us and our big scheme Women's alpine has been non-existent for years except for one or two Worleys, barring Pagnier the biggest hope we get in ski jumping is having someone reaching the second round, nordic combined is nowhere near where it was a decade back. And I'm not mentionning ice sports ... short-track training in Bormio with Italy with no positive outcome i.e almost no one getting to the finals, speed skating only just starting to actually exist as a real discipline and not as a lone exiled guy oddity, sliding sports in limbo ...

Bilan plutôt positif (euphémisme) de ces CDM asiatiques. victoire pour Loubineaud à Nagano sur la mass-start, deuxième succès français de tous les temps victoire pour Belloir sur la mass-start B, ce qui devrait maintenir les deux Français en A désormais. Le problème pour Loubineaud c'est qu'à l'emballage il n'est pas forcément en mesure de lutter, et qu'il est vraiment attendu maintenant, difficile de l'imaginer partir en solo. Belloir a probablement plus de chances de ce côté là, donc plusieurs cartes à jouer. excellentes prestations de Braun, 4 courses (1500/3000), 4 records de France, une qualification aux Europe all-around validée + une montée en groupe A sur la mass-start lors des prochaines CDM. côté - hormis Loubineaud sur 5000 difficile encore d'exister en individuel mais les chronos ne sont pas si loin de l'an passé aux même dates, en attendant Calgary. La poursuite un peu loin aussi, il faudra passer un cap pour se donner une chance de qualification olympique la saison prochaine. Next : les championnats de France à Inzell le 20-22 décembre.

Allez He tried to pull this one lots of time and finally managed to go all the way.

Violette Braun is the first woman in a World Cup since 2009. Today she obliterated the NR in the 1500 by 3 seconds (2'04) on a rather slow track. Second 1500 ever for her, first was in Inzell a few weeks back (2'07) with what seemed like very good conditions. It means a lot of room for improvement and a good sign for the 3000 which is her real strong event at the moment - she lacks basic speed but had one of the fastest final laps today, 10th over Div A and B. Faster last than penultimate lap must be quite unusual too.

That's the point. She better, in everyone's interest here, take time now to maximize her chances to be in her best shape come the Olympics.

Not that serious imo. She did race last week, with a merely decent outing but still able to make it past the finish line. Probably a cautionnary decision, get some more time to come back into shape and maybe refocus her goals this year as I don't really rate her chances of crystal globe with 3 races missed. We're in a pre-Olympics season, with home Olympics in sight for her and after a near perfect season last year. No need to take risks and endanger her future in the sport.

Kimberly Bos does exist though.