Olympics: 2022 Beijing Olympics

[Havre]

Norway got so many shots at gold left, but surprisingly few I would consider "safe" bets. Cross-country skiing is laughably weak. Klæbo and Johaug are solid, but it is more likely than not that Norway won't win any more golds for the men and only Johaug can win anything for the women. Not sure how realistic it is at high altitude that Johaug will win it all, but if there is one that could it would be her.

10k women cross country - Johaug
10k women biathlon pursuit - Røiseland
men biathlon relay - team
12.5k women biathlon mass start - Røiseland
30k women - Johaug

Norway probably got 10-15 more shots at gold medals. If Riiber gets back in time and fit he has a solid shot at a gold medal. Krüger as well on the 50k, but he is running out of time - and it can't be good for his preparations the mess that he is currently in. Still so many of the normally top Norwegian athletes are having down years like Thingnes Bø, Eckhoff, Kristoffersen, Granerud (even if has only had one year on top before this), basically the whole men's team cross-country, Lægreid etc. - so I'm not expecting much. In terms of the potential going in to this season I think Norway had a shot at a new record in no. of gold medals this winter, but that is very unrealistic by now. 5 more would be OK at least. 9 total is not bad.

 

[Havre]

Finland: no golds.
Our winter sports are a mess these days.

Yeah. This is so odd to me (a Norwegian) - and so sad. I remember being envious of how many good ski jumpers you had - while Norway were always surprisingly bad.

I also loved it when the Finns were a proper force in cross-country (even if it was due to some questionable methods in the end - see no reason why you shouldn't be a force even without using those questionable means - the women aren't bad). You even had some good biathlon athletes.

Cross-country being a Russian, Swedish and Norwegian competition is getting a bit boring. We need more Finns.

 

[Javaman]

Honestly, athletes from Russia should simply not have been allowed to compete. Banning Russia, but allowing their athletes to compete under the "ROC" banner is just a total mockery of the ban in the first place.

 

[tuozzi]

Yeah. This is so odd to me (a Norwegian) - and so sad. I remember being envious of how many good ski jumpers you had - while Norway were always surprisingly bad.

I also loved it when the Finns were a proper force in cross-country (even if it was due to some questionable methods in the end - see no reason why you shouldn't be a force even without using those questionable means - the women aren't bad). You even had some good biathlon athletes.

Cross-country being a Russian, Swedish and Norwegian competition is getting a bit boring. We need more Finns.

I think those questionable means in the end caused the whole country to lose interest, and we still haven't recovered from that.

Then again there seems to be a trend in Finland of individual sports across the board doing historically bad, while team sports are thriving.

 

[AB13]

Honestly, athletes from Russia should simply not have been allowed to compete. Banning Russia, but allowing their athletes to compete under the "ROC" banner is just a total mockery of the ban in the first place.

That would be unfair to the Russian athletes who have not ever used doping and worked hard for many years to get to the Olympics.

 

[Javaman]

That would be unfair to the Russian athletes who have not ever used doping and worked hard for many years to get to the Olympics.

It's unfair to the athletes from all other nations who have not ever used doping and worked hard for many years to get to the Olympics that Russia can still send athletes to the Olympics despite its chronic and systemic attempts to cheat.

In balance, it's most fair to simply banish all Russian athletes until Russia changes its ways.

 

[Havre]

That is a very complicated question. Should we allow the US back in after their track and field record?

"Anti-doping" is clearly a joke in quite a few countries - Russia included. No easy solution here.

 

[Eisen]

Yeah. This is so odd to me (a Norwegian) - and so sad. I remember being envious of how many good ski jumpers you had - while Norway were always surprisingly bad.

I also loved it when the Finns were a proper force in cross-country (even if it was due to some questionable methods in the end - see no reason why you shouldn't be a force even without using those questionable means - the women aren't bad). You even had some good biathlon athletes.

Cross-country being a Russian, Swedish and Norwegian competition is getting a bit boring. We need more Finns.

Norway is not weak in skijumping.

 

[Havre]

Norway is not weak in skijumping.

We were for a long time - back when the Finns were good. We had Bredesen and the odd good one, but Finland were quite a lot better.

Today Norway are OK. For some reason there have been quite a few injuries among Norwegian ski jumpers over the last years which has hurt the team. Not exactly the sport you expect athletes to get injured that often (unless they fall - which rarely happens these days). So could have been a lot better. With the resources Norway spends on ski jumping one would expect Norway to always be in the top 3. Maybe Austria spends as much and got a similar talent pool? Not sure. Just remember some years back when Austria won everything. I know ski jumping is popular in Poland, Germany etc., but they don't seem to have as many athletes as we got in Norway.

 

[Eisen]

We were for a long time - back when the Finns were good. We had Bredesen and the odd good one, but Finland were quite a lot better.

Today Norway are OK. For some reason there have been quite a few injuries among Norwegian ski jumpers over the last years which has hurt the team. Not exactly the sport you expect athletes to get injured that often (unless they fall - which rarely happens these days). So could have been a lot better. With the resources Norway spends on ski jumping one would expect Norway to always be in the top 3. Maybe Austria spends as much and got a similar talent pool? Not sure. Just remember some years back when Austria won everything. I know ski jumping is popular in Poland, Germany etc., but they don't seem to have as many athletes as we got in Norway.

You had a bit of a dryspell just before Bredesen, indeed, but were strong before and after. Austrians don't count. They are just out of this world and always have a great team. I don't know how they are doing that. There is always someone there to take over.

 

[Havre]

You had a bit of a dryspell just before Bredesen, indeed, but were strong before and after. Austrians don't count. They are just out of this world and always have a great team. I don't know how they are doing that. There is always someone there to take over.

Even with Bredesen we never had someone consistently good - besides him. Even Bredesen had a very short period at the top (not all that unusual for ski jumpers of course).

It seems like we finally got a good coach and that they are building a more robust system to develop young skiers now. So in that sense I'm quite optimistic for the future. Ski jumping is kind of considered to be a "Norwegian sport" - even more so than cross country (even if cross country these days is a lot more popular). Norway should be more than just one of the good nations - it should always be among the best (even if you don't always got the best skier of course - that will always vary more). We got one top 2 finish in the Olympic team competition. Shockingly poor.

 

[Eisen]

Even with Bredesen we never had someone consistently good - besides him. Even Bredesen had a very short period at the top (not all that unusual for ski jumpers of course).

It seems like we finally got a good coach and that they are building a more robust system to develop young skiers now. So in that sense I'm quite optimistic for the future. Ski jumping is kind of considered to be a "Norwegian sport" - even more so than cross country (even if cross country these days is a lot more popular). Norway should be more than just one of the good nations - it should always be among the best (even if you don't always got the best skier of course - that will always vary more). We got one top 2 finish in the Olympic team competition. Shockingly poor.

That is indeed behind expectations. You had quite a few decent jumpers but always a weak link. At least in the competitions I remember.

 

[Eisen]

Bythe way, what's the story about questionable methods in the Finnish team? Must have passed me by.

 

[Havre]

Bythe way, what's the story about questionable methods in the Finnish team? Must have passed me by.

Cross-country skiers in Lahti. 2001.

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 - Wikipedia

Questionable was me being polite. This was quite clearly widespread use of PEDs. A bit like Austria were also doing around the same time.

Very sad. As cross-country skiing felt like a sport that was getting more and more popular. And that countries like Austria were suddenly competitive and would arrange races with a lot of spectators. A guy like Myllyla was very popular in Norway etc.

 

[Eisen]

Cross-country skiers in Lahti. 2001.

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 - Wikipedia

Questionable was me being polite. This was quite clearly widespread use of PEDs. A bit like Austria were also doing around the same time.

Very sad. As cross-country skiing felt like a sport that was getting more and more popular. And that countries like Austria were suddenly competitive and would arrange races with a lot of spectators. A guy like Myllyla was very popular in Norway etc.

Ah, I remember that. I was thinking about cruelty or abuse or something like that. Thanks.

 

[Eisen]

I'm totally pumped for the Nordic Combined. What a great race.

 

[Eisen]

What a finish by Geiger! Poor Rydzek turned completely blue in the last kilometre.

 

[Havre]

Feel a bit sorry for Graabak. Unlucky with the conditions during his jump, but maybe silver was the best he could get anyway (realistically - even with a meter or two longer jump).

With Riiber out still one more medal than excepted.

 

[Eisen]

Feel a bit sorry for Graabak. Unlucky with the conditions during his jump, but maybe silver was the best he could get anyway (realistically - even with a meter or two longer jump).

With Riiber out still one more medal than excepted.

Don't sell Graabak short. He's a goodie. Had a win in Seefeld right before the games.

 

[Havre]

Don't sell Graabak short. He's a goodie. Had a win in Seefeld right before the games.

Oh I’m not. Just that I didn’t want to sound like he was robbed for not winning.

Could also say he was lucky in the sense that Rydzek collapsed in a way he normally wouldn’t

 

[Eisen]

Oh I’m not. Just that I didn’t want to sound like he was robbed for not winning.

Could also say he was lucky in the sense that Rydzek collapsed in a way he normally wouldn’t

Yeah, Rydzek is usually strong on the skis. Completely gone on the last hill.

 

[Havre]

Yeah, Rydzek is usually strong on the skis. Completely gone on the last hill.

I would guess it is the altitude. Maybe combined with slow conditions and tough courses (not sure how slow it was today or how tough the course the use for Nordic though).

Already seen quite a few good skiers suddenly struggle in both cross country and biathlon. In ways they normally woulnd't. Hanna Öberg looked completely lost at the end of her race as an example.

 

[Cloned]

I can’t imagine being a short track speed skater, where you’re subject to the whims of other skaters jostling for position and inconsistent refereeing.

Not only do you have to be incredibly good to be consistently successful, you have to have a good degree of luck too.

 

[Incubajerks]

I can’t imagine being a short track speed skater, where you’re subject to the whims of other skaters jostling for position and inconsistent refereeing.

Not only do you have to be incredibly good to be consistently successful, you have to have a good degree of luck too.

For me the regulation of this discipline is absolutely impossible to understand, they probably write it on the spot.

 

[Cloned]

For me the regulation of this discipline is absolutely impossible to understand, they probably write it on the spot.

They do have rules, it’s just that the application of them seems completely arbitrary at times.