The Winter Olympics in Beiing will take place from 4 February - 20 February in Beijing (with the first curling matches already the 2 February)
Like the Tokyo Olympics, the time zone difference is quite significant. So for me (and I guess most Europeans), this will again mostly be watching events re-live.
Gracenote predicts Norwegian dominance in the medal table, which they also topped in 2018.
Denmark is of course notoriously bad at Winter Olympics, with the 1998 Curling Silver medal the only winter olympic medal in history. This time we will have by the far the largest group of competitors ever with 62 competitors. This is due to Denmark being represented in both the Men and Women Icehockey tournaments. Unfortunately the NHL players won't take part, so the icehockey tournament is less glamorous than usual now that Denmark finally qualified. The chances of medalling are again slim. As usual, I would think our best chance would be for one of our curling teams to catch fire for a couple of weeks. One of the two speed skaters might also do ok. And then I'm happy to see the Greenlandic biathlete Ukaleq Slettemark participate. She is only 20 years, so is not gonna make a top result this time, but has done great at Junior/Youth World Championships in recent years, even winning a gold in the 10 km Individual in the Biathlon Junior World Championships 2019.
The Danish broadcaster made this funny commercial for Winter Olympics with the point that yes maybe we're not a big winter sports nations, but cheer for our underdogs anyway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOSVvUZJnpA
Diouf wrote: ↑Sun Jan 23, 2022 22:15
The Winter Olympics in Beiing will take place from 4 February - 20 February in Beijing (with the first curling matches already the 2 February)
Like the Tokyo Olympics, the time zone difference is quite significant. So for me (and I guess most Europeans), this will again mostly be watching events re-live.
Gracenote predicts Norwegian dominance in the medal table, which they also topped in 2018.
Follow Johannes Høsflot Klæbo(cross country), Therese Johaug(cross country) and Jarl Magnus Riiber(nordic combined). They are supposed to dominate in the winter games.
The official medal table ranking is based on Golds, if they're tied, Silvers, and only if both gold and silvers are tied you go with overall (or bronze).
Firnen wrote: ↑Sun Jan 23, 2022 23:38
The official medal table ranking is based on Golds, if they're tied, Silvers, and only if both gold and silvers are tied you go with overall (or bronze).
This one has it wrong.
Agreed.
It was a close race for the 1st spot four years ago, Norway and Germany both had 14x gold, so silver decided it (14:10 for Norway), our close overtime defeat in the hockey final was decisive, unfortunately. And Norway got a very late gold medal in one of the last events (or even the last, I don't know anymore). Hopefully the bad trend from the summer olympics won't continue for us, but it also had to do it with injuries, covid and a lot of bad luck. However, as long as it's a top 3 spot I'd be okay with it.
Normally Poland's main hopes at Winter Olympics are our Ski Jumpers, but they are in terrible form this season. This Winter our main candidate for medals is Natalia Maliszewska in short track, current World Vice-Champion and European Champion. Any other medal for Poland would be considered as a surprise. Maybe our speed skaters, particularly Andżelika Wójcik or Monika Hojnisz-Staręga in Biathlon, but her pre-Olympics form was very poor.
Generally, our Winter athletes are heroes for me, no matter if they win or lose. That's because our politicians don't give a crap about Winter sports (except for Ski Jumping) and infrastructure is very, very poor. They often have to practice abroad using own resources of money with help of family or sponsors. Polish politicians are only first to welcome medalists when they come back from Olympics and make a photo with them and their medals.
Dave Ryding came 1st in a slalom at Kitzbuhel for the first time at the weekend which is encouraging but in a single event there will be many contenders.
3 norwegian cross country skiers tested positive for corona in Seiser Alm, Italy. 10 days in isolate and the Olympic games seems to disappear for Heidi Weng, Anne Kjersti Kalvå and Simen Hegstad Krüger. And I do not think this will be the last one.
Greyn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 04:52
This Winter our main candidate for medals is Natalia Maliszewska in short track, current World Vice-Champion and European Champion. Any other medal for Poland would be considered as a surprise.
Terrible news from Beijing from Polish perspective. Natalia Maliszewska was tested positive for COVID today and most likely will miss competition at her prime distance 500m which will take place on Saturday. This is so, so sad.
2 gold medals for Norway today. 15 km skiathlon Therese Johaug and mix relay biathlon with Marte Olsbu Røiseland, Tiril Eckhoff, Tarjei Bø and Johannes Thingnes Bø.
I just hate ski jumping because of the unfair conditions. The German girl was leading and in the decisive 2nd jump the wind conditions were much worse than for the other jumpers, so the jump was a bit too short and it's 'only' silver. Unfair decision not to wait for the jump as usual when conditions are that different, and now I heard the man on the screen who decided it was from Slovenia - the country of the winning girl. Wow.
BurningStorm wrote: ↑Sat Feb 05, 2022 13:45
I just hate ski jumping because of the unfair conditions. The German girl was leading and in the decisive 2nd jump the wind conditions were much worse than for the other jumpers, so the jump was a bit too short and it's 'only' silver. Unfair decision not to wait for the jump as usual when conditions are that different, and now I heard the man on the screen who decided it was from Slovenia - the country of the winning girl. Wow.
Was it Miran Tepes? If so, he is well known for dirty manipulations during the competitions and supporting some ski jumpers according to his personal preferences. I thought he is done with ski jumping, but as I can see, he was only "relegated" to Women competitions. My condolences.
And Norway got a very late gold medal in one of the last events (or even the last, I don't know anymore). Hopefully the bad trend from the summer olympics won't continue for us, but it also had to do it with injuries, covid and a lot of bad luck. However, as long as it's a top 3 spot I'd be okay with it.
