2018 WINTER OLYMPICS - Pyeongchang/South Korea

[JChan]

[MENTION=12837]JamieBrown[/MENTION]

I hope it works out for Canada in cross country as well. Does the German Olympic Committee value biathlon over cross country? In terms of our ski jumping team, I'm just not sure. Who knows. I love watching the sport and I hope that in future we can at least be semi competitive.

For hockey honestly I hate both the IOC and the NHL. They both refused to make a number of compromises and as a result we have the car crash that is Olympic hockey. I guess I'm more mad at the IOC as they literally refused to make any compromises. They didn't even want the nhl to be allowed to use Olympic footage which is a problem when many players were injured and the networks couldn't show the viewers how they got their injury. The Russian team is actually pretty good. They have Pavel Datsyuk who has 918 nhl points including 49 last year which is pretty good and Ilya Kovalchuk who has 816 nhl points. Idk how the viewing figures for the nhl will do. I think in markets where the nhl team is currently doing poorly (Ottawa) the Olympic figures will be pretty high but in markets where the nhl team is succeeding (winnipeg) the olympics will mostly be ignored.

If you were to bet on one athlete from Germany winning a medal who would it be? I'd pick Laura Dalhmeirer or Francesco Friedrich being sure bets for taking home a medal.

 

[ShoeFlo]

If you were to bet on one athlete from Germany winning a medal who would it be? I'd pick Laura Dalhmeirer or Francesco Friedrich being sure bets for taking home a medal.

Well, our luge athletes are sure bets. Especially the doubles Wendl/Arlt and Eggert/Benecken will most most likely win medals, as well as Natalie Geisenberger in the woman's single event.
Other than that there arent so many safe bets in the individual events... many hot contenders but right now I dont see any dominator such as Hirscher, Shiffrin, Bø in our team.
However, in the team events there are some very very likely medals... Biathlon women's relay and Nordic Combined relay, for example. There is no way our Nordic Combined team will fail to make the Top 3

 

[JamieBrown]

I would fulfill this list with the name of Laura Dahlmeier actually. She's able to win any competition, although I do not expect that she'll win 6 medals once again. That last year was just beyond amazing.

Tomorrow the first competitions will start, but of course no medals to give out. It's just the first curls to set on the ice and the qualification for the men's normal hill in ski jumping also takes place. The german team will consist of Welling, Eisenbichler and Freitag (no surprise here) and Karl Geiger, who just beat Stephan Leyhe in today's trials. They were both on an equally high level, with a little more luck for Leyhe in the most rounds, it was just when the last 2 rounds counted that Geiger could gain 0.5 points more than his opponent. Wellinger topped the trials twice, Eisenbichler also could show his ability to win a medal, just Richard Freitag had only one better jump today. Also he said that he doesn't like jumping in Asia, due to jetlag. Well, it's just the first day, all our athletes will qualify tomorrow and then it's only Saturday that counts.

Kamil Stoch once again destined to be the unbeatable top favourite. He took off during the 2nd trials, but in the first he was on top in all three jumps. So he might be the first to defend his olympic title since Matti Nykänen won in the 80's

 

[GermanBango]

Had the last exam of the semester yesterday. Now I can focus on the important stuff: the Olympics.

 

[JamieBrown]

Already impressed by the organisation. Never did I expect to have an outsold competition at the ski jumping qualifications, but there are already more spectators than at last years WC. And they're even cheering

 

[GermanBango]

WOW what an amazing qualification by the German ski jumpers.

 

[ShoeFlo]

By the way, for those who are curious, the Nordic combiner Eric Frenzel will be our flagbearer tomorrow. Well deserved he won everything he could win!

 

[esc87fan]

CANADIAN TRAIL - DAY 0
Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris beat the American in mixed doubles curling and are at 1-1. In the figure skating team event, Canada will send out Patrick Chan and Duhamel/Radford in the men's and pairs short program

 

[as78]

I tried to make a little prediction for sports I know and follow, for others I looked at season rankings and odds, so this is what I got putting all together - my prediction for the medal table:

Though it's still not known about some Russians if they'll be allowed to participate.

I'm quite surprised how many medals I got for Norway, but we'll see.

 

[GermanBango]

Well anyway, here are my predictions for DAY 1 (Saturday 10th):

Biathlon (Women's 7,5km Sprint)
Anastasiya Kuzmina
Darya Domracheva
Laura Dahlmeier

Cross-Country Skiing (Ladies' 7.5km + 7.5km Skiathlon)
Charlotte Kalla
Marit Bjørgen
Heidi Weng

Short Track Speed Skating (Men's 1,500m)
Dae Heon Hwang
Shaolin Sandor Liu
::na Dajing Wu

Ski Jumping (Men's Normal Hill Individual)
Kamil Stoch
Andreas Wellinger
Richard Freitag

Speed Skating (Ladies' 3000m)
Antoinette de Jong
Miho Takagi
Martina Sáblíková

 

[JChan]

Well anyway, here are my predictions for DAY 1 (Saturday 10th):

Five different countries winning gold on day 1.

 

[JamieBrown]

Five different countries winning gold on day 1.

I think that's likely to happen, only possibilities are Norway or Germany to win ski jumping and biathlon(Germany) or cross country (Norway). Then again the normal hill is not the best for the norwegian gliders, but I hope for the first surprises. I need those everyday

 

[as78]

I think that's likely to happen, only possibilities are Norway or Germany to win ski jumping and biathlon(Germany) or cross country (Norway). Then again the normal hill is not the best for the norwegian gliders, but I hope for the first surprises. I need those everyday

I would not rule out Norway winning biathlon too. Tiril Eckhoff won the last sprint before Olympics in World Cup in Antholz. Of course, she is very unstable, but can surprise.

 

[lavieenrose]

Wow, the men's team short program was hilarious. I felt bad for Patrick Chan, who choked first, but then the successive rough moments just got funnier and funnier.

 

[JChan]

Wow, the men's team short program was hilarious. I felt bad for Patrick Chan, who choked first, but then the successive rough moments just got funnier and funnier.

As a Canadian I felt terrible for Patrick. But then literally the best possible scenario happened and I've never felt better. What an insane way to open to the Olympics.

 

[GermanBango]

A beautiful opening ceremony - Yuna Kim had her well deserved moment.

 

[Malagant]

I thought it was a beautiful Opening Ceremony as well! Well done, Pyeongchang!

 

[Sultana]

As for me I haven´t enjoyed it as much as I did in 2010 and 2014. 2010 was one of the most impressive ones I´ve ever seen. Won´t judge 2014 since it was my home Olympics Just can say I was proud af 2018 ... kinda eh

 

[esc87fan]

As a Canadian I felt terrible for Patrick. But then literally the best possible scenario happened and I've never felt better. What an insane way to open to the Olympics.

At least he was still able to get points for his team, combined with Meagan and Eric's second-place effort in the pairs short Canada is in the lead in the team competition

 

[Schlagerman1]

A beautiful opening ceremony - Yuna Kim had her well deserved moment.

Yes, so happy for her, she was an amazing figure skater and I know she is huge in Korea, a great choice from the organizers. A nice ceremony, not too much, but sweet and sensible, glad they didn't go as big as Vancouver and Sochi and did their own thing. Finally the 23rd Winter Olympics has begun!