Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

[esc87fan]

We're about 9 weeks away from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics, how have your countries been faring in its preparations?

Canada has already named its first Olympians this past weekend: our 4-player curling teams are confirmed. The women's side will be represented by Jennifer Jones from Winnipeg, who won the gold medal in Sochi in 2014, while the men's side will be represented by Brad Gushue from St. John's, who won the gold medal in Turin in 2006. First-time Olympians from both squads include Jocelyn Peterman, Geoff Walker and Brett Gallant

 

[Looren]

Winter Olympics are my faves haha, even tho Morocco is really bad at it

 

[tomos2019]

It does seem a bit weird to me that despite the reputation of Britain being really wet and cold, the UK has hosted the Summer Olympics about three times whereas Scotland or somewhere like that doesn't seem to have shown any interest in the Winter ones! I like that we've had recent ones in South Korea,Japan AND China though, I don't think there's been many cities that have hosted both Summer and Winter too!

 

[esc87fan]

The Canadian Olympic curling trials took place in Saskatoon, on Treaty 6 First Nations territory. To honor the men's and women's teams, each member received a star blanket in a special ceremony following the men's championship final - it represents achievement reached by an individual and the embrace of the Canadian people

 

[heke1988]

Well will took bronze medal in Women's ice hockey and perhaps some medals in cross-country skiing. Perhaps we will also get medal in Men's ice hockey.

 

[ShoeFlo]

It will be hard to repeat our amazing medal record of 2018 when we won 14 golden medals and 31 medals in total, but I think we might again reach out to the 2nd place of medal table.

I mostly care about Ski Jumping. There we should aim for the golden medal in the men's team event, even though Austria and Norway have some say in it, too. In the men individual events we have serious contenders too but the competition seems to be huge and unpredictable (as far as we can say that in this early stage of the season). Experience showed that while we are cursed in the 4-hill-tournaments, our athletes are usually on fire in World Cups and Olympics, so I am pretty hopeful again. Moreover, I expect us to win medals in the women and mixed events.

In the Nordic combined events we should win at least three medals, too. In the team event we will fight for gold, in the individual events the Norwegian Riiber looks too dominant though.

In the Bobs sleigh events I expect us to win 3 of 4 possible golden medals, especially Francesco Friedrich is almost invincible

In Luge I expect us to win medals in every event, two of them should be in Gold

I have no idea about Skeleton but it seems like we are dominating the men's events and we've also got a hot medal contender in the women's event. Yay!

In Biathlon we are still collectively solid but we don't really have world class athletes these days. But as Kühn proved this weekend we are still able to spring surprises now and then. And usually our biathlon athletes reach their peak form when they approach the big events. The number of medals is going to be sparse compared to 2018, but I hope for two individual medals and one team medal. I don't expect gold.

In Alpine skiing the expectations are low, too. Atm the best contender for a medal is Lena Dürr in the womens slalom event.

In Cross Country skiing there is a German woman who actually got a 3rd place this season (I wouldn't know without research because Cross country skiing really got irrelevent here, at least in my world), nevertheless any medal would be a surprise there.

In the skating sports we suck. No medals there.

I don't know a lot about the hip sports Snowbard and Freestyle. But we should get one or two medals in Snowboard at least.

In Curling I don't even know whether we qualified for the tournments, in Ice Hockey our men team is one of several contenders for a medal I suppose

 

[Edweis]

In Alpine skiing the expectations are low, too. Atm the best contender for a medal is Lena Dürr in the womens slalom event.

Lena Dürr is indeed a solid chance. While Shiffrin and Vlova get on the podium at each race (or almost), many different skiers got the 3rd spot. And the first two aren't safe from a screw-up either.

However it's sad to see Germany underperforming these days. As a kid I was used to see Maria Riesh, Felix Neureuther Viktoria Rebensburg and others performing well. I'm not too worried though, every national team knows a time when there is a lack of skiers able to compete against the very best (we have the same problem in the female team, aside from Tessa Worley no one can get a great result).

 

[Looren]

As a kid I was used to see Maria Riesh, Felix Neureuther Viktoria Rebensburg and others performing well.

Dressen also, such a great rider

Germany can get a medal in Slalom with Strasser, he's really great

 

[EscGeek]

Sochi 2014 will be extremely hard to beat, so I'm hoping for our 2nd best winter olympic medal tally ever.

 

[ShoeFlo]

Lena Dürr is indeed a solid chance. While Shiffrin and Vlova get on the podium at each race (or almost), many different skiers got the 3rd spot. And the first two aren't safe from a screw-up either.

However it's sad to see Germany underperforming these days. As a kid I was used to see Maria Riesh, Felix Neureuther Viktoria Rebensburg and others performing well. I'm not too worried though, every national team knows a time when there is a lack of skiers able to compete against the very best (we have the same problem in the female team, aside from Tessa Worley no one can get a great result).

There were worse times... when I started watching wintersports as a young boy in 2002-03 we didn't even have a single man in the Top 50 of the world cup. Our ladies were quite good though.

But also in the ladies world cup we've always relied on the performances of exceptional talents like Riesch and Rebensburg. For many years there was nobody coming up from behind. We've never had a squad depth like Austria, USA and Italy. We Germans have never been a Alpine Skiing powerhouse anyway. For me as a German I mourn more for our decline in Biathlon because we were dominating that sports a while ago, but I am not that sad about our decline in Alpine skiing. Having said that, I like watching Alpine skiing and hope for improvements. We are not hopeless. As you said, Lena Dürr is good but there is also Kira Weidle who is only 25 years old who managed to achieve good results in the down-hill races in the last couple of years including a silver medal in the World Championship. I just didnt count her as a medal contender because she doesn't seem to be in a good shape so far this season.

Btw, I'd be curious to know what events you guys and girls are looking forward the most?

 

[Edweis]

Btw, I'd be curious to know what events you guys and girls are looking forward the most?

So aside from the obvious - alpine skiing - I'm primarily interested in biathlon, moguls and freestyle skiing because this is where we have our biggest gold medals chances.
No need to talk about biathlon, with or without Martin Fourcade our team is on fire and I couldn't be even more proud of them knowing it's far from being as popular as it is in Nordic countries. In moguls we have the Pyrenean legend Perrine Laffont, who at 23 won every title in her discipline and will aim for the double, and the men team. Skicross and boardercross are strong events for both our female and male team, and in freestyle Tess Ledeux has big chances too.
Snowsports are our strong fort, there will be a lot of pressure on our athletes as we know they have great results on the regular WC events.


Then, if I take a look at other disciplines where we don't have as many chances, I like to watch ice skating, bobsleigh and ice hokey. Short track is interesting too.

 

[esc87fan]

Curling (Canada has two strong teams with our mixed doubles entry yet to be selected), hockey, freestyle skiing (watch out for Mikaël Kingsbury in men's moguls) and speed skating. Our figure skating team will likely be not as strong as the team in Pyeongchang, but we've got a big medal hope in ice dancing (Piper Gillies and Paul Poirier)

 

[Himan]

We have no mountains. Ice is seldom in The Netherlands, so obviously, we will be top 5 in the medal table. We are the skating country of this world, so obviously we will win a lot of medals there. In short track, we have the best female at this moment with Susanne Schulting. We can also win some other medals in that sport especially relay. And then to finish it off, there is a possible big surprise in Skeleton coming. But we might lose our 10k in skating again.

Only thing is, this Olympics should be more boycotted then for example the World Cup in Qatar in my eyes, so I'm not sure how I will watch.

 

[tomos2019]

I had thought about avoiding the topic, because I get it's quite political, but I am possibly one of few people that are not happy with the US/UK diplomatic boycott. I am as against bad things the Chinese government has done as anybody else, but apparently no countries have actually boycotted that Qatar World Cup (for example) despite having more long-running and well-known controversies surrounding it, and after how people have I suppose just 'acted' towards China since March 2020, I must say that I have gained more sympathy for it. I disagree with its government but whether you like it or not, the US does have a reputation for historically overreacting to ''communism''(*I obviously am referring to the US government and do genuinely apologise in advance if I have offended any Americans)!

Obviously it goes without saying, I'm not a Communist, I don't know if anywhere is now strictly Communist in the way it was intended(I think?) and I don't think China is even really that powerful today when you think about Russia etc but I do think that racist people do exist who will just not be happy with any Olympics held in East Asia (I once saw an image on Facebook to do with whaling, conflating it with the Japanese Olympics and people genuinely seemed taken in by it and never having considered racism could be involved at all ), and I would just personally rather those people were not potentially enabled.

But on a lighter note, I might possibly watch more coverage than usual, although I always say that, but I will try and avoid the BBC's cut down highlights on principle that paying for Eurosport seems ridiculous just for the odd bit of Olympics but yeah, it's being so positive that keeps me going lol

 

[esc87fan]

Due to Omicron variant concerns, NHL players will not participate in the men's hockey tournament

 

[esc87fan]

We're getting closer! Have your countries chosen its flagbearers for the opening ceremony yet?

Canada's will be hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin and speed skater Charles Hamelin

 

[Looren]

Pretty easy for us as we're sending only one athlete

 

[heke1988]

We're getting closer! Have your countries chosen its flagbearers for the opening ceremony yet?

Canada's will be hockey player Marie-Philip Poulin and speed skater Charles Hamelin

Finland's flagbearer will be men's ice hockey player Valtteri Filppula.

 

[ShoeFlo]

Germanys flagbearers will be announced tomorrow afaik

The flag will be carried by one male and one female athlete.

The bearers have been decided by a poll in which everybody could participate

The woman contenders are: Ice skater legend Claudia Pechstein, Natalie Geisenberger (Luge) and Ramona Hofmeister (Snowboard)
The men contenders are: Francesco Friedrich (Bob), Moritz Müller (Ice Hockey), Tobias Wendl (Luge)

I guess the woman bearer might become Claudia Pechstein. This is her 8th participation in Olympic Games, she is now holding the record together with ski jumper Noriaki Kasai.
I guess Francesco Friedrich has the best chances to become the male flag bearer. Hardly anybody is dominating a sport as much as Friedrich dominates the bob sports these days.

 

[Edweis]

After a long and unprecedented process, our flag bearers are gonna be Kevin Rolland and Tessa Worley.
First, people had to public vote among each federation to nominate one male and one female athlete. These athletes made up a 'council' of 26, any athlete nominated could present themselves as potential flag bearers. Due to lack of interest or conflict in schedule, only 6 chose to be part of the final poll in which the council of 26 athletes voted for the bearers.

I'm very happy with the outcome, they are both experienced athletes and much appreciated by the population. It is likely their last OG, I'm glad they got the opportunity to represent us.

Kevin Rolland (freestyle skiing), 32. Three times winner of Half-Pipe's Globe, World Champion, 15 WC podiums (6 wins), 6 X Games podiums (3 wins), almost died in 2019 after a very nasty fall. He never gave up though, still willing to be a pro skier and compete at the highest level.
Tessa Worley (alpine skiing), 32. Our most successful female skier, double World Champion, the 3rd most successful athlete in giant slalom (15 WC wins), and the one who holds the record among the current active female skiers. She too had to suffer through injuries, had bad seasons, but she's in top form right now and is a great medal chance.

Our Paralympics flag bearer will be Benjamin Daviet (para-nordic), 3 times Paralympic Champion in 2018, and multiple World Championships under his belt too.