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Much better to visit Stockholm in June than February. That way you will have light and warmth instead of darkness and possibly sludge and/or cold rain. Riga is well worth visiting, as are the other Baltic capitals, regardless of circumstances (better in summer though). Very different styles all three of them. The Latvian 2030 connection was actually mentioned in three out of the four main dailies in Sweden. In all three cases the same 10 line newsagency text that only mentioned sliding events in Sigulda. Remember that so far, when Sweden is mentioned in connection to the winter games in 2030 in international media that actually means SOK. As your relative so rightly noted, WOG in Stockholm would be a miracle.

I agree about Synchro needing approximately 120 spaces in the OV, minimum, presuming they intro with just 6 teams (which seems reasonable). As far as the Team Event is concerned, countries can't qualify unless they have entries qualified in at least 2 individual disciplines and they can only add an extra skater/team in one discipline for the TE, with a max of 5 additional TE and/or host quota spots for figure skating total - so the max # of figure skaters is capped at 30 men, 30 women, 24 dance teams, and 19 pairs teams = 151 athletes+support personnel. It's hard to say how many support personnel wind up at the Olympics in total because so many elite skaters share coaches/training centers. With all due respect (and that's not much for someone who calls the Team Event "silly")... There are 16 countries with entrants in at least 3 disciplines at Worlds this year - Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Great Britain, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, & USA. Korea should have entrants in 3, maybe all 4 disciplines next season (their jr dance team just won the silver at Jr Worlds and will be moving up to seniors next season, and they have a new pairs team that hasn't competed internationally yet). There are some other countries that could wind up fielding entrants in 3 or 4 disciplines by next year's Worlds (Sweden, Finland, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Australia & Spain). Korea is so strong, by the way, in the singles disciplines, along with the success of their junior dance team, that they're looking pretty solid to qualify for World Team Trophy this year (6 teams, held in odd-numbered years, points earned the same way the Olympic TE are earned) without any pairs points. The sport, overall, is showing a remarkable level of depth, across all disciplines, even without the presence of Russia. If I had to guess who would qualify for the 2026 TE almost 3 years out... Canada, France, Georgia, Italy, Korea, Japan, USA and then three of China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Switzerland, & Ukraine. And, right now, Japan would be the betting favorite to win the gold, with Italy and Korea coming on strong as potential medal spoilers, along with the USA. But, take all that with a grain of salt, because if you'd asked skating fans in 2019 who were potential medal spoilers for Beijing, China and Italy would have been high on that list and China barely made the FS round, while Italy couldn't even qualify a woman for the individual event and had to use a quota spot for their TE woman, and Georgia was on the radar of NO ONE and barely missed out on the FS round to China. China can only send one entrant to Worlds in every discipline this year because they didn't send anyone to compete at Worlds last year. Their pairs program is definitely in a rebuilding phase with Sui/Han taking some time off and Peng/Jin recovering from injury. There's potential in the three teams they've sent out to compete internationally this season, but they're not on the same level as their predecessors yet. As it is, the pairs discipline has been interesting enough without the Russians. Italy is building a VERY healthy pairs program and the US and Canada have some promising newer and/or younger teams. The Netherlands has two pairs teams that have started to gel this season and will both be at Worlds. I don't think anyone would make an argument that the discipline is technically better without the Russians, but I actually think it is, long-term, healthier for the discipline, to have them out of international competition right now. There are competitive opportunities that have been opened up to these other teams and they are improving, tremendously, by having these experiences. The Russians just sort of sucked all the air out of the room, same with the women's discipline, and while it's not always easy to watch skaters struggle to find their competitive nerve, it certainly does make for more unpredictable and exciting competitions when it's sort of anyone's competition to win.

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