Fox334

Men's hockey groups have been announced by the IIHF: Group A: Canada Czech Republic Switzerland South Korea Group B: Russia USA Slovakia Third Qualifier Group C: Sweden Finland First Qualifier Second Qualifier

Considering there is only one eventing team spot available at the Pan-ams and that the US hasn't qualified at the worlds this is pretty big for the Canadian equestrian team. Really unfortunate for the French team (minus Livio). Hopefully they'll qualify a team at Europeans.

Am I the only one that thinks the America's Cup is a bit of a joke? There is awesome racing when they actually bother to race, but all the behind the scene legal battles and the arbitrary changes of classes makes the event hard to take too seriously IMO.

Fran Mirabella III

Eugene is going to awfully refreshing after Doha in 2019.

The venues I've seen so far are pretty stunning. The shooting venue, especially, looks really, really nice for, well, a shooting venue.

Shame, especially on the women's side where Olympic Football is arguably the main showcase.

They managed to piss off both North American and European broadcasters, and yet this is still probably the most reasonable timeframe to hold the tournament in such an unreasonable venue. I'm almost tempted to say "well done, FIFA". Almost.

Pretty sure they just want the rest of the world to notice they exist.

Well, the farce is finally over! FIFA has officially stripped Qatar of... the 2021 Confederation Cup. Because they finally realized it's too bloody hot during the summer and that moving the tournament to the winter is impractical. Now if only they had thought of that a couple of years earlier.

No, it can and should be entirely dismissed. Beijing's bid is not that strong. The distances between the city and mountain venues is ridiculous (not Stockholm/Are ridiculous, but still) and, more importantly, China has basically no experience hosting international snow events outside of aerials competitions. Are is a major, well established alpine destination. So are Munich/Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Oslo/Lillehamer. Those cities all have a lot more winter sports infrastructure and experience than Beijing does. Not to mention that Western Europe is overdue for the Olympics while East Asia is already getting back-to-back Olympics. Beijing had to feat the other bids, not the other way around.

The women's water polo tournament really needs to expand to 12 teams already. The qualifiers for it are absolutely insane. Historically Canada makes it pretty competitive with Argentina in men's field hockey, so with hone field advantage Canada certainly has a (admittedly quite less than 50-50) chance of grabbing the pan-am slot. Volleyball's qualification system is indeed bunk, but I feel like if the Canadian men get assigned one of the four last chance qualification tournament they have as good a chance as anyone to qualify.

Would depend on where it's held. But generally e-sports competitions work well in convention centres or a concert hall. You can also hold them in unconventional venues like airport hangars, beaches or war memorials.

So, beyond how ridiculous the notion sounds lets list some actual problems: The popular eSports change pretty quickly. StarCraft: Brood Wars had a very long life for an eSport and it's time as a major pro eSport lasted just over ten years. League of Legends and StarCraft II are both dominated by South Korea. And by dominated I mean the top 30 players are probably all Koreans. Dota 2, to a lesser extend, is dominated by China. Female competitions are basically non-existent, as are female competitors. The IeSF (the group pushing this) has virtually no sway in the eSport world. Their tournaments have very little prestige and are generally not all that well organized. People within the eSports industry don't seem too interested in getting into the Olympics. There are also a bunch of copyright issues. I guess if the IOC ever decided to create an Olympic games for mind sports they might want to make this happen, but I just don't see it working out.

South Korea is also making amazing strides in men's bobsleigh. Wouldn't be a shock now if they managed to get a sliding sport medal in 2018.

I don't see the IOC wanting to add this without removing the two existing events. But I also don't see World Archery pursuing this if it doesn't mean they get a fifth event.

Not sure about that. Biathlon managed to get it's cake and eat it to when adding a mixed event. I honestly don't see the archery people pushing for a mixed team event if it means giving up the two team events they have right now. Just no incentive to do so.

Yet another sport getting on the mixed team event bandwagon. It's getting slightly ridiculous.

Okay, it's official. I want FIFA to move the 2022 World Cup to the United Kingdom, preferably with the finals played in Belfast or something like that, just to see Tony's head explode. Bonus points if FIFA forces the four home nations to compete as one team.

A facility that also has the advantage of being in the same country, which avoids much of the political issues.

I doubt either China or Kazakhstan is very interested in sharing any events they don't absolutely have to share. Not to mention the distances would still be an issue (especially if Almaty wins). IMO using existing venues in neighbouring countries is something only Western democracies will really be interested in doing. Also, even *if* Almaty wins and want to use an existing track I feel they would prefer to use Paramonovo or Sanki anyway, due to closer cultural ties and a shorter flight.

Probably was used as a sweetener to convince them to build a venue for slopestyle. since IIRC the Sochi organizers could have gotten it's inclusion delayed until 2018.

My personal guess is that Quebec City would only want to ship the speed alpine events elsewhere, since that has always been their biggest roadblock to hosting. They had previously toyed with the idea of having a bid with Lake Placid as the alpine venue but didn't go through with it because they didn't think the IOC would approve. But of course I'm sure they would at least loot at either Calgary of Lake Placid as a venue for the sliding sports, too.

I think it's sort of insane to think PyeongChang can cancel their sledding track. Perhaps it would make sense to host it in Nagano had that always been the plan, but I don't see the organizers shelving those plans after construction has started. I also don't see Korea wanting to share their second big international sporting event in a row with Japan. As for hosting it anywhere but Nagano or PyeongChang... seriously, that's just insanity. IMO this is just a PR stunt from the IOC. Where it would make sense for Bobsleigh to be held in another country would be something like Are, Salzbourg, Krakow or Quebec City hosting.

They did in Vancouver and Sochi, iirc. And hey, if Canada can win a bobsleigh medal with a Jamaican on the sled then so can South Korea