Sir Rols

Traviata!

Well, as an Opera fan, I’m enjoying so far

Finally

Is this thing going to start already…? Oh, a lovely amphitheater in blue

I haven’t seen much about how Italians embraced the game, but this article seems to dictate that, yes, they caught the Olympic glow: How Italians fell in love with their Winter Olympics after gaffes turned into gold

“Have you ever watched the 1976 fencing final?”

Maybe she’ll be better at kicking down than kicking sideways IOC will not censure Infantino for link to Trump's Board of Peace

Just watched the mix relay, and it was a little better - longer course, a bit more gruelling. Probably what I was expecting more. Can’t say I’m a fan of it yet, but it’s okay.

Well, if she’d just read GamesBids she’d have been across it all

It’s their revenge for all of us flaming them in the first week

Davide Ghiotto, Italy, speedskating

I honestly couldn’t recall, so did a quick research, and no, they weren’t. The paras symbol was also different then. Not the agitos, but the “geuks”.

It’s certainly not what I expected it to be. I was imagining some sort of long cross country type course across tough terrain culminating in a long downhill/nordic ski run. Instead it was a short uphill novelty course ending in a short slide. It’s quicksand d easily watchable, but I agree it doesn’t really capture the Olympic gravitas.

Even I’ll join her fan club

I think I fell in love with Ami. She was just such a little cutie

Yay! I missed you at the opening ceremony, so really glad you made it to pop in. Always good to welcome back the old crew.

I thought I’d remembered them getting medals before, so I just checked. Apparently they got a gold in Sapporo, and some silvers snd bronzes more recently. But, yeah, was happy to see Spain join the tally

First time I’ve ever seen this sport in action. It was okay, I guess. At least it was not another boring score the jump type event. It was quick and I always enjoy the head-to-head elimination formats. Seemed the key was how fast you could run up stairs and change your gear without fumbling.

Moved this here. It’s not just the World Cup infrastructure for Qatar. They’ve hosted the Asian Games (soon to be twice) which is already the second biggest multi-sports event after the Olympics, hosted heaps of World Championships, including the IAAF and World Aquatics Championships. They’re basically a “New Norm” wet dream in terms of having almost everything existing to host the games. At least the major big ticket items. The timing window us the big question, of course, but the IOC’s already put together a working party/experts group/taskforce to examine widening the existing scheduling window for the summer games, so that’s just a formality if they ever decide to bite the bullet.

She went to THE Ambani wedding and Nita was seen as one of the main backers of her candidacy. Still, I think Ahmedabad’s looking shaky - too many janky edges to package neatly. Even if the IOC allow Russia back into the sporting fold, they’re still going to be considered too much of a pariah state to be seriously considered as a host for a whole yet. Doha’s the big chance IMO. Wouldn’t be surprised at all see a Doha 36-Munich 40 double.

Thanks Bear Yoshi and I were waiting snd wishing snd hoping to the very last minute that you’d drop in your teased Rome entry. And I always have high expectations that your entries will blow the competition away. I think Yoshi and I enjoyed doing it again, especially Rome, but to be honest we were expecting more votes to come in. After the really good voting responses to the Champion-of-Champions and next host polls during Paris, we thought it was a no-brainer to shift the comp to coincide with the expected Milano-Cortina board uptick. We only broke past 10 votes in one round. And it’s a fine line not to get too annoying when you’re badgering for votes. Santiago flummoxed us too. Not to diss Santiago, but we really thought Trojena was the obvious choice. Oh well, you put things to a vote, you can’t cry when the electorate doesn’t vote as you expect it to.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s got more chance of attending

Ice hockey’s not my thing, so I haven’t looked in to now, but now I have I gotta say, that new “Look” cladding in the arena with the green and light blue is the best I’ve seen at these games. Probably ‘coz it’s different from all the sombre blue claddings everywhere else.

Full again already!? That’s Olympics and comp time for you. I’ve just cleared some space