Faster

It just sounds so pretentious. I mean I cannot stand the people Canada has used for the best part of 2 decades at this point.

For the Morocco game, the Canadian commentators were all over themselves fawning over Portugal. Morocco didn't stand a chance. And boom - Morocco! Croatia vs Morocco final would be absolutely wonderful and incredibly boring all at once. Just for perspective. Germany and France have made 4 semi-finals each since 1998 Croatia, Brazil, Netherlands have made 3 Argentina 2 Spain, Turkey, Korea, Turkey, Portugal, Uruguay, England, Italy and Morocco 1 Croatia has more semi-final births than 2 entire continents. And the same as Spain, Italy and England combined. Also can I just say how much I f-cking HATE the way anglophone commentators talk about soccer. Especially North American ones that try to mimic the ridiculously annoying vocabulary that the British use instead of using typical North American sports talk. It is obnoxious.

I mean the first true nonsense happened in 2008. But then how you view the Chechnyan wars and Russia's propensity to start or enflame conflicts in former republics followed by freezes (still currently happening in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Also Russia has given blank cheques to the stans to keep their communist era leaderships intake. Until Ukraine started to go bad.

I remember that dark, cold night that a well connected Australian here posted that Russia and Qatar had secured the hosting rights. You couldn't really believe it, but you knew it to be true. And here we are almost 12 years on and the disaster that awaits is going to be astonishing.

So no discussions on the Qataris bribing the Ecuadorians to lose 1-0 in the opener? I mean it worked so well to bribe the Latinos for 4 votes during the campaign.

Not sure why Nagano would have any drawbacks. I believe every venue from 1998 is still actively in use. Japan regularly uses those venues to host World Championships and world cups. Maybe they would need to use Inawashiro for some events now given size or use an arena even in Tokyo to help out with the number of events now. But it is a very viable option. I would have to imagine the IFs might start to be a little more active in trying to get a host together. There are a lot of viable options out there that have hurdles. I think Japan, Canada, Austria and France are probably the most likely to be able to get over their various hurdles. If you are looking for a low impact games hosted by a winter nation. Why not Switzerland 2034 and have the whole country host. Would be a way to get around their political issues. Geneva to Zurich is only 3 hours.

Tone-deaf.

Sweden happily hosts many sporting events. Regularly. Sweden would also be benefiting currently from a crop of generational talents in winter sport. If the IOC had gone with Stockholm, they may of not gotten all the perks. But they would have gotten full stands and a well organized event. Instead they are getting a rehash of Torino part 2. The Piedmontese pulled off a wonderful games. Are the Lombards gonna do the same?

Mini flames are going to all the major overseas territories. So New Caledonia, Reunion, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, French Guiana and Martinique

Nope. Paris trying to be environmentally friendly.

Well I heard the flame is going to depart Greece on a sailing yacht and arrive in France at Corsica before heading on up to Montepellier to start metropolitan relay

Compact Vancouver? With more than 20 events 6 hours or more from Vancouver?

Not sure it would really matter. There is synergy to the Tour being a lead in to the Olympics. Especially if the winner is my some miracle a Frenchman. Also it looks like in 2024 the race will stay in Southern France. Starting in Firenze and ending in Nizza

Not a hope in hell Calgary moves. There is not a single other city that could provide as much revenue as Calgary. A new arena will get done.

London's was a contrast to the city. Tokyo did nothing to evoke Japanese design and art in their look. That could have been any city. I also miss the days when their was one complete unified look across all venues. Instead of a palette of looks that change depending on the venue. Like Atlanta and their uniform centennial green. Sydney through London had good looks. And yes I liked Vancouver's. A lot. Rio was ok. 18, 20, 22 were not.