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Sochi 2014 Qualifying Events


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US sweeps 1st Olympic qualifier in ski halfpipe

WANAKA, New Zealand (AP) - Torin Yater-Wallace and Devin Logan gave the United States a sweep of the first Olympic qualifying event for halfpipe skiing, which makes its debut at the Sochi Games in 2014.

Yater-Wallace and Logan won Wednesday in New Zealand to kick off a 17-month period during which skiers have a chance to make their Olympic teams.

Logan's victory in the women's competition and Yater-Wallace's first-place finish in the men's gave the Americans wins in the last six World Cup events in ski halfpipe, dating to March 2011.

Olympic officials have added a number of sports for the next Winter Games, including snowboarding slopestyle and halfpipe skiing.

http://sportsillustr...qualifier.0144/

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Lol, qualifiers for freestyle skiing. Each Freestyle team is limited to 24 athletes spread over 10 events, so the real battle will be to determine how many athletes a given country will send to the games.

Seriously, the quota for freestyle should just be 4 per country per event. The current system where you have Aerialists competing with Slopestylers for spots is just ludicrous.

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Lol, qualifiers for freestyle skiing. Each Freestyle team is limited to 24 athletes spread over 10 events, so the real battle will be to determine how many athletes a given country will send to the games.

Seriously, the quota for freestyle should just be 4 per country per event. The current system where you have Aerialists competing with Slopestylers for spots is just ludicrous.

I guess it brings universiality to the sport. The British Virgin Islands, Colombia, Brazil, Andorra all have the chance of qualifying. BTW its 26 per nation. And no nation is strong to send 4 in each event.

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I guess it brings universiality to the sport. The British Virgin Islands, Colombia, Brazil, Andorra all have the chance of qualifying. BTW its 26 per nation. And no nation is strong to send 4 in each event.

And in Vancouver they didn't even manage to get 35 athletes in men's ski cross because of the country quota. And a few countries (the US and Canada being among then) ended up cutting quite a few athletes from their team to fit into the then 22-athlete quota. My main issue with the current system is that it advantages country that are only strong in one or two Freestyle discipline (since they can fully use their depth in that event) over countries that are strong over all the freestyle disciplines. So Belarus can send 4 athletes in Aerials but not the US because they need to save spots for the Half-pipe team. It makes no sense. If you are so worried about universality, just have a 3 athlete quota for each event.

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And in Vancouver they didn't even manage to get 35 athletes in men's ski cross because of the country quota. And a few countries (the US and Canada being among then) ended up cutting quite a few athletes from their team to fit into the then 22-athlete quota. My main issue with the current system is that it advantages country that are only strong in one or two Freestyle discipline (since they can fully use their depth in that event) over countries that are strong over all the freestyle disciplines. So Belarus can send 4 athletes in Aerials but not the US because they need to save spots for the Half-pipe team. It makes no sense. If you are so worried about universality, just have a 3 athlete quota for each event.

I guess so. The quota was 18, and for Canada not too bad considering women's aerials only needed 1 max. I like the 3 quota event. And oh you have to be in the top whatever to quaify with the restriction being top 4 max. So if Belarus has the top 4 they aren't gaming the system at all.

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I think that all the individual events at the Winter Olympics should have a maximum quota of 3 per country.

The issue there is that in a lot of sports (alpine and cross country comes to mind) you already have a really watered down field with a 4 per country quota, and putting it down to 3 would make things even worse. It's not like summer, there isn't that much universality on the winter side.

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Olympic Slopestyle Qualifying Opens Friday

Ushuaia, Argentina - The 2014 Olympic Winter Games qualifying period for slopestyle skiing opens Friday with the first FIS World Cup slopestyle event of the season in Argentina. The sport will make its Olympic debut in Sochi, Russia

“The FIS World Cup in Ushuaia, Argentina is the first Olympic qualifier for slopestyle skiing leading up to Sochi 2014. This is such an important milestone for the sport and its athletes,” explains Skogen Sprang, slopestyle coach for U.S. Freeskiing. “The next 17 months will surely provide a great show and an exciting race to the Olympic games.”

The 17-month qualifying period provides individual athletes with opportunity to achieve required international ranking to be eligible for Olympic selection and helps the USA earn nation’s quota spots. Among the U.S. Freeskiing athletes slated to compete in Friday’s international field are X Games medalist Keri Herman (Breckenridge, Colo.) and Emilia Wint (Denver, Colo.), who recently won The North Face Freeski Open of New Zealand. Also present are newly added U.S. Freeskiing Rookie Team members Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.), Annalisa Drew (Andover, Mass.) and Willie Borm (Chaska, Minn.).

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http://www.firsttrac...g-opens-friday/

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American Keri Herman and England's James Woods won the first FIS World Cup Slopestyle contest of the season held Friday in Ushuaia, Argentina.

In the women's field, it was the first major win for Herman -- a perennial slopestyle silver medalist at Winter X Games -- in years. Herman won with a frontside 270, a switch corked 720, a switch 540, a 360 safety grab, and cork 540 mute grab. Switzerland's Eveline Bhend took second, followed by Canada's Dara Howell in third.

For the men, James Woods stole the show with a switch 270 pretzel on, 270 out on the rail, a switch 630 to switch on the gap to down box, a switch on backside 630 off the up box, a leftside dub cork 1080 mute grab, a rightside dub cork 1260 mute grab, and switch rightside 900 mute grab. Sweden's Henrik Harlaut took second, and Switzerland's Jonas Hunziker got third.

The contest was the first official slopestyle qualifier for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the first-ever FIS Slopestyle World Cup event held in Argentina. The event was organized by the Brazilian Snowsports Federation and was called the End of the World Challenge.

The Olympic qualifying process starts now and continues over the next year and a half.

...

http://espn.go.com/a...style-argentina

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  • 2 months later...

Ice Hockey - Team GB top qualification group

Tony Hand's side saw off hosts Japan 2-1 to top Group J in the pre-Winter Olympics Games qualifying tournament.

The result sees Team GB go through to the final qualification rounds next February as they topped Group J with a 2-1 win over the hosts.

Having lost their first group match on penalties to South Korea, wins against Romania and then Japan were enough to turn the tables on their Group rivals.

And on Sunday the heroes were Craig Peacock and Ben O'Connor who both scored early on to put the Brits in control.

Shuhei Kuji did manage to pull a goal back for Japan late on and it took a backs-to-the-wall defensive display in the closing stages to seal Great Britain's win.

Tony Hand's troops will in all likelihood head to Germany for the final qualifying tournament for the Games although they could still head to Denmark or Latvia, depending on other results.

"This is a huge moment in the history of British ice hockey," said Hand. "I am so proud of every one of these guys and so should everyone back home be.

"We have proved we can compete at this level and now we want to prove we can compete at a higher level. Every single guy played their heart out and we did this with talent and determination.

"No one should underestimate how much this means to British ice hockey. It is massive.

"We are one step away from Sochi 2014 and now get to test ourselves against some of the world's best hockey nations."

http://uk.eurosport....-131935839.html

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Curling: NZ playing for spot at Olympic Game

New Zealand is playing for an Olympic Games spot at the Asia-Pacific curling championships in Naseby next week.

A top two spot would secure the New Zealand men's team a place in next year's world championships in Victoria, Canada.

New Zealand's fifth placing at the world championships in Switzerland last year puts it in a strong position to qualify for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

But it could fall out of the picture if it does not finish in the top two in Naseby and qualify for the world championships.

Seven teams have entered for the men's event in Naseby: Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, Kazakhstan and New Zealand.

New Zealand is fifth on the World Curling Federation's points table for the Olympics and China is ranked sixth.

Twelve teams have been ranked.

Korea is added as the 14th team because it contested the world championships in 2011. No other team in the Asia-Pacific championships is listed.

A repeat performance in Canada would qualify New Zealand for the Winter Olympics.

The World Curling Federation has confirmed the 2014 Winter Olympic qualifying points earned in Basle. This championship and the 2013 event in Canada are the only two where nations can gain automatic qualification for Sochi in 2014.

The top seven ranked teams gain automatic entry to the Olympics and host country Russia is also included.

The eight points New Zealand earned with fifth place at last year's world championships leave the side close to qualification. A mid-table finish at the 2013 event in Canada would be enough to guarantee it.

The remaining two places will be decided at an Olympic qualifying event in late 2013. Nations which have competed at the 2011, 2012 or 2013 world championships and have not already qualified will be eligible to compete at this event.

Four-time Asia-Pacific gold medal winner Rui Liu returns to skip the Chinese men's team that will be looking for back-to-back gold medals in Naseby.

Chang-Min Kim skips a Korean men's team looking to improve on last year's bronze medal finish, while Australia will be skipped again by 2011 world senior men's bronze medallist Hugh Millikin. Randolph Shen returns for the fourth year in a row to skip the Chinese Taipei team.

In the women's competition, teams from Australia, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea and New Zealand will play to secure the two World Curling Federation Asia-Pacific qualification places for next year's world women's championship in Riga, Latvia.

Korea is ranked fourth and China 11th. No other team competing in Naseby is listed. New Zealand finished third at the Pacific-Asia tournament last year.

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http://www.odt.co.nz...ot-olympic-game

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