what exactly is going on here in this speed skating mass start?????

Germany likely a lock for Bobsled... would tie the 14 GOLDZ won by Canada in 2010. Can the men's hockey be the one to break the record? (It was also men's hockey that broke the record of 13 for Canada, giving them the 14th and final gold of the games.)

30km ski mass start, Marit is a fine favourite with 4 medalz already at these games... but 30km is such an insane distance, so many things can happen, always unpredictable (like we saw tonight in the men's 50km.) Very possible Norway tops out at 13 here.

Mass start has three intermediate sprints and the finish.

Sprints gives 5/3/1 points for Top3.

Finish gives 60/40/20 points of Top3.

Top 8 based on points go through to the final, final time is the tie breaker.


I assume the final has no sprints.

lol Pechstein running good.

And the dutch skater wins after crashing halfway through

If only Blondin hadn't tried for the second sprint; might've stayed on her skates and had a better finish to push through.

CBC Commentator (and former Olympic skater) Kristina Groves seems to have a surprisingly poor grasp of what is "safe" to advance. No way you can count on a single point - with 12 different point opportunities available and only 8 advancing, 1 point is far from safe, even though it was enough in the first semifinal.

I'm actually surprised it's *ever* safe in a semifinal - if you acquire 3 or 5, you're almost certainly safe and should be coasting to the end to save energy for the final. That would then mean 9 people would have more than 1 point. Hmm...then again, since 3 isn't completely safe, I suppose I could see why one or two of them might go for more points. Interesting to think that someone with 3 going for (and getting) more points makes 3 points safer. But the point remains that counting on 1 point is risky.

That's not to fault Blondin's strategy - once she fell, she couldn't get any more points.

This from my expert knowledge after having witnessed two mass start races in my entire life.

The final has the same sprint structure to determine the minor placings. So anyone wasting energy on those basically thinks they have no shot at the medals.

Yeah, it seems a little odd to have the exact same point structure, since even winning all 3 sprints can't move you up or down into or within the top 3.

LOL, now Groves saying you need 3 to be safe.

I'm going to be really disappointed if she suggests anything other than the sprints don't matter in the final. Unless of course the point structure actually does change.

Dane with the smart strategy of just going off on one sprint and chilling the **** out for the rest of the race

On a completely unrelated note, just saw this commercial again - love it every time I see it.

Yeah, if you can make it work, it seems like the smart play, especially when they're running the final within an hour or two of the semifinal, as opposed to on different days like they apparently do at other times.

Top4 half-assing and still half a lap ahead of the rest of the field, wtf.

lmao now they all go like crazy

In spite of how little knowledge I have of this event, I have a suggestion for an improvement - make third spot worth just 10 at the end. Maybe 12. Would give more incentive to win the sprints, and maybe more interesting alternative strategies.

There was a Canadian in that race, wasn't there?

Sigh.

Really weird point system. I guess 4th place for estonian is fine considering it is our only top-10 finish.

Doesnt really seem that a lot of these woman have any idea of a proper strategy. Not sure what Pechstein tried to accomplish there. At least the estonian tried something.

The commentators were talking about a race where Pechstein went on a solo breakaway, much like the Estonian did that race, but then they were never able to catch her in time. I wonder if she was in front to make a break st some point, but they never let her get away?

There's probably more strategy and things tried than we notice. Someone picking up the pace suddenly but everyone sticking with them might not be that noticeable.

looks like alex harvey will be getting a silver medal in the mail once those two russkies inevitably get busted for roids

So I guess we're finishing 3rd in the medal table, with hopefully 29 or 30. Not as impressive as Norway of course, but a pretty good Olympics for Canada.

Dude, a single silver and a bronze between men's/ women's hockey/curling. It is an unmitigated disaster of an Olympics for our country. Impeach Trudeau, execute Kirsty Duncan. Heads need to roll

I mean, Yeah, but there's also gotta be a collective national shame in not getting a team curling medal and failing the gold in both men's and women's hockey.

Bigt gets it.

What happened to the curling thread?

It reflects the current state of the sport.

No mention of this magical olympic moment ITT (round of 16 snowboarding)???

feels like the wrong thread for this lolcanada...

Goodness was that team alpine event awful. I gotta figure that is gonna be one and done. Most teams didn’t even send their best skiers either.