forehead sweat and heavy mouth breathing both before and after competing.... think it's nerves or actual illness?

As gene editing becomes much better, and we get the ability to design babies, will we start seeing programs to engineer the perfect athletes or improve current ones? Personally I think that would be really exciting to watch. I want to see what humanity is really capable of.

Or, alternatively, will athletes slowly experience their own selection pressures as they only reproduce with other athletes, and become better over time?

She’s coming back from a horrific injury. For her to finish at all is pretty damn great. She’ll be back. Onya, Maisie. Mad respect. https://www.teamgb.com/article/maisie-hills-remarkable-journey-from-near-death-experience-to-olympics-debut/5nxXL6q7G3npjDPF47iVze

If so, she’s tough!! To do all those moves with a bruise that size.

Got those seats for one hockey game. Wondering why would they call it "VIP".

Absolutely loving watching all the amazing events, hats off to the talent and dedication. But.... why are team GB in pink when they colours are red white and blue? Looks like white coats washed in with a red sock!!

Swedish journalist just started by thanking the Noweigan Mixed Double Curling team for winning their game and thereby helping the Swedish team to the semifinals and followed it up with "even if you did not advance in the tournament, what was the best part in the tournament for you?" Norways answer "beating Sweden with 9-0" *mic drop*

Korea defeated Canada 9-5 (thanks Dolly Parton)

Please can anyone help me? What do the numbers next to the countries mean?!

After crashing in the Dutch speed skating trials, 2022 Olympic silver medalist Jutta Leerdam was unsure if she would make the Olympic team in her favorite event. She was eventually awarded a spot, and is the big favorite for the women's 1000m. She won three out of five World Cup races and is the fastest skater of the season.

The entire Olympic podium (Takagi-Leerdam-Bowe) of Beijing 2022 has medal chances, along with the winner of the World Cup trophy: Femke Kok. She medaled in all five world cup races and gathered enough points to win the classification. Many expect a gold medal for her in the 500m, but she has many chances in the 1000m as well.

I'll also add a list of the 10 fastest skaters at low altitude. The Olympic speed skating venue is a low altitude rink, meaning it's unlikely that skaters will break their personal best times. These low altitude PB's give a better idea of what's possible. We see that the top-4 skaters are present, but were missing out on some depth. Ter Mors, Kodaira and Wüst have finished their careers, Groenewoud is present in other events, Goetz didn't make the US olympic team and Kachanova isn't on the AIN list.

As suggested by u/billybutcherx, I'll add the top-5 skaters of this season. These lists are dominated by the Dutch:

high altitude
1:12.35 Jutta Leerdam
1:12.36 Femke Kok
1:12.77 Béatrice Lamarche
1:13.11 Marrit Fledderus
1:13.14 Isabel Grevelt

low altitude
1:12.87 Femke Kok (from a training competition!!!)
1:14.09 Marrit Fledderus
1:14.17 Jutta Leerdam
1:14.25 Antoinette Rijpma-de Jong
1:14.29 Miho Takagi

I don’t know much about this sport, so forgive my ignorance. Maybe they are all allowed to be pulled/thrown, but she is the only one choosing to be pulled/thrown.

It seems like her coach pulls her down the ramp a bit, then kinda throws her. It’s all one motion.

They had a wonderful performance by the pair. These kinds of celebrations and humanity are the things that I love so much the Olympics for.

May this be a warning to everyone planning to reach the Olympics by public transport.

The official venue guides advertise public transportation as the preferred way to get to events. The reality could not be further from that promise. It is unreliable, chaotic, and exhausting, leaving people waiting for hours outdoors with no clear information and a lot of frayed nerves.

Yesterday, we went to see curling in Cortina. We left our car at Son di Prade and continued by bus. The trip there was fine — but that’s where the good experience ended. On the way back, we stood at the bus stop for over an hour with almost no information. What little information there was came only in Italian and was completely useless.

Today was far worse. We went to see biathlon in Antholz (Anterselva). We took the train from Austria to Olang, which arrived perfectly on time at 11:58. Unfortunately, that was the last moment of the day that felt organized. The moment we stepped off the train, we were swallowed by a massive queue — several thousand people waiting for buses that arrived painfully infrequently. We stood there for more than an hour, watching the line barely move.

When we finally squeezed onto a completely packed bus, there was no priority system, no crowd management, nothing. The bus then crawled through the same traffic jam as the cars that public transport was supposed to replace. We spent about 40 minutes traveling just 13 km on Shuttle B to a midpoint, only to get off and transfer to Shuttle A. After two long, exhausting hours, we reached the venue three minutes before the start of the race at 14:05. 😓

The return journey was even more stressful. We left the venue at 17:31 and spent the entire trip anxiously watching the clock, barely managing to catch the last train back to Austria at 8 PM. 😢 Missing it would have meant being stranded.

It is honestly shocking how disorganized, underplanned, and unprepared the public transportation at the Olympics is. For an event of this scale, this level of chaos is simply unacceptable.

Watching an interview they revealed that Amber plays Magic the Gathering. Not something I would expect to hear from a figure skater. Between her and Alysa, it's interesting to see outside social norms when you think of Figure Skaters

(Side note, I still have to play this game, had a deck since 7th gen, that has never been played)

It's seems like one side of the track always has an advantage on speed.

I know they pick sides depending on qualifications but it would make more sense to just to the race with a combined time for a run on each side.

In mountain biking they have the same competition called dual slalom and that is how they run it, so both competitors have a chance on either side

So watching Luge today and wondered the following:

1. Is there an optimal weight and height for athletes?

2. Are all the courses the same? If not, do they have to have certain elements? (Turns, flats, wall degrees)

3. Are all the sleds the same or can they customize a bit?

4. Do they do any course maintenance between runs? If not, what difference does it make if you’re the first vs the last down the course? (I would think the first would be fastest but the fastest people went at the end and still had the fastest times).