After a week of news surrounding Sochi’s inability to finish preparing for the Olympics (Pictures Here), the organizers will hope the focus shifts to the opening ceremonies, will be held on Friday, and the competition, which starts Saturday. There will be just 13 Croatian athletes in three sports competing in Russia, down from 22 in six sports in 2006 and 14 athletes (four sports) in 2010. Croatia’s bronze medalist biathlete from 2010, Jakov Fak, will be competing for Slovenia, as he has done since the Vancouver Games. The last time Croatia came home medal-less was in 1998, when there was just six athletes.
Barring a major upset, Croatia’s medal hopes will be on the shoulders of one man, three time medal winner and flag-bearer Ivica Kostelić. At 34, this may be Kostelić’s last chance to increase his medal count and shoot for his firs gold medal. He will be competing in four of five skiing disciplines (no downhill), with realistic medal chances in the Slalom and his favorite event, the Super Combined, where he won silver medals in 2010 and 2006. Kostelić’s performances have begun to slip as he moved past his prime in the past couple years, and he has given himself very reachable goals, saying, “I would be happy with ending up among the top ten in some discipline, but I also dream of a medal”.
Seven of Croatia’s ten other athletes will also be competing in alpine. Natko Zrnčić-Dim will ski in all alpine events except the giant slalom. After finishing 3rd in the Super Combined at a World Cup race last month, he has can be expected to contend for a top 10 finish, and has a very outside chance at the podium. Dalibor Šamšal (slalom) will be making his third Olympic appearance, and will hope this one turns out better than the last two, where he DNF’ed in all three of his events. Joining him in the slalom is 20 year old Matej Vidović, making his first Olympic appearance. Sebastian Brigović and Filip Zubčić will represent Croatia in the men’s giant slalom. Edi Dadić will compete in four cross-country ski events. The 20 year old’s best finish in a World Championships in 72nd, in the 15km skiathlon.
On the women’s side, Andrea Komšić and Sofija Novošelić will both compete in the slalom and giant slalom. Komsic, 17, finished the slalom in the top 50 at the 2013 World Championships, and is one of Croatia’s best hopes at a future medal. Vedrana Malec will be in four cross-country ski races, and a top 50 finish in any would be a good result for her. Lastly, Croatia have their first Olympics snowboarder in Morena Makar, who is competing in the halfpipe. Makar finished 21st at last year’s World Championships.
Croatian Schedule:
Feb 8: Women’s Skiathlon (Malec)
Feb 9: Men’s Skiathlon (Dadić), Men’s Downhill (Zrnčić-Dim)
Feb 11: Men’s and Women’s Nordic Sprint (Malec, Dadić): Qualification, Finals
Feb 12: Women’s Halfpipe (Makar): Qualification, Semifinals, and Final
Feb 13: Women’s 10km Classical (Malec)
Feb 14: Men’s 15km Classical (Dadić), Men’s Super Combined (Kostelić, Zrnčić-Dim)
Feb 16: Men’s Super-G (Kostelić, Zrnčić-Dim)
Feb 18: Women’s Giant Slalom (Komsić, Novoselić)
Feb 19: Men’s Giant Slalom (Kostelić, Brigović, Zubcić)
Feb 21: Women’s Slalom (Komsić, Novoselić)
Feb 22: Women’s 30km Mass Start (Malec), Men’s Slalom (Kostelić, Zrnčić-Dim, Šamsal, Vidović)
Feb 23: Men’s 50km Mass Start (Dadić)
Bravo Iggy
Faux Cro: “I have to give it to HAET.
His writing style has improved and he is more capable of delivering his arguement without personally attacking everyone on the site.”
WTF are you talking about? I was the one who was personally attacked by EVERYBODY for the Crime of being pro-white. Has that gone down the memory hole?
I haven’t changed at all. I changed all of you.
@Iggy, your entire religion of Political Correctness is predicated on double think/hypocrisy. You exposed yourself on this thread as a lier: you keep saying “who cares” while you keep defending “gay rights”. Unlike you, I never said “who cares”.
Furthermore, as EVERYBODY can see, you did not refute even ONE point I made in my original comment on on this thread; so you agree w/ everything I said in the 1st comment, correct?
Iggy:
Why to go mention gay marriage?
This is about Russia’s law to prohibit “gay propaganda”.
I am no fan of Russia by any means, but the Western media is all over Russia when some of America’s other allies are far more intolerant of homosexuals.
This is a bitch move by the US, because Putin has won some geopolitical battles in Syria and the Ukraine.
being legal is the norm i mean
“Nowhere in nature are same sex organisms supposed to prosper.”
But homosexuality DOES occur in animals tho.
Why are u guys so anti-gay rights? What difference does it make to you ? Who cares ?
If you are worried about devaluing marriage.. i can show u a few weddings on youtube that are hetero that plenty do that already and those who have known me for a long time on this board will know to what i refer.. i think that’s the issue not gay ppl
get over it, get with the times, it’s 2014, gay marriage is the norm now
I have worked in NYC during the “gay pride parade”
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=nyc+gay+pride+parade&go=&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=nyc+gay+pride+parade&sc=8-20&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=D53658474125E2B8940E5AF88D3E1AF2891A210F&selectedIndex=236
This is the crap they routinely pull during the “parade”.
I suppose local children should be exposed to this so we can be “accepting” to everyone.
Obama ( and mainstream media/hollywood ) is your typical morally bankrupt socialist/communist/liberal, whatever. that is promoting a sick lifestyle to todays kids. Putin is without a doubt a dictator but I applaud his stance on faggot promotion. To all the fags in this world i’ve had enough of your “pride”!!!Nowhere in nature are same sex organisms supposed to prosper.
What da Fak?
oh god are we gonna have these terrible dick puns for the entirety of the games.. lol
didn’t fak jump ship to slovenia…
marena maker might do the half pipe, but i got a full pipe she can do instead
if marena maker lost her ski pole, i can get her another pole to use
Jakov fak at the games?
Enough with this talk of this being sad. Starting to sound like Milanovic when he did not receive the votes he needed last year. Discuss croatian sports, politics and things that really matter to Hrvati.
“Progressives” in America will not relent until men can openly sodomize each other during the Thanksgiving Day parade.
Indians are flooding into America.
I guess it’s that the focus is on russia atm due to this event
As for india.. who gives a fuck about them, that place is a fuckhole..
did u guys hear a few weeks back some danish female tourist got lost so she got gangraped, in another incident a day later a young girl was gangraped and had acid poured over her
that country is a fucking piece of shit
a number of years ago one of my former partners had been to india and she said it was really bad for a woman to be there – like if u go on the train u get randomly groped etc etc and i kinda thought well that sounds shit but maybe it’s just some bad apples, but all the stuff that’s happened since then.. fuck india.. what a piece of shit cuntry with shithead men.. fucking primitives
Banning the promotion of homosexuality to minors is far from being an anti-gay law. It’s obviously not pro-gay, but it’s definitely not anti-gay which is what it’s being labelled here in the West. I doubt there was even any real cases of gay groups in Russia promoting homosexuality to minors anyway, so it probably makes zero impact to the lives of Russians. It was just an easy move by Putin to gain more popularity votes.
In Russia (unlike in 70 countries worldwide), it’s actually NOT illegal to be gay so I don’t understand the hysteria in the Western media. This hysteria is now drawing unwanted attention to Russian gays (who themselves have dismissed the Western media’s anti-Russian reporting).
If we’re actually talking about standing up against countries who have adopted true anti-gay laws, why aren’t we going after countries like India, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria?
India, the biggest democracy in the world, recently reversed the decriminalization of gay sex and it now carries a 10-year prison sentence. The biggest country in Africa (Nigeria) passed a law that sentences anyone suspected of being gay to 14 years in prison. I don’t even have to talk about Saudi Arabia (who in Obama’s words, are long standing friends of America) and the fact that homosexuality in that country is punishable by death.
So all this anti-Russian reporting, cities flying rainbow flags to support gay rights, protests and boycotts just make the West lose all credibility with their selective hearing. People just listen to what’s currently trending, and don’t look at anything outside what the current headline says. It’s sad.
also whoever said their penis is like a “Board”.. i recommend u see a doctor..
IMMEDIATELY
I’m old enough to remember Janica competing before all her knee issues, man that was great.. maybe i got spoiled because i kinda thought we would have more competitors/medal chances in winter games than we do this time round..
hopefully ivica does well
do you guys remember when ivica got embroiled in that nazi thing comment ??
i remembner a couple of years ago he made some comment like he was preparing like a german soldier would and so he got called a nazi by everyone kinda like big joe..
lol.. u cant say anything if u are croatian apparently or u are a nazi-sympathiser
I was just gonna say he’s baaaacck. Haet is here. Personally I don’t think about the gay issue. All I want is for Croatia to win, let’s stick to that topic.
Let’s go Croatia! Get some medals
I have to give it to HAET.
His writing style has improved and he is more capable of delivering his arguement without personally attacking everyone on the site.
That morena makar chick is pretty hot. i got a board she can ride
i didnt say it was legal, i said “they allow people to brutalise gays without fear of any punitive consequence. ”
two very different things
and it isn’t that important to me, im not the one with my knickers in a knot over it, why’s it such a big deal to you ??
http://news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/rob-ford-wanted-rainbow-flag-removed-from-toronto-city-hall
Good ol’ Rob Ford!
@Iggy, what video? And does the one video you’re referencing prove that assaulting KNOWN gays is legal in Russia?
I’m pretty sure assaulting anybody in Russia is illegal. One more question: if “sexual orientation doesn’t matter”, then why is sexual orientation so important to you?
@Anon
the thing is russia isnt just against gay marriage being legal, they allow people to brutalise gays without fear of any punitive consequence.
even if you are against gay marriage im assuming u arent for gays being bashed and beaten and made to drink piss (like we all saw on that video on the news) etc ? Unless u are an extremist..
Now, onto the actual sport.. why dont we have more people and more realistic medal chances???
Australia is gonna smash us these games.. AUSTRALIA..
ITS IN THE FUCKING SNOW AND AUSTRALIA IS GOING TO KICK OUR FUCKING ARSE DO U REALISE HOW FUCKING FUCKED THAT FUCKING IS !??????
Absolutely wish Ivica the best but what Janica did in SLC was unbelievable.
The number one sport I’m looking forward to is hockey and the US team. My boy Pavelski is going to light it on fire. ZLATO!
That low life Obama has rendered the U.S. Olympic team the default representatives of “gay rights” w/ his actions & rhetoric leading up to these Olympic games. What about the U.S. athletes who agree w/ Russia’s laws banning “gay marriage” & the promotion of homosexuality to children? Do they have freedom of speech? Or would they be subjected to reputational & financial terrorism?
Notice how the “mainstream” media has already called these Olympics a “failure” & “disaster” before its even started? God forbid sexual perverts aren’t allowed to PROMOTE their life style to innocent children, and of course Russia is way too White (i.e. not diverse).
If you legitimize “gay marriage”, then there’s nothing stopping homosexuals from influencing children to be gay. What kind of SICKO is against a law banning the promotion of sexual perversion to children?
My guess is the poor accommodations for “objective journalists” was done on purpose, & that the logistical problems & are not much different from any other Olympics. & it’s hilarious how the media says the Olympics shouldn’t be held in Sochi b/c of security threats; aren’t these the same people who say “we can’t let the terrorists win”? So they should be held in America where 9/11 happened? It’s these same dickheads who promote “diversity” for ALL & ONLY white countries which is the reason we have Islamic Terrorism in White countries in the first place.