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For the desk of Aclion, and all interested parties:
It is our pleasure to announce the assemblage of the 
Verdant Haven Olympic Team for the Olympics Games coming up in Oatland in just a few short weeks.
Please find all relevant information on our athletes, uniforms, logo, national anthem, and specialization within the following dispatch, which has also been forwarded via private courier to Aclion's organizing office.
Team Information
Sport Information
The national sports specialty of Verdant Haven is Biathlon. A vast and forested alpine interior with few roads means that large segments of the population use cross country skis more often than motor vehicles for much of the year. Combined with being only a generation or two removed the civil war that brought about today's modern democracy, firearms and shooting are an ingrained part of life. Combining the two is what many people simply do as part of their daily lives, leading to a vast number of highly qualified competitors.
On the other hand, Verdant Haven lacks advanced programs in most ice sports due to the paranoia of the pre-revolutionary rulers, who didn’t like the idea of allowing people to run around with blades. Due to that proscription against necessary sporting equipment, the nation's ice rinks were shut down, and the sporting infrastructures have not yet fully recovered to the level necessary for international competition. As a result, the team will not be sending athletes to participate in Curling, Figure Skating, or Ice Hockey.
Total entries are as follows, alphabetically by sport:
Alpine Skiing - 2
Bobsledding – 1 team
Biathlon - 5 (national specialty)
Cross Country Skiing – 5 (2 Biathlon crossover athletes)
Curling - 0
Figure Skating - 0
Freestyle Skiing - 2
Ice Hockey - 0
Ski Jump – 1 (Freestyler crossover athlete)
Athlete Biographies
Alpine Skiing:
Alexy Sheppard, 25 (Gold Medal: 2020)
Men's Downhill champion Alexy Sheppard hails from the mountains of High Pine Bailiwick. His parents put him on skis the day he started walking, and he claims to be more comfortable sliding down slopes than using his own two feet. His best friend is his dog, a Vizsla named Gorty.
Cheryl Moss, 28 (Silver Medal: 2020)
Women's Downhill champion Cheryl Moss has a long list of victories, and a long list of injuries. Her ability to heal and rebound from major surgeries is unparalleled, having won the Havenian Games this year despite being just 10 months removed from surgery for a broken hip.
Bobsled:
Team: “The Ridwood Rockets” (Gold Medal: 2020)
The team from Copper Canyon, capital of the mining region of Ridwood, is the modern evolution of what long ago started as intoxicated miners riding ore carts down hills. One of the only true "ice" sports practiced at a high level in Verdant Haven, their green and gold sled is a long way from the ore carts of old.
Biathlon (the national specialty):
Bjorn Clegg, 33 (Team Captain):
Verdant Haven Olympic Team captain Bjorn Clegg is a lieutenant with the elite Tactical Response Team of the Range Wardens – Verdant Haven's premier federal law enforcement agency – where he serves as a sniper/marksman. He holds the Verdant Haven record for cross country distance covered in 24 hours, set while in solo pursuit of a group of illegal loggers, deep in the forests of Arbore.
Emilia Morton, 19
Emilia Morton is the granddaughter of two different rebel leaders from the Havenian Civil War, who passed down a long tradition of marksmanship. An extremely petite athlete, measuring a mere 157cm in height, she practically floats over snow drifts that her competition often must plow through.
Esmee Ryan, 23 (Gold Medal: 2020)
Esmee Ryan grew up in the shadow of The Father in northern Grenwood Bailiwick. Like many citizens of that alpine region, she learned to cross country ski quite young, but only took up shooting in her junior year of college. An accountant by trade, she specializes in tax withholding as it pertains to receipt of Verdant Haven's complex network of social benefits.
Jordan Skinner, 21 (Silver Medal: 2020)
As son of his high school's principal, Jordan got plenty of opportunities to participate in intramural sports in his youth, and to his credit, made the most of them. Seeming to take naturally to whatever competitive event was put in front of him, the prestige associated with the national sport of Biathlon was a natural draw, and he has proven himself an able competitor. A better skier than rifleman, he is even higher placed in cross-country, and has the endurance to do both.
Luther McGlauflin , 30
Having none of the advantages of social status, professional training, or family legacy that are shared by some of his teammates, Luther has earned his way to the team's final team slot in both the Biathlon and the Cross Country events on the back of pure determination and grit. The only child of fishermen from Estham, in Easttree, his "feel good" story is the one touching the most hearts back home, including his own 5 year old daughter.
Cross Country Skiing:
Tabitha Barrow, 29
Having a moral objection to the use of firearms, Tabitha had no interest in Biathlon but a phenomenal talent for cross-country. Working as an adjunct professor of environmental science at Longmouth Lowland University in the summer, she spends as much of the year as possible on her skis, doing her research in the trees to the north.
Jordan Skinner, 21 (Silver Medal: 2020)
(Dual-sport athlete: see Biathlon)
Arwen Ortiz, 16
The youngest competitor on the Verdant Haven Olympic Team, Arwen put in the performance of her lifetime to seize the podium in the national junior championships this winter. The quintessential young varsity athlete, she competes in as many sports as possible between classes, plays saxophone in the band, and enjoys going to movies with her friends.
Jacques Dalby, 35 (Bronze Medal: 2020)
A shaggily-bearded mountain-man from the outskirts of Clearflow, Arbore, the taciturn Jacques is the eldest member of the team. Earning his living as a woodcarver and occasional expedition guide, Jacques carved his first skis by hand when he was young. Having traded his homemade skis for carbon-fiber models, he now silently trucks through whatever drifts come his way.
Luther McGlauflin, 30
(Dual-sport athlete: see Biathlon)
Freestyle Skiing:
Robert “Roadie” Slater, 18
Getting his start as a surfer, "Roadie" moved naturally to snowboarding in winter, and then to freestyle in search of the "ultimate trick." Speaking to him is sometimes the conversational equivalent of an out-of-body experience, but he's a good kid, and popular with the rest of the team. He considers the Olympics his chance to "find himself."
Kiri Mercer, 22 (Gold Medal, 2020)
Absolutely fearless in the air, Kiri enjoys sky-diving and rock-climbing, in addition to competing in both Freestyle and, a more recent discovery for her, Ski Jump. Wearing a distinctive hot pink helmet for each of her sports, she is instantly recognizable, even as she launches past at breakneck speed. She has recently been looking at entering in to Motocross.
Ski Jump:
Kiri Mercer , 22 (Gold Medal, 2020)
(Dual-sport athlete: see Freestyle)
We look forward to competing with you all in these games!
Aclion, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Von Braun, and Massoude
fancy! :o
Hang on, you can have crossover athletes?
First of all, you must formalize your participation by writing me a telegram. I want to point out that this contest is for everyone, and everyone can participate, even those who do not know how to paint. How? Simple, just choose the image (images of monuments, landscapes, famous characters, movie scenes, or even your photographs), which according to you can win the contest, upload it to the site
deepart.io and then send it to me by telegram.
Example of framework
The executives will be seen by a commission of 5 nations (which will be announced in each region that participates) and will be announced the top three classified in a region created by my second nation, which will host the award ceremony.
The five countries during the vote to decide the winners, will give points from 1 to 5. The first three pictures that will have more points will win.
P.S: the point of the region has yet to be decided whether or not to be implemented, but we will keep you updated. I hope you participate in many.
Thank you very much!
Saint Lucia
Minister for Culture and Communications of the Democratic Union
Yes indeed! The specific language from the announcement is:
"Nations are currently limited to sixteen athletes total and are allowed to allocate up to five to each event. If an athlete is competing in more then one event then each entry is counted separately towards the nations total athlete pool."
So basically they count as a separate entry in each event, but yes, same athlete can be in multiple events.
Well, must say: may the best person win!
We're entering the 2020 Oatland Winter Olympics as Team Von Braun:
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Von Braun's 2020 Oatland Winter Olympics Entry & The Olympics Results
by 
The Ingenious Rocket Scientist of Wernher Magnus Maximilian Von Braun
Team Von Braun Information:
Team Logo:
National Anthem:
Can't Hold Us - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Ray Dalton)
Uniform Design:
With the athlete's name on the back:
Team Roster:
Figure Skating – Hunter Phelps, Tamara Barnes
Cross Country Skiing – Arizona Summers, Sonia Lambert
Ice Hockey – Yes (Team Von Braun) (this sport is our nation's speciality)
Freestyle Skiing – Liam Silverstein, Theodore Goldstein, Claudia Meyer, Florentyna Rosnovski
Bobsledding – Yes (Team Von Braun)
The Biathlon - Annie Oakley, Lyudmila Pavlichenko
Alpine Skiing - Wernher Magnus Maximilian Von Braun, Jonathan Bridger, AnneMarie Paulissen
Curling – Yes (Team Von Braun)
Athletes' Biographies:
Work in progress.
We look forward to competing with all of you and may the best athletes or team win. :)
Vistionshire I have created a simple flag for your nation if how would like me to send it to you? If you have any complaints tell me.
New Erelis will compete.
The CoA has been decided to be the National Team Logo.
Due to us not being well equipped with most of the sports, we are only sending a team of hockey players to compete in the ice hockey competition
Total Entries in alphebetical order
Alpine Skiing - 0
Bobsledding – 0
Biathlon - 0
Cross Country Skiing – 0
Curling - 0
Figure Skating - 0
Freestyle Skiing - 0
Ice Hockey - 1 Team (national specialty)
Ski Jump – 0
We wish the best of luck towards the National Hockey Team and their opponents in the Oatland Olympic Winter Games
Really enjoying reading through this excellent entry.
>69 nations
Nice.
The Onigiri Enclave, The Peoples Place of Living, Naralanesia, and Massoude
Team Kit:
Some Backstory: Ice sports in Hospe were adapted
by residents, who established settlements in the more frigid, mountainous areas of the nation. Due to these people making up the minority of the population, Winter sports have only been recently fully recognized by the entire nation , but Hospeans are fiercely patriotic and will support anything with the national flag on it.
The National team:
Figure Skating:
°Delancey Vitorre(28): Hailing from St.Remington, the coldest state in Hospe. She is the greatest figure skater the nation has ever seen.Her achievements and skills are accentuated by her great beauty giving her a larger ego than most people.
°Calista Vitorre(19): Delancey's younger cousin,who everyone says will eventually match her in looks and achievements. This has caused a few sparks to fly between the two, but both of them are willing to put their differences aside to bring honor to the Kingdom. Calista has a lot of natural talent, already one of the best in the sport at her young age.
Alpine Skiing.
°Tiercey Ellots(18): Hailing from the mountainous Greenstadt in southern Hospe.Having already bagged multiple awards in alpine and freestyle skiing categories, Tiercey is a fast rising star with a massive social media following.
°Ruki Wise(30): Hospe's number one skiing star. He is a very eccentric person spending the off season in almost total isolation, little is known about him other than his impressive skiing abilities.
°Adam Androcles IV(27): Skiing is the family business for Adam Androcles. Under constant pressure to live up to his father :Adam Androcles III, Adam IV can be rather aggressive and defensive of his abilities.
Freestyle Skiing
°Ezien Makurdi(26): Freestyle skiing chose Ezien at the tender age of 8, when his grandmother gifted him a pair of skis for Christmas, with nothing else to do all Christmas he learnt how to use them prodigiously. He has been one of the superstars of the sport over the years but is infamous for being a sore loser.
°Tiercey Ellots (see Alpine Skiing).
°Raoul Orleans(28): Raoul might not be the most naturally talented but he definitely works the hardest . He is a decent freestyle skier and has won some major awards, but can be rather injury-prone.
° Divine Orleans(25): Divine is not related to Raoul, they're just from the same region of St.Remington. She is a very impressive skier, known for her daring
stunts, unlike Raoul, she is rather resilient: winning gold at a national event, a day after crashing one of her sports cars.
Ski Jump
° Savanna Raimi(31): Even after having a child , Savanna Raimi still has the looks and energy of a teenager due to her small stature. This serves her well on the slopes, because she's carrying a lot less weight than her competitors. Many argue that she is past her prime, but she is still winning trophies.
°Vance Mukouro(26): Vance is a ski jumping prodigy, he is hailed as the second coming of many great ski jumpers. Making it big early, he is infamous for his party boy lifestyle, but he is still the nation's best ski jumper for a reason.
Bobsledding
Bobsledding has only been recently acknowledged as an actual sport in Hospe. This team is made up of students from Hospe's first national university.
Ice Hockey
With only four of Hospe's sixteen states cold enough for Ice Hockey to be popular, the national federation has been struggling to establish a fully functioning league. This team is made up of the best players in the league.
My national team for 2020 Oatland winter games.
Interesting vote going on right now in the security council
In order to agree or disagree, I would first have to recognize the legitimacy of the Security Council.
I do not.
Thats an interesting take
Yeah, I haven't done all the entries yet
I hope I got my entry submitted in time.
Paplia is proud to submit its roster for the 2020 Oatland Winter Olympic Games. The proper roster and information has been sent to the appropriate authorities in Oatland as well.
Sport Information:
The national specialty of Paplia is proudly Figure Skating. With a cold desert and cold steppe on the southern mountains of Paplia, a fierce competition in Figure Skating developed. Dextros, the capital of Paplia, hosts 3 individual skating rinks which are the biggest rinks in the kingdom. One is specialized for figure skating, the other for hockey, and the third is open for the citizens of Paplia for general use. Every other city and village has a dedicated ice rink in hopes of producing a national level athlete.
Dextros holds Figure Skating competitions annually where the top athletes from the kingdom compete for the chance of a national tour, and to be added to the Olympic team. Figure Skating has become such a national sport that whenever there is a major Figure Skating competition, that date becomes a national holiday so that the competition can be freely watched by the citizens of Paplia. Similar competitions are held across Paplia for the other events and snow often must be imported for these competitions. The only sport that has failed to captivate the kingdom’s attention is curling, and therefore, no team will participate in that event. There are four repeating athletes for the total 16 athletes.
Total entries by alphabetical order of sport:
Alpine Skiing - 2
Bobsledding - The Phoenix Souls (1)
Biathlon - 2
Cross Country Skiing – 2
Curling – 0
Figure Skating – 4
Freestyle Skiing – 2
Ice Hockey – The Phoenix Fires (1)
Ski Jump - 2
Athlete Biographies
Alpine Skiing:
Águeda Acconci, 21, 5’8”
Águeda was fascinated by Alpine Skiing as a little girl when she watched the competitions on T.V. as a little girl. When she turned 10, she forced her parents to allow her to pursue Alpine Skiing as her passion and found she had natural talent becoming better and better every year. She competed in the Paplia winter competitions and got 6th in the 2017 games, 2nd in the 2018 games, 1st in the 2019 games, and was chosen to compete in the 2020 Olympic games.
Iagan “Speedy” Sackville, 22, 5’10”
Iagan has a thrill for speed and feels most in his nature when there is a trail of snow in his wake which earned him his nickname. Speedy loved the speed which he can acquire while Alpine Skiing, but sometimes he likes to put a little razzle dazzle in his skiing through Freestyle Skiing. He loves performing the fastest tricks while skiing in Freestyle Skiing and hasn’t lost a competition for men since he joined the sport when he was 19. He got the nickname “Speedy” when he broke the Alpine Skiing national record when he was only 18 and consistently broke his own record each following year.
Bobsledding:
The Phoenix Souls
The Phoenix Souls started out in one of the smallest villages in Paplia. With the bare essentials and only a few practice runs, they won their local competition and slowly advanced to the national competition. With the support of their local community, they managed to win the nationals and earn their spot in the Olympic team.
Biathlon:
Chanokh Pedersen, 22, 5’11”
Chanokh often had dreams of becoming a figure skating athlete but felt constrained by the size of the rink. He strived to be able to skate for longer and soon fell in love with Cross Country Skiing. Inspired by his father, who was a wildlife ranger who would shoot animals to tranquilize them to relocate them, Chanokh picked up the tranquilizer gun and soon became adept at shooting and became a pro biathlon athlete as well.
Eugenia Layton, 16, 5’9”
Eugenia was raised as a cross country prodigy, but she hated every practice that she went to. She would often try to sneak away from practices to play laser tag with her friends. She was eventually caught while playing laser tag, but her parents saw how good she was, and they made a compromise with her. With the addition to the gun, Eugenia soon became the youngest athlete in Biathlon as well and finally enjoyed the cross-country part of the sport.
Cross Country Skiing:
Chanokh Pedersen, 22, 5’11”
See “Biathlon”
Eugenia Layton, 16, 5’9”
See “Biathlon”
Figure Skating:
Jacomina Antonisen, 22, 5’3”
Jacomina was raised on a farm with her parents in a village near the capital city of Dextros. She would go and watch the national competitions as a little girl and her parents soon encouraged her to skate by traveling to Dextros every other weekend. There Jacomina took skating lessons and became one of the top competitors in the kingdom by the time she was old enough to compete professionally.
Robrecht Pavía, 18, 5’10”
When Robrecht was a little boy, his father encouraged him to pick up the skates and go play with his friends. Robrecht became friends with Merryn who was already training to be a figure skater and they both started practicing together. They would become the youngest athletes at 15 to compete at the national level and come home with medals every year.
Merryn Fernandes, 18, 5’5”
Merryn grew up in a rich family who were enamored by the sport of figure skating and wanted their daughter to be one of the top athletes. They had her train with professional coaches and even went on to also train her new friend Robrecht to help encourage her passion for the sport as well. Her parents made a special room in their house for all the medals Merryn won growing up.
Markel Braden, 20, 6’
Markel started skating as a little kid at his grandparents’ pond when it would freeze over in winter. His grandparents would record him and make home-made videos of him which inspired them to encourage him to compete due to his natural ability. With a little professional training in Dextros, Markel soon became one of the top competitors in Paplia and is the fan favorite of the kingdom to bring home a medal.
Freestyle Skiing:
Iagan "Speedy" Sackville, 22, 5’10”
See “Alpine Skiing”
Kathrine Russo, 18, 5’9”
Kathrine was a natural at skateboarding at her local skate park when she was young. Her friends were amazed by the tricks she could do on the board and encouraged her to try Freestyle Skiing. She fell in love with the sport when she realized a lot of the tricks that she knew could be used in Freestyle Skiing.
Ice Hockey:
The Phoenix Fires
The Phoenix Fires have the second most fans in Paplia next to Figure Skating. While the team’s sporting events don’t become national holidays, people often call off from work when the national team plays against another nation.
Ski Jump:
Kathrine Russo, 18, 5’8”
See “Freestyle Skiing”
Jacinto Abreu, 21, 5’11”
Jacinto grew up with dreams of being able to fly as a little kid. While he never grew wings to fly, he did discover Ski Jump which to him came the closest to feeling like flying. With his appreciation for the sport, he won first place both years he competed professionally on the national level.
Additional Team Information
Figure Skating Programs
Jacomina Antonisen
Short Program Outfit – Music | Freestyle Program Outfit – Music
Robrecht Pavía
Short Program Outfit – Music | Freestyle Program Outfit – Music
Merryn Fernandes,
Short Program Outfit – Music | Freestyle Program Outfit – Music
Markel Braden,
Short Program Outfit – Music | Freestyle Program Outfit – Music
Good luck to all participating nations and athletes as well.
Aclion hasn't finished submitting the final list of nations that have entered the 2020 Games and I'm already seeing some new faces in the mix, which is always fun!! Also, I see a number of folks putting their dispatches on here and sharing them. I already submitted my entry and dispatch to Aclion a couple of days ago, but I think I'll also jump on the dispatch submission bandwagon here as well to cover all my bases (and also just for funsies):
Fishy Apples will be proud to once more send a delegation to the Oatland Winter Games!! With 2020 here, our athletes come into these games with a mix high hopes, thanks to our spectacular showing in last year's winter games, and a bit of trepidation, in large part due to the fiasco that was the Summer Games (we're still trying to get over the sting of failing to medal in SWIMMING of all things). However, that's what makes things interesting!!
To start off, here is is a quick checklist of who is participating where and in what, as well what they are, our national anthem, and, a first for the winter games, our uniforms!!
Figure Skating - Erina Densetsu (♀)(Ϡ), Krill Orly (♂)
Cross Country Skiing - N/A
Ice Hockey - The women's hockey team known as "Flying Sashimi III: This Time it's Cod to Work" will be representing us
Freestyle Skiing - Reina al-Tan'in (♀), Indigo Potts (♀), Keiko Yotomori (♀)(Ϡ)
Bobsledding - "The Desert Rats" will return to represent Fishy Apples as our bobsled team
The Biathlon - Holly Blossomforth (♀)(Ψ), Iris Croquet (♀)(Ψ), Dusty Tatin (♀)
Alpine Skiing - Reina al-Tan'in (♀), Indigo Potts (♀), Ophelia Honeycrisp (♀)
Curling - Fishy Apples will bring back the silver medal winning team "Ice Cream Social" this year
Ski Jump - Setsuna Morimoto (♀)(Ϡ), Rohan Lodehammer (♂)(Ð)
Symbol Legend:
(♂) = Male
(♀) = Female
(Ψ) = Mermaid
(Ϡ) = Nekomimi
(Ð) = Dwarf
With the sudden marriage & retirement of Mai Fu Ji and Ringo Onara, as well as the untimely death of John-Bob Zachariah over the summer while hiking in The Guppies, this left our figure skating ranks a bit barren. We still had pro skater Krill Orly from last year's games, the Lorelai ice dancer who felt so disappointed in his performance last time. "I honestly thought I'd do so much better than I did..." This later led to him overexerting himself in training a month later resulting in a torn meniscus. I believe we have footage? "Maybe this t- MOTHERF#%*!! SON OF A S#*@ F*#^@R ASS... WHY... WHY ARE YOU STILL RECORDING THIS YOU FLIPPANT MILQUETOAST TWIT!! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M HURT?! WHO KEEPS RECORDING LIKE THIS?! ARE... ARE YOU DEFECTIVE OR SOMETHING?!" That cameraman was later successfully sued by Krill for ⅎ3,000,000 for gross negligence. Meanwhile while was in physical therapy he met a young nekomimi girl also going through PT, one Erina Densentsu from the southern coastal town of Jazz, who had coincidentally just entered the pro skating circuit. As it so happened, the duo decided to use their down time to rebuild their bodies and go through PT together, and in a few months they were back in top shape, where they decided to skate as a pair for the summer season, taking the pairs league by storm, becoming the #2 ranked pairs duo in Fishy Apples. When they resumed solo skating in the fall, Krill's rankings had risen to third in the Fishy Apples men's rankings, up two places from a year ago, and Erina was surprising all by taking Krill's tutelage to heart and becoming the #1 female skater in Fishy Apples. Now the Oatland Games, and they're ready and waiting.
Once again, no one ultimately stepped up to represent Fishy Apples in the field of cross-country. Even with us trying to make use of what prime area we could for cross-country we could here in Fishy Apples, even opting to substitute sand for snow at night during the spring & fall, and even partnering with The Onigiri Enclave and other countries, cross-country skiing just hasn't managed to get popular enough to get a dedicated representative again this year.
Last year was a mixed bag for Flying Sashimi II: Halibut's Revenge, the team that itself replaced the original controversial Flying Sashimi that had had taken the 2018 Winter Games too seriously and ended their lives in ritual seppuku. Player rosters and staff was adjusted accordingly, with the top 30% of performing players being retained as new coaching staff was brought on to help interview replacement players to fill the open slots. The result, the formation of a new team, dubbed "Flying Sashimi III: This Time it's Cod to Work" by the players, as a recurring nod to the original team.
Returning to try once more for Oatland gold in Freestyle are two of the master skiiers that swept that Alpine division last year, Reina al-Tan'in and Indigo Potts. Last year's Maya Jubilee elected not to return this year, as she gave birth to a healthy baby girl only recently this December, and felt she would not be capable of being top form for the games, plus right now she wants to focus her attention on her child, but prior to this opted to be a coach to the other two, as well as newcomer Keiko Yotomori, a 24 year old nekomimi girl from Coral Canyon City.
We tried to talk to Reina al-Tan'in, but finding her proved a chore. After several weeks, we found her in a remote lodge north of Pannekoeken. However, we tried to ask some questions, but was simply met with silence before she teleported away.
Failing that, we went on to look for Indigo Potts to see how she was doing. "Recently I just came off winning bronze in the Fishy Apples Dowhill Freestyle Series, so there's that. I mean, that, and you lump on top of that all that all my traning I got ta do for alpine an all you other journalists that have been asking me questions right and left since last year, and I've been a busy beaver. Now, if ya don't mind, I got to get back to the slopes."
We now meet newcomer Keiko Yotomori, currently relaxing at a cider house in Goldsmith. "Nya? How did I did started in freestyle? Well, I started skiing when I was 10, in part to my dad working at a resort here in Goldsmith. I managed to get good enough that I decided to join the ski team in high school, and managed to be a regular top five competitor by my junior year. I finally decided to turn pro when I turned 18, and now I'm ranked #19 in the Fishy Apples Downhill Freestyle Series."
The Desert Rats returned to Fishy Apples last year national heroes, the girls that kicked off our winning streak for the rest of the games and led to The Bunny Fire coming away with the second highest medal count overall. Finally running on actual ice was a learning experience for them as well, as the viscosity was ever so different than their sand track back home. Now replete with notoriety, they helped bolster the popularity of bobsledding in Fishy Apples, and with that came resources. Facilities opened up, tracks were made, and a makeshift formed, which the Desert Rats dominated. They even created a variation uniquely ours employing ice mages allowing for the course to be randomized mid-race to help hone their craft further. They have also spent time working in with physicists in wind tunnels in The Onigiri Enclave to best reduce their drag, resulting in their newer, sleeker sled.
Undeterred by still not winning a medal in the Oatland Games, Fuji Gold native Holly Blossomforth once more prepares for the Oatland Games in the biathlon. "I've had four chances now to represent my country now in Oatland showing off my shooting prowess, two of those times as a biathlete. My rifle is actually one of the most state of the art gunpowder-based firearms in all of Fishy Apples right now, in large for honing my accuracy, both on stationary and on moving targets. I have clearance to have such an advanced firearm as part of the Queen's efforts to progressively modernize the military, requesting I help train the regular forces and the Apple Corps learn to use bolt-action rifles. With all the training I've done this year on my own and helping the military maybe this will finally be the year I'll become the first mermaid to win a medal at the Oatland Games."
Speaking of mermaid biathletes, Iris Croquet is also making a return trip to the Oatland Games after recently winning gold here the 2019 Fishy Apples Biathlon Grand Prix which wrapped up in November north of Pannekoeken. We caught up with her back in Scylla Falls while was off-duty from her day-to-day job as a alpine rescue specialist in the military to ask of her thoughts of the upcoming games. "I still remember the looks Holly an' I got from the local press when we landed in Bastiat. Holly was already kinda used to it, seein' as she did this once already. But for me, I felt so alien. It was the first time was outside of The Bunny Fire, an' I had to field all these extra questions about 'how do mermaids ski' an' other things related to mermaids an' back home I wasn't ready for from the locals. It was also my first exposure to television before we got it over here, so there was that too. I suspect it may of been part of what led to my performance jitters last time. This time though I'm ready."
Finally, also making a return trip is our bronze medal winner herself, Dusty Tatin. After the 2019 Winter Games, Dusty resumed a mostly quiet life back in Goldsmith, enjoying the serenity of Siren Peak, just letting fame pass her by. "I love the sport, but I'm the type that likes to push myself to the limit all the time just so I can say I'm the best. I do this because I enjoy it. If I do it and do it fast, that's just a bonus. That's why I didn't go full ham into the Grand Prix or do all these press tours. In the end it'd just burn me out on the sport. However, I'm always more than up to going to another Oatland Games!!"
The clean sweep trio from 2019 are all back and better than before!! Fishy Apples' Alpine Skiing Queens Reina al-Tan'in, Indigo Potts, and Ophelia Honeycrisp are returning to Oatland to see if they made it a back-to-back sweep!!
"Honestly, I was surprised when we pulled it off, to be honest." Indigo Potts tells us about that day. "Ta tell you the truth, I almost thought I had lost the bronze ta, if I recall right, GoodKingWenceslas, but I managed ta just squeeze by. The whole medal ceremony and after I think I was a wee drunk on adrenaline... and maybe scotch, so maybe my memory of the day wasn't the best..." *giggle* "...but it made me also realize I couldn't count on another skin of my teeth close call win like last time, so I done trained my arse off on Siren Peak during the off-season. I even passed over all the press junkets so I could train for this... plus, you got ta remember I'm also in Freestyle, so I got to train for that to."
We find Reina once more in another remote lodge in The Guppies, having proven just as elusive to find as the first time, and just like last time, she seems to mostly ignore us and seem distant to most everyone, though this attitude does a 180 around children, becoming a far more warm and open person. Finally, when it seems we have we have an opportunity to talk to her, we try to approach, but she pulls out a pocket watch and says coldly, "14:04. Optimal time. Time to summit." Before we knew it, a magic circle surrounded her on the ground and she teleported away. "You know, unless she knows and trusts you, she'll never talk to you." To our surprise, sitting on the couch was biathlete Iris Croquet. "Outside of myself, my mother, Indigo Potts, and the Queen & her sister, Reina has an explicit distrust of all adults. It all stems from her family. They were a nomadic group of ultra-hardline traditionalists living out in the Braeburn Canyon during the era of Queen Smith, and I do mean hardline. In her old family, once you turned two, you were assigned a job. That job was your life from now on. It was all you were allowed to do. It was all you were allowed to think about. You weren't allowed to consider doing anything else for the rest of your life. No other tasks. No other jobs. No dreams. In fact, if this job didn't involve preparing food or beverages in some way, you had to sit and starve and thirst until someone who had such a job prepared food for you. If you DID something outside your role, even if it something as simple as pluck a berry from a bush yourself and eat it or hum a single bar, the family just straight up killed you because you aren't a forager or a singer. You were also expected to learn flame-based magic as well, as is the tradition of the al-Tan'in family. Reina was tasked to a llama herder, but she hated the desert heat, only happy when their nomadic treks took them up into the mountains, and was an abject failure at fire magic. One day an accident caused her to be separated from her family and badly injured. They didn't even bother to look for her. Instead my mother and me found her and she was airlifted to a hospital in Pannekoeken. With no family looking for her, and Reina honestly having no interest in going back, she was put into foster care, where an elven couple adopted her, was introduced to skiing, began to learn ice magic, and for a while, was happy. During this time Queen Jackie ascended to the throne, and began to announce her plans to modernize the nation, which pleased nearly the entire nation, but infuriated Reina's family. Speaking of them, about a year and half later, Reina and her family crossed paths again wholly by accident. She came home to find her adoptive family slaughtered and her biological family waiting. They took her out to the middle of nowhere and asked a simple question while breaking her skis, 'In what fashion does that herd llamas?' It was then they ran a blade straight through her and beat her mercilessly. The only reasoned they finally stopped was she managed to use her cryomancy to convince them her heart had stopped and she was dead. Luckily, once more, my mother was on patrol in that area. Reina basically became catatonic in the hospital from the PTSD until she heard Queen Jackie herself denounce her family over the radio, and then of course learning about what happened to her family during the events of The Great Glass Valley Incident snapped her out of it. Still, the damage has been done. Now, she uses skiing as a coping mechanism. It's... what makes her happy." Shortly after Iris finishes, we decide to quietly leave.
Lastly there is Ophelia Honeycrisp, the surprise star of last year that Reina al-Tan'in took the unfounded step of mentoring. Given the story told to us by biathlete Iris Croquet, Ophelia's age may have played a role in it, given the skiing prodigy just celebrated her 16th birthday on January 4th. "At first I thought she was scary, but boy she was fun!!" Ophelia said of Reina. Ophelia showed us today her training routine she has using for the upcoming games. "In the morning I jog about a mile on the indoor track and then swim some laps in the pool to loosen up, then I hit the powder for some runs." She shows us her form, posting at point a time two tenths of a second faster than the time that got her gold last year. "Now for the part of the day that sucks..." she jokes, referring to the fact she is homeschooled by her stay-at-home father, Ulrich. Later, she does some strength training before supper and then finally a little R&R. "I'm glad the Oatland Games happen when they do, because it happens right as all our tournaments have or are currently winding down, so it's one more thing for me to do to extend the season past January."
Once more, the girls of the "Ice Cream Social" unite to represent Fishy Apples on the ice!! Last time, their silver medal escapades excited young and old alike, inspiring Mer-Apples everywhere to have their own ice cream socials for several months after the Winter Games and proved a boon for the dairy industry. Now, despite the mild nip in the air, the news the Ice Cream Social is going back for more is convincing ice cream trucks to roll out.
Nearing the end of our documentary, a new event was announced - the Ski Jump. With it, two fresh-faced athletes are getting their chance to get on that plane from The Sweet Apple Ocean to Bastiat to take part in this year's Oatland Games. First, there is Setsuna Morimoto, a 20 year old nekomimi from Pannekoeken and captain in The Imperial Hex Force, and then there's 32 year old Rohan Lodehammer from Newt, the first dwarf to represent Fishy Apples in the Oatland Games.
"Normally, my field of expertise on the mountain is strapping on a snowboard and going down the half-pipe, catching air, and jumping off smaller ramps. I figure with my practice in trick jumping and my atheltics from my military training will pay dividends in ski jumping, plus I bet I'll be the most aerodynanic jumper as well!!" she says as she swishes her tail.
Our other competitor, Rohan Lodehammer, is a dwarf formerly from the mines under New Moria, but in his 20's moved out west to the streets of the mountain town of Newt. "Ay, when ev'ryone an' there cousin has already 'apped all tha good ore spots already an' your just doin' tha same thang day in an' day out, well let's just say I had ta get ta heck'n out of Dodge an' do somethin' new, so I figure ah'd uproot an' move my bearded carcass somewhere new, leadin' me out here. Now, I tried ta get me a business goin', openin' up my own mine an' such, but in tha beginnin' it just wasn't pannin' out. I was almost burned out. Then, one day I was at a bar when a passin' mermaid lass suggested I try relaxin' my nerves with a wee bit of skiing. Figurin' I got nothin' ta lose, I tried it... Made a total ass of myself. However, ask anyone, an' they'll tell you I'm quite tha 'umble dwarf, so I went right back up that mountain an' kept at it. Sure enough, a few months later, I finally got tha hang of it, so much so that I got scouted by someone who said they were a coach for tha Fishy Apples Downhill Freestyle Series. I signed up an' spent a few years in the pro circuit, reachin' a top rank of #5 back in 2015 before hearin' about this ski jumpin' stuff. I transitioned to tha field in 2016 while gettin' back to tryin' ta get my business up an' goin', an' thin's have been goin' pretty well for me, honestly. I 'ave a successful jewelry store now, an' while there isn't yet an offical Fishy Apples Ski Jumping league yet, unofficially I'm ranked #3 in tha country."
...and so ends our 2020 entry to the Oatland Winter Games!!
Huzzah! Glad to see a third Forest team join the fray. Together, Verdant Haven, 
Wernher Magnus Maximilian Von Braun, and Paplia shall represent the trees!
I believe Ordand is also participating.4 Forest nations to represent the trees!!
Verdant Haven, Fishy Apples, and Ordand
Even better! Good turn out, friends. I look forward to experiencing this competition first-hand.
Ordand and Paplia
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