My extremely optimistic prediction for  Canada, we'll get a big increase but I'm almost surely going to be all wrong because nothing ever seems to go right for us, there's always so many disappointments....    @intoronto @orangeman @NearPup @Topicmaster1010 @JoshMartini007 @Safe Dragonfly feel free to share any thoughts/anything that needs adding (if the numbers in rowing/shooting should be higher lower/disciplines should be different), and if I've made mistakes then corrections are welcome.    Aquatics Artistic Swimming: 2, can't be optimistic about everything.  Diving: 7. Three of Cullen/Wiens/Tessier in M 10m (I think at this stage leaving one behind would be a mistake...), Two of Jasmin/Erlam/Vallee/Palkhivala in W 3m, Miller in W 10m and Two of Zsombor-Murray/Paul/Fofana/Ciprick in M 3 (leaning towards the first two) Open Water Swimming: 2. One male, one female. Emma Finlin and Eric Brown.  Swimming: 31. With the stroke 50s being added, slight increase from Paris.  Waterpolo: 26. Women's team, for sure, given the extra quotas. Men's team will be battling Brazil for the Pan American Games quota, far from a given but I think it can happen (hmmmm, probably won't though)  Archery: 2. One male, one female. Eric Peters is the frontrunner for the men, and Stephanie Barrett for the women (Esebua/Chenier/Brug/Hawash are also in the mix), but the men's team also has a small chance (with Deevang Gupta and one of Crispin Duenas/Reece Wilson-Potyon) maybe.  Athletics: I know we had 48 in Paris but hear me out... 62. Boosted by some young talent coming through the pipelines and I think and hope the men's 4x400m relay can qualify.  Badminton: 6. Victor Lai in men's singles, Michelle Li in women's singles, Lai/Yakura in men's doubles, Choi/Wu in women's doubles. No Lindeman/Wu in mixed doubles. Baseball/Softball: 15. Qualification in softball.  Basketball: 28 again. Men's team is stacked with NBA talent and should qualify through the World Cup or the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament. Women's team almost fucked up their qualification at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament last time, hopefully that won't happen again. Women's 3x3 team should qualify, Paige Crozon/Katherine Plouffe/Saicha Grant-Allen are probably locks and the last spot will be between Bosch/Brown.  Boxing: 4. Tammara Thibeault is focusing on pro boxing at the moment, but has stated she wants redemption in LA 2028 in 75kg. Unfortunately, Viktoria Penney who's a promising youngster on our team, currently competes in 80kg and will probably drop down a weight-class because cutting down 10kg is a nightmare which means only one of them will be able to compete. Keoma Ali-Ahmadieh has shown some strong form at the World Championships last year, Joshua Orfi did as well. Bryan Coldwell also has a chance. With Scarlett Delgado, Mackenzie Wright, and Marie Al-Ahmadieh continuing, all of which barely missed out on quotas last squad, our women's squad will be hungry. Canoeing: 17. Katie Vincent, and two of Sloan MacKenzie/Sophia Jensen/Zoe Wojtyk in women's canoeing. Full squad in kayaking, and Fitzpatrick in men's canoeing. Alex Baldoni and Daniel Parry in the men's canoe slalom events (Parry is a promising youngster, may be too soon though), and one of Lea Baldoni/Lois Betteridge in the women's canoe slalom events.  Cricket: 0. Nope, no chance. Our men might have a chance if it was 12 teams, but 6 absolutely not.  Cycling: 24. In BMX freestyle, 1-2 of Mike Varga/Maxime Chalifoux/Jeffrey Whaley in the men's event. In BMX racing, Molly Simpson in the women's event for sure, and while Lucas Zhou is in contention for the men, along with Ryan Tougas I think both will miss out. Cole Punchard and one of Gunnar Holmgren/Carter Woods/Tyler Orschel in men's mountain biking, and Jennifer Jackson and one of Isabella/Ava Holmgren/Emily Johnson/Ella MacPhee/Rafaelle Carrier in women's mountain biking. Alison Jackson and one of Magdalene Vallires Mill/Olivia Baril/Sarah Van Dam in women's road race, Hugo Houle and Derek Gee in men's road race. James Hedgcock, Nick Wammes, and Tyler Rourke/Ryan Dodyk in men's team sprint, Sarah Orban, Kelsey Mitchell and Lauriane Genest in women's team sprint, teams in women's and men's pursuit. Equestrian: Full team of 9 athletes Fencing: 14. Team in women's foil, women's epee (if US can finish top 4), men's sabre (same with previous), men's foil, one of Nicolas Zhang/Fynn Fafard/Leon Xiao/Dylan French in men's epee, and Pamela Brind'Amour in women's sabre if she hasn't retired yet.  Field Hockey: 16. Based off the qualification system, I'll say yes. Women are in a rebuild, so probably won't finish ahead of all of Uruguay/Chile/Mexico, however for the men I think there's a decent chance if we can make it to the bronze medal match against probably Chile, but it'll be a battle. Flag Football: 10. Tossup with only 6 teams per gender, but I'll say the women's team qualifies.  Football: 18. Women's team. Men's team has a very small chance, depending on the qualifying event roster, but don't see it at all.  Golf: 4. Two per gender, as is typical. Brooke Henderson and one of Anna Huang/Alena Sharp/Maude Aimee Leblanc/Aphrodite Deng for the women, a combination of Corey Connors, Nick Taylor, Taylor Pendrith, MacKenzie Hughes for the men.  Gymnastics:  12. Men's and women's teams in artistic gymnastics both qualify. It'll be between Felix Dolci, Ioannis Chronopoulos, Zachary Clay, Jayson Ramperstad, Chris Kaji, William Emmard, René Cournoyer, Aiden Li, Samuel Zakutney for the men's spots. Ellie Black, Lia Monica Fontaine, Aurelie Tran, Sydney Turner, Laurie Denoumee, Ava Stewart, Gabrielle Black, Denelle Pendrick, Rose Woo, Cassie Lee, and Ana Padurariu/Shallon Olsen (could be retired in some form, either overall or NT) for the women's spots. Sophiane Methot should qualify in trampoline for the women (Methot has no chance with the qualification system, unfortunately), and one of Remi Aubin/Gavin Dodd/Keegan Soehn/Etienne Cloutier for the men. Handball:  Judo: 7. One of Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard or Jessica Klimkait in women's 63kg (right now I trust the former more, Klimkait has only switched weight classes recently though so I hope she can succeed in the transition and it'll be a tight internal battle), Christa Deguchi in women's 57kg, Evelyn Beaton in women's 52kg, and Coralie Godbout in women's 78kg (20th and 21st in the rankings, somewhat surprising), Francois Gauthier Drapeau in men's 81kg, Kyle Reyes in men's 100kg, Arthur Margelidon in men's 73kg (hasn't competed since Paris, if he's not in form maybe Justin Lemire), and I have Julien Frascadore in men's 66kg missing out.  Lacrosse: 24. Men's and women's teams qualify, anything else will be unacceptable (something would have to seriously go wrong but... until it happens) Modern Pentathlon: Ermmmmmmm (Unless the new format favours a Canadian? Maybe Schultz? No idea) Rowing: Hopefully 23? Katie Clark in single sculls, women's eights, men's eights, women's quadruple sculls, men's double sculls etc. No idea if we have any chance in costal rowing? I assume Pidgen is our best chance @phelps  Rugby Sevens: 24. Women's and men's teams both qualify, with the US getting host quotas it makes getting the North American quota a lot easier.   Sailing: Antonia and Georgia Lewin-Lafrance in 49er FX, Madeline Gillis/Galen Richardson in nacra 17, Arie Moffat/Will Jones in 49er, and one of Ryan Anderson/James Juhasz/Carlos Charbati in ICLA 7 (last is young, so he might not even be competing in it by 2027) Shooting: 1-?. Madeline Boyd in women's skeet. Alex Wong in men's skeet? Shannon Westlake? Ty Ikeda? Skateboarding: 4. Unless Reece Nelson switches from vert to park in the next year, which I doubt it, only Fay Ebert in park, even though Evie Pritchard/Olivia Jiang also have chances. Three of Cordano Russell, Ryan Decenzo, Matt Berger, Micky Papa, Christopher Setinas in men's street.  Sport Climbing: 1. Madison Richardson in women's boulder. Think the Bautrand's and Pitcher in men's speed will miss out. Probably too soon for Kelley in boulder, Le/Villeneuve in speed.   Squash: 1. Hollie Naughton in the women's event. Baillargeon has fallen down the rankings and probably won't qualify. Surfing: 3. Erin Brooks hopefully  (she should've competed in Tahiti...) and one of Sanoa/Mathea Olin in the women's event, Cody Young in the men's event. Levi Young and Wheeler Hasburgh miss out.  Taekwondo: 3. Skylar Park in women's 57kg, one of Leonarda Andric (women's 67kg) or Josipa Kafadar (women's 49kg), and one of Nicholas Hoefling/Braven Park (men's 58kg), Tae-Ku Park (men's 68kg) for the men. Ella Brewster has to do better than Park if she wants to qualify, I don't see it happening.  Table Tennis: 2. We have chances to qualify both teams, but nah. I think it'll just be Edward Ly in men's singles and Mo Zhang in women's singles.  Triathlon: 4. 2 per gender, as usual. Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet for the men, One of Dominika Jamnicky/Sophia Howell/Desirae Ridenour and Emy Legault for the women. Tennis: 8. FAA, Shapo, Diallo in men's singles. Mboko, Fernandez, Andresscu, Marino in women's singles. Dabrowski in doubles.  Volleyball: 0. Both teams could qualify, and neither team could qualify. Just so I have as little expectations as possible, I'll say neither.  Weightlifting: 2 again. Maude Charron in women's 59kg, and Etta Love in women's 81kg+. Alex Bellemare comes up just short in men's 85/95kg, TBD weight-class.  Wrestling: 6. Not sure if he has citizenship yet, but Peiman Biabani in men's 65kg freestyle (unfortunate for MacNeil) and Amar Dhesi in men's 125kg freestyle for the men. Alex Moore (men's 86kg freestyle) misses out). For the women, Ana Godinez (women's 62kg), one of Karla Godinez/Hannah Taylor (women's 57kg), Olivia Di Bacco (women's 68kg), Serena Di Benedetto (women's 53kg)   12 teams, breaking our single games record of 9 set in 1976 at home in Montreal, and 429 athletes our highest total ever by a mile. 

I can tell you  withdrew not just because of Israel's participation, but also to save some money. 

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The WBC begins this week!! Here are my predictions that nobody asked for    Pool A order (top 2 advance):      Pool B order (top 2 advance):      Pool C order (top 2 advance):      Pool D order (top 2 advance):        Semifinalists:     Finalists:   Winner:    Two teams that qualify for LA28:  

Rumor about Iran withdrew    I said many times , usa is not the right place for football , they kill people and fund their hosting by the stolen venezuelean petrol 

Price of petrol increases fast  Of course USA dosn't care , they have petrol of venezuela 

In the end, Team Shuster did pull out the W for the Men in the Finals.  His opponent, Team Stopera, is the one that Korey Dropkin led before exiting to compete in XD for MiCo.   And for the Women, Team (Delaney) Strouse won, taking out Team Cousins (who was the #1 seed).  I don't know much about her or her team.  Per Wikipedia, in 2022, she won Bronze in the World Juniors.  Will see both these teams at Worlds later this month!    Let's go  !   Here's a pic from the Strouse/Cousins Page Final 1v2 game:   A couple of other pics from last night:   (Tonight, Chris Plys joined the other two in having sleeveless jerseys.)   A zoomed-out pic of the coliseum where we were.  Fairly low attended, just about 200 people maybe.  (Same for tonight's final.)