Poll 92/100 | Which are your nation's 3 safest medal picks for Tokyo?

[Oldira 88]

1 hour ago, CCB said:

I think it's a little tricky to consider a medal as a safe one, especially a gold medal in sailing. It's just how the wind blows . For me the only safe gold medal is the women's hockey team. Like @heywoodusaid: we have to wait and see which superbikes the British will show up with, so not very sure of the gold medals for the men's team and Harry Lavreysen, but a medal should definitely work. 

 

Another more or less safe medal for Laura Smulders (BMX) and the W4- rowingteam (although I fear that Ireland will win the gold). 

 

I think for our Belgian neighbours and friends there are a lot more 'safe' gold medal picks: Evenpoel and Van Aert in the men's road race and time trial, Thiam in the heptathlon (athletics), Derwael at uneven bars (gymnastics) and the men's hockeyteam. 

 

Not so sure will win gold. The Australians are odds on favourites. But I think  and  will medal in W4

[vinipereira 3,240]

9 hours ago, LuizGuilherme said:

Brazil :

 

1. Men's Surfing (99% of chances it will be 2 medals)

 

After the whole debacle about not being allowed to take his wife to Tokyo, are we sure Medina will win a medal?

 

I'd say 1 medal is probably a safer bet.

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

6 hours ago, CCB said:

I think for our Belgian neighbours and friends there are a lot more 'safe' gold medal picks: Evenpoel and Van Aert in the men's road race and time trial, Thiam in the heptathlon (athletics), Derwael at uneven bars (gymnastics) and the men's hockeyteam. 

 

Definitely not a safe medal, in my opinion. She's been showing signs of inconsistency and there's also big pressure from Fan Yilin and Sunisa Lee, so all it takes is a Russian having a good day and poof, no medal for Belgium. 

[NMQ 243]

 doesn't have any safe medal, but I'd say women's field hockey team and Lange/Carranza in Nacra17 are the best bets. Then I don't know, I would pick Pareto just because I'm biased, but it should probably be another team sport, maybe.

[dcmdtruefan 35]

13 hours ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

I mean yeah the XD pair has struggled with middle - lower ranked teams. Just hope that they face Japanese / Chinese /Korean pairs it'll be easier for them. But unpredictability is feature of Thailand . 

 

Intanon has stamina  issues yes, she looks tired in 3rd set whenever a match extends till there. Busanan is ever improving so fingers crossed. 

 

It's overdue for Thailand to win a badminton medal.

' If not now, when! '

 

 

You're right that a badminton medal is long overdue for Thailand, considering that even less decorated countries in badminton like the Netherlands, Russia and Spain for instance have won a medal.

 

But there's a reason why Thailand hasn't won a medal in badminton yet and that has to deal with Thai athletes' inability to deal with pressure when it counts the most in general. When the tough gets going, they usually lose and go home. So if anyone were to win a medal for Thailand, that athlete has to be really mentally strong. 

[justony 454]

??

Janja Garnbret - Sports Climbing

Kristjan Čeh - Athletics

National Team - Men's Basketball

[heywoodu 15,141]

9 hours ago, CCB said:

I think it's a little tricky to consider a medal as a safe one, especially a gold medal in sailing. It's just how the wind blows . For me the only safe gold medal is the women's hockey team. Like @heywoodusaid: we have to wait and see which superbikes the British will show up with, so not very sure of the gold medals for the men's team and Harry Lavreysen, but a medal should definitely work. 

 

Another more or less safe medal for Laura Smulders (BMX) and the W4- rowingteam (although I fear that Ireland will win the gold). 

 

I think for our Belgian neighbours and friends there are a lot more 'safe' gold medal picks: Evenpoel and Van Aert in the men's road race and time trial, Thiam in the heptathlon (athletics), Derwael at uneven bars (gymnastics) and the men's hockeyteam. 

 

Although BMX is such an easy sport for things to go wrong, one would have to be extremely dominant to be considered a safe medal, I'd say...

 

And personally I really can't see the Belgians as safe medals (gold even!) in the road cycling  

 

Sure, they both have an excellent chance, but in the road race there's at least 20 riders who have an excellent chance, including some who are usually better climbers than Evenepoel and Van Aert - even though they might hold on of course, they are definitely among the 20+ riders with a good gold medal chance.

 

As for the ITT, they both have a chance as well, but the likes of Pogacar, Roglic (if recovered), Cavagna, Küng and so on are equally as dangerous, and that's not even counting on Ganna yet, who we can assume will be in top shape.

[Fly_like_a_don 1,090]

3 hours ago, dcmdtruefan said:

But there's a reason why Thailand hasn't won a medal in badminton yet and that has to deal with Thai athletes' inability to deal with pressure when it counts the most in general. When the tough gets going, they usually lose and go home. So if anyone were to win a medal for Thailand, that athlete has to be really mentally strong. 

It's the same with Indian Archery, highly decorated archers, lots of world championships medals but no Olympic Medal. Be it Indian Archery or Thai badminton this is absolutely necessary to open the account. If it still doesn't happen the sport could fail to get the youth and future might be dark. Let's be optimistic that it can happen.  

[Griff88 1,952]

The safest medal for  is probably Eko Yuli Irawan in weightlifting, with the most likely colour is silver. Even if we have first and second seed in badminton men's doubles, neither of them are considered "safe" (according to my standards)

[Dolby 735]

1 minute ago, Griff88 said:

The safest medal for  is probably Eko Yuli Irawan in weightlifting, with the most likely colour is silver. Even if we have first and second seed in badminton men's doubles, neither of them are considered "safe" (according to my standards)

Minions missing out on a medal would be a great tragedy. They have dominated the MD scene for some time. They deserve the Gold medal.