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

[Nickyc707 382]

1 hour ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I see a lot of that for GB actually - they'll be in a scrap for gold, which they might lose, but hard to see no medal at all - both Duncan Scott's events fall into that class, for example, as do both Triathlon relay, Women's Omnium, Madison and Team Pursuit (the latter maybe less of a battle)

Yes, I'm far far more confident in picking medallists than gold medallists!

 

There are also some imponderables like who still makes it as far as Tokyo including competitors from other nations, who avoids health issues when they arrive and how athletes deal with the weather conditions in outdoor events, especially after so little competition during the past two years.

 

The potential for surprises is probably greater than at any OG I can remember.

 

PS Talking of imponderables I'm really looking forward to seeing how Tom Pidcock performs in the MTB.

[OlympicsFan 860]

23 hours ago, George_D said:

 

1. Tsitsipas (tennis)

2. Korakaki (shooting)

3. Stefanidi (pole vault)

Tsitsipas so far wasn’t very convincing on outdoor hard court, but maybe he can surprise in Tokyo.

[OlympicsFan 860]

22 hours ago, Cinnamon Bun said:

 

Adam Peaty

Kathleen Dawson

Jonathan Brownlee

No. Dawson certainly isn’t a bigger favorite than Scott (200 free), Dean (200 free), men’s medley relay, men’s 800 free relay, or mixed medley relay (and I didn’t even mention events from other sports, like rowing men’s eight).

[OlympicsFan 860]

8 hours ago, justony said:

??

Janja Garnbret - Sports Climbing

Kristjan Čeh - Athletics

National Team - Men's Basketball

Are you sure that your basketball team has a better medal chance than some of your athletes in canoeing slalom?

[OlympicsFan 860]

3 hours ago, Nickyc707 said:

 In no particular order: Men's Eight (Rowing), Women's Team Pursuit (Cycling) and Adam Peaty - 100m breaststroke (Swimming).

 

Ten others who I'm confident will medal, again in no particular order: Dina Asher-Smith 200m (Athletics), Pat McCormack - Welterweight (Boxing), Lauren Price - Middleweight (Boxing), Liam Heath - K1 200m (Canoeing), Helen Glover & Polly Swann - Women's pair (Rowing), Giles Scott - Finn class (Sailing), Men's 4x100m medley (Swimming), Jade Jones - 57kg (Taekwondo), Georgia Taylor-Brown (or either of her teammates) (Triathlon), Mixed relay (Triathlon).

I think your men’s 800 free relay is a far bigger favorite than Asher-Smith. I think even your women’s 4x100 m relay has a better chance to medal (bronze behind the US and Jamaica) than Asher-Smith individually.

[OlympicsFan 860]

1 hour ago, dodge said:

The game that the Netherlands won 2-0 without really trying? Yeah I watched that one...

 

The Dutch are by some distance the best team around. They lost in a shootout in Rio, so shocks can happen but anything other than gold for them is a shock

Sure, they absolutely planned to be the inferior team to Germany in front of their home crowd because ...

No remotely knowledgeable fan who watched that game can come to the conclusion that the Netherlands are far superior to all other teams. They had home advantage at the European championships and still were the worse team in the final.

[Makedonas 2,263]

19 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Tsitsipas so far wasn’t very convincing on outdoor hard court, but maybe he can surprise in Tokyo.

He made semifinals at two of the last three Australian Opens and also made the final of Toronto (beating 4 top 10 players in the tournament) and semifinals of Cincinnati and Shanghai masters tournaments

 

Also had good results making finals of Dubai twice and Acapulco, Beijing

[OlympicsFan 860]

8 minutes ago, Makedonas said:

He made semifinals at two of the last three Australian Opens and also made the final of Toronto (beating 4 top 10 players in the tournament) and semifinals of Cincinnati and Shanghai masters tournaments

 

Also had good results making finals of Dubai twice and Acapulco, Beijing

I would favor Zverev, Medvedev and Nadal over him on Outdoor hard court. Has he ever won a title on outdoor hard court? He is one of the top 5 players on outdoor hard court probably, but I am not sure if he is a favorite for a medal.

[dodge 1,041]

20 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Sure, they absolutely planned to be the inferior team to Germany in front of their home crowd because ...

No remotely knowledgeable fan who watched that game can come to the conclusion that the Netherlands are far superior to all other teams. They had home advantage at the European championships and still were the worse team in the final.

They weren't the "worse team". They deservedly beat Germany, just like the have the other 2 times they've played them this year in competitive games

 

In fact The Netherlands have won every international trophy they've competed in for the last 10 years except for when England/GB have beaten them on penalties and 2 defeats to Argentina in Argentina.

 

So yeah, it's safe to say they're far superior

[OlympicsFan 860]

31 minutes ago, dodge said:

They weren't the "worse team". They deservedly beat Germany, just like the have the other 2 times they've played them this year in competitive games

 

In fact The Netherlands have won every international trophy they've competed in for the last 10 years except for when England/GB have beaten them on penalties and 2 defeats to Argentina in Argentina.

 

So yeah, it's safe to say they're far superior

Nope, they weren’t the better team and what they did 10 years ago has zero relevance for their odds to win gold in Tokyo.