[POLL] How was your 2018 speaking about Sports only?

[thepharoah 2,405]

Overall locally and Internationally it was satisfactory , although i must admit that i've missed some big international events this year and ofc we were missing Athletics and Swimming WCHs , anyway i really enjoyed the multi sports events we had this year , WOG and it was the best time i followed WOGs since Turin 2006 where i was in Canada so it was really easy to follow it  Bein Sport has provided a very special coverage this time they almost covered all events , so it was really fantastic and rich experiment for me ,i think WOG was my highlight of the year of international sport , the only problem was ofc the timing of events and the very busy scheduling starting from 12 p.m local time here until 3  , we had Commonwealth Games which i did really enjoy also , Mediterranean games which was the worst tv coverage ever for it , almost i didn't follow any singe event live on tv and at the end was the Asian Games which i enjoyed many events of it as usual , we had the football WC and we had some really good matches in term of quality , maybe one of the rarest times that the best team really won at the end , even if they were defending a lot , but i think no other teams did really played like a team , i think we didn't have some extraordinary performances in the most popular individual sports this year , i didn't find this in Gymnastics WCH , but there were a lot of good performances ofc , tennis season was quite not really interesting , maybe the only surprise if we consider it was the comeback for Novak after many said that he's already finished , Chung gave us some really exceptional performances in AO , Cecchinato in RG and ofc Osaka in US open, other than this it was quite predictable year , maybe Kachanov surprise in Paris Masters was another highlight , but overall i didn't really enjoy tennis this year , maybe this has some relation with the upsets my favorite Federer gave us this year    looking forward for much better next year and ofc i'm waiting for my always favorite AO to see some good tennis . Athletics we had some quite very good performances overall , we had WRs in women's 3000m steeplechase , men's marathon and men's decathlon that's what i remember so far  , i can add to them this 6.05 jump by duplantis in European championships , i think it was a good year of Athletics , hopefully more to come in 2019 , Swimming ofc when u don't have WCH , u don't really have big competitions , but we saw some very good performances in European championship , i think it was quite a sad year for Weightlifting fans , another champions have fallen into doping , change of weights which i really didn't like especially olympic ones , we had much better wch this year than the last year , but many returning countries were not good at all especially Russia and Kazakhstan , boxing chaos was the biggest upset of the year , but nothing new , for me that maybe was the highlights of the year so far internationally , at the end i may say i'm satisfied , but not really satisfied , i'd talk about locally later 

[Vojthas 949]

For me:

- first waterpolo National Team game in my home city (unfortunately big loss against Germany - when I watched their game against Italy with my friends in Budapest they said that Germans are really weak - then I told them whom the Germans have beaten in the qualification...)

- my first journey for my beloved modern pentathlon to Hungary (as the reporter of Polish Modern Pentathlon Association)

- finally satisfactory competition by women's volleyball team and I had the opportunity to see it from the tribune in Bydgoszcz (unfortunately I didn't get the accreditation as there was very limited place for journalists there)

- great Christmas gift from Cuban women volleyball team that gave up the Olympic qualification giving the spot to our girls

 

- and a bitter sweet story about the death of our First Lady of Sport - Irena Szewińska. Just three weeks before her death I met her at the Olympic Picnic in Warsaw and took a photo with her. Probably I'm one of the last people to get photo with her.

Edited December 27, 2018 by Vojthas

[heywoodu 15,141]

I really need to make a list and add something to it every time something happens, because I watched way too much to be able to recall everything  

 

These kind of threads for me are mostly a matter of reading and thinking "ah yeah, that's true!"  

[Griff88 1,952]

I voted "Good" since this year is a year where our athletes using the Asian Games momentum to perform well (even though some of our gold isn't really "gold"). We also managed to keep that momentum in some sports, such as weightlifting.

 

And this year is just like an awakening for Indonesian people who only watch and follow football. It gives people the understanding "there are people out there who do something else than 22 people ball kicking game". Literally Asian Games and Asian Para Games have driven the Indonesians to stop arguing about politics for 1.5 months. But yeah the party must end no matter what and unfortunately people are back to their usual traits...

[vinipereira 3,240]

On 26/12/2018 at 22:27, thiago_simoes said:

Both teams finished fourth at the World League. 

 

Why would you consider the World League as the most important competition and not World Championship?

 

[vinipereira 3,240]

On 26/12/2018 at 22:12, hoversaBR said:

Negative (highlights)

 

1) Volleyball (Women) - I hate the team, especially the coach.
2) Judo
3) Beach Volleyball, especially the male was a horror, I have never seen such a weak year.

 

I agree about the Men's side, but among the women the year was quite good actually (all things considered). 3 teams among top 8 in the world, and Agatha/Duda won the most important title of the season.

 

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

Em 30/12/2018 at 18:05, vinipereira disse:

 

Why would you consider the World League as the most important competition and not World Championship?

 

Because you can't seriously consider that horrible men's team as the second best in the world, really.

[thiago_simoes 1,423]

Em 30/12/2018 at 12:13, Griff88 disse:

And this year is just like an awakening for Indonesian people who only watch and follow football. It gives people the understanding "there are people out there who do something else than 22 people ball kicking game".

Now I'm curious. I've always thought that one of the reasons the IOC keeps badminton at the Olympics is because it's one of the few medal chances for Indonesia (besides weightlifting) so I thought badminton was THE sport to follow in the country. How come Indonesians enjoy football? Are you talking about national leagues or national teams?

[EselTheDonkey 824]

Good. Olympic Games were successfull, Dreßen won Kitzbühel, Athletics European Championships were great, Kerber won Wimbledon. Of course World Championships in Football were terrible, but since I care a bit less about Football than most other Sport fans do, it didn't overshine the positive stuff for me.

Edited December 31, 2018 by EselTheDonkey

[Griff88 1,952]

13 hours ago, thiago_simoes said:

Now I'm curious. I've always thought that one of the reasons the IOC keeps badminton at the Olympics is because it's one of the few medal chances for Indonesia (besides weightlifting) so I thought badminton was THE sport to follow in the country. How come Indonesians enjoy football? Are you talking about national leagues or national teams?

The magic of football is even though your national team is s**t, your federation is just a bunch of greedy thieves, and the national league is full of crazy stuff, people will still follow it...

 

Badminton on the other hand, is not popular for TV broadcasters recently due to its duration (more than 5 hours at the longest). For the past 5 years badminton broadcast has been minimal (Indonesia Open and a handful of major events). And the TV stations cited the current badminton rights fee is too expensive (but they bought rights for Premier League and World Cup) and ridiculously claimed that it is not popular among viewers. Those who want to watch badminton must use VPN to stream from Youtube or subscribe to a certain Pay TV provider. Our public broadcaster unable to afford the rights (and they are the only station who broadcasted badminton this year)...

 

I am not saying badminton is not popular anymore in Indonesia but since no one is showing it, most people will just watch what is readily available.

 

In conclusion > minimum (free) TV exposure > less new fans > even old fans are leaving > popularity drop