Of course there is still something of a halo effect in the sport, but the code of points has gone a LONG way to making the gymnastics less arbitrarily subjective. Hoepfully the AI experiments can do something similar for Diving, which is better than it used to be, but still has an awful habit of giving Chinese divers 8.5s and 9's for moves objectively less tight than what earns other countries 7.0s and 7.5s, especially in synchro

When you have complete control of a population of a billion or so, you can use the Jan Ullrich model.   As famously described, I think, by Tyler Hamilton, regardless of the doping, you had to understand Ullrich was ( a bit like Katrin Krabbe) the last prodigy of the east german system - and that system was notorious even beyond doping - it simply threw every talented egg it had as hard as it could at the wall, then selected the one's that  coped best in the long run - As Hamilton put it - Ullrich was the egg that couldn't break, except once GDR died, the system collapsed, and Jan found beer.   I get the feeling the Chinese trow a lot of eggs at a lot of walls, in the hope of finding a few that won't crack. What happens the broken eggs is not a matter that concerns the system greatly.

Part of the Paralympic Torch Relay visited the celebrations held as part of the 80th anniversary of Paris’ liberation during World War 2.    

Yeah you do have to worry whether she is being taken advantage of in someway by the Chinese coaches, and being forced to overtrain. Clearly those performances are wildly impressive, but my 2 caveats.   China has a long history of falsifying ages of swimmers, although those performances for a swimmer several years older than 11 would still be crazy.   Genetically, younger Chinese females have excellent swimming Physiques, being very tall and thin As they develop they grow wider and lose some of that benefical body shape.    There have been many younger Chinese swimmers in the past who have put in draw dropping times and then faded in obscurity.   Despite this, her performances and her depth are remarkable and she could be a generational talent, but we can’t jump on the bandwagon yet.    

Dame Lisa Marie Carrington for sure mopped the floor with Shtyl, having 23 combined golds from Olympics + WChs (8+15), while Shtyl has only one medal from the Olympics and it's not gold.   

Not saying she’s doping or anything, but the time is so incredible (it’s good even for 17-18 year olds) that I begin to wonder what the Chinese coaches are putting her through during training.    I mean, she raced in 10 events at the Chinese Olympic Trials… even Phelps at Beijing 2008 didn’t have a schedule that big…   Either way to me it’s hard to see her performing at the highest level beyond her 20s. 

is in for the contest. 

I legitimately can't comprehend this   https://swimswam.com/11-yr-old-yu-zidi-crushes-20986200fly-21257-200im-at-chinese-summer-championships/

World championships were supposed to start tomorrow in Andorra, but it looks like the shorttrack qualifiers that were scheduled for tomorrow have all been cancelled or something? First action is now on Wednesday with downhill qualifying.

Maria Sakkari with another R1 loss in Grand Slam. This time she retired injured after the first set. I don't remember a Top 10 player losing so many R1 matches in Grand Slam tbh.