phelps

to be precise, it's 1 quota in each individual event per NOC in a single championship... so, any Nation (not only Italy) will have to win their 2 quota places in every individual event in 2 different tournaments... the rule it's been enforced to avoid some Countries to win both quota places in a single event in a competition with very few participants (like most Continental Champs -not Europe, of course- for instance)... p.s. and don't forget that to win a quota place, a shooter must qualify at least for the semifinal round (top 8)...no quota places will be awarded to those who are eliminated in the qualification round (even if all the 8 qualified shooters have already got their quota)...

yes, this is a State law, thought to protect the youngsters, but completely wrong in the outcome, because now some "ambitious" parents could save their kids from the anti-doping tests until they're 18 and in the meantime leave them in the hands of coaches with no ethic limits that could build their athletic ability with any sort of prohibited means, creating some "monsters" capable of dominating the youth scene and maybe already take some advantage in the senior ranks at a very young age... and with today's chances of genetic manipulation, when the damage is done, you'll always have an advantage also in the future, when you're back among the usual testing methods... by the way, they're making a mess of it right now, but this law was enforced 2 years ago...who knows how many people have already taken advantage of that?

Athletics, men's Marathon...well, this is not so easy...but despite names like Zatopek, Kipchoge and the Italians, I think the best of them all is still Abebe Bikila, who's therefore my pick. Athletics, women's Marathon...the strongest marathon runner ever beyond any reasonable suspect, Naoko Takahashi. Rowing, men's Quadruple Sculls... Italy (2000), by far the strongest boat ever to compete in this discipline. Rowing, women's Quadruple Sculls... China (2020)...Germany here pay the prize of the GDR age in my consideration. Taekwondo, men's heavyweights... Carlo Molfetta...pretty partisan vote, but no other champion in this class is tickling my mind enough to earn my pick.

Group Stage Day 1, Part 1 Thursday 01.09.2022 - Schedule* Group C 19:30 Slovan Bratislava (SVK) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) 20:00 Rapperswil-Jona (SUI) - Red Bull Munich (GER) Group D 18:05 GKS Katowice (HUN) - Rögle BK Ångelholm (SWE) 19:00 Fehèrvàr AV19 (HUN) - ZSC Lions Zürich (SUI) Group E 20:00 Fribourg-Gotteròn (SUI) - Ilves Tampere (FIN) 20:20 Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) - Stavanger Oilers (NOR) Group G 19:05 Frölunda Indians (SWE) - Mountfield HK (CZE) 20:15 Grenoble (FRA) - Eisbären Berlin (GER) *All times CET Watch live Check here for details of live TV broadcasts: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/fans/where-to-watch All games are also live on the CHL website for free, subject to geo-blocking restrictions in certain countries due to TV rights.

in 10 days the new season is going to start! the competition format is the same of the last few years, with a group stage (8 groups, the top 2 teams in each groups advancing to the following round) and a knockout stage (2 legs, home & away matches from the round of 16 through to the semifinals; big final over a single match). the 8 Groups of the preliminary stage of the 2022/2023 season have been drawn as follows: Group A Luleå HF Jukurit Mikkeli Sparta Prague Aalborg Pirates Group B EV Zug Grizzlys Wolfsburg TPS Turku Olimpija Ljubljana Group C Tappara Tampere Red Bull Munich Rapperswil-Jona Lakers Slovan Bratislava Group D Rögle BK Ångelholm ZSC Lions Zürich Fehèrvàr AV19 GKS Katowice Group E Red Bull Salzburg Fribourg-Gottéron Ilves Tampere Stavanger Oilers Group F Färjestad BK Karlstad Villach SV Straubing Tigers Comarch Cracovia Group G Eisbären Berlin Mountfield HK Frölunda Indians Grenoble Group H Ocelàři Třinec Skellefteå AIK HC Davos Belfast Giants The full calendar of the group stage can be found here: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/schedule#select_schedule=0 Meanwhile here's a recap of where to watch all the CHL games: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/fans/where-to-watch

no Dutch guys, not in the medal matches at least... the Sterkenburg brothers are no juniors anymore, I think...

don't forget the badminton worlds, starting in a few hours... and then Shotgun Shooting Europeans and Eurobasketball in a few days... sports never stop! p.s. the Hockey Champions League starts in 10 days!!!

I agree...I'm also not a fan of the Continental champs held a few weeks before (or, even worse, after) the Olympics...

so, see you in 2 years in Rome (June 7th-12th, 2024)...

wait a bit...Spain were definitely damaged by the French girls in the first changeover...they could be allowed a re-run...

last Finnish medal by competition... Pitkamaki won world bronze in 2015, Ruskanen won bronze at the 2016 Europeans (and at the 2012 Olympics)...

yes, she is a more beautiful woman, but a less effective jumper than 2/3 years ago...she definitely put on some weight in the last couple of years...

ah, OK...

I think you completely misunderstood what I wrote, my friend...

what all the swimming detractors need to understand, it's the fact that swimming, athletics and gymnastics are the symbol of the basic human activity...they remind to prehistoric life and the fight between man and nature... moreover, they are the core of the core sports at the Olympics since the very first edition in 1896 (and they were present -in different form, but still- also in the ancient Greek Olimpiads)... there's no chance the other sports can be compared to those 3 and ask for the same consideration...it will never happen, even with this IOC obsessed by the youth and urban sh*t (or, better, what they think it's youth and urban, but actually it's at least aged by today's youngsters if not even unknown by them)...

then, let's go back to the old glory days before this 200m mess...all the men's events over the 1000m distance and the women's events over the 500m distance (provided we can't have anymore 2 races in the same discipline in the men's division to respect the gender equality and so on)... but just stay away from any messy mix of distances in both the male and female divisions...

team relay about to start (15 mins later than expected, after another messy setup by LEN)... only 5 teams competing (ITA, GER, FRA, HUN and ESP) with almost all the swimmers doubling up the 10k effort from earlier this morning...

I'm OK with everything you wrote, except for the Briton being better than Bartolini...not in this world, at least...

I think it's just the fact of having 3 different distances that did fuck canoeing up (and also the women developing too little and too late the "C" disciplines)... imho, Flatwater Canoeing shouldn't be afraid to take inspiration from Rowing and they should choose an Olympic distance and run all their 12 races (K1, K2, K4, C1, C2 and C4, all of them for both M and W) on that given distance (to be trustable, I'd prefer 1000m for all, but 500m could also be an option...200m definitely not, it's not even canoeing, it's a strenght competition with a paddle in the hands)... that would be the perfect Olympic program, matching also all the IOC requirements in terms of gender equality and having the same events for men and women... if ICF wasn't so messy in their management, they would have come up with a proposal like that many years ago and they wouldn't have been screwed big time by the IOC like it happened, instead...

and quickly we get punished for the unexpected team success, with reigning world champion Bartolini deprived of a medal by the judges (underscoring him and overscoring the Briton, as usual)...

earlier this morning, during the 10k our TV made an interview with our Open Water Swimming National Director, Stefano Rubaudo, and he confirmed that all the mess was created by the LEN judges (no one of them being Italian), who were completely clueless in a difficult situation like that... and it happened because 99% of European judges are a bunch of amateurs, not used to consistently work on this kind of races, as most Countries have very few races/year and almost all in those "big pools" like small lakes and artificial basins... at the same time, in Italy we organize hundreds of open water swimming races/year, almost all of them at sea...and we have a corpse of well trained judges who know how to manage these situations... not only, he also said that LEN didn't want to take in consideration any sort of plan B (which were proposed by our team and by the organizers), when they were said that the sea in the afternoon might well get complicated... so, the only part to blame is LEN...and that was to be expected after the new (inept) president replaced Barelli last year (p.s. expect more disasters in the future with these people in charge)...

Argentina 2...ops...I mean, Italy beat twice Ukraine (1-0 in today's decider) and they're back in the Top Division...

una farsa assoluta... una figuraccia organizzativa e giuridica senza precedenti... se fossi negli atleti che hanno rischiato la salute in mezzo alle onde per 4 ore e passa e poi si sono visti disconoscere lo sforzo in quel modo, farei causa a tutti...LEN, giudici, organizzatori e persino a Dio per aver piazzato un weekend così proprio questa settimana dopo mesi di sole spaccaossa e mare piatto...

solo se rimettono la Balsamo a tirare il quartetto... la Germania è ancora lontana (più di quanto si pensi)...

6.06 for Duplantis, championship record... let's see if he goes for 6.22 now...