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While I understand (but still dislike) having a specific meet or meets to achieve the OQT, these nations which create even harder times is ridiculous. It's not like FINA made the OQT easy to get either. Imagine if Japan was as strict in other sports as it is in swimming, their team would be like 50-75 athletes rather than the near 300 they would normally get.

JASF leadership trying their hardest to strangle the sport to death.

Japanese Olympic Trials: Day 2 Recap 3 swimmers punched their ticket to Paris today. Men's 400m IM: 1. Tomoyuki Matsushita - 4:10.04 Q 2. Daiya Seto - 4:10.84 3. Kaito Tabuchi - 4:11.15 Big PB by Matsushita to become the first Japanese athlete to qualify for Paris. Other than that, a complete disaster for Japan. Tomoru Honda already shockingly failed to qualify for the final. Then Daiya Seto, arguably the biggest Japanese star, fails to qualify in his signature event despite getting under the OQT. Also getting under the OQT was Kaito Tabuchi. So a country that's known for their producing world class IMers will only nominate one athlete for this event. If this doesn't make the JASF change their selection criteria, I don't know what will. Women's 100m Butterfly: 1. Mizuki Hirai - 56.91 Q 2. Rikako Ikee - 57.30 Q 3. Shiho Matsumoto - 57.31 4. Ai Soma - 57.64 4 women under the OQT and 3 women under the JASF QT. Another big PB by the 17 year old Hirai and Ikee barely qualifies in 2nd. Great race all around. Men's 100m Breaststroke: 1. Taku Taniguchi - 59.43 2. Yu Hanaguruma - 59.47 2. Ippei Watanabe - 59.47 Once again, 3 men under the OQT but all failed to meet the JASF QT of 59.26 (see a pattern here?). Taniguchi should be nominated for the medley relay should the stroke 100 winners meet the required relay time but won't swim it individually. Current Japanese Olympic team Men: Tomoyuki Matsushita - 400m IM Women: Mizuki Hirai - 100m Butterfly Rikako Ikee - 100m Butterfly

54.26 PB today in the 100m freestyle for Mary-Sophie Harvey. Good news for the relays.

Laura Kenny aka Laura Trott, Britain’s most successful female Olympian - 5 Golds - retires. Ironically the very athletes she inspired are now keeping her out of the Olympic team https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/68579889

Giro d’Italia Tour of Italy (Not the cycling race) In this space we present some cities inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List MATERA Matera, a city in Basilicata known worldwide for its historic “Sassi”, two districts (Sasso Caveoso and Sasso Barisano), well-known for their ancient cave dwellings inhabited since the Paleolithic period. Listed among the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1993, along with the park of the Rupestrian Churches. The term "sasso" derives from Latin saxum, meaning rock or great stone. The "Sassi" of Matera are an urban settlement deriving from the various forms of civilization that have occurred over time. The streets in some parts of the Sassi often run on top of other houses. The ancient town grew up on one slope of the ravine created by the Gravina river. In the 1950s, the government of Italy forcefully relocated most of the population of the Sassi to areas of the developing modern city. Beset by extreme poverty and riddled with malaria, the unhealthy living conditions were considered inhuman, however, people continued to live in the Sassi. Until the late 1980s this was considered an area of poverty, since many of these houses were uninhabitable. The recovery action that began in the mid-1980s has a historical value however also has become more tourism-oriented, and it has promoted the regeneration of the Sassi with the aid of many stake-holders. The rock churches in the territory of Matera and along the ravines of the Murgia Materana park there are around 150 small churches carved into the rock, founded mainly in the Early Middle Ages, they are buildings carved into the rock. Initially born as religious structures, over time they have undergone various transformations of use, becoming homes or shelters for animals. They are an important testimony to the presence of communities of Benedictine, Lombard and Byzantine monks.

Lisa Vittozzi won the Crystal Globe after finishing second in 2019 and third last season. Won individual and pursuit cups Season podium: 5 victories (WC gold included) – three seconds (two silvers at WC) and two third places. Congratulations deserved!!!!

Julia Tunks with a 58.48 in the discus

Draw 7 Results 10 - 7 9 - 4 10 - 3 9 - 4 records their first win of the event!

To be fair I think we've all followed every major track cycling event in the last 14 months . I don't think @heywooduis too far out by saying there's 10-15 riders with significant medal chances - after all, all that means is that anyone who gets themselves into a semi-final is in with a medal shout. And for what it's worth, here's my take on the 10-15 genuine medal chances and why I think they are in the mix: Emma Finucane & Katy Marchant - Finucane is European silver medalist, won the event in HK and is the cyclist probably in the best form whilst Marchant took silver in Adelaide. Could even make an argument in favour of Sophie Capewell. Emma Hinze & Lea Friedrich - Hinze took silver in Hong Kong whilst Friedrich is European Champions, was 8th in Hong Kong and 6th in Adelaide. Mina Sato - Champion in Adelaide and 5th in Hong Kong. Mathilde Gros - 4th in the Europeans, 7th in Adelaide and 6th in Hong Kong - will also have home town advantage and unlikely to have the additional 3 rides from team sprint. Hetty van de Wouw & Steffie van der Peet - van de Wouw was bronze medalist at Europeans and 4th at Worlds in Glasgow whilst van der Peet made the small final in Hong Kong and in Glasgow. Ellesse Andrews - '23 World Champ and UCI TCL Champion. Will be interesting to see how she performs on her return from injury. Nicky Degrendele - 5th at the Europeans, 4th in Hong Kong and made the small final in Adelaide. Martha Bayona - silver medalist at last year's world champs and made the small final in Adelaide. Lauriane Genest - silver medalist at '23 PanAm champs and bronze medalist in Adelaide. That's a fairly easy list of 12 names and there are more besides.

And Rikako qualifies by the skin of her teeth.

Seto fails to qualify in the 400 IM

I was surprised by this result too. I expected a win with something like 104%.

Bronze also in the women’s relay!

Grazie alle carte olimiche di Scherma (sciabola femminile) e Triathlon (ranking #8), gli azzurri qualificati per i Giochi Olimpici Estivi di Parigi 2024 sono attualmente 207 (101 uomini, 106 donne) in 24 discipline

Just as I promised I made millefoglie which may be known, or at least be similar to, Napoleon (napoleonka in East Europe?)

'inside the games' writers are notoriously uninformed, and often just plain wrong. Blog posts more than news.

Maybe I am too naive at this point. But I think that me and also many other people hope and believe that one day, politics will stop having highly negative impact on the Olympic Games and it will start being the highly peaceful event as it used to be and as Baron Coubertin saw and created such amazing mottos. Olympic Spirit has been with me my entire life and looking at these political nonsenses makes me feel sad. I don't envy those people who pursue their life dream and goals and these things stop them and often they can't do anything about it.

I don't know if it was me tinned before , but Egypt will host next edition of African Games in 2027

I don't think any of us here would discount Andrews at all, in either the keirin or the individual sprint. In fact I think all we have said is that the Keirin is genuinely open. In terms of winning the gold medal, I think about 6 ladies have realistic chances, which is great and more unpredictable than most of the track events. It will be interesting to see how Andrews comes back and where she slots into the pack. However, not to recognise Finucane as the number 1 women's sprinter right now, who is clearly becoming more accomplished at the Keirin recently (and therefore has to be considered to have strong chances for Paris) is a strange hill to die on in my view. It was a dominating performance this weekend in HK across all 3 disciplines and that's where we are right now. Come Paris the story may very well be different...looking forward to seeing the racing in 4-5 months time (hopefully in person if I can sneak a spare ticket when the exchange site opens) :D

Draw 6 Results 7 - 8 8 - 2 9 - 2

This made some sense back when the OQTs were easy, but... they really aren't anymore.

men's Individual Foil Grand Prix ( Washington D.C.) Gold: Nick Itkin Silver: Enzo Lefort Bronze: Filippo Macchi & Kyosuke Matsuyama Semifinals Itkin b. Macchi 15-6 Lefort b. Matsuyama 15-8 Final Itkin b. Lefort 15-12 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2024/140?tab=results

women's Individual Foil Grand Prix ( Washington D.C.) Gold: Lee Kiefer Silver: Arianna Errigo Bronze: Lauren Scruggs & Anne Sauer Semifinals Kiefer b. Sauer 15-6 Errigo b. Scruggs 15-5 Final Kiefer b. Errigo 15-4 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2024/121?tab=results

I don't think anyone has been discounting either Andrews or Bayona - we're simply saying that based on past experience, the keirin is the most unpredictable event in track cycling for the sprinters and there is no clear medal favourite. From my perspective, I wouldn't be reading too much into the results of the TCL - it took place at a time when the riders were still in heavy training and the format differences doesn't necessarily give a good read across to what will happen in Paris.

On the other hand gets its first win (over ) after 6 ends

Yep, that's what I meant with her being very much a contender in the big mix. There's a whole bunch of contenders who have all worked super hard for it (presumably all of them 'want it the most', and that kind of thing), and if there's one unpredictable event, it's the keirin. Gonna be fun, at least 10-15 riders have a significant medal shot and the fight for gold is most likely going to be fantastically tight

This document is outdated, dating from January 2022 This official document is from January 2023 https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2023/02/14/90223252-54ef-40fc-9d04-3f30ccd1bf08/2023-01-15-Olympic-Games-Paris-2024-qualification-system-World-Aquatics-Water-Polo-English-Version-4-002-.pdf

Athletics Started

I don't like him tbh and I don't know how he managed to stay for this long as IHF president. and now he has conflicts with minister of Sport and NOC , due to this corrupted Equesterian president whom they wanted him to resign as he was the head of Egyptian NOC as well, but he didn't and Hassan Mostafa supported him till the end and threatened with sanctions over Egypt due to governmental pressure, but they managed to make it 100 % legal and he was fired by Equesterian Federation General assembly . So he is not having best times with Egypt now

I have no idea, why it is called pot 5, but you are in the same pot as Sweden, which finished fourth at last year's World Championships. This seems pretty fair to me. I am much more surprised by France and Slovenia being in the same pot.

I don’t think it’s according to a sort of ranking, otherwise France would not be in Pot 4. honestly no idea how they did it. It was similar in Tokyo. but I guess as the president is from Egypt, I guess they wouldn’t disadvantage you.

https://www.fiba.basketball/olympics/men/2024/news/the-road-to-gold-men-s-olympic-basketball-tournament-s-competition-system4

He'e guy who had to compete for after qualifying for the Pan American Games.

Standings After Day 2 Team Homan (3-0) Team Tirinzoni (3-0) Team Constantini (3-0) Team Gim (2-1) Team Dupont (2-1) Team Peterson (2-2) Team Morrison (1-2, 1-0) Team Yıldız (1-2, 1-0) Team Ueno (1-2) Team Rørvik (1-2, 0-1) Team Smith (1-2, 0-1) Team Hasselborg (0-3) Team Turmann (0-3)

Draw 5 Results 5 - 7 9 - 3 6 - 5 8 - 2

Congrats to her, but what is also worth to mention, according our commentators her 21st place today was just only one race in entire season when Lisa didn't finished the race in top20

The draw for the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be made on 16 April, in Paris, France. Pot 1 – Denmark / Spain Pot 2 – Croatia / Norway Pot 3 – Hungary / Germany Pot 4 – Slovenia / France Pot 5 – Sweden / Egypt Pot 6 – Argentina / Japan

10km Laredo - 16 March 2024 Men's 10.000m Yomif KEJELCHA - 26:37 Joshua CHEPTEGEI - 26:53

You definitely know, that is not the point. There are 100 other countries with build stadiums, that could host junior matches.

sorry but religions do not dictate our lives

Gold for William Dandjinou in the 1000m!

Qualified Olympic Games 2024

Here it is called Krémeš (read: Crémesh) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cremeschnitte or as anyone call it here "Francúzsky Krémeš" French cremesh and there various version

It will be allocated through the European Championships in Budapest, 22-26 May.

Jordan Pierre-Gilles also wins a bronze in the men’s 500m!

Sure it is. Congrats. 6 Olympic standards were achieved today in Dudince César Augusto Rodríguez 1:19:41 Brian Pintado 1:19:44 Ram Baboo 1:20:00 Evelyn Inga 1:27:42 Maria Sakharuk 1:29:14 Mary Luz Andia 1:29:19

Kim Boutin wins gold in the women's 500m at the World Championships! Her first ever.

Ukraine and Russia never stoped playing in the tennis circuit and now are regularly facing each other in judo, fencing and some other sports. I highly doubt it will be an issue. Israel for me is more likely to cause concerns/issues when facing arab nations. We could have a very interesting Israel vs Morocco in football.

Irene Camber, women's Foil Olympic Champion in 1952, dies at the age of 98 https://www.malangpost.net/italian-fencing-legend-irene-camber-passes-away-at-98/