Monzanator

It's official, FIS decreased the maximum quota for top nations to 6 athletes per competition (it was seven since 07/08 season) in a bid to "help" the minor nations get World Cup points. Obviously this won't solve any problems and will only make the Big 6 (Austria, Norway, Germany, Poland, Slovenia & Japan) angry about the new limit. The likes of Finland, Czech Republic and Italy will field the same second-tier line-up, Switzerland remains the best of the rest (aka Team 7) while USA & Canada are what they are. No way minnows like Kazakhstan, Turkey or Ukraine will make strides filling out the spots vacated by the FIS decision.

The Abe siblings sweep and Abe/Maruyama final were probably the easiest medals to predict

Vida Blue - still the youngest AL MVP ever IIRC - passed away at the age of 73. He was a member of the early 1970s Oakland Athletics dynasty that won three World Series in a row.

Well, I got the women's winner right and medals for Scutto & Lee Harim though different colors

Historical achievement in Polish Ekstraklasa where we have a first time champion - Raków Częstochowa is crowned Polish champions with three matches remaining in the season. Raków played four Ekstraklasa seasons in the 90s before being promoted back in 2019 and quickly became a success story rarely seen in Poland. They won domestic Cup in the last two seasons where they finished 2nd in the league and now they are the champions. Head coach Marek Papszun will leave at the end of the season presumably to take some job abroad. @Makedonaswill probably know Giannis Papanikolau and Stratos Svarnas are key member of the squad.

Aryna Sabalenka wins Madrid 1000 in three sets 6-3 3-6 6-3 over Iga Świątek.

Pirates cooled off after a hot start and lost 5 in a row. Meanwhile Athletics and Royals contest the Toilet Bowl. Both teams have a combined winning record of .219 IIRC which must set some kind of record for a series after 30+ games into the season. A's won the first game 12-8 as the Royals pitching remains a total disaster.

Update on the 2023/24 World Cup calendar. FIS Council has to approve it on May 24th. https://www.fis-ski.com/en/alpine-skiing/alpine-news-multimedia/news-multimedia/news/summer-2023/main-updates-from-the-dubrovnik-cro-spring-sub-committee-meeting-for-the-alpine-world-cup Men: Kvitfjell & Bansko are back. Gurgl in Austria will host a slalom as a new venue. Women: Val d'Isere, Ga-Pa, Jasna & Val di Fassa are back, Mont Tremblant replaces Lake Louise. Team Combined Event planned for Kitzbuehel.

[hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Men's -60kg Day 1 May 7 2023 Balabay Aghayev Turan Bayramov Jorre Verstraeten Yang Yung Wei x Luka Mkheidze Giorgi Sardalashvili Naohisa Takato x Magzhan Shamshadin Ariunbold Enkhtaivan x Lee Harim x Francisco Garrigos Dilshot Khalmatov Dilshodbek Baratov Any Other Athlete Women's -48kg Day 1 May 7 2023 Shirine Boukli Blandine Pont Katharina Menz x Shira Rishony x Francesca Milani Assunta Scutto x Wakana Koga Natsumi Tsunoda x Abiba Abuzhakynova Narantsetseg Ganbaatar Catarina Costa Milica Nikolic Any Other Athlete Men's -66kg Day 2 May 8 2023 Orkhan Safarov Willian Lima Walide Khyar Vazha Margvelashvili x Baruch Shmailov Hifumi Abe x Joshiro Maruyama x Denis Vieru Erkhembayar Battogtokh Baskhuu Yondonperenlei An Baul x Bogdan Iadov Any Other Athlete Women's -52kg Day 2 May 8 2023 Larissa Pimenta Amandine Buchard Mascha Ballhaus Chelsie Giles x Reka Pupp Gefen Primo Odette Giuffrida x Uta Abe x Distria Krasniqi x Ana Perez Box Fabienne Kocher Diyora Keldiyorova Any Other Athlete Men's -73kg Day 3 May 9 2023 Hidayat Heydarov x Daniel Cargnin Arthur Margelidon Magdiel Estrada Lasha Shavdatuashvili x Tohar Butbul Manuel Lombardo Soichi Hashimoto x Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir x Salvador Cases Roca Nils Stump Obidkhon Nomonov Murodjon Yuldoshev Any Other Athlete Women's -57kg Day 3 May 9 2023 Rafaela Silva x Christa Deguchi Jessica Klimkait x Sarah Leonie Cysique Eteri Liparteliani x Timna Nelson Levy Haruka Funakubo x Nora Gjakova Enkhriilen Lkhagvatogoo Telma Monteiro Marica Perisic Huh Mimi Any Other Athlete Men's -81kg Day 4 May 10 2023 Shamil Borchashvili Saeid Mollaei Matthias Casse x Guilherme Schimidt Francois Gauthier Drapeau Alpha Oumar Djalo Tato Grigalashvili x Attila Ungvari x Takanori Nagase x Frank de Wit Lee Joonhwan Vedat Albayrak Sharofiddin Boltaboev Any Other Athlete Women's -63kg Day 4 May 10 2023 Katharina Haecker Ketleyn Quadros Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard x Lucy Renshall Gili Sharir Inbal Shemesh Megumi Horikawa x Miku Takaichi Laura Fazliu Angelika Szymanska x Barbara Timo x Andreja Leski Any Other Athlete Men's -90kg Day 5 May 11 2023 Mammadali Mehdiyev Rafael Macedo x Ivan Felipe Silva Morales Lasha Bekauri Luka Maisuradze x Eduard Trippel Krisztian Toth Christian Parlati x Sanshiro Murao Noel van T'end Nemanja Majdov Davlat Bobonov x Any Other Athlete Women's -70kg Day 5 May 11 2023 Aoife Coughlan Michaela Polleres Lara Cvjetko x Barbara Matic x Eve Marie Gahie Miriam Butkereit Giovanna Scoccimarro Elisavet Teltsidou Saki Niizoe x Sanne van Dijke x Ai Tsunoda Roustant Elvismar Rodriguez Any Other Athlete Men's -100kg Day 6 May 12 2023 Zelym Kotsoiev x Toma Nikiforov Shady Elnahas Kyle Reyes Varlam Liparteliani Ilia Sulamanidze Peter Paltchik Kentaro Iida Simeon Catharina Michael Korrel x Jorge Fonseca Aleksandar Kukolj Muzaffarbek Turoboyev x Any Other Athlete x Women's -78kg Day 6 May 12 2023 Mayra Aguiar Ma Zhenzhao x Audrey Tcheumeo x Alina Boehm x Anna-Maria Wagner Natalie Powell Inbar Lanir Alice Bellandi Shori Hamada Guusje Steenhuis Beata Pacut-Kloczko x Patricia Sampaio Any Other Athlete Men's +100kg Day 7 May 13 2023 Ushangi Kokauri Rafael Silva Andy Granda x Lukas Krpalek Martti Puumalainen Guram Tushishvili x Kokoro Kageura Tatsuru Saito x Tsentsentsengel Odkhuu x Roy Meyer Temur Rakhimov Alisher Yusupov Any Other Athlete Women's +78kg Day 7 May 13 2023 Beatriz Souza x Any Chinese Athlete Idalys Ortiz Romane Dicko x Julia Tolofua x Raz Hershko Akira Sone x Adiyasuren Amarsaikhan Marit Kamps Milica Zabic Kim Hayun Kyra Sayit Any Other Athlete [/hide]

Yeah, he we come! Of course everyone would like to play us and hopefully we actually manage to score a goal this time. Back in 2002 we went 0-7 vs Slovakia, 0-8 vs Finland and 0-3 vs Ukraine in group stage before finally scoring in the relegation group (where we beat Italy & Japan but lost to Slovenia who therefore avoided relegation).

There is like ZERO chance this movie will be even half as good as "Grand Prix" but maybe it's a little more realistic than "Driven"

Well, wouldn't you know it. Bucks will have a new head coach. Told ya Giannis needs some changes

Kudermetova won a grand total of two games so another Świątek vs Sabalenka final

Welcome to the real world. In WTA there was a silent ban for a player who started a catfight with another player and I guess there is a reason for that. Meanwhile in NBA you have Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole and everyone is laughing & joking in the media. No real drama in sight. Women hold grudge against each other much longer than men so that also allows the drama to play out longer. Just last week Eugenie Bouchard was trying to stir the pot by tweeting about beating players busted for doping after beating Dayana Yastremska in Madrid and was swiftly put down to her place after WTA reminded her Yastremska was cleared of doping (as shaky as her excuse was) and Bouchard was forced to delete her tweets and apologize. That is only a minor drama because Bouchard isn't relevant enough on the grand scale anymore and lost her next match anyway.

Half-way until another Świątek vs Sabalenka showdown as Sabalenka beat Maria Sakkari 6-4 6-1 in the first semi-final.

Poland got a very manageable group, I'd say Northern Ireland was the most dangerous team from League B Pot 2 and we avoided them. Though Serbia will probably play very physical style etc.

Well, if you got two elite athletes going at it then it's anyone's guess who was more to blame. Happens all the time in sports. Men also throw punches but women doing so kinda raises the drama factor by default.

Looks like an ego problem if there was a catfight happening

The first training camp for women's senior team before the new season starts on May 5th. We'll see if Monika Hojnisz-Staręga is there or not. Head coach Torgersen was last quoted in March that "he hasn't spoken to her lately" so it's anyone's guess what is going on.

I still remember the days when we couldn't beat who didn't enter field hockey players on ice after all Predicting any success for Polish ice hockey is extremely naive but if we can't beat Romania then I don't know how low the bar must be set for us to jump over it

Madrid 1000 into semi-finals: Iga Świątek (1) vs Veronika Kudermetova (12) Aryna Sabalenka (2) vs Maria Sakkari (9) Looks like another Świątek vs Sabalenka final so the women's tour might finally have a proper rivlary not seen too often in the last decade

plays on the final day. Surely we can't blow this up now?

Emma Raducanu has had surgery on both hands and ankle and is out of Wimbledon & grass season but I expect she might not be back until USO and maybe plays one warm-up there at best. It's clear her body just isn't made for a full-time tennis career so let's see where she goes from here. It's not like the sponsors will allow her to walk away even if she loses interest because the results over the past 12 months have been brutal but her endorsements have been all about the glamour potential and not the sport anymore.

Yes, even Polish media called beating Italy a "great victory" and a "shock"

And which teams took them out - Florida Panthers & Seattle Kraken - one of the historically most anonymous & bad teams around & the expansion gang. Yeesh!