Monzanator

1 minute ago, Makedonas said:

Aravane Rezai won Madrid in 2010

Yeah, but a Muslim raised in France still has a much better background to start in a sport like tennis than someone coming from Africa.

Ons Jabeur wins the WTA 1000 in Madrid which is the biggest trophy a Muslim woman has ever won in tennis.

Sinn Fein has won majority in the Ulster parliament - for the first time ever. I kinda lost track whether that makes any difference these days?

Does anyone still care about the nationalists vs unionists old flame?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-61355419

51 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

I live here!  My flat is the one with the dirty windows.  But it’s paid for! 

When was the last time grass was actually on that market?

1 hour ago, hckošice said:

The Team order Draft lottery should be soon in Montreal if I am not wrong

How many teams are in the lottery? NBA has seven IIRC?

Wojciech Nowicki 81,43 in the hammer. The best Kenyan was under 50 meters

Do we know the draft order and what is the best team for Slafkovksy to be drafted? I presume Kraken, Senators & Sabres won't be the best choices in terms of team success in the next decade

I see they painted the lines in the field better than last year

49 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

How many sports in the world are there where  &  are the two main contenders?  

This is probably the only one.

Next best thing we have in common would be weightlifting

Yeah, speed climbing being a standalone event probably means learning other events doesn't make much sense anymore. Let's hope Miroslaw hangs on until Paris to make up for the unfair Tokyo nonsense.

Indonesia looks to have covered the men's front which is very wise from them?

Sixers without Embiid are cooked. James Harden couldn't look any older & useless as team leader in this series so far.

Mavericks need a second guy. Doncic + a bunch of dudes won't even get you to a Conference final.

For something non-Algerian related, apparently Chile filed a protest that Byron Castillo is a Colombian national and used a fake passport while playing for Ecuador in the qualifying

Manchester City allowed two goals in stoppage time and went out after extra time Can't put Real away...

3 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Surfing kind of lucked out, Japan, France, the United States and Australia are all big surfing nations (heck, even Brazil would have been a great spot in 2016). I agree surfing is a bit lacking in terms of competitive nations, but due to favourable hosts the sport has essentially 10 more years to develop. Accessible also doesn't need to mean all nations can take part or else you can argue that sailing should be removed. If the ISA can push for the development in the Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and the Pacific, it could remain long term.

Not gonna happen. Sailing is a very expensive sport since you have to include the price of the boats. The poor teenager from Tunisia that drowned during training is basically a PR nightmare too. Caribbean is all about baseball & cricket - neither of which is an Olympic sport and baseball's return in Los Angeles will be a one-off IMO - and nobody is getting around that so ISA won't spend any money trying to expand the horizons in a market that has no interest in the expansion (how did Montreal Expos do with the baseball expansion?).

The ugly truth is, as long as a niche sport is popular in a few powerhouse nations it can be sold as "accessible" and nobody cares only former colonial powers in the Pacific region have genuine access to a sport like surfing. This whole "accessibility" excuse is what it is - an excuse wrapped around a bunch of nonsense. If you want to cut MP from Olympics just do it straight up - and don't use the "lack of accessibility" BS to justify the move.

41 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

 

It's true though, modern pentathlon has an accessibility problem and that will likely cause it to be removed from the Olympics. Sports aren't entitled to be in the Olympics. Throw in the fact that the governance is going the way of boxing/weightlifting in terms of transparency and the sport is looking less viable by the day.

 

Yet they promote surfing as "accessible" and a new urban craze? Half of the world doesn't even have access to open water and good luck trying to surf in Baltic or Northern Sea which are filthy cold 9 months per year. So where the hell do you you want to learn surfing? Ain't gonna happen in a public swimming pool

10 minutes ago, JoshMartini007 said:

Yeah the IOC wants the UIPM to modernize and become more accessible, no where does it state they want them to remove jumping specifically. With that said, removing jumping would make the sport more accessible for athletes.

 

I personally would like a more continuous event, sort of like triathlon. Start with fencing to get a staggered time, change jumping to cross-country riding, after finishing, riders dismount and head straight to the pool and then finish off with running/shooting.

It's more like trying to find a creative way to justify the axe. Lack of "accessibility" is a perfect excuse to kill a sport off. Triathlon is largely boring like mass starts in cross country or flat stages in cycling. Everyone knows things will only happen in the last 2% of the course.

Cross country jumping is more dangerous than a show jumping parcour - you can't sell the idea of looking after animal's safety and replace the safer event with a more dangerous one. That one is DOA.

ISU will vote for raising the minimum age level for women to 17 next month. Obviously it will be passed since everyone will heap on Russia given the low-hanging opportunity.

Obviously the law is an overreaction to one skater (Valieva) and even BBC doesn't want to pretend it's otherwise. Will it stop Russia from dominating the ladies events? No, it will not IMO. The modern social media era has pretty much killed figure skating elite level in USA and Canada, these teenagers have better things to do in life than skate 40 hours a week or more. This event will be dominated by Russia & Japan going forward - two countries where work regime is paramount.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-sports/61304131

What stops IOC from removing MP from the Olympic programme? Especially now that they have a great excuse of promoting "urban" sports for kids as Olympic sports? They wanted to remove wrestling & boxing before and there's no way MP has any celebrities or other VIPs trying to defend it.

18-13 is the final score and O'Sullivan ties Hendry's modern record of seven world championships!

Hendry was commenting for BBC:

Trump pulled back to 14-11 before the final session tonight.

Ronnie O'Sullivan leads Judd Trump 12-5 after day one of the final. First to 18 takes the title.

Poland won 2-0!

Yeah, Karlaftis is very much a Greek name. Since he landed with the Chiefs there's a good chance he'll have a successful career if he lives up to the potential. He was projected a late 1st round pick by a lot of experts.

Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer suspended for two full seasons for the sexual assault case that came out last summer:

https://www.mlb.com/news/trevor-bauer-suspension

The first round of draft happened yesterday. Jaguars taking DE Travon Walker over DE Aidan Hutchinson could go sideways fast.

Titans traded WR AJ Brown to Eagles and picked his replacement at #18 (they didn't want to play Brown big money which Eagles already did). Also Ravens traded WR Marquise Brown to Cardinals but picked a safety at #14 and a center at #25.

For once the Jets draft looks good on paper but they used all their three picks so the Deebo Samuel trade is probably not gonna happen.