Monzanator

Bolivia could force time delay in every own possession and 60 minutes wouldn't be enough to concede 82 goals

https://www.cnet.com/news/nbc-peacock-streaming-service-free-with-ads-launch-date-april-july-15/

5 or 10 bucks for some access pass. But the stream itself is "free"

3 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

Thanks for the update, that picture looks great.  Too bad the snow did not work out.  As an aside, the Eurosport announcers apologized for misspeaking about not enough snow and the WC being moved.  I think that they read this thread 

There's a general lack of snow in Poland for the past 10-15 years. The last really snowy winter I recall was 2006 IIRC. Other than that it's basically only frost and like two weeks of partial snowfall in January or February. And I don't live in the lowlands myself (but not in the mountains either). Back in my childhood there was snow in October. Impossible to have that anymore.

31 minutes ago, De_Gambassi said:

 

Cricket should pretend to give a f. for a start for that to happen. I mean they didn't even make an application for an additional sport spot in 2024. Sure, it was never going to happen, but that's not really the point. 

 

Plus the whole other problems that it comes with (facilities, quotas drain, participation of the best players ?...). Basically, the same ones than baseball. 

 

I can see Baseball5 as a permanent sport at some point.

Cricket doesn't give a fuck about the Olympics. Hell, they even limited the World Cup to 10 nations from the A Division or whatever that's called? Zimbabwe, Scotland, Ireland and UAE that played in 2015 edition were effectively banned from playing in 2019

14 minutes ago, RobtheAggie said:

From what I have been able to glean from the document I linked, there looks to be non biathlon things at play as well.  Hotels seem to matter.  So the A is not just do you have all of your competition ducks in a row, but can your community host the event.  Is there a plan to host all the spectators, as well as staff and athletes.

The upgrade cost for Duszniki was 20 million PLN (ca. 6 million USD). The town itself had to provide 5 millions PLN. It's a mountain village aimed at tourism 12 months per year so they have enough hotels over here   There's more than biathlon here, the Zieleniec skiing slope is kinda well known and also popular among the Czechs since Duszniki Zdroj is a border town with Czech Republic.

The IBU Cup scheduled for last week was cancelled due to lack of snow but this is a picture taken earlier today (from their FB page):

17 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Yes, let’s continue to murder our children with inaction!!!

I offer you the simpliest of solutions with repealing the 2nd Amendment. What's so wrong about that? The ever so outdated & racist Poland has such strict gun laws you have a hard time buying a mere air pistol over here. Forget about an assault rifle. Hell, you can legally own a black powder gun manufactured before 1885, a bow and an air pistol/rifle for lead pellets. That is all you have available in Poland. Everything else requires a gun permit which is notoriously difficult to obtain. You can't come in and say you're gonna hunt squirrels so you need a gun permit. They'd laugh you off and kick over to the street.

But here's the thing, the US gun laws are a part of the political battle. In politics so often the chase is more important than the catch. Gun rights is a massive fuel for political bickering and for majority of these politicians it's more important for this keep going on & on rather than solving it. 

More gun control laws BS. And the obvious idea of striking down the Second Amendment is something that no US politician actually wants. Bunch of clowns and hypocrites

No i jak zwykle zabrakło hajsu. Szanse Kszczota w Tokyo widzę słabo, może Lewandowski coś tam ugra. Cichocka to i tak miała małe szanse po kontuzjach.

2 minutes ago, Cobi said:

 

Yes, we won the silver medal in 2016. The problem is that the team was formed by Latin-Americans (mainly players from Venezuela and Cuba) who were playing in minor leagues in the US and their grand-parents were from Spain. In fact, a national newspaper wrote a very interesting article about them, and only one player was born here. The reality of baseball in Spain is that we have a league of only 8 amateur teams and the sprot is even less popular than ice hockey.

Yep, that obviously make sense. I'm pretty sure the entire Israeli team in Tokyo will consist of Jewish players born in USA who have lived their entire lives there and played baseball in NCAA or minor leagues. So much for the baseball diversity

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Spain used to have a decent team a while back. Great Britain has shown they can be competitive in Softball. World Baseball Classic means more internationally than the World Series by the way. 

Tell that to MLB superstars on those 200m contracts Olympics should be about global stars not some NCAA futures

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Handball final: Europe v. Europe or Europe v. Europe

Baseball Final: North America v. Asia or North America v. South America or Asia v. South America (and with Australia and Netherlands, both Oceania and Europe have realistic chances as well)

Other than Italy and Netherlands nobody in Europe plays baseball at the level that would give USA or Japan any trouble. Who are you kidding here?

Plus, like mentioned above, Olympics is the pinnacle for handball, for baseball it's World Series and it's not even close. Six teams at the baseball OG tournament is as small as they come. NHL bailed on the Korean WOG already, most golfers took the zika virus excuse to skip Rio etc. Baseball in Tokyo will be just a bunch of backups and no-names from US NCAA schools. And I bet the entire Israeli squad will be US-based in first place.

8 minutes ago, Cobi said:

 

According to Wikipedia, IHF has 201 full members, while WBSC only has 141 countries...

 

I think handball is diverse enough to be at the Olympics, and the main reason why baseball isn't is that they don't take the Olympics seriously.

Yep, nobody is skipping the final month of the regular season or the World Series to play at the Olympics  

Just now, Olympian1010 said:

And Iceland could wipe the floor with 190/201 IHF members...

Iceland is actually having a worse period in handball. Baseball Olympic final would be USA vs Japan or maybe Venezuela? It's a non-diversity no contest

6 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

I'm surprised to read Duszniki only got upgraded to B in 2017. I've never been there, but @brunamoura told me it's a very good venue, I kinda thought they had at least B status for a while longer.

Nope, the European Championships in January 2017 was the grand opening of the upgraded Duszniki Arena under the "B" license. It's a miracle the funding came through since we did NOTHING to upgrade the cross country courses during the Justyna Kowalczyk golden era. Thankfully biathlon was more lucky and Duszniki can host IBU Cup & Euro Champs now.

1 minute ago, Olympian1010 said:

Western Asia is the Middle East. The OCA refers to that region as “Western Asia”.

 

Artistic Swimming has more participating countries than many sports on the program.

 

Baseball is also popular in Chinese Taipei, China, Philippines, and many of the Oceania nations (most have baseball/softball fields). It will be played in both the next Asian Games, and Pacific Mini Games.

 

Really Baseball/Softball getting kicked out of the Olympics shows how Euro-Centric everything is. How the fuck is handball hanging on, but baseball “isn’t diverse enough”? 

It's called tradition And baseball isn't diverse enough, Japan would wipe the floor with all of Asia while in Oceania rugby is the king (and rugby sevens getting the Olympic nod proves this esp. with Fiji taking gold medal). Rugby sevens basically took baseball's Olympic spot for the non-European-centric team sport (which unlike baseball actually has a significant following in Europe). Case closed.

1 minute ago, intoronto said:

Central America, North America and Spanish Caribbean....

Obviously I know there are a ton of Latinos playing in MLB. Hell, baseball is more popular than football in Venezuela but this sport is non-existent in Europe, Africa & 95% of Asia hence it got bounced from the Olympic line-up already. Nobody would value the Olympic Gold medal over World Series title either

5 hours ago, RobtheAggie said:

 

I did not know all of this, thanks.  Fort Kent hosted a WC stop a few years ago, there is some interesting footage of NBA star Scottie Pippen (think 2nd fiddle to Michael Jordan) walking around looking really cold available on Youtube of the event.  

 

Lake Placid is hosting the World University Games in a few years, so I wonder if an A is required for that, I doubt it.    I have contacted the IBU to see if they will release a list and requirements.  It does not hurt to ask.  I will let everyone know what the results are.

 

I did find this feasibility study of Mammoth, CA looking into building a Biathlon and Nordic Skiing arena.  The biathlon information starts on page 20. 

I know who Scottie Pippen is, thanks

Well, you don't have to be a junior to compete in the University Games but the "B" license is sufficient to hold every youth/junior IBU event so Lake Placid doesn't really have to hold an "A" licence here.

Those licenses come & go and it's not set in stone, I read somewhere about the 8 year period that is the maximum for any "A" license. Sjusjoen received the "B" license in November 2015 and it expires at the end of 2021. Like someone mentioned earlier Osrblie in Slovakia lost the "A" license after 2009 and it's been downgraded to "B" ever since. I seriously doubt Fort Kent is anywhere near the "A" license these days. It hosted the World Cup in 2011 but Presque Isle probably took over all the funding neccessary for "A" license IMO.

14 hours ago, Olympian1010 said:

Basketball, Baseball, Football, and Volleyball are all popular in both Asia and Oceania. Rugby is hugely popular in Oceania. Handball is quite popular in Western Asia. Artistic Swimming enjoys popularity in East Asia. 

Western Asia? I have never heard someone use that term. The Western-most point of Asia is basically Middle East and Kaukaz (since Turkey belongs to European region despite the fact the actual Asian western-most point is in Anatolia)

Artistic Swimming is such a niche sport nobody really cares about that.

Baseball is very popular in Japan and in Korea but other than that it's nowhere compared to cricket (due to the British Empire influence over the decades).