Monzanator

I bet it's very easy for Americans to hate on Russian & Chinese athletes

Or Abraham Olano & Laurent Jalabert You don't have to dominate the winner's circle to be a regular GT contender.

Schleck's GT window was pretty small so it makes it even more curious. It seems like he evolved from being a one-day speciallist almost by fluke and his brother got busted on doping so it's even more fishy. Kwiatkowski won Tirreno-Adriatico and has podium finishes in Paris-Nice & Basque Country but he's not a GT contender. Regular GT contender is someone who goes for the overall GT win for the best part of 10 years or more. Schleck ain't one. And I realize someone might be a late bloomer only because he is held back by team orders like LeMond for Hinault or Froome for Wiggins.

At least he didn't say anything about a tortoise soup

Huh? I used to think Schleck was a one-day/Monuments speciallist rather than stage tour rider tbh? Bit like Kwiatkowski these days who will never be in the mix for any of these stage races.

Who was the last regular stage tour winner that was losing so much time in TT though? I've been watching some of this stuff since the days of Delgado & Indurain and they were pretty expert at ITT which is largely forgotten these days.

Doesn't Bernal need to improve his TT first? I feel like he's always losing time there?

Atkinson seems to be doing better in 50/100 rather than 200 though? Or is it the other way around? And she failed badly in 100 already

This is cold war approach again. I realize Efimova got away with some serious shit in the end but I dislike King as well. She's making way too much drama out of it. Sadly nobody seems to be capable of beating any of them right now. King strikes me as a very unlikeable person as well, she thinks she's the face of modern swimming or what?

[hide] Men's Tournament - Knockout Round July 21st - July 27th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 25th 2019, h. 17:00 Spain 2 Croatia July 25th 2019, h. 18:30 Hungary 1 Italy [/hide]

Wojciech Wojdak only 13th in the 800m Free heats. There goes one of the safest picks for a final spot and maybe even a medal. This shapes to be another depressing champs for our swimmers. Jan Switkowski was nowhere aka 21st in the 200m butterfly heats too.

I'm not saying this was illegal. It was somewhat against the spirit of the sport though. When two Olympic champions face off for what is effectively the last hit I expect better than a foil change. Ivanova vs Volpi was a different case, Volpi was the clear favorite so obviously Ivanova couldn't quite match her and the situation got into her head. If Deriglazova got into EDF's head that's a really bad look considering EDF's overall status.

For me the foil change decision with 6 secs. left was done in bad faith too so there is that. I blame EDF for trying to play the mind games while she's not some scrub who found herself in being afraid of winning situation. And she didn't have some rookie on the other side whatsoever. Just a very weak decision all around when it was Deriglazova in must attack mode. If EDF didn't trust her own skill to survive the final six seconds then she didn't deserve to win it. I'm no rules expert to say whether the second YC was for blocking the target area so I'm not gonna comment on that even if that was the reason behind the penalty. I'm disappointed in EDF's behaviour in general.

[hide] Women's Tournament - Knockout Round July 20th - July 26th, 2019 12 Nations, Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Third Place Match and Final Semifinals  Date & Time (GMT +9)  Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 July 24th 2019, h. 17:00 United States 7 Australia July 24th 2019, h. 18:30 Spain 4 Hungary [/hide] 

I noticed some guy jumped in the frame and forced the ref to lose his mind. I thought that was someone from the Italian camp. Anyway, it was obvious EDF tried to do some time wasting and the ref didn't fall for the foil change trick. Not with 6 seconds left in the WC final with Italy one hit ahead. Therefore I said she was too cheeky for her own good, should have forced Deriglazova's attack and counter herself if neccessary instead of stalling the action. The mind games blew up in her face when the ref decided he wants none of that.

Omoto collapsed out of the medals on the freestyle, Pickrem was then in 2nd but got overtaken on the final leg as well. She tied up badly and I thought she will lose the medal but she somehow held Margalis off. Shiwen went like from 4th to 2nd on the last leg. Hosszu found daylight on the butterfly leg and it was over by then.

Polish commentator said she was handed the second YC for removing the mask and arguining with the ref? Not to mention the ref was actually a guy from Poland

Julia Walczyk ended with -11 score in team foil. We won 5 of 9 bouts but with such a weak link it was impossible to make up the losses. Not gonna even mention the epic sabre team collapse. Yeah, it's sabre but from 40-32 to 41-45 is hideous In the team foil final Di Francisca was simply too cheeky for her own good. Simple penalty for pure stupidity. Should have expected more from such an experienced competitor. Inna Deriglazova is more or less the fencing P4P #1? (just gonna ask bc I don't follow this sport on daily basis).

The doping goes beyond borders. I'm convinced Carl Lewis was a doper too but the evidence got destroyed

Cold War at it's best. USA & Australia will never accept the fact a communist country can beat them at anything. Can't wait for Efimova show next

Well, the hockey was still payed outdoors back then? So Seattle had the natural weather to field a hockey team

There's too much money around to limit the league to 20 teams. The revenue is huge and everyone wants to take the piece of that cake. Seattle based on it's location was never a founding or historical member of any of the big leagues. Seahawks, Mariners & Sonics were all expansion teams from the 60s/70s where we had the first big influx of new markets trying to muscle past the historically big players like NY, LA, Philly, Chicago etc.

I always liked the Sonics jerseys when I was a kid. NBA in Oklahoma City is a joke tbh. They have enough teams in the desert and basically nobody cares about the Mavericks & Suns while Spurs are merely relevant because of the 5 titles & Gregg Popovich. I expect OKC will be really at the bottom of the league for the next decade now that Westbrook is gone.

I suppose the Catholic minority in Ulster is even smaller than it was in the 70/80s though? Free travel is so much easier these days and I wouldn't be surprised if people simply moved away to England or some place else. Idk how many Ulster counties have a significant Catholic presence anymore but probably not many. Since you're from Donegal I suppose you've been to Derry several times. Do they still switch the name on display between weekdays?

I still don't understand why would they want to renovate this arena so much but they refused to build a new one for the Sonics?