copravolley

They failed in boxing just as they did in volleyball... I wonder if without communism they would have been much better at sports with their potential?

Larissa or Iapichino? I think that Larissa it`s a old Russian name, which was popular during the Soviet Union time (Larissa, Ludmyla etc). Now it's rare even there, but in Italy such a name is as rare as meeting a dinosaur I never have met anyone with that name in real life (30 year ago there was a famous Russian cross- country skiing with this name: Larissa Lazutina).

By the way, who would you prefer: one Duplantis or 3x Fabbri or Battocletti?

Typical for Italy mentality: defeating the clear favorite in a 1/4 (Charaabi vs. the Turkish woman) and then losing to someone much weaker This isn't our sport and without two main stars, we had no right to win anything significant: only one bronze medal in an Olympic class is a failure. Either something changes in this sport in Italy, or I can't see our future in good colours. We certainly can't give up our biggest stars and focus on mediocre people who will never win anything, like Lenzi, Charaabi, Nicoli etc.

We won two medals today (Palmisano's silver is non-Olympic, so I'm not counting it): silver and bronze + the loss of a big opportunity for Iapichino tomorrow. Maybe we will win 3-4 Olympic medals in total here, but if there's no gold, I'll consider it a bit of failure. -Fabbri was out of form all season, which is why even a bronze medal is a succes for him. In last year's form, he probably would have had gold, because Crouser was beatable today, -Battocletti is still working wonders with this group of Africans he has to compete with. She gave 100% od her possibility now, -Iapichino - no comment. This will be probably a bigger waste of talent than Andrew Howe in the long jump some years ago In summary: Italy was good, with one exception, but nothing spectacular and it'll be tough to win gold here. We probably need Sinner in athletics to win more golds

Maybe Andy Diaz, but nothing more.

Italy without gold here

Iapichino always will be a good promese, nothing more. Unfortunettly. She hasn`t a winning mental

Spain another too strong for Italy, unfortunetly.

For me, the all of tournament was a disappointment for Greece – without Giannis, they would have lost to Italy and Spain. I don't even know if you'll win bronze, because Finland looks much better here. These young coaches: Spanoulis are the Pozzecco generation, they seem to have a poor grasp of the situation?

Il più grande successo di questa stagione è la oro della volle donne. Il resto è "not bad, not good". Il numero di medaglie è accettabile, ma troppo pocho oro. Quello che erano 4, 2 o anche un 1 anno fa ora sono irrilevanti: sei bravo quanto la tua ultima partita: Velasco lo sa, ed è per questo che continua a vincere. Chi è scarso e debole si adagierà sugli allori e si soni centenuto: e allora non vincerà mai più.

We have junior medals in every age group for many years, just like in the women's category. I don't see why we should feel inferior about France... Fefe is a weak coach – a complete boomer who wears down his teams. Two years of coaching is too much for him – and he's been with us for five years now... It's no coincidence that things are getting worse and the number of injuries is increasing, because he's physically devastating the team. Okay, we don't have Egonu, but we do have Michieletto... In women we have a dominant OP, in men we have a super OH, but we lack a classy OP. Nevertheless, Mazzanti, a poor coach before Velasco, had Egonu and also later Antropova, but he destroyed the team's atmosphere and didn`t won nothing.

Unfortunately, if we don't win a medal, it will be a major setback from 2022. The bracket is difficult, but we can't keep losing to Poland and France, every time. Three years ago, our young team won a sensational gold medal, but for three years, they haven't made any progress. De Giorgi looks like a schoolboy compared to Velasco.

I'm sure Borat is happy with this, btw. Maybe he's the one lobbying for it at the IOC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVRCyELQnSw

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxing_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics Somehow I don't see Uzbekistan at the top of the medal table here...

In my opinion, this strange sports should be kick off on the Olympic program. Who needs it? Only Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan benefit from it, as they've been racking up a ton of medals lately, and 20 years ago, they weren't even that strong in amateur boxing. I wonder if these countries have such a strong lobby within the IOC, or if someone stronger, like Russia, is simply behind them?

In professional boxing, you usually have a situation where the challenger has to be better than the champion to beat him. Some time ago, to beat, for example, Klitschko, as a challenger, you had to do something extra to take the title. But here I see it's quite the opposite: a boxer with big name- actually World Championship medals arrives and loses in the first round in Paris after a controversial result. I don't understand it. This current Olympic boxing is some strange hybrid of old amateur boxing and professional boxing: even the scoring shows it. Personally, I think we should have stayed with the amateur boxing of the early 21st century with its scoring machines, etc., or simply removed it from the Olympic program, because currently, it's a simply joke, not a real sport. Some strange hybrid of who knows what and what was created, divided into several federations: chaos with judges, chaos with seeding, etc. Why?

Dieci medaglie d'oro dovrebbero essere il nostro obiettivo minimo ogni anno, prima e dopo le Olimpiadi etc. Vincere meno medaglie d`oro quasi certamente ti fa uscire dalla top 10 e potresti ritrovarti dietro a Spagna, Ungheria, Polonia, ecc., se questi Paesi stanno vivendo un buon momento. Attualmente, abbiamo 6 medaglie d'oro e personalmente non ne vedo altre tre o quattro. Come la vede?

I think about Mariupol it was good basketball team. When I was there in 2016, it wasn't safe anymore, and I wouldn't want to live there. I think I was there before 2010, and I saw the Lenin monument but back then, it was still a typical post-Soviet city. Water polo is an old shit story. The referees can you kick off at any moment, like Italy in Paris 2024. I don't like the sport and much prefer volleyball.

We go to Paris with the 2023 World Championship gold and silver medalists: Testa and Abbes. Both lost in the first round. The big name, etc., didn't help us at all. In my opinion, the whole IBA-WBA mess really hurt us, because there were no seedings in Paris based on the IBA World Champ., and in fact, they started treating the World Championship medalists from the old IBA more worse. But that's just my opinion.

What do you think of Rygielska's fighting style? I'm not entirely convinced by it, but judges often promote her, even though she's not a big name.

Abbes started the first round poorly in Paris, which he lost. I don't understand why that happened. Then he had to chase, things got tense and he was injured and bleeding. The fight definitely could have been prepared better, since it was clear who his opponent was. However, if it had happened in the semifinals or the final, he would have at least had a medal, but as it was, he was left with nothing. After that, the Uzbek basically had no problems on his way to gold. It's just sad, that's all, even if the Italian coaching staff somewhat disregarded that first round.

Do you think Abbes was robbed of a gold medal at the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympics? Honestly? Testa was injured before Paris and now it's unclear whether she'll withdraw. I just have a feeling that if the judges had been a little more attentive, Abbes would have two World Championship gold medals and probably an Olympic gold medal (the first-round fight against the Uzbek, which should have been early final, was ridiculous and just an unlucky draw).

We still need to beat France... And France is at the same level as Spain...

Big surprise te me: maybe not a win, but a huge win... This british star don`t play good today?