stratocumulus

Whoa, possibly one of the biggest blows for the Polish teams since no medal for women's K4 and our BOTH K2 missed out on qualification for the final. That hurts

Good evening Bulgaria & good morning Indonesia it seems your day has finally come At least positive emotions are there

Just a thought watching taekwondo today and yesterday - I noticed there are many athletes (especially female ones) from relatively exotic countries for female martial arts (Iran, Tunisia, even Saudi Arabia has a representative etc.). And suddenly I realized what may be behind it. Just look at taekwondo dresses. They are fully dressed up and virtually not showing any body which suits some cultures very well (especially Muslims) and is probably a valid and relatively uncontroversial option for talented women in these countries unlike i.e. wrestling. I do not know if it is the only reason but I wanted to share the thought

How do you decide which day is actually counted? I am thinking in cases like boxing or volleyball - Poland has a medal in boxing guaranteed since Sunday, but still it is not decided what colour. Does it mean for your stats that it counted for Sunday (that would have very interesting consequences, because no medal would ever be counted for the final days since the four medalists would be known well before)? If our boxer had lost yesterday and was awarded bronze would you have counted it for Wednesday? Or is the day when the medals are physically awarded the actual date? Thanks for your work anyway, I find the stats very interesting Btw. if you have already collected a larger database, maybe you could also run a query on an average number of athletes and events to win a medal per nation? It would be very interesting to compare such figures for a few countries like South Korea (who must have an insanely good fulfillment quote looking at their medals and the squad size), South Africa (who deliberately refuse some quotas due to lack of competitiveness) and so on

Now honestly: who would say before the Games that the best Polish on Roland Garros would be a boxer?

I think if you only allow two athletes in the competition you should see to it they do not meet before the final.

You just should not have dissolved, guys

Na zimno trzeba zebrać fakty. A te są takie, że przez 16 lat polska szermierka zdobyła tylko jeden medal i to brązowy. W tym sensie w ogóle nie podzielam optymizmu prezesa PZSzerm. A tak serio to żeby się wypowiedzieć uczciwie, to trzeba przeprowadzić konkretne śledztwo i wyważyć różne wartości. Patrzę sobie na nasze wewnętrzne kryteria kwalifikacyjne i widzę, że próbowano pogodzić wodę z ogniem. Z jednej strony była możliwość wylądowania w TOP-2 rankingu, czyli bezwzględnie najlepsi mieli pewność występu (we florecie męskim Siess (34. msce, 45,5pt) i Rządkowski (47 msce, 34pt) , dla porównania w szpadzie to Knapik-Miazga (19. msce, 69pt) oraz Swatowska-Wenglarczyk (45. msce, 37,5pt). Pozostałe dwa miejsca to miał być wybór trenera. Czy to tak bardzo źle? To zależy. Wiecie, może być, że ktoś wystrzeli z formą, ale akurat nie wystarczy mu czasu. Może być tak, że ktoś nieźle fechtuje, ale np. jest wyjątkowym d***** i NAPRAWDĘ psuje klimat w drużynie. Nie mieliście nigdy tak, że spotkaliście kogoś, kto był niezły w tym co robi, ale kompletnie nie pasował do zespołu? Przecież takie sytuacje się zdarzają. W naszej drużynie siatkarskiej też nie wszyscy zawodnicy to akurat najlepsi siatkarze, ale tworzą - zdaniem trenera przynajmniej - świetny team. Z drugiej strony zostawia to furtki na różne niejasne wybory. Na to jednak też są sposoby - pisemne uzasadnienia, audyty. Ostatecznie jednak myślę, że selekcjoner kadry narodowej powinien mieć jakąś możliwość manewru zgodnie z własnym przekonaniem - inaczej możemy sobie go w ogóle podarować i wyznaczać kadrę za pomocą ChataGPT. Także - nie mając osobistego interesu we wspieraniu żadnej ze stron, tylko polskiej szermierki, uważam na ten moment, że sytuacja nie jest jednoznaczna, a to już mnie nawet zaskakuje, bo myślałem, że problemy będzie widać na pierwszy rzut oka. Na koniec jeszcze rozważmy wariant, że wchodzi czwórka z rankingu i koniec. Tylko wiecie, kto by wtedy wyleciał w kobiecej szpadzie? :D Jarecka. Ona była w rankingu olimpijskim z naszych piąta. Co do Rajskiego we florecie oczywiście nie znam sytuacji zza kulis, ale chciałbym usłyszeć tłumaczenie PZSzerm. On był mianowicie trzeci z naszych w rankingu olimpijskim z dość sporą procentową przewagą nad 4. miejscem (29pt vs 20,5), ale z drugiej strony ta przewaga w liczbach bezwzględnych już taka wielka nie była. Myślę, że 1) PZSzerm nie powinien tak zadzierać nosa, bo święty nie jest i ma ledwie ćwierć medalu co igrzyska 2) nie jest też tak, że mamy działanie wprost na szkodę jak swego czasu u curlerów, badmintonistów czy PZKol. Dobrze, że tzw. "szambo" się rozlało, bo dzięku temu rozmawiamy o problemach, a nie zamiatamy je pod dywan. Dzięki temu jest jakakolwiek szansa na progres w przyszłości.

You can't win if you do not finish your attacks. Even leading 10:4 in the third set only 1 of those points was a serious attack. The rest were blocks, opponent errors, one ace. Unfortunately my fears from that point materialized - the US girls stopped gifting points and we were not able to fulfill our chances. It is sad, it was too easy for the US. Let us hope for another chance sooner than since the last time.

Could there be a worse draw for Kułynycz?

Bieniek (middle blocker) of Poland out due to injury. A huge blow, only two middle blockers left in the squad so no rotation possible.

In the past 10 years his result (82,34) would not have qualified him into the final only on two occasions: 2017 WCh and 2020 OG ;/ So one could say it was genuinely bad luck. EDIT: Actually those two were the only two occasions in the whole 21st century where he would not have qualified with 82,34m. So - the level in men's javelin is pretty high this year :/

And what do you think?:D was it a penalty for France or not?

What Germany and Japan had in common was that either side could not finish off their respective opponents. Both teams started to overthink things when things turned rough - you could see that when German (and Japanese too) attackers started tipping the balls softly - it was a sign there did not know how to hit the ball through the opponent's block. This is what distinguishes an Olympic medalist from a good team. I think though this will not happen in the last game of the day I expect another 3:2 but with no side so heavily overrun in the course of the game as in the games no 2 and 3. Have fun

The number of quotas awarded to equestrian events is just insane. You've got 74 jumpers WITH their horses whereas IOC says volleyball teams of 14 players would be definitely too much. Some other sports could claim the same - they are much more accessible (because of how much does it costs to maintain a horse!) and awarded relatively few olympic quotas. I believe the next big reform should be to reduce the number of equestrian quotas. And I am saying this from a country that qualified maximum quota of riders and would probably lose 80-90% of them in a more competitive qualification system.

Now I bet it is another final vs

It is not done yet...

Aleksandra Miroslaw definitely wants to get the gold with 5 as the first digit of her result.

It is always a standard track, that's why they are able to count the World Records

whoa, Kaczmarek with casual 49.99 good start, fingers crossed for the next races

This is huge. Every nation has "their" sports - Lithuanians basketball, Czechs and Slovaks ice hockey, Danes badminton, Koreans archery - and we are fucking volleyball nation So the Olympic semifinal on Wednesday will probably be one of the most hyped sports events in the last years

Damn, 48 years since the last medal game of Polish volleyball men's team Looking forward to!

OS-TAT-NI, OS-TAT-NI! (the last one, the last one, this is what people in Poland chant for set points)

2 to go!