NearPup

It won't be included because of the 2900 athletes cap. Luge would need to be willing to cut like 20 athletes from artificial luge, which will be hard especially since they are going to need to add women's doubles from the existing athlete quota sooner rather than later.

I predicted but tbh any of the six teams could realistically win gold.

Yes! This is a legitimate gold medal chance.

Cycling def has one of the worst qualification system of any sports. Unfortunately weightlifting, boxing and 3x3 stole their crown for the worst qualification system this year.

They predicted bronze in BMX freestyle for Marin Rantes… who didn’t qualify.

Lol the runner-up ran 11.09s.

I’m taking two weeks off and living in Tokyo time for the Olympics. New experience for me, last time I could watch that much of the games was Beijing.

This misconception is just so annoying. The 2016 national polls underestimated Trump less than the 2012 polls underestimated Obama, or that the French polls in 2017 underestimated Macron. How good or bad polls are is very state dependent, too. Ohio and Michigan polls have been sort of garbage recently, compared to polls of say Georgia that have consistently been spot-on.

Barty is very far from a shoe-in. Heck even Djokovic could be vulnerable to an upset. Lets not overstate how weak this field is.

Apparently the Tokyo BMX track is the longest in Olympic history, which is excellent.

In chronological order: 1. Lori-Ann Muenzer winning the women's sprint in Athens 2004. Nobody gave her a real chance, Cycling Canada wasn't interested in supporting her at all, yet she became the only Canadian to ever win Olympic gold in cycling. Her semi-finals win against Anna Meares was just incredibly gritty. 2. Eric Lamaze winning individual show jumping gold in Beijing 2008. The entire show jumping competition was a dream for Canada in 2008, with long time Olympian and Canadian show jumping legend Ian Miller picking up his first medal. But it's Lamaze's gold medal that was the most amazing. The drama of the jump-off for gold (following a very long and very entertaining bronze medal jump-off) was incredibly compelling. But most impressive is the amazing redemption story for Lamaze, who's life was derailed by cocaine addiction. Cocaine also robbed him of his chance to compete in the 1996 Olympics. Unfortunately there has been tragedy since, with his beloved horse Hickstead dying in the ring a few years later, and recently Lamaze has sadly been battling brain cancer, and we all wish him the best. But that one night in Beijing was a perfect fairy-tale ending. 3. Penny Oleksiak winning gold in the 100m freestyle in Rio 2016. I almost don't feel like I have to explain that one. First gold medal for Canada in swimming or track and field (the two biggest Olympic sports) that I could remember, won by a young athlete that came out of nowhere in a huge come from behind victory. The tie with Manuel, who also made history in a bunch of ways, was pretty cool, too. Bonus: Tiësto's awesome trance set at the 2004 Olympics.

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Great picture, but really not digging the "look of the games". IMO it's the worst one (among summer games) since Atlanta.

In term of quotas one single hockey team is about a quarter of all the athletes competing in Triathlon :P

There is really not much the IOC can do about it anyway. It isn’t an IOC rule that people born in NI are eligible for both British and Irish citizenships.

I'm already traumatized by this thread and the games haven't even started.

I guess the allure of being the first man to achieve a golden slam was too strong to resist.

There were some issues with Rio, but ya the Beijing and (especially) London Tennis tournaments were huge successes.

The two biggest things the IOC could do to help make sure Olympic tennis has all the best players: Ranking point equivalent to an ATP-1000 event Have the Olympics not take place in the middle of a pandemic in a country that has unusually strict restrictions

Well if there is any silver lining there, Auger-Aliassime (who based on interviews is very much going to Tokyo) said he would probably not play mixed doubles because three events would be too much. I maintain that Dabrowski / Auger-Aliassime in mixed is Canada's best medal chance in Tennis by a wide margin, so Pospisil withdrawing might end up being a good thing.

The Q time in the 200 fly was pretty ridiculous. They need to have a minimum number of qualifier per event.

With the caveat that these are the safest, not safe - this is Canada we are talking about - here are my picks: Jenifer Abel and Mélisa Citrini-Baulieu, Diving women's 3m synchronized springboard Laurence Vincent-Lapointe and Katie Vincent, Canoeing women's C-2 500m Jessica Klimkait, Judo women's -57kg Abel and Citrini-Baulieu have been really consistent. They won't win gold but I think they are not going to have any issue picking up a minor medal. There are a lot of questions around how Vincent-Lapointe's form will be. However, LVL and Vincent were so dominant before LVL's suspension that I don't think anyone except the pair have a realistic chance of beating them. I'm picking Klimkait mostly because we know she is in form (given she just won the world championship) and she's going to be seeded in such a way that she'll very likely at least have a chance to fight for bronze. Because why not, there is only one athlete so it's an easy pick: Geneviève Lalonde, Athletics women's 3000m Steeplechase

They are the favourite but I really wouldn't consider them to be safe. Japan is absolutely capable of beating them, especially in a one game winner take all situation. Honestly even Canada or Australia have a slim but not insignificant chance of beating the US.

Artistic Swimming - Women’s Duet Artistic Swimming - Women’s Team Basketball - Women’s Team Artistic Gymnastics - Women’s Team Table Tennis - Men’s Team Because of COVID I avoided picking any individuals.

I’ll always be partial to Rio’s lime green. So far I’d uncharitably describe Tokyo’s look of the games as “discount PyeongChang”.