NearPup

Kind of feel bad for Belgium and Hungary, I feel like they are both better teams than Russia and Sweden.

Yes. Same account, but new account name (technical reasons for that).

After 5/11 events for the men and 5/10 events for the women, the following athletes are provisionally in a qualifying position from the World Surf League. Note: athletes from Hawaii are marked with (HAW) as they compete separately in Surfing. I am only including athletes that are qualified to compete on the tour in the selection battle (theoretically an athlete that isn't on tour could qualify for enough events to be selected, but this is unlikely). Men (HAW) John John Florence Kolohe Andino Filipe Toledo Jordy Smith Kanoa Igarashi Italo Ferreira Ryan Callinan Julian Wilson Michel Bourez Jérémy Florès As far as International qualification goes the biggest development is that Leonardo Fioravanti is injured, which means that Ricardo Christie is now the closest challenger to France's second quota. However he has not finished higher than 17th in any competition this season, which makes his chances very low. In practice the biggest threat to France is injury replacement Frederico Morais, who scored a third place in Rio. He is very far behind Florès, having only competed in two events this season, but he has at least showed the potential to get some big results. American selection battle: (HAW) John John Florence - 32,160 points Kolohe Andino - 27,760 points Kelly Slater - 17,735 points Conner Coffin - 16,035 points (HAW) Seth Moniz - 14,610 points Griffin Colapinto - 7,575 points (HAW) Sebastian Zietz - 6,510 points (HAW) Ezekiel Lau - 6,510 points The American selection battle has been completely shaken up by the news that world number one John John Florence is out for the year with a torn ACL. This means he will finish the year on 33,220 points (taking into account that injured competitors get last place points for every events and that only the best nine results count). This means that Kelly Slater or Connor Coffin will overhaul him if they can maintain good results. Slater, widely considered the GOAT of the sport, would be 48 in Tokyo. Brazilian selection battle: Filipe Toledo - 27,195 points Italo Ferreira - 22,150 points Gabriel Medina - 16,895 points Michael Rogrigues - 13,395 points Deivid Silva - 10,630 points Wilian Cardoso - 10,630 points Caio Ibelli - 10,340 points Yago Dora - 9,565 points Peterson Crisanto - 9,565 points Jesse Mendes - 9,565 points Jadson Andre - 5,585 points Adriano de Souza - 2,390 points Filipe Toledo takes a fairly commanding lead thanks to his win in Rio. Ferreira and Medina have maintained the same distance between each other since the last update. Australian selection battle: Julian Wilson - 16,810 points Ryan Callinan - 16,810 points Wade Carmichael - 14,405 points Owen Wright - 12,620 points Jack Freestone - 8,640 points Adrian Buchan - 7,935 points Mikey Wright - 6,510 points Soli Bailey - 5,585 points Wilson jumps from seventh to second in the Australian selection battle thanks to a third place in Margaret River and a fifth place in Rio. Carmichael falls out of Olympic qualification. French selection battle: Michel Bourez - 14,610 points Jérémy Florès - 14,045 points Joan Duru - 9,565 points Bourez takes the lead over Florès while Duru isn't able to make up ground over the top two. Women Sally Fitzgibbons Caroline Marks Stephanie Gilmore Courtney Conlogue Tatiana Weston-Webb Brisa Hennessy Johanne Defay Silvana Lima Lima slightly increases the gap over Paige Hareb who has still not managed to reach a quarter-final this season American selection battle (where the real action is on the women's side, the US has 7 of the top 12): (HAW) Carissa Moore - 31,175 points Courtney Conlogue - 26,845 points Caroline Marks - 26,050 points Lakey Peterson - 26,050 points (HAW) Malia Manuel - 21,715 points (HAW) Coco Ho - 15,185 Carissa Moore has established herself as the clear favourite with a third place in Margaret River and a second place in Rio. Lakey Peterson has introduced herself as a contender thanks to her win in Margaret River, in the process becoming the third American to win on tour this season. The American selection battle on the women's side remains the most interesting and high calibre of the lot. Australian selection battle: Sally Fitzgibbons - 32,580 points Stephanie Gilmore - 30,320 points Bronte Macaulay - 15,185 points Nikki Van Dijk - 14,960 points Kelly Andrew - 13.395 points Macy Callaghan - 9,920 points Tyler Wright - 5,225 points Gilmore and Fitzgibbons continue to increase their lead over the rest of the field. At this point it is hard to imagine them failing to qualify baring injury.

After what snowboarding and freestyle skiing did to widen the appeal of the Winter Olympics it was always a matter of time before skateboarding was added to the summer Olympics. The governance is a mess, the rules aren't good and I don't think anybody has really come up with a good competition format but, ultimately, I think Tony Hawk's quote about the Olympics needing skateboarding more than skateboarding needs the Olympics is correct. Given the potential upsides, the cheap and flexible venue, the small number of athlete quotas required and the self sustaining professional scene that has existed for decades, including skateboarding in the Olympics was such an obvious decision the only question we should be asking is why the IOC didn't bend the rules to accommodate it earlier. This isn't a weird move like including breakdancing, which was the answer to a question nobody asked.

Kelly Slater competing in the Olympics would be extremely special. He’s a big reason the sport even made it to the Olympics in the first place.

Big news: world number one (HAW) John John Florence is out for the rest of the year with a torn ACL. This means he is extremely unlikely to qualify for the Olympics since the US selection is based on results from this year. The door is now open for Kelly Slater, Connor Coffin or Seth Moniz to grab the second spot on the US team.

Latvia sure laid an egg there. I sure didn’t think Sweden was going to make the quarters...

Honestly, as much as it sucks for the athletes... I’m extremely glad kumite isn’t sticking around. I tried watching it multiple times and I never got the appeal at all. Kata is at least somewhat unique.

I think that Chile proved in the Las Vegas 7s that they can put up a good fight when they are having a good match. They didn't really seem to be having a good tournament for whatever reason, though.

Okay that buzzer beater celebration by Serbia was cool as heck.

Lol Belgium - Serbia game suspended with a minute left due to a water leak.

It’s the only way the ITTF figured out to prevent China from sweeping the podium.

There is something kind of deliciously ironic about an Algerian complaining about another country having too many foreign born citizens on their team...

Extremely happy England / GB qualified. It was a travesty that they weren’t able to send a team in 2016, and this very much feels like a small bit of justice.

...you do realize what the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is, right?

Well, that and the Olympics is actually important in women’s football, unlike in men’s football.

Correct, along with the winner of Italy - Netherlands and Germany - Sweden.

Good. Wave pools should be a last resort.

The Olympics are close to as important as the World Cup in the women’s game, if not as important.

He’s American. Got San Marino citizenship through his mom.

I don’t think it’s allowed for a ref from CONCACAF or UEFA to handle it.

Don’t forget that the goal was disallowed by the referee that was appointed because obviously a French-speaking Canadian ref would have a bias towards France. ( /s)

That’s football for ya.

As opposed to Cameroon who played very beautiful football?

At this point I don’t see Skateboarding, Surfing or Climbing going anywhere anytime soon, and at this point they may as well make them permanent. Breaking... I suspect that might be a one time experiment.