NearPup

Big dopping related news that affects qualification. The IWF has updated the list of countries with quitas removed: Azerbaijan - 1 m / 1 w Belarus - 1 m Kazakhastan - 1 m / 1 w Moldova - 2 m North Korea - 1 m / 1 w Romanian- 1 m Russia - 1 m / 1 w Uzbekistan - 1 w Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia all face a one year suspention of all the re-tests from 2008 and 2012 are confirmed, so they might miss the Olympics entirely like Bulgaria.

In the span of about a week Khazakhastan went from 5 to 0 all time gold medals in weightlifting...

I guess Belarus is going to be the favourite for the last ticket, though I think either South Korea or Cuba will give them a run for their money. I think it's fair to say Argentina is the outsider of that group.

Shouldn't Schiavone be eligible for a wildcard since she's a formed Grand Slam tournament winner and in the top 200?

That sounds like horse **** to me. Incredible fall from grace for Kazakhastani weightlifting. Is losing four gold medals at once in a single sport unprecedented?

At least we're going to avoid a bunch of uncomfortable fluff pieces I guess... The Asenani situation is really unfortunate, but oh well. It's debatable if Belgium earned that spot, but Asemani won it for herself fair and square.

Almost certainly, I just don't think double places have been confirmed yet.

Tennis Canada told Radio Canada that Raonic, Pospisil and Bouchard will play singles in Rio, so no surprise there. No word from them on doubles yet.

Les qualifs pour le double mixte sont confirmer sur place. Donc on saura pas qui vas participer avant le début des compétitions.

So happy, did not expect qualify Canada to make it after the loss to Cuba in the North American qualifier. The team sure took the hard road though.

It would at least make more sense. Not sure I'd consider it fair, but if you want more American teams you should at least to make sure the best American teams qualify.

Ya, it makes no sense. I feel especially bad for the Dominican Republic who by all rights should have qualified avove Puerto Rico (and I'll be quite peeved if Mexico makes it but Canada doesn't). They should have just kept the rule where top 3 at the World Cup qualify.

Would be pretty cool to have four North American / six American teams in the Olympics Come on Poland!

Well set 3 was depressing. Either way, with Canada winning set 4 China is now eliminated. If Canada wins the fifth set Australia only qualifies with a win of any kind over Poland. If Canada loses the fifth set then Australia qualifies if they make it to the fifth set. (I think, stressed)

25-16 Canada in the first set against China. Very impressive first set from the Canadian team, they seem determined to put as much presure as possible on Australia.

Does Mexico have any leeway with their standards?

More or less correct. There is no real high level men's softball or women's baseball (though they do hold world championships for both), but softball is still very popular as a men's participation sport and at a youth level quite a few girls play baseball.

It would help if the ICC got it's governence in order. Frankly I oppose cricket joining the Olympics on philosophical grounds as long as they keep segregating test nations from the peasant associate nations. They would also need to, well, apply to join the Olympics. They seem reluctant so far.

Not really news, been public for more than a month at this point. Personally I am deeply uninpressed by the event package. A six team tournament for baseball/softball is ridiculous, and it still annoy me that they are including a sport where the men's and women's events are fundamentally different sport. Plus no MLB players should continue to he a dealbreaker for baseball. For Karate I find that Kumite is very viewer unfriendly and boring. Kata is at least different but the judging is... old fashioned. Rife for accusations of favouratism. Skateboarding might normally be a good addition but the IOC is dealing with three conpeting IFs with little legitimacy and who don't appear to be willing to cooperate. The combined format for climbing isn't the traditional format. Surfing is hard to hold in many places and, frankly, not that TV friendly.

You got to admite the commitment to cheating.

Really sad Australia didn't win, it was the standout song for me.

The whole thing is so silly. T&T can either send Dick or nobody. By the time it became a big scandal it was too late to change anything.

Those seem like insane selection criteria o.o

Believe it or not something similar happened at the 2012 Olympics. Li Xueying, winner of the women's 58kg, lifted 246kg while Maiya Maneza, winner of the women's 63kg, lifted 245kg. The 63kg class in London was fairly weak in general.

They don't take team sports into account when deciding if a country is eligible for tripartite spots. If they did Honduras wouldn't be eligible for them since they qualified in Football the last three Olympics.