JoshMartini007

Yeah ICF has been one of the better federations this Olympic cycle. They even have a list of which events a nation is eligible to compete in at the continental qualifiers

Quite unlikely, Canada is at another level relative to the rest of the continent. Though I wouldn't say it's impossible. A lucky goal + defense could stifle Canada.

I don't think the United States cares if they play Canada or not. Of course, they would prefer to play Mexico, but Canada poses no danger to them...

Weird, it looks like they let everyone through when on the results page it said only the top 20 go.

Everyone except Nicholas made it to the semi-finals. Among the athletes fighting for the quota Daniel Watkins finished first during the heats.

For a flagship event eights is doing horrible. I mean look at the boat list at the 2019 World Championships. I can't name an Olympic event with such low participation at the World Championship level. Especially among the men. This was also a good year, it's not too uncommon to see single digit participation. Again I know the history of the event, but if cuts are going to be made it's not exactly hard to see why this would be an attractive option.

I'm fine with rowing in general, but coxed eights have very few nations competing and it has a lot of athlete quotas so I can see it being axed one day. Yes I know the history and prestige of the event, but why should it be an Olympic event if no one is practicing it.

It's actually 10,500 athletes. They also want 310 events, but I doubt that will be the case. I don't see where they will cut 29 events...

Artistic swimming may be a target, at the very least the team event while mixed duet may replace women's duet. Though they may be using those quotas to counterbalance Greco-Roman wrestling.

Yeah water polo would likely be one of the first sports to go (outside of sports being banned due to scandals). They are lucky other team sports have the same (and more) issue

Yeah, the men have similar strength issues as to the women (stronger Ex-Yugo, weaker non-European teams) The difference is that there is a drop between the top women and the rest. After the top 10 the next strongest women's team is France? Kazakhstan? New Zealand? none of them are likely to prevent someone in the top 10 from qualifying to the Olympics (except Kazakhstan > China). On the men's side Russia/Romania/Germany all have a chance at eliminating a top European team. Basically I feel both events should have the same number of teams because at the top level they are relatively comparable.

Uruguay is in a tough position, they can't afford Paraguay or Peru to win their matches and can only hope Bolivia wins by one goal. On paper Peru may be the favourite to advance, but Paraguay has the advantage of Brazil likely resting some of their players as this match means nothing to them.

For the most part, they are earning their Olympic qualification, not their fault other nations can't beat them. Though I agree and do wish FINA would force an African and Oceania championship though. Most people have accepted that team sports should have 12 entrants and for good reason. If an event can't muster 12 entrants, should it be part of the Olympics? I don't think so (this goes for all Olympic events). It's not like this event is the only one with a shallow talent pool. It's also helpful that the 10 teams all have a chance for a medal (Canada and China less so) so there is a bit of an unpredictability factor.

Funny enough, if the Asian qualifier fails to happen there will be three quotas up for grab at the World Qualification Tournament

In this tournament there will now be 10 teams (up from 8) so most people assumed it would help European teams. Instead it has helped Canada and South Africa. Obviously we should increase the quota to 12 teams so that the "Big Six" along with Australia/Canada/China/United States are essentially guaranteed to qualify.

South Korea is different, this would be denying the continent a spot to compete which I imagine the IOC would not be too happy about. One option would be to combine Africa with another continent, it'd still be a strike against the sport, but it would avoid a huge amount of fallout.

Entry Lists are out In terms of Olympic qualification, up to three athletes from one nation can attempt to gain the quota. Therefore the athletes to watch in the men's C1 are... - Ian Borrows, Daniel Watkins and Tristan Carter - Bryden Nicholas - Benjamin Gibb, Patrick Washer and Jack Egan

Isn't the event from March 22nd-29th or did the date change?

South Africa's women's rugby sevens team must be quite upset, they were the only team sport to decline their quota. I wonder if FINA will make a rule change if it looks as if South Africa will take the quota in the future. Perhaps make it so that a continental qualifier must take place. Australia won't have an issue scheduling a match with New Zealand. Even if Africa is able to schedule an event, at least there will be some kind of push to develop water polo on the continent.

I'd give or a chance should they have a great tournament. The purpose was probably two fold, to encourage nations to attend those events and to potentially reward a team who wouldn't qualify through the rankings and got a freak result (unlikely, but technically possible). While any nation which qualifies through the Opens would have likely qualified through the rankings it does have an implication for South Korea. The quotas are attached by name so if one of the top South Korean pair qualifies to the Olympics at the Opens the other pair is denied a spot even if they finished with a higher ranking. Of course, what will likely happen is that South Korea would declined the Open quota and just take the ranking quota, but we could see a court challenge because of it.

*Any soccer player Congratulations, hope she holds the record for a long time.

Sepsis isn't that hard to get, especially if you aren't getting treatment or are in a place with poor healthcare. Just to be clear, don't go around kissing infectious people, but you shouldn't be any more concerned about this than the various other medium risk diseases in our world (basically the media is making this a bigger issue than it should be)

The preliminary round for mixed doubles has concluded. The following are still eligible for Olympic qualification

True, but the lethal rate is a lot lower. It's pretty much like a bad flu (not exactly, they are different viruses after all), older/younger/immune compromised people should be concerned, everyone else not so much other than being very ill for a few days.

To be fair Ebola is a bigger deal than this virus.