JoshMartini007

Canada holds on to defeat Belgium. Just need a win against Sweden or Japan to qualify to the Olympics.

Huge win for Puerto Rico, Brazil needs to somehow defeat Australia or France to have a chance at qualifying. Japan defeated Sweden 75-54

That's correct though I don't know why they couldn't host a final tournament to decide the last quota.

Six hours would have been doable. There must be some kind of labor laws against this, though since it's freelance I guess there's not...

12 hour days is too much for people with jobs ...

Yeah, I imagine they'll make an exception. Just like they did with Oceania athletes after the Oceania Championships were cancelled.

FINA has the Polish Championship to be held in Lodz scheduled for those days.

Looking at the Laser/Laser Radial World Champs, currently are listed in the men's and are listed in the women's. Should that remain unchanged (Cook Islands may compete) then they will automatically qualify to the Olympics, provided that they compete.

Yeah places like Ireland and Singapore had three athletes in 2016. A quick look at the 2016 Olympics, the largest teams not to have trials are the Czech Republic, Finland, Israel and South Korea.

Last month, SwimSwam put together a list of Olympic trials that will be held. Note that this may not be the only way an athlete from those nations can qualify, some selection policies allow for athletes which performed well at certain other meets (like the World Championships) to be selected, but the conclusion of these events should give us most of the swimming team. Here is the calendar of events (yes Netherlands has two events). Ukraine - 10-13 March Italy - 17-21 March Lithuania - 19-21 March Hungary - 24-28 March Denmark - 28 March - 1 April New Zealand - 31 March - 4 April China - 28 March - 5 April Canada - 30 March - 5 April Ireland - 1-5 April Switzerland - 2-5 April Netherlands - 3-5 April Japan - 1-8 April Spain - 4-8 April Russia - 3-9 April South Africa - 4-9 April Netherlands - 9-12 April Hong Kong - 11-12 April France - 14-19 April Great Britain - 14-19 April Brazil - 20-25 April Germany - 30 April - May 3 Belgium - 21-23 May Poland - 20-24 May Belarus - 22-24 May Greece - 28-31 May Australia - 14-19 June Singapore - 24-27 June United States - 21-28 June Sweden - 26-30 June

Not yet, there's a chance that two other Pacific nations (besides Cook Islands) may compete elsewhere to gain world ranking points. Most likely yes, but it won't be confirmed until June.

Gotta expose those loopholes . At least money is no longer a barrier for Pacific nations to compete. Do you know if the three nations per event is fulfilled at the beginning of the event or if it gets recalculated. For example Australia will likely return its K1 1000m quota due to exceeding the maximum athlete quota for men's kayak, that means a Pacific nation gets the K1 1000m quota, but that would mean only two will now be eligible for the K1 200m quota...

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.