JoshMartini007

Thanks I don't think Apithy has been active recently. While it is common for athletes to take breaks between Olympics, I would wait until he returns, just to make sure he didn't retire.

For anyone interested, I've added a Qualification Watch page to my blog. Basically it lists all unqualified nations and which events they may qualify in. These are based on performances over the last two years. Please note that these are chances and not guarantees. Boxing will be added once the qualification process is confirmed. I have also yet to add invitation quotas (outside of athletics/swimming) as it is a bit too early to figure those out. If anyone has any suggestions as to possible events a nation may qualify in, let me know.

Brazil is far stronger than anyone and I would say on paper both Argentina and Colombia would defeat Mexico plus on a good day weaker teams like Jamaica could defeat Mexico. Our continent is quite weak outside of Canada/US which is why WorldRugby had that rule.

On paper Angola is the favourite, but it only takes one bad match to get eliminated. Usually Tunisia has a good chance for the upset, but they haven't looked too great. Senegal has had a great tournament so far. Due to how the scheduling of the qualification system the winner here will be the first African nation to qualify to the Olympics

The issue with esports is that it just isn't universal yet. For most games, you are really scratching the bottom of the barrel to come up with more than 10 viable nations to compete.

Haha... Poor Bermuda, though I think she still qualifies, she just needs to actually earn her spot rather than just meet the minimum requirements. At this point they should just combine the two groups, though in essence they pretty much already are with the exception of the individual eventing quotas.

Do you know when they are going to publish the 2020 Olympics standards?

It depends on how many quotas they want. If they want 60 (like the men's) then I'd argue it's too soon and they should wait until 2024. Based on the the qualification time at the 2017 World Championships the quality of field would suggest around 30 entrants and then expand it to 60 for 2024.

Really Canada, can't even qualify in the men's team through the Pan American Championships. Also does this mean one of Bahamas, Bermuda or US Virgin Islands is going to qualify a women's team, assuming they send a team to the North American qualifier?

To be a bit serious, Fiji's team is a lot better than in previous years, it looks like they put some serious work in developing them. Their US based player is only 17 years old and could be a future star for the team. I think they have an excellent chance at defeating Papua New Guinea in the semi-final.

I don't think it's in the IOC's place to demand which nations are allowed to be part of a sports federations. These are separate entities. If a sport wants to allow all 50 United States states to compete separately then let them. My only concern is that the qualification process must limit the amount of athletes that attempt to qualify if other nations are also limited. Which for the most part they do for Great Britain (see curling or rugby sevens). For territories, the ones that do compete were rather lucky as they essentially got grandfathered in. To me, there's no reason why Aruba gets to compete, but not Curacao. For nations with limited recognition things get a bit grey. Where do you draw the line? Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan (via loophole) are all recognized by a large portion of the world. Western Sahara also has a large chunk, but not enough sporting recognition.

Yeah, some sports are used more for development than to win medals. Though for sports that reward Olympic quota places (or give massive points towards the world rankings that are used for Olympic qualification) or are Pan American only sports we send our best. For things like athletics or swimming, we have the World Championships.

Yeah, Nordic Combined stays as long as Ski Jumping stays, they two pretty much go hand in hand.

Thank you for understanding Though real talk, should it come to it and the IOC is basically begging a city to host, which sports could potentially be on the chopping block as a cost saving measure? Ski Jumping/Nordic Combined? Sliding Sports? Freestyle Skiing/Snowboarding?

That would be rightly, a waste of money. Any "no" campaign will use it as a rallying point. We'd have to either host those events somewhere else or scrap (long track) speed skating altogether. (Sorry Netherlands)

Canada is pretty big. I pretty much heard very little details on the local news other than a referendum was taking place while people in Calgary/Alberta were hit hard by the yes/no campaign. Vancouver likely won't host it. We no longer have a track for speed skating and we would have to build an Olympic village (something that was a bit of a nightmare after 2010).

Yeah on paper, Gil and Crovetto are next in line in terms of talent, but because the US already qualified two quotas at the World Champs we essentially have a free spot, possibly two if the loser can qualify at a World Cup event. We could see Barbados qualify normally.

I forgot how shallow the talent in women's skeet is in the Americas. Though with that said both Rhode and English have a chance for the qualification world record if they can manage a perfect last set.

Basically a professional circuit for swimmers. FINA is threatening to issue 1-2 year bans for athletes that compete. So far a lot of high level athletes have signed up though. Here's the current list of athletes.

Sport federations need to adapt. The International Swimming League would not exist if FINA created a league with a proper prize pool.

Going into the elimination stage, it's pretty much Beard's to lose. Perez has a slight chance.

Final for the women's 50m rifle 3 position will start soon Qualified Nations

Not yet, because there's a chance she (or any other athlete) may not be selected by their NOC to compete. We should wait until they have been confirmed by the team.

That's 3 medals, this is 29 spots, it's much easier to have a 20-30% chance at qualifying and be ranked, say in the top 40-50.

I think you are underestimating them because they are among the best from the continent. Besides if you say they were "lucky" then what's stopping them from being "lucky" again? Again, I'm not saying they are favoured to win a medal, but to say they have single digit percent chance of qualifying as the 25th-29th best athlete is wrong. Especially in a sport like shooting.