Vektor

The women's water polo team is cursed, just like the men's handball team (5 4th places from 1936, 1980, 1988, 2004, 2012, no medal). It's karma for dominating men's water polo with 9 gold medals.

The one thing that deeply irritates me is that it will all depend on one match. Why can't they just have another round-robin with the Top4 teams? That would be by far the best way to decide the last two spots.

This is actually quite significant. This is the first time in 80 years that people are questioning whether the US can still hold on to its status on the world's stage.

I was thinking about entering this bidding contest, but I want get my first hosting with a win or a Top3 placement, so I will wait a couple of more years until I lose my hope of reaching the Top3. It also makes this decision easier that I think @Olympian1010 would be a great host.

We really should have scored even more goals against Uruguay now that the goal difference of that match can matter in the main round.

I mean... don't expect quality. It's pretty much a childish "meme" that existed before normal memes, and half of the lyrics are from the original song. I think a lot of Hungarians know it, it has more views on YouTube than most of the normal Katyusha videos, more than 6 million.

On one hand Russians aren't in a position to ask for a patriotic song instead of the Olympic anthem. On the other hand the thought of Katyusha playing at a medal ceremony makes me laugh because the song has a "Hungarian meme" version with altered, comedic lyrics.

I would say that based on the results during the Olympic cycle Hungary and Netherlands deserve these spots. But it's never that simple. The ranking of the Top4 OQT teams: WCh 2017 5. 6. 7. 9. ECh 2018 1. 2. 4. 6. WCh 2019 4. 6. 7. 8. ECh 2020 3. 4. 5. 6. If we give 3-2-1-0 points for each of these rankings. 1. 10pts 2. 6pts 3. 5pts 4. 3pts

Shouldn't we have a thread for the OQT that's about to start tomorrow? Anyway, this is obviously one of the most important tournaments for the Hungarian sport in this year (if the Olympics actually happens). I am not confident at all, Netherlands or Italy will be a really tough opponent in the SF.

IHF really has to figure out a better way to draw these groups because, for example, the difference between Group A and B is ridiculous. We have played two matches where the most important task was to not get COViD or get injured, meanwhile the opposite side of our main round group is actually fighting for the qualification and all the matches are close. For us and Germany the World Championship starts tomorrow, and it's even worse (or better?) for Germany because the match against Uruguay isn't even good for training and they couldn't play against Cape Verde. And I hope Cape Verde somehow qualifies, because Uruguay, maybe the worst team at this event, going into the main round would be really silly. But I guess it's going to happen, unless some miracle happens very quickly.

The Hungarian team was prepared for this and deliberately picked players against them who already had COVID last year and are (hopefully) immune to the disease. Still, the Hungarians are requesting IHF to immediately tell them who are the two players who tested positive after the match. Hopefully this won't be the end for us as well if COVID spread to the Hungarian team...

A new political party formed in Hungary for the "COVID is a hoax" crowd, it's called Normal Life Party. We don't have an official polling yet, but they must have a measurable support because they are as active on Facebook as any of the major Hungarian parties, if not more. Experts say that both left and right-wing populists are expected to support them to some extent, might even be enough to reach the 5% threshold for the Parliament if the situation gets worse in Hungary.

Hungarian fans really don't want today's match against Cape Verde to go ahead. Cape Verde had a lot of positive tests, and everyone is afraid that it will spread to the Hungarian players if they will play against them today. Similar case happened with Szeged against Meshkov-Brest in the Champions League, a lot of players got COVID because of that match.

We don't have to take a moment for this because we have already seen this last year for many events. I would say that motorsports are the only ones who didn't lose much. Sure, the fans add to the atmosphere, but even without them you are still watching some crazy people drive fast cars. The Champions League on the other hand... it looked kinda ridiculous. 22 millionaires running around a ball without the fans is just 22 millionaires running around a ball, feels a bit meaningless.

Apparently there are many complaints about how the bubble pretty much doesn't exists. Here are the articles from Norway and Denmark: https://www.vg.no/sport/haandball/i/dlvVXB/tv3-ekspert-erevik-slakter-vm-arrangoeren-det-er-tragikomisk https://www.vg.no/sport/haandball/i/865yEG/norge-overrasket-over-vm-forholdene-i-egypt-en-parodi https://sport.tv2.dk/haandbold/2021-01-13-dhf-kritiserer-vm-arrangoer-efter-aflyst-coronatest https://sport.tv2.dk/haandbold/2021-01-14-langt-fra-alle-regler-i-vm-boblen-bliver-overholdt Mask wearing isn't mandatory at the players' hotel. No sign of measures to keep the players safe. Too many people, too many contact with others, too few COVID tests. It looks like IHF is failing miserably at this task.

If someone breaks their leg, that usually doesn't spread to 10-20 other athletes. And unlike other diseases before, COVID is everywhere, as is the case in a worldwide pandemic. And unlike in national leagues, you can't postpone a match or a final for weeks if a team or many athletes get unlucky, which they did even under a strict bubble in some cases.

I don't like putting people in unnecessary danger for our entertainment. I also don't like the idea of an Olympics where a large number of top athletes can be withdrawn because of a virus. The Olympics should either go on the same way as used to be (just maybe without spectators) or if that's not possible, it should take a break like it did during the world wars. The Games is one of the largest events in the world with 10,000 athletes, I am not sure if you realize how hard it is to organize such an event when COVID isn't over yet.

This event is prime example why the Olympics should be either postponed or cancelled soon IF the COVID situation won't get more manageable in the next couple of months. It would take a miracle for the Olympics not turn into a clusterfuck under these circumstances.

IHF really should have postponed this event to 2022. We will be lucky if this will be the only withdrawal.

Australian GP postponed, Chinese GP likely cancelled, Imola added to the calendar. Season scheduled to start in Bahrain.

Oh yeah, the republicans can come back from this, the way they attracted new voters in Florida among the latinos was a good sign for them because they have to start getting more non-white votes soon if they want to win any nationwide election. Even here Hungary the liberals can come back after 12 years of right-wing domination if they play their cards right, and they don't even have the kind of media empire the republicans will always have with Fox News. Nothing is permanent.

I mean, this isn't really double-standards. There are no double-standards in a war. And this was and maybe still is a war. A culture war and cyber war over which side has more control over the Western internet. And the democrats are obviously winning (and were winning from the start) because ultimately the big tech companies will side with the liberals when shit hits the fan, as long as the democrats won't actually move to the left economically. There were already efforts made in Hungary by conservatives to provide a conservative alternative to Facebook, likely helped by some Fidesz money, because Orbán is not an idiot, unlike most of the Republican party.

I feel like the same thing is happening in the US that happened in Hungary in the last 10 years. Just there the liberals will eliminate the opposing worldview, like how the conservatives (Orbán) pretty much eliminated the liberal worldview in Hungary. The difference is that Orbán did it by taking almost full control of the Hungarian media, the TV and the newspapers. The democrats are doing it by taking full control of social media. The GOP were a bunch of morons who somehow didn't see this coming and now they can face some truly historic consequences. Orbán and the conservative leadership of Poland must be shitting themselves looking at this because the majority of their population is using the same platforms, and nothing is stopping Facebook from interfering with their elections by banning Orbán and his party for example before the next Hungarian election. They already banned the other right (far-right) Hungarian party and by doing so a foreign company severely damaged the chances of a Hungarian party to get into the Parliament. If you are a liberal, like myself, just think about this for a second: how would you feel if the tech companies would have conservative leadership and they would do this to left-wing parties? American tech companies have way too much power. Not just over their own parties, but over every Western country that uses their platform. Facebook needs be split up ASAP to end its monopoly. It's like if the Western world would read one single newspaper and watch one single news channel, and its CEO would have control over every Western election.

The people of Japan have agree to host the Olympics under normal circumstances. Not during a worldwide pandemic. Or the worst worldwide disaster/event humanity has faced since the second world war. With the way things are going, it looks like IOC should have accepted a long time ago that this event (and maybe Winter 2022) is a lost cause and started preparing for 2024.

Yeah... there's no way the Olympics will happen this year if 80% of the population is against it. I think they got maybe two months to turn things around, otherwise it will be time to cancel the Games around March.