Vektor

And it's officially Anna Kun. They will have to hurry up with the ban, otherwise we won't get a replacement athlete for the individual quota spot, who would actually be another Hungarian athlete, Muhari. The Hungarian Antidoping Agency says that the ban is almost guaranteed. They doubt that Kun was hiding, she just made some very stupid administrative errors. Hopefully she won't be banned for two years and she will only miss Paris.

@phelps One of the medal favorite Hungarian fencers have missed doping tests three times in the past 12 months and will likely get a two year ban just before the Games. We don't know who this is, the media is making it seem like it's a big name, probably not the biggest (Szilágyi) because that would shock me. So it might be Szatmári, Siklósi, Koch, Pusztai, or Battai... Edit: I have also seen a rumour that it's Anna Kun in women's epee...

TISC is apparently harder to win than the Grammys and the Oscars. Joking aside, as popular as Billie is, her Barbie song is too low-key for a song contest to win. The Dua Lipa song from the same movie would probably get more points in TISC.

Italy is the first country to win the annual contest three times.

So this means that if gets any points from Italy, they win.

And the country that can mess up for them is... actually themselves as they are the last country to vote.

Open contest: the most modern music wins Annual contest: Italian and German retro music in the Top5

I doubt that I will be able to post my votes today. If I get lucky and have time for it, I will let you know. Good luck to everyone!

We are back after 12 years in men's handball. Well done, boys!

@OlympicIRL I have been thinking about a rule change for the Open contest. Or maybe it wouldn't even be a rule change, I just misinterpreted the song eligibility rule. We say that the song must be at least 5 years old. Are we saying this about song itself or the recording? What I am saying here is what if a song is more than 5 years old, but the original artist makes a new recording, which isn't more than 5 years old? That's not a cover because it was recorded by the original artist. Can a new recording of an old song be submitted for the Open contest if it was recorded by the original artist? I think a recording like that should be eligible even if it differs from the original version in some way, as it's still an old song, performed by the original artist. I doubt that this would be relevant in most, if not all cases, but I just want to clarify it.

I am not getting winning vibes from anything so far. Maybe Belgium? If they nail the staging that can be a jury favorite + it could get a lot of televotes. Italy is also a good bet as always. Croatia at #1 is kinda confusing, it's not as strong as previous fun ESC entries, definitely not as Cha Cha Cha for example.

It should have been easier for us to win this quota because this team is a still medal contender for Paris. But at the very least we got it in the end, and that's what matters. And now let's get to the final.

No amount of overperformance can make me forget the fact that we lost the 1954 final as one of the biggest favorites ever for the World title. We could have been one of very few nations to have the most prestigious national team sports title in the world but we "chocked" from a 2-0 lead. But yeah, we are overperforming with out current team.

Never ever doubt my ability again to predict a Hungarian team chocking. Years of experience, my gut is almost always right.

That's Hungarian team sports for you in a nutshell outside of water polo.

You haven't seen as many Hungarian matches as I have in team sports. This game went from +22 to +1, anything is possible.

FYI, it's not over yet. This can turn into a dangerous situation for Hungary quickly if they somehow lose focus, which is always possible for a Hungarian team.

Yeah. I think this is less about Spain throwing and more about them not risking injury and not being 100% into it while Hungary is playing for their life and they are also playing on a very high level (for now). There's no reason for Spain to take this match anywhere near as seriously as Hungary does. I think the fact that we are the only team that beat Japan here should be enough of a justification for our quota if we win it.

Yeah, Spain is in "friendly game" mode for now, I am guessing they aren't using key players as much as they would if this was serious for them. Hungary has to decide this match before the final quarter, I can see Spain ramping up the pace for the end of the match.

Ofc they want to win, but it's not a competitive game for them at this point, which is a big deal. For Spain this is a preparation match for the Games while Hungary is playing to survive. The gap between the two teams isn't that significant, Hungary beat Spain on a friendly match before Eurobasket, so if Spain isn't 100% on the field because they are already celebrating their quota, that can be decisive. But there's always a chance that the Hungarian team has a bad day and they crumble under pressure while Spain has a nice calm match and they win.

We will have to do it the hard way. Spain can decide how much they want to play properly or just let Canada to get eliminated.

Come on Canada, we don't want to eliminate you.

I have a feeling that Hungarians will be more friendly towards the Canadians than usual. Honestly dont know what to expect from Can v Jpn. I feel like Japan is more likely to pull this one off, but who knows.

Yes, that's true. But the European teams have the advantage of knowing how the other match went. Which means that Hungary or Spain might not fight that hard because they will already have the quota, which can help the other European team to qualify.

So basically or will qualify to Paris before they play their match. If wins against , will also qualify. If wins against , will also qualify. Bad news for and , because this means that or will play an unimportant match for them while the other will fight for quota in the final match.