Jinzha

I feel like this sport is really growing very well and naturally! New climbing halls are constantly opening up in the Netherlands as well. This one in Bulgaria is looking amazing!

I really want to believe McLaughlin is not a lock for gold, because Bol is still continuously improving and McLaughlin rarely ever competes. Feels like there is a real chance she can be beaten. I would hate to see someone run 3 races per year and then sweep into the most important race of the year and destroy the competition. Two other contenders for a 'locked gold': Field hockey women's team Archery women's team (despite the upset in the 2023 World championship)

Femke Bol just improved her indoor 400m record by another 0,02 seconds at the National Championships! 49,24 Meanwhile Lieke Klaver improved her indoor PB to 50,10 and 16 years old Madelief van Leur ran a NR U18 with 53,96 in the heats yesterday (improving the NR of Bol herself!).

A PB by 0.18 seconds yeah! And a new NR as well, previous NR was 52.69 by Femke Heemskerk in 2015.

Great development for Van Westering! He's another Dutch-American growing up and swimming in America with Dutch parents and choosing to represent the Netherlands, just like Corbeau. With Van Westering-Kamminga/Corbeau-Korstanje we almost have a competitive 4x100m medley on the mens side. Just need a proper freestyle swimmer.

Hachinohe City, Japan hosted the junior world championship this weekend: Women: 500m: 1. Angel Daleman 2. Huidan Jung 3. Hana Noake 1000m: 1. Angel Daleman 2. Emika Miyagawa 3. Meike Veen 1500m: 1. Angel Daleman 2. Emika Miyagawa 3. Meike Veen (yes, it's the exact same podium for 1000m and 1500m) 3000m: 1. Aurora Grinden Lovas 2. Hana Noake 3. Akane Iida Team Pursuit: 1. Japan 2. Netherlands 3. Kazachstan Team Sprint: 1. Netherlands 2. Kazachstan 3. Canada Mass Start: 1. Angel Daleman 2. Patricia Koot 3. Hana Noake Men: 500m: 1. Kyungmin Koo 2. Yuta Hirose 3. Issa Gunji 1000m: 1. Kyungmin Koo 2. Issa Gunji 3. Finn Sonnekalb 1500m: 1. Didrik Eng Strand 2. Finn Sonnekalb 3. Szymon Wojtakowski 5000m: 1. Sigurd Henriksen 2. Metodej Jilek 3. Didrik Eng Strang Team Pursuit: 1. Canada 2. Norway 3. Japan Team Sprint: 1. Norway 2. Canada 3. Poland Mass Start: 1. Yuta Fuchigami 2. Daniel Hall 3. Taiki Shingai Another dominant performance for Daleman. And a rather anonymous tournament for the Dutch boys.

Still a very interesting battle for the 4-6 positions. Interesting that GB has 2 serious medal candidates (and Tokyo Olympic medalists), but not enough depth for a second quota at the moment. This is an issue for the Dutch men as well, youngsters Ynze Oegema (23) and Jaymio Brink (19) will have to step up to really secure that second quota for us.

I'm travelling with Dutch friends and a Parisian friend. I'm not sure if I can fit a meet up in, but I'll be in Paris the second week (mon-fri).

I'm so ready for the Paris trip!! I just booked my train tickets to Paris! Tickets, accomodation, travel: everything ready now! And I recently bought tickets for 2 days at the TeamNL House as well!

The prediction is surprisingly close, with only 1 more gold and 1 less bronze in the Gracenote table. 12 gold medals is our best result ever, so if we get 15 or 16 I would be very surprised! A lot will depend on whether the rowing squad is still as dominant as they were at the 2023 World Championship. Five golds in rowing would be an incredible result to repeat.

I don't have high hopes about the volleyball and football teams qualifying, but hopefully the handball team will be there! If all three somehow qualify we could exceed our Tokyo squad probably, because we had no volleyball team then. I don't think we're losing any major quotas compared to last time. And in the best case we will hopefully also add a womens archery team and 3x3 basketball team.

I liked the standings better after one run, can we go back?

We should've sent a field hockey team instead

And he's only 26 still, if he keeps this up till LA 2028 he could potentially beat Ireen Wüsts 6 gold medal record to become our most succesful Olympian. He's that good! That dominating keirin has me all excited!

Already signed up of course!!

Keep it up @Agger!! I've also got some athletics new years resolutions, I'm beginning to train for my first triathlon. I've already got a second hand road bike and I'm joining a weekly swimming group next week, alongside my regular running. I'm hoping to do a 1/4 or Olympic Distance triathlon in the summer.

What a stunning award ceremony for a great year in sport. Thank you @vinipereira!! Loved all the photos you used and the gorgeous aftermovie.

Thank you once again @vinipereira for the beautiful presentation! I tried not to be too biased with my votes, but no guarantees BEST MALE ATHLETE for sportsmen in Olympic sports #1: Noah Lyles #2: Mathieu van der Poel #3: Leon Marchand BEST FEMALE ATHLETE for sportswomen in Olympic sports #1: Faith Kipyegon #2: Femke Bol #3: Kaylee McKeown BEST NON-OLYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Non-Olympic sports and disciplines #1: Shohei Ohtani (baseball) BEST PARALYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes with a disability #1: Diede de Groot BEST YOUTH ATHLETE for athletes up to 18 years old (born after January 1st, 2005) (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Summer McIntosh #2: Kaylia Nemour #3: Rayssa Leal BEST MEN'S TEAM for national men's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Volleyball team #2: Baseball team #3: Handball team BEST WOMEN'S TEAM for national women's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Women’s 4x100m freestyle relay #2: Football team #3: Handball team BEST DOUBLES/PAIR OR MIXED TEAM for doubles and pairs or mixed teams and groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Duda/Ana Patricia #2: Bodnar/Radis #3: Tita/Banti BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR for the most improved athlete (aged 19 or over) or national team (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Qin Haiyang #2: Jordan Stolz #3: Letsile Tebogo COMEBACK OF THE YEAR for athletes or national teams who made a comeback performance in 2023 (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Simone Biles #2: Katerina Johnson-Thompson #3: Ruta Meilutyte SPORT MOMENT OF THE YEAR for any sport moment from 2023 #1: Femke Bol redemption in women's 4x400m relay #2: Mollie O’Callaghan’s women’s 200m freestyle WR #3: Spain wins women's football world cup TOTALLYMPICS’ STARS AWARD @Josh for his many helpful and positive contributions in a large variety of sports. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Annemiek van Vleuten for her long and succesful career, her impact on womens cycling and the joy she had in cycling and competing.

I believe it's not a bad thing the sport moment of the year is from a major sport. These are the sports that most of us watch, the memories that we share. Even if a moment in a smaller sport was exciting for me, as a community these big moments on swimming, athletics, tennis, etc. unite us. That said, my personal sport moment of the year (MvdP road cycling world championship) isn't nominated. But in the end nothing beats watching that incredible race together with my dad, just like when I was young.

Yeah this definitely includes all of the big names, the only Dutch swimmer I can even think of that's missing is Tessa Giele (who won a surprising 50m butterfly gold in the short course European Champs recently). I do like the inclusion of unproven young talents Van Wijk and Van Kalmthout who will get a chance to prove themselves on the 4x100m freestyle roster.

Bellingham is a good call for breakthrough of the year actually! I hadn't thought of him yet, because I don't really associate football with Totallympics/Olympics. In hindsight I would've replaced Finucane or Tebogo on my list with him. #1: Jordan Stolz - Speed skating #2: Puck Pieterse - Mountainbike #3: Qin Haiyang - Swimming #4: Letsile Tebogo - Athletics #5: Emma Finucane - Track cycling #6: Anna Hall - Athletics

Wish I could've voted for six Dutch sport moments of the year SPORT MOMENT OF THE YEAR for any sport moment from 2023 #1: Femke Bol charging to 4x400m World Championship gold a few days after her fall in the mixed relay #2: Men's team sprint taking back their world title in a head-to-head race vs Australia #3: Sifan Hassan winning the London and Chicago marathons #4: Mathieu van der Poel winning the road cycling world championship even after a fall #5: Wout Pouls winning his first Tour de France stage #6: Karolien Florijn dominating every single sculls rowing race including the world championship

Couldn't think of six (non-Dutch) nominees for every category, but I just sent in my vote: BEST MALE ATHLETE for sportsmen in Olympic sports #1: Leon Marchand - Swimming #2: Noah Lyles - Athletics #3: Mathieu van der Poel - Cycling #4: Jonas Vingegard - Cycling #5: Kelvin Kiptum - Athletics #6: Daiki Hashimoto - Gymnastics BEST FEMALE ATHLETE for sportswomen in Olympic sports #1: Sifan Hassan - Athletics #2: Faith Kipyegon - Athletics #3: Kaylee McKeown - Swimming #4: Mollie O'Callaghan - Swimming #5: Lotte Kopecky - Cycling #6: Janja Garnbret - Sport Climbing BEST NON-OLYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Non-Olympic sports and disciplines #1: Killian Jornet - Trail running BEST YOUTH ATHLETE for athletes up to 18 years old (born after January 1st, 2005) (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Summer McIntosh - Swimming #2: Niels Laros - Athletics #3: Kaylia Neymour - Algeria #4: #5: #6: BEST MEN'S TEAM for national men's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Volleyball team #2: Team sprint - Track cycling #3: Handball team #4: #5: #6: BEST WOMEN'S TEAM for national women's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Football team #2: Waterpolo team #3: Volleyball team #4: Handball team #5: Freestyle relay teams - Swimming #6: BEST DOUBLES/PAIR OR MIXED TEAM for doubles and pairs or mixed teams and groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Duda/Ana Patricia - Beach Volleyball #2: Mixed relay team (Velzeboer/Schulting/Van 't Wout/De Laat) - Short track speed skating #3: Bodnar/Radis - Rowing #4: McCarthy/O'Donovan - Rowing #5: Perusic/Schweiner - Beach Volleyball #6: BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR for the most improved athlete (aged 19 or over) or national team (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Jordan Stolz - Speed skating #2: Puck Pieterse - Mountainbike #3: Qin Haiyang - Swimming #4: Letsile Tebogo - Athletics #5: Emma Finucane - Track cycling #6: Anna Hall - Athletics COMEBACK OF THE YEAR for athletes or national teams who made a comeback performance in 2023 (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Simone Biles - Gymnastics #2: Ruta Meilutyte - Swimming #3: Laura Aarts - Waterpolo (retired goalkeeper came back to the team and helped them become world champions) #4: Katarina Johnson-Thompson - Athletics #5: #6: SPORT MOMENT OF THE YEAR for any sport moment from 2023 #1: Femke Bol charging to 4x400m World Championship gold a few days after her fall in the mixed relay #2: Simone Biles winning four golds in her return to the Antwerpen gymnastics hall #3: Mollie O'Callaghan 200m freestyle world record #4: / / Team Jumbo-Visma winning all three Grand Tours with different riders #5: #6:

Thank you for the reminder, I was definitely intending to vote but I've been very busy at work, so most evenings I'm too tired to sit down for a proper list of all the categories. I hope to get to it tonight or tomorrow!

Imagine drawing the reigning World champion in your World Championship group phase, the reigning European champion in your Nations League group phase and then the new world champion in the next round.