Jinzha

I feel like money can make the difference between a good team and an elite team, but when there's not enough kids playing a sport the pool of available talent is just not enough. I think in the Netherlands the biggest limitation to our Olympic team sports is at the grassroots level and not the money for the national teams.

I fear that we need a hint

Suzanne Schulting gold medals: 2/5

Schulting gold medals: 1/5

I was going to guess fastest serve by Viktor Axelsen by lack of a better idea, but luckily I don't have to embarrass myself

Question: is the record 319 thousand or 319 and a half? I know some countries handle commas and dots in numbers differently

Is it the ironman triathlon world record by the Norwegian guy?

It has to be a record right? Only thing I can think of with a near 7 hour time in the Olympics is the finish time of the cycling road race...

I hadn't found any official rules and simply assumed it would count, because the qualification period started and the Beach Pro Tour is the official world cup system. Do you have a link to the page/document maybe?

You're right. I believe Canada would still get the quota from the points they gathered though, if an inactive team is in a qualification spot. Of course they will no longer be at #18 by the time June 2024 comes around.

Yeah maybe they focussed on the American competition (ATP?) instead of the international Pro Tour. But it's still noticeable that on the women's side the US pairs were much more present. I don't see Schalk/Brunner or Crabb/Bourne climbing into the top 10 easily, but top 17 should be doable for at least one mens pair.

So the qualification period for the 17 quotas based on the Olympic Ranking List starts this month and ends 10th of June 2024. Based on the FIVB world ranking as of right now, before any events have taken place, the following 17 pairs/countries would qualify per gender (max 2 per nationality): Men: 1. Mol/Sorum 2. Brouwer/Meeuwsen 2. Cherif/Ahmed 4. George/Andre 5. Bryl/Losiak 6. Perusic/Schweiner 6. Nicolai/Cottafava 8. Renato/Vitor Felipe 9. Grimalt/Grimalt 10. Ahman/Hellvig 11. McHugh/Burnett 12. Seidl/Waller 13. Berntsen/Mol 14. Pristauz/Ermacora 15. Krou/Grauthier-Rat 16. Herrera/Gavira 17. Carambula/Rossi Women: 1. Duda/Ana Patricia 2. Barbara/Carol 3. Stam/Schoon 4. Clancy/Mariafe 5. Anastasija/Tina 6. Hüberli/Brunner 7. Tillmann/Müller 8. Nuss/Kloth 9. Cannon/Sponcil 10. Borger/Sude 11. Brandie/Bukovec 12. Stockman/Kraft 13. Andressa/Vitoria 14. Taiana Lima/Hegeile 15. Worapeerachayakorn/Naraphornrapat 16. Ishii/Mizoe 17. Ittlinger/Schneider 18. Pavan/Melissa 19. Xia/Lin 20. Talita/Rebecca 21. Schulz/Laboureur 21. Heidrich/Vergé-Dépré 23. Hermannova/Stochlova First tournament that counts for the ranking is the Beach Pro Tour finals in Doha 26-29 January.

@vinipereiraThis was a great experience and an amazing presentation, thank you so much!

Beautiful presentation @vinipereira!

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone else nominate Eliud Kipchoge. For me he is one of the absolute greatest in global sports right now, with another world record in the marathon just last september. You may also notice that I interpreted the Youth Athlete competition as actual juniors competing in youth competitions, leaving the juniors that broke through at senior level for the Breakthrough category.

My votes: BEST FEMALE ATHLETE for sportswomen in Olympic sports #1: Annemiek van Vleuten (Road Cycling) #2: Sydney McLaughlin (Athletics) #3: Iga Swiatek (Tennis) #4: Ariarne Titmus (Swimming) #5: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Athletics) #6: Tijana Boskovic (Volleyball BEST MALE ATHLETE for sportsmen in Olympic sports #1: Lionel Messi (Football) #2: Armand Duplantis (Athletics) #3: Eliud Kipchoge (Marathon) #4: Nils van der Poel (Speed Skating) #5: Jonas Vingegaard (Road Cycling) #6: Rafael Nadal (Tennis) BEST PARALYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Paralympic sports #1: #2: #3: #4: #5: #6: BEST NON-OLYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Non-Olympic sports #1: Kilian Jornet (Trail Running) #2: Kristian Blummenfelt (Ironman distance triathlon) #3: Fem van Empel (Cyclocross) #4: #5: #6: BEST YOUTH ATHLETE for any athlete up to 18 years old (including Olympic, Paralympic and Non-Olympic sports) #1: Niels Laros (Athletics, EU18 champion and EU18 record holder 1500m and 3000m) #2: Tina Clayton (Athletics, world U20 champion 100m and 4x100m) #3: Zoe Bäckstedt (Road cycling, world junior champion road race and time trial) #4: Endrick Felipe (Football, most coveted football junior in the world) #5: #6: BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR for the most improved athlete or team (including Olympic, Paralympic and Non-Olympic sports) #1: Remco Evenepoel (Road Cycling) #2: Summer McIntosh (Swimming) #3: Leon Marchand (Swimming) #4: Carlos Alcaraz (Tennis) #5: Aileen Gu (Freestyle Skiing) #6: David Popovici (Swimming) BEST MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM for men's teams, pairs or groups (including Olympic, Paralympic and Non-Olympic sports) #1: Argentina football team #2: Morocco football team #3: Finland ice hockey team #4: #5: #6: BEST WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM for women's teams, pairs or groups (including Olympic, Paralympic and Non-Olympic sports) #1: England football team #2: Serbia volleyball team #3: Netherlands short track relay team #4: #5: #6: BEST DOUBLES OR PAIR #1: Duda/Ana Patricia (Beach Volleyball) #2: Bodnar/Radis (Rowing) #3: O'Donovan/McCarthy (Rowing) #4: #5: #6: SPORT MOMENT OF THE YEAR for any sport moment from 2022 (including Olympic, Paralympic and Non-Olympic sports) #1: Sydney McLaughlin's 400mH world record (Athletics) #2: Femke Bol's triple gold 400m/400mH/4x400m at the Athletics European Championships (Athletics) #3: Jake Wightman's 1500m title at the Athletics World Championships while his father was commentating (Athletics) #4: Argentina winning the Football World Cup (Football) #5: Jonas Vingegaard waiting for Tadej Pogacar after a crash in the Tour de France stage 18 (Denmark) #6: OLYMPIC SPIRIT AWARD for any athlete or team that took part in the 2022 Winter Olympics #1: Erin Jackson winning the 500m speed skating after being gifted the quota (Speed Skating) #2: Kai Verbij letting his opponent pass in the 1000m speed skating race, sacrificing his own result to prevent a crash (Speed Skating) #3: Shaun White for his final Olympics after being the face of snowboarding for ages (Freestyle Snowboarding) #4: Lindsey Jacobellis finally winning Olympic gold at her fifth attempt (Snowboard Cross) #5: #6:

I voted 'other athlete' in the -48 kg poll, for the home favorite Boukli. I have a feeling the French will win a lot of judo medals at home.

I don't follow these sports or weight classes very well. Could one of these judo or fencing events be the first French medal of the Games? Or at least in our simulation, because we don't have any French medals in swimming yet.

I haven't seen many people mention cycling yet. I'm really looking forward to all the monuments, classics and grand tours. With Evenepoel, Pogacar, Vingegaard, Van Aert and Van der Poel there's such an exciting generation of riders. On the womens side I hope the young generation of Dutch riders, Van Anrooij, Van Empel and Pieterse, can take some wins in the senior field. Other than that the athletics world championships are the biggest highlight of the year in sports for me.

NOS|NOC-NSF Sports persons of the year: Woman: Irene Schouten Man: Max Verstappen Team: 4x400m relay team (Bol, Klaver, De Witte, Saalberg) Paralympic athlete: Diede de Groot Coach: Jeroen Otter (shorttrack national team) Talent: Joanne van Lieshout (judu) Career prize: Jan Janssen (former Tour, Vuelta and world championship winner)

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone's nominations and being like "wow how could I have forgotten that extremely major, record breaking and emotional moment that I watched live..."

You can circumvent the rules by nominating Mathieu van der Poel instead!

The 'only 1 vote for your own country' rule makes me realised what a nationalist sports fan I am... I'm struggling to come up with non-Dutch sports moments and Olympic spirit votes. Also which mens teams did anything notable this year? It's like Argentina's world cup victory has erased my memory of all other mens teams.

There's no need to delete any category for me. More categories, more fun thinking of all the contenders. My questions were really more curiosity and in no way meant as a criticism. Looking forward to the voting tomorrow!

Thank you for the great initiatiave @vinipereira! I wonder how everyone is going to define breakthrough and youth athletes. Remco Evenepoel had already won races before 2022, but I feel like this year was his real breakthrough. Meanwhile Summer McIntosh still qualifies for the Youth Athlete category, but also had a breakthrough year at senior level. Also, is Lionel Messi a 'Non-Olympic athlete', because senior level football is not Olympic on the mens side?