Jinzha

Happy to see our young 4x200m womens team already reaching 4th place in a global final. Not sure how far their potential reaches, but it will definitely be a big ask to really challenge the three swimming powerhouses USA, Australia and Canada.

Exactly my picks really, including the indecision on the womens award. I'd personally give the womens award to Femke Bol, because I feel like her achievements and media presence this year have simply been more memorable and achieved in a far more competitive sport than speed skating, short track or women's road cycling. Though I completely understand the jury had to go for multiple Olympic gold and grand tour winners over a global silver medal and multiple European winner.

The shortlist for the Dutch awards: Men: Max Verstappen (Formula 1) Harry Lavreysen (Track cycling) Thomas Krol (Speed skating) Women: Ireen Schouten (Speed skating) Suzanne Schulting (Short track) Annemiek van Vleuten (Road cycling) Team: Women relay team (Short track) 4x400m women relay team (Athletics) Team Jumbo Visma (Road Cycling) Paralympian: Diede de Groot (Tennis) Jetze Plat (Triathlon) Sanne Voets (Equestrian) Coach: Sarina Wiegman (Football) Eelco Meenhorst (Rowing) Jeroen Otter (Short track) The jury admitted they really struggled to reach a shortlist of three in the women category, where they had to leave out Femke Bol and Ireen Wust among others.

If you listen to his recent interviews about football tactics, training and mental health you'll find out he's actually more of a Smartfries

Just noticed that the quarterfinal draw is really perfect. They've spread the four GOAT players over the four quarterfinals: - has Neymar Jr - has Ronaldo - has Mbappe - has Messi Cody Gakpo

Duda/Ana Patricia in Beach volleyball are big gold contenders for you guys as well.

Women's mountain biking - Mona Mitterwallner and Laura Stigger Men's beach volleyball - Grimalt/Grimalt and Aravena/Droguett Some contenders I can think of from countries we don't hear from often, though gold medals will be a big ask for all of these.

Hmm I didn't think of this one initially, I was thinking of the close finish between Smeekens and Mulder in the 500m at the same Olympics initially. I think it has to do with Verweij not being a very popular media figure here, compared to the Mulder brothers and some of the others we've named. This moment would probably rank more in my top 20 range, but definitely the second moment I'd think of from Sochi 2014.

I've got to admit I always remember it the wrong way as well... I believe 'Timmertje Timmertje' and 'Hij staat! Iedereen staat!' are the two Olympic commentary moments in the top 5 most legendary sports commentary quotes. The other three being football moments (European champions 1988, Bergkamp's goal vs Argentina in 1998 and the 5-1 vs Spain in 2014).

Speaking of purely gold medals Karolien Florijn and the two hockey teams are the only ones I could think of as well. If we're talking just medals I'd say Harry Lavreysen (sprint and keirin) and Femke Bol (400mH) to complete the top 5. We'll surely win many other medals in rowing, (track/road/bmx) cycling, sailing and possible athletics, swimming and judo. But it's very hard to predict who will be the ones winning. Who knows Fem van Empel or Shirin van Anrooij might be serious contenders for road cycling gold by 2024, I hope so!

@heywooduand @CCB have already named most of the memorable moments for the Netherlands. My top 5 includes one moment that hasn't been named yet: 1. Epke Zonderland's high bar gold in London 2012 This moment has become part of our collective memory thanks to the legendary commentary in the moment. 2. Volleyball men's gold in Atlanta 1996 Prior to Zonderland's gold medal moment the volleyball men were probably the Olympic moment that most captured the collective Dutch imagination. I was too young to actively remember the moment myself. 3. Pieter van den Hoogenband and Inge de Bruijn's medals in Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 I can't pinpoint a specific moment, but Pieter and Inge have produced so many incredible races and Olympic moments. 4. Sven Kramer's 10.000m disqualification in Vancouver 2010 Even if this was not a victorious gold medal moment, everyone in my generation remembers this moment. Where were you when Kramer missed his lane change in Vancouver? I stayed up with my parents watching this live around midnight and it was such a crazy moment to witness. 5. Ellen van Langen's gold in Barcelona 1992 A gold medal in Athletics is always special for a small country and so was Van Langen's beautiful race in Barcelona. Honourable mentions that haven't been mentioned yet: Marianne Timmer's 1000m and 1500m golds in Nagano 1998 (again because of the commentary: Timmertje, Timmertje!) Maarten van der Weijden's open water swimming gold in Beijing 2008 (from beating cancer to winning Olympic gold, his story and the fundraising he has done since has made him a bit of a national hero) Nicolien Sauerbrei's snowboard gold in Vancouver 2010 (only snow medal ever for us) The clean sweep of the 500m in Sochi 2014 (Michel Mulder took the gold over Jan Smeekens by only 0,012s) Annemiek van Vleuten's traumatic crash in Rio 2016 (not a nice moment to remember but considering the career she's had since, I feel like it will be a moment that's remembered for a long time.)

The ticket prices are definitely not as high as I expected! Although I believe all three of the sessions I wanted to attend are not yet available it seems, a specific athletics session, beach volleyball semifinals and the field hockey women final. I might have to change some of my plans around.

For me the Danish pick would have to be Jonas Vingegaard. For Sweden I'd go with Nils van der Poel (2x), Sjarah Sjostrom (only cause I don't know the rest), Handball team and Hellvig/Ahman.

Thanks! I found that information in the brochure now as well. Hopefully the resale site will be good enough to prevent other expensive resales. Also interesting there is a link to a pdf that should include all ticket prices, but right now it's still an empty page with only 'ticket prices' on it: https://tickets.paris2024.org/obj/media/FR-Paris2024/ticket-prices.pdf

I'm still confused about the draw and how they will prevent scalpers and bots signing up massive amounts of entries into the draw? Other than that I'm excited to sign up for the pack sales this week!

The longlist for the Dutch sport awards were published last week: Men: Dylan van Baarle, road cycling Roel Boomstra, checkers Koen Bouwman, road cycling Youri Havik, track cycling Jeffrey Hoogland, track cycling Fabio Jakobsen, road cycling Dick Jaspers, billiards Thomas Krol, speed skating Harrie Lavreysen, track cycling Abdi Nageeye, athletics Kjeld Nuis, speed skating Mathieu van der Poel, road cycling Max Verstappen, polluting the world in fast cars and private jets (formula 1) Women: Femke Bol, athletics Ellen van Dijk, road cycling Karolien Florijn, rowing Therese Klompenhouwer, billiards Jutta Leerdam, speed skating Sharon van Rouwendaal, open water swimming Jessica Schilder, athletics Irene Schouten, speed skating Suzanne Schulting, shorttrack Marrit Steenbergen, swimming Xandra Velzeboer, shorttrack Anouk Vetter, athletics Annemiek van Vleuten, road cycling Marianne Vos, road cycling and cross country cycling Ireen Wüst, speed skating Team: 4x400m mixed relay, athletics 4x400m women relay, athletics TeamNL bridge open TeamNL jumping, equestrian Womens team, field hockey Teamsprint, speed skating TeamNL korfbal (I don't know what this sport is called in English) W8+, rowing M8+, rowing W2x Roos de Jong & Laila Youssifou, rowing W4x, rowing W2- Ymkje Clevering & Veronique Meester, rowing W4-, rowing Womens relay 3000m, shorttrack Mens relay 5000m, shorttrack Team Jumbo Visma (Tour de France), road cycling 49er Floris van de Werken & Bart Lambriex, sailing 49er Annette Duetz & Odile van Aanholt, sailing Paralympics: Aniek van den Aarssen, para-track cycling Daniel Abraham, para-track and road cycling Lisa Bunschoten, para-snowboard Rogier Dorsman, para-swimming Diede de Groot, wheelchair tennis Caroline Groot, para-track cycling Jennette Jansen, para-road cycling Jeroen Kampschreur, para-skiing Corné de Koning, para-rowing Lisa Kruger, para-swimming Niels de Langen, para-skiing Jetze Plat, para-triathlon/-cycling Sam Schröder, wheelchair tennis Marieke van Soest, para-road cyling Mitch Valize, para-road cycling Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis Sanne Voets, para-dressage, equestrian Diede de Groot & Aniek van Koot, wheelchair tennis Sam Schröder & Niels Vink, wheelchair tennis Jean Paul Montanus & Kelly van Zon, para-table tennis Tristan Bangma & Patrick Bos, para-track and road cycling TeamNL para-dressage, equestrian Coach: Jillert Anema, speed skating Gert Damkat, athletics Louis Delahaye, road cycling Amanda Hopmans, wheelchair tennis Eelco Meenhorst, rowing Laurent Meuwly, athletics Jamilon Mülders, field hockey Jac Orie, speed skating Jeroen Otter, shorttrack Joyce van Rooijen-Heuitink, para-dressage Gerard van Velde, speed skating Sarina Wiegman, football Merijn Zeeman, road cycling By far the hardest choice will be the women's award. How are you going to choose between: Irene Schouten (3g 1b Olympics, World champion all-round, 3g European Championships) Suzanne Schulting (2g 1s 1b Olympics) Ireen Wust (gold at 5 Olympic Games in a row) Femke Bol (2s indoor worlds, 2s outdoor worlds, 3g European Championships) Annemiek van Vleuten (world champion and all three grand tours). And that's ignoring Karolien Florijn, Marrit Steenbergen, Xandra Velzeboer and Jessica Schilder who all had exceptionally strong years as well. On the men's side I fear Max Verstappen will take the award again, though for me Fabio Jakobsen is the winner. For the team prize I'd go for either the womens short track relay or womens 4x400m relay. For the coach either Laurent Meuwly or Jamilon Mülders. I don't know enough about the paralympic sports, but it's probably between Jetze Plat and Diede de Groot there. There's no longlist for the talent awards, but two big contenders for me are Niels Laros (athletics) and Fem van Empel (cycling).

Disappointing results in the relays, why do we keep crashing out of the corner while leading the race (mixed relay last weekend, mixed and womens relay this weekend)? But at least the Dutch squad recovered from the bad results saturday (penalties for Schulting and Velzeboer). And a really strong weekend for Van 't Wout!

I hope Argentina/Messi can win it, but I expect Brazil, Germany and Portugal mostly as strong competition. Maybe France or England if they sort out their drama. For the Netherlands I believe a semifinal would already be an incredible result and some form of Van Gaal magic.

Wow Schulting and Velzeboer! An absolute shorttrack masterclass by them this weeking! Looking forward to their first 500/1000m face offs this season.

Great race by Schulting! In the last few years short track has really overtaken speed skating as my favorite winter sport.

Another chance for us to lose to the US team, nice!

Maldives Challenge tournament Women: 1. Lahti/Ahtiainen 2. Schützenhöfer/Plesiutschnig 3. Parkkinen/Sinisalo Men: 1. Cherif/Ahmed 2. Field/Budinger 3. Ahman/Hellvig The Beach Pro Tour continues pretty much all year, with various tournaments on the southern hemisphere (and in desert climates like Dubai and Cairo) now that summer has ended for most of us. They have also announced a Finals tournament 26-29 January in Doha, Qatar. I wonder what the athletes think of this year-round schedule of tournaments literally all over the world. Either way, the field for this particular challenge tournament wasn't very strong and I doubt we'll see many top contenders in the next two tournaments in Dubai either.

Some exciting results by the younger members of the Dutch team already and now another with Van der Peet's bronze in the Keirin!

So the 20+ Serbs in the row below and beside me in the stadium turned out to be Boskovic's family. Their fanatism was like I was at a club football match. I believe we saw a well deserved champion today. Boskovic is just unplayable, but Serbia as a team did a good job shutting down Gabi.

I'm in the middle of a group of Serbian fans, I might have to reconsider my position...