Jinzha

I went with swimming, but I do have to say there is maybe a bit too much swimming in the Olympics (amount of events/medals). Rowing is a close second. Both are sports that are really core to watching the Olympics to me.

I find mixed relays really difficult to follow and I don't know if mixed team events like in judo really add that much. I do enjoy mixed doubles in badminton (haven't seen the tennis or table tennis variants) though!

What I saw in the Dutch media was that they are accepting the quota, but there will still be a deciding race who takes the Dutch spot in june.

That's amazing, thanks for all the work everyone! Already having fun just scrolling through the schedule and the Games haven't even started. I don't mean to nitpick, but if you're ever doing some corrections: I found a 'men's 500m freestyle' swimming on sat 31st july. I assume that's supposed to be 50m.

I don't really know badminton, but I like watching it during the Olympics and I really enjoyed Marin's win in Rio. And with a little help from the world ranking I filled the other 5 votes.

I hope our men's team medals, but I don't expect gold from them. Women's team is definitely aiming for gold and I put Argentina and GBR as the other medalists.

Tough question for me. I personally really enjoy the team sports. In the end I went with volleyball because I personally enjoy the sport, but from the Dutch perspective I wouldn't want to miss field hockey either of course!

The men's football competition is always strange and unpredictable to me, because the squads are by definition suboptimal. I have no idea who will play in the Olympics, even if I regularly watch football. Either way, France and Brazil seem inevitable with the level of talent available in their countries. I voted Mexico for the 3rd medal, because I wasn't particularly impressed with Germany and Spain in the recent U21 Euro's. I can imagine countries like Mexico and Japan will give higher priority to the Olympic squad, while Spanish and German eligible players such as Ansu Fati, Pedri, Havertz, Musiala, etc. might not be in their respective squads.

With the amount of athletes participating, I think you guys are very optimistic! I went with 33-50. If covid hits a teamsport, there is a chance of large parts of a team getting infected or at least quarantained. It has happened a couple times in football already and recently like 5 of the Dutch handball women missed two friendlies due to quarantaines.

These 100 polls are going to make me realise how little I know of many Olympic sports! I wonder how many more there will be where my vote is worthless like in shooting and rythmic gymnastics.

Yeah, I had to skip this one because my vote would be completely meaningless!

Leuk dat je ook volleybalt! In het dorp waar ik opgroeide was geen volleybalclub, maar achteraf gezien had ik het waarschijnlijk erg leuk gevonden. Met mijn 1.90m zou ik er nog een beetje tussen passen ook. Tja, na een 4e plek en beach brons in Rio is er dit keer wel erg weinig om naar uit te kijken inderdaad. Ik had gehoopt dat een aantal van de jongere beach duo's meer aansluiting zou vinden bij de senioren, maar bij het huidige World Tour toernooi zijn ze er allemaal in de kwalificatie al uit. Kano slalom is inderdaad ook heel gaaf om te zien. Dat en klimmen ga ik ook zeker proberen te volgen. Iedere vechtsport laat ik persoonlijk links liggen met uitzondering van een Nederlands getinte judo finale, mocht het zo ver komen. Zelfde geldt voor de meeste jurysporten (dressuur, synchroonzwemmen, schoonspringen, etc.). Helemaal eens trouwens dat je het Kirsten Wild, Nouchka Fontijn en Sharon van Rouwendaal zo gunt om te winnen! Ik zou er nog een willen toevoegen: Kiran Badloe. Ook al kijkt niemand echt naar windsurfen, is het vast niet makkelijk om in de voetsporen van Dorian te treden. Ik gun het hem wel dat hij het goude stokje overneemt.

Ik kan toch altijd wel genieten van dat voorspellen, heerlijke voorpret. Leuk om te lezen weer! Enige aanvulling waar ik op hoop is dat er een extra teamsport tot een medaille komt (handbal/voetbal/waterpolo W en hockey M). Ik snap natuurlijk dat dat meer hoop en optimisme is dan echt een voorspelling. De voetbalvrouwen zitten trouwens ook in 'de 46 van Gracenote' met zilver. Waar ik het meest naar uit kijk? Alle fietsevenementen eigenlijk. Wat je al zegt over de teamsprinters en Mathieu van der Poel, maar ook Anna van der Breggen, Annemiek van Vleuten en Marianne Vos op hun laatste Spelen. Femke Bol, Lieke Klaver en Nadine Visser. Gewoon omdat het hele leuke sporters zijn en atletiek een prachtige sport. Het afgelopen jaar gaf zonder Amerikanen natuurlijk wel een heel vertekend beeld van de krachtverhoudingen. De voetbalvrouwen. Ook weer een hele leuke groep en ik geloof ook dat ze kunnen pieken op het juiste moment. Ik heb ook wel een vraag: welke sporten zonder Nederlandse deelnemers volgen jullie tijdens de Spelen? Atletiek en zwemmen is eigenlijk altijd interessant, ook de disciplines zonder NLse deelname (waarom hebben we eigenlijk nooit wisselslag zwemmers of hoog-/verspringers...). En dankzij mijn vriendin ben ik (beach) volleybal actief gaan volgen én waarderen.

Awesome! I saw that you attended London in 2012? What an experience to see Zonderland and Kromowidjojo win their golds live! Did you have to plan everything like rooms, travel and tickets at least a year ahead? I can only imagine everywhere is sold out instantly, but I never tried to attend an Olympics before.

Beijing, because it's the first time I really followed the Games, although not as actively as I do now. I was aware of Van den Hoogenband in Sydney and Athens, but that's mostly because he is from my hometown. I was too young to really follow it. Hopefully I get to attend Paris 2024 live and make that my absolute favorite!

Everything streamed live on Youtube on Beach Volleyball World btw: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQUWveEpeO1KTkwbDn6jNA Currently the first round of men's qualifiers is on.

I really wanted to vote for the Netherlands of course, but I don't really believe they can take the gold. So I voted for Norway instead. I look forward to be proven wrong!

The qualifier for the 1st Cancun 4* World Tour starts today. It's three 4* World Tour tournaments in Cancun in a row. The 'country quota' matches for the 2nd tournament starts literally the day after the final, so there is a constant supply of high level beach volleyball the next 2-3 weeks. The tournaments are vital for the Olympic ranking. Many teams are still in contention for a spot in the cleaned top 15 in the ranking. Hopefully Varenhorst/Van de Velde can improve on their QF exit in Doha. Edit: it looks like Varenhorst/Van de Velde have actually withdrawn on the last day. Don't know what the reason is. That's a real shame, they are the only Dutch duo that can realistically still get into the top 15 on top of the 2 couples in qualified positions.

Even if there is no Dutch competitors, it's climbing for me. I loved the few times I was in a climbing hall and I'm excited to see it on the Olympic stage. The Dutch skateboarding team is a fun group though, a close second for this poll. I don't really care for the other sports. And to repeat what many others said in yesterday's thread: this is a great idea, I hope you keep surprising us with fun polls!

Thanks! Since Vetter is not ranked at all, she will have to go straight for the qualifying score of 64xx in Götzis. If she's in good form and in a good place mentally, that could happen though.

That is some true optimism, I like it! You could work for Gracenote. I predicted 2 medals in swimming (between Van Rouwendaal, Weertman and Kamminga) and 2 in athletics (between Hassan, Visser and Bol). I already considered those optimistic. Hassan feels especially unpredictable. Of course I hope she can repeat her Doha 2019 dominance, would be amazing for her. Also a small nitpick, Bol will only run 400 m hurdles and 4x400 m in Tokyo, at least that was her position after the indoor season. And I'm not sure if Vetter is qualified, because she DNFed the Doha 2019 heptathlon. I think Götzis in May is her last shot.

I'm just going to enjoy pretending we are the 5th best (summer) sports nation in the world for a nice 100 days and then come back to earth I have to think hard to figure out 13 more potential Dutch medalists on top of the optimistic 33 range I predicted earlier though. Maybe something out of the box like medals in diving, tennis mixed doubles or badminton...

Just to be sure: the Epke Zonderland medal I mentioned was the little prediction I did 'if I could pick and choose 8 gold medals'. I don't think 3x gold for Lavreyssen is very realistic either, I just like him! And Epke Zonderland I couldn't find a full list of the 46 medals Gracenote predicts, you have to file an official request to get it and probably pay for it. I just tried to google and could only find the same few medal winners quoted by pretty much every Dutch media. I can piece together most of the 16 golds from what I saw online though: Sifan Hassan (10.000M) Hockey W Anna van der Breggen (road race and time trial) Niek Kimmann and Laura Smulders (BMX) Harry Lavreyssen (sprint and keirin) Team sprint M Kirsten Wild/Amy Pieters (madisson) 5x sailing (not mentioned which classes, but I can only imagine: 2x RS:X, Laser Radial W, 470 W and 49erRX W) Seems like one gold medal winner is not interesting enough to be mentioned in the media so far.

And here I thought my 33 medals was the optimistic end of the range. What an absurd Gracenote prediction! Now that I see my post again I realise I forgot a gold medal for Epke Zonderland if I could pick and choose 8 golds. That is clearly a mistake! To fix that, our rowing team will have to do with only silvers and bronzes in my version of the Games.

I definitely see you winning women's football as well, though team sports are always hard to consider a guarantee. And why not M basketball? Isn't that a lock-in for the US every games? Must be a special experience following the Olympics from an American perspective (or Chinese for that matter). Medal candidates in virtually every sports and so many athletes to follow.