Jinzha

Great first stage! Would've loved to see the debutant Van den Broek win the stage and the yellow, but I guess the seniority of Bardet is understandable. Still a beautiful moment seeing them cross the line together. And what a debut for Van den Broek, really showing himself to the world!

World Championship U20 Women Semi Finals - - The Dutch girls beat Sweden, let that be a good inspiration for the senior women

My picks are on the men's side and on the women's side. The women will have to lose a title eventually, but I think they're still the favorites for now. Meanwhile I hope the men will finally win an Olympic medal again. I'll be in the TeamNL house during both days of medal matches, so I'm hoping for some good games to watch live with Dutch fans.

Not a great schedule for . Two 09:00 AM games and I would've preferred or as final opponent. Now if we lose both of our first two games, it'll likely already be over before we face and there is little meaning to potentially our only winnable game.

Same goes for on 7th seed, facing home favorites in the quarterfinal. No way we are beating them in Paris, if we even reach the QF

I voted for Lisa Carrington. I know she already became New Zealands most succesful Olympian in Tokyo 2021, is she a realistic contender for more gold medals in Paris?

I didn't even realise the men's waterpolo team had a chance at all. I wish we had more presence of the men in team sports, like handball, volleyball and waterpolo. To add to the qualification misses: the women's football team and men's archery team were the two I would name in addition to 4x100m. Also the 4x400m mens team. It wasn't even a close miss, just a really disappointing one.

I've been following Kimmann's youtube vlogs since before Tokyo. This is so sad. He was in great form as well. Worst injury in the TeamNL squad so far Either way, it's a good choice, his health goes above everything. I hope he's in good hands medically and wish him a good recovery.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2525445-topturnster-thorsdottir-breekt-voet-mijn-olympische-droom-is-voorbij Very sad news for Dutch gymnastics fan as Eythora Thorsdottir breaks her foot. She is an amazing person and her presence will be missed very much in the TeamNL camp in the Olympic village.

The has good opportunities on the men's sprint team and outside chances on womens keirin and mens madison, but I highly doubt that will be enough to beat in the track cycling medal table.

That would definitely be very good for us, as 12 golds is still our record for best Games ever, in Sydney! I agree with your analysis. I also predict around 12 medals, with rowing, sailing and Harrie Lavreysen as most reliable factors. I'd add men's hockey team, women's waterpolo team and Niek Kimmann as outside chances as well. Maybe Joanne van Lieshout too.

1. Which 3 swimmers are you most excited for? Summer McIntosh, Leon Marchand and Marrit Steenbergen 2. Your 3 Brave predictions for Swimming at Paris I don't know enough about swimming to make good predictions, but I'll try. I predict Adam Peaty to make a great comeback to win the 100m breaststroke, Leon Marchand to win the 400m medley in a world record (lapping his competition) and at least one controversial disqualification of a medal candidate in a relay. 3. Your country's swimming predictions I'm predicting three silvers: Marrit Steenbergen W 100m freestyle and Tes Schouten W 100m+200m breaststroke.

I am not surprised about this at all, I feel like Anne has been consistently better than Anne. In all seriousness, Terpstra has consistenly proven herself and unless I missed it in the last few world cups, she has nearly always finished before Tauber. It's a shame for Tauber who is sort of stuck between never passing the older generation and already being passed by the new generation, but I wasn't surprised at all personally.

Candy Jacobs will miss the Olympics. She's currently injured and will miss the Olympic Qualifier Series in Budapest this weekend. She would've needed to gain about 10 more spots in the ranking, but still a sad moment. She was a pioneer of skateboarding in the Netherlands, inspiring younger girls like Roos Zwetsloot and Keet Oldenbeuving. She qualified for Tokyo to experience the debut of skateboarding at the Olympics, but missed all the action due to a covid infection. Very disappointing for her to also miss the 'second chance' in Paris.

If anyone has any more Olympic highlight videos, I would love any suggestions

I don't have any Olympic broadcast introductions, what I have instead is Olympic highlight videos. I have these saved in my youtube favorites and I regularly watch these to handle all the Olympic pre-hype now that we're getting so close!! Athens 2004 Beijing 2008 https://youtu.be/k-s2aL4ohtE?si=ANlgG9IBgT0aSTFV London 2012 Rio de Janeiro 2016 Tokyo 2020

UCI XCC World Cup Nove Mesto, May 24-26 Women's Elite 1. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot 2. Haley Batten 3. Allessandra Keller Men's Elite 1. Thomas Pidcock 2. Nino Schurter 3. Marcel Guerrini UCI XCC World Cup Val di Sole, June 14-16 Women's Elite 1. Pauline Ferrand-Prevot 2. Puck Pieterse 3. Candice Lill Men's Elite 1. Nino Schurter 2. Alan Hatherly 3. Mathis Azzaro So apparently Nino Schurter is still winning world cups. Meanwhile I've never heard of the South African Candice Lill who took the bronze in Val di Sole, beating major names like Lecomte, Stigger and Mitterwallner.

For we will struggle to win a medal on day 1. If Ellen van Dijk recovers well from her current injury and if Demi Vollering keeps up her form, we have a shot in the womens time trial. Other than that we have no opportunities. Hopefully on day 2 we'll see our first medal for Puck Pieterse (mountainbike) or Arno Kamminga (100m breaststroke).

Interesting, I just made a random guess when I named skateboarding. I feel like usually has good contenders in the urban sports like BMX and skateboarding.

Really, no men's archery team in the Olympics for this year? That's a big disappointment. They were becoming a staple in our team with strong finishes in Rio and Tokyo.

Thank you for your preview! I believe Grace Brown is a real medal candidate in the womens time trial. Alongside 3 or 4 medals in swimming, I could see them win the most medals on day 1 still. Although and are always the obvious contenders. Both time trials will be great races for the medals I believe! All five riders you named for the men's time trial can put on a show.

I don't know all of these sports, but between the swimming, womens time trial and possibly rugby or skateboarding(just a guess??). This could be a really great day 1 for Australia!

As others have said already, I agree with you that planning was a factor for this one match, but in the end the ranking and the fact that it was this close is the result of three cumulative weeks of VNL and even many games before that. So yes it was a factor, but no one could've predicted it would remain this close all the way through. Different results in any other match, and the planning would be a non-factor. It's a shame things like Serbia playing their B or C team has such an impact on the rankings. On the other hand, I can't blame them personally with the insanely busy schedule for these players. Depth is crucial to a good national team. I wouldn't be surprised if Serbias A team medals in Paris or even take gold.

Agreed! This must be a hard match to watch on the losing side. Especially after such a long and close qualification race. It's never over till it's over, but in this form we really should be taking at least a set versus . I never expected our volleyball team would get this far this Olympic cycle!

2-0 up!! This is looking very promising! I had a work meeting for the last hour so I missed all the action so far