Jinzha

I'll join @CCB and also predict 30-35 medals and I'm going to be ambitious and say 12 gold, equalling our Sydney 2000 record of gold medals. I agree with CCB we don't have that many clear gold medal chances, but my hopeful prediction would be, in no particular order: Women field hockey team Track cycling team sprint Harrie Lavreysen (individual sprint) Harrie Lavreysen (keirin) Niek Kimmann (BMX) Mathieu van der Poel (Road cycling race) Sifan Hassan (road marathon) Rowing W1x Rowing M2x Rowing M4x Bart Lambriex/Floris van de Werken (skiff) Luuc Van Opzeeland (IQfoil) It's crazy that some of our most elite athletes Marrit Steenbergen, Femke Bol or Demi Vollering/Lorena Wiebes are not in this list, but their competitors O'Callaghan, McLaughlin and Kopecky are even stronger. Edit: forgot Puck Pieterse somehow! I guess Ferrand-Prevot wins this one...

Great silver medal for the 4x100m men, but not fast enough for Olympic Qualification

We won the game - after a 25-12 4th set. Very unnecessary loss in the 3rd set, watch that bite us in the end.... Looking forward to friday @Josh!

You can never rely on the volleyball team to perform when it really matters. We have choked so many deciding matches in the past 8 years since the 4th place in Rio, this race is far from over!

It definitely isn't over yet! I expect we will also lose 3-0 to later this week. Assuming we both beat the easier opponents and 3-0, then it's basically all about the matches - , - and the big one - .

No 4X400m men in the final is a big disappointment for the former Olympic silver medalists. Meanwhile the 4x100m men ran a strong race and only need to go 0,05 seconds faster to improve on their current tie with for the final Olympic qualification spot based on time.

Good luck to you too! May it be an exciting and fair competition all week!

Bit late to the party, but those were some amazing 400m finals!!

Much better race for Klaver after that mixed relay performance. It's going to be an interesting race with Klaver, Adeleke and Kaczmarek!

Between all the false starts, Van Klinken succeeds in her mission of medalling both the shot put and discus!! Two silvers for her

With Ganna and Pogacar as well, definitely going to be an exciting contest in Paris. The men's time trial has been a really exciting contest over the past decade.

I'm not sure if I agree with this. For viewership at the elite level (and for sponsors) the American model is maybe better, but I much prefer the grassroots model of the European sporting pyramid. It creates local engagement and a connection to grassroots talents. And with Champions Leagues and Euro cups in all team sports there is still the opportunity for the best teams to compete. If the CL becomes the normalised regular competition it also loses its prestige imo. Local competitions are also much more sustainable than weekly flight between say Copenhagen and Barcelona for handball games or Milan and Istanbull for volleyball games.

3 - 1 Really should've won this one 3-0, but at least we're staying close. How close you wonder? In the hypothetical case that would lose 1-3 to tonight, there will be only 0.02 points difference!! (in the favour of ) Really love how clearly the Volleyball World schedule and rankings display the ranking points and the consequences of every win or loss.

I thought of some different kind of changes when I saw the thread title: The dependance on gambling ads in nearly all sports. Stopping the decline of 'grassroots' club level sports More sports on public TV instead of every sport isolating itself on its own pay per view platform like Volleyballtv and whatever other sports have created.

hasn't exactly found a reliably high level either. Looks like we're 17-13 behind in the 3rd set atm.

1 - 1 so far. Wish I had Ziggo Sport to watch the game live during work atm. Would be a super important win versus the 6th ranked nation if we win this one!

Oh no, that's really sad news! I was excited to see him improving and considered him as a dark horse for a medal on the 800m or 1500m. He is THAT talented! We'll have to wait for LA 2028 (and Athletics world champs in between)

Totally offtopic, but it's a shame how reliant professional sports are on gambling profits and advertisements. I get that it works, we have the same national lottery funding in the Netherlands. The adverse effect however is that policy to combat gambling addiction (good idea!) leads to less funding for sports (bad idea!). That's not to even mention the unavoidable avalanche of gambling ads and sponsorships in all of professional sports.

If only we could send 2 Niek Kimmanns!

It's a real shame to see him miss out on the Olympics. The Decathlon is one of the most classic Olympic events to me and would have been even greater with a French medal candidate in Paris.

Thank you for the analysis! From a neutral standpoint a deciding head to head match would be amazing. As a worried Dutch fan I hope we are still close by then...

I wonder if it would also be unique if there are no podium sweeps at all these Games? I assume sweeps used to happen less often in the past, but feels like the last few Games have always seen a couple of sweeps (especially Winter Olympics).

And she's only 21! Very impressive result and very promising growth in her second senior year. I thought Clarisse Agbegnenou was the medal favorite in this class, but she was knocked out early today.

Götzis Decathlon Results 1. Damian Warner 8678 pts 2. Sven Roosen 8517 pts PB OQT 3. Johannes Erm 8462 pts 4. Ashley Moloney 8367 pts 5. Lindon Victor 8366 pts 6. Tim Nowak 8282 pts PB 7. Felix Wolter 8190 pts 8. Ken Mullings 8176 pts PB 9. Nils Laserich 8146 pts PB 10. Edgaras Bunkunskas 8098 pts PB Sven Roosen finished right behind Markus Rooth and Sander Skotheim in the U23 Euros last year, when Rooth and Skotheim had their breakthrough years with 8600+ pts results. Glad Roosen is catching up to his age group again with 6 PB's today! Götzis Heptathlon Results 1. Anouk Vetter 6642 pts WL 2. Annik Kälin 6506 pts 3. Michelle Atherley 6465 PB 4. Emma Oosterwegel 6337 pts 5. Vanessa Grimm 6307 pts 6. Tori West 6245 pts PB 7. Annie Kuns 6209 pts 8. Verena Mayr 6196 pts 9. Allie Jones 6185 pts 10. Ivona Dadic 6115 pts Vetter Not the best fields for Götzis, but still a great athmosphere and competition and a whole bunch of PBs across the board.

There is not much to focus on when McLaughlin only races about 2-3 times a year. Unless she suddenly turns up to Diamond Leagues and other competitions this season, it's going to feel really unsatisfying as a fan when she wins gold in Paris to be honest.