Nickyc707

Deaths of Olympians in January
 
 Aleksandr Manechinsky, 61 - Swimming
 Roman Monchenko, 55 - Rowing (1×B)
 Harvey Reti, 82 - Boxing
 Bill Hobbs, 70 - Rowing (1×S)
 Charles Oguk, 55 - Hockey
 Mike Wheeler, 84 - Athletics (1×B)
 Jaime Monzo, 73 - Swimming
 Karl Saitl, 95 - Weightlifting
 Bergljot Sandvik-Johansen, 97 - Gymnastics
 Guido Messina, 89 - Cycling (1×G)
 Maurice Moucheraud, 86 - Cycling (1×G)
 Carlos Giron, 65 - Diving (1×S)
 Sophie Kratzer, 30 - Ice Hockey
 Rhona Wurtele, 97 - Alpine Skiing
 Kazim Ayvaz, 81 - Wrestling (1×G)
 Larry Amar, 47 - Hockey
 Robert Archibald, 39 - Basketball
 Duje Bonacic, 90 - Rowing (1×G)
 Kobe Bryant, 41 -Basketball (2×G)
 Jos Bernard, 95 - Gymnastics
 Mike Dancis, 80 - Basketball
 Blagoja Georgievski, 69 - Basketball (1×S)
 
Kobe Bryant's sad death has been discussed widely in this thread and he is one of three athletes who passed away this month who competed at the Games within the past decade  Robert Archibald (39) competed at the 2012 Olympics, while Sophie Kratzer (30) who sadly died of cancer took part in the 2014 Games.
 
Among the other athletes who died in January perhaps the most notable was Guido Messina of Italy who won a gold medal in cycling's team pursuit in 1952. He was the individual pursuit world champion five times between 1948 and 1956, but unfortunately had retired by the time this event was introduced into the Olympic programme in 1964. 
 
There have been a number of deaths in the past year of champions from the last Games to be held in Tokyo in 1964. The most recent is Kazim Ayvaz of Turkey who won the gold medal in the lightweight division of the Greco-Roman wrestling.
 
 
 

maybe you're right, but except for Football and Athletics, we can say the same for almost every other sport...
 
look at rugby...it's only about France, Argentina and the Commonwealth Nations...but still, the RWC is considered one of the biggest sports events in the world...
 
the same goes for Handball, for instance...who gives it a crap outside north/central/eastern Europe?
 
and I could go on for the rest of the day...

Deaths of Olympians in December
 
Miguelina Cobian, 77 - Athletics (1×S)
 Zvonimir Vujin, 76 - Boxing (2×B)
 Mike Lindsay, 81 - Athletics
 Stig Sollander, 93 - Alpine Skiing (1×B)
 Sir Peter Snell, 80 - Athletics (3×G)
 Roger Midgley, 95 - Hockey (1×B)
 Jorge Hernandez, 65 - Boxing (1×G)
  Yuri Belyayev, 85 - Football (1×G)
 Bernard Lefevre, 89 - Football
 Karin Balzer, 71 - Athletics (1×G, 1×B)
 Abdullah Khodabandeh, 83 - Wrestling
 Jagdev Singh Rai, 50 - Hockey
 Roland Matthes, 69 - Swimming (4×G, 2×S, 2×B)
Stefan Angelov, 72 - Wrestling (2×B)
 John Simonian, 84 - Hockey
 Giacomo Bazzan, 69 - Cycling
 Roma Cuyas i Sol, 81 - Administrator
 Vilhjalmur Einarsson, 85 - Athletics (1×S)
 Giovanni Paliaga, 88 - Cycling
 
Peter Snell is probably the most distinguished athlete in this month's list and has been commented on earlier in this thread. There are some other notable individuals. Stig Solander of Sweden was a forerunner of the legendary Ingemar Stenmark and his bronze in the slalom at the 1956 Winter Olympics was his country's first in alpine skiing. Roman Matthes of the former East Germany achieved the double in the men's 100 & 200m backstroke in both 1968 and 1972. Vilhjalmur Einarsson won Iceland's first ever Olympic medal in the men's triple jump in 1956 and one of only four overall to date.

Deaths of Olympians in December
 
Miguelina Cobian, 77 - Athletics (1×S)
 Zvonimir Vujin, 76 - Boxing (2×B)
 Mike Lindsay, 81 - Athletics
 Stig Sollander, 93 - Alpine Skiing (1×B)
 Sir Peter Snell, 80 - Athletics (3×G)
 Roger Midgley, 95 - Hockey (1×B)
 Jorge Hernandez, 65 - Boxing (1×G)
  Yuri Belyayev, 85 - Football (1×G)
 Bernard Lefevre, 89 - Football
 Karin Balzer, 71 - Athletics (1×G, 1×B)
 Abdullah Khodabandeh, 83 - Wrestling
 Jagdev Singh Rai, 50 - Hockey
 Roland Matthes, 69 - Swimming (4×G, 2×S, 2×B)
Stefan Angelov, 72 - Wrestling (2×B)
 John Simonian, 84 - Hockey
 Giacomo Bazzan, 69 - Cycling
 Roma Cuyas i Sol, 81 - Administrator
 Vilhjalmur Einarsson, 85 - Athletics (1×S)
 Giovanni Paliaga, 88 - Cycling
 
Peter Snell is probably the most distinguished athlete in this month's list and has been commented on earlier in this thread. There are some other notable individuals. Stig Solander of Sweden was a forerunner of the legendary Ingemar Stenmark and his bronze in the slalom at the 1956 Winter Olympics was his country's first in alpine skiing. Roman Matthes of the former East Germany achieved the double in the men's 100 & 200m backstroke in both 1968 and 1972. Vilhjalmur Einarsson won Iceland's first ever Olympic medal in the men's triple jump in 1956 and one of only four overall to date.

Andrew Nicholson finally winning Badminton Horse Trials in his 37th attempt.

Tough question.
 
The greatest Olympic moment of the decade - David Rudisha winning the 800m in a new WR with two NRs and four PBs from the athletes who followed him home.
 
Greatest British Olympic moment - We have been fortunate to have a lot of those but for me Nick Skelton winning the equestrian jumping gold medal at the age of 58 at his seventh Olympics after being told he would never ride again after breaking his back was very emotional.
 
Greatest Paralympic moment - The enthusiasm of the capacity crowds for the 2012 Games which took the Paralympics to a whole new level. Then four years later attendances at the Paralympics surpassing those at the Olympics.
 
General international sport - 2012 Ryder Cup or "Miracle in Medinah" when Europe's golfers went into the last day trailing the USA 10-6 and came back in the face of hostile crowds to win 14.5-13.5.
 
Domestic sport - I'm not a football fan but even I got caught up in my home town club Leicester City winning the English Premier League at odds of 5,000/1 in the 2015/16 season.
 
 

Tough question.
 
The greatest Olympic moment of the decade - David Rudisha winning the 800m in a new WR with two NRs and four PBs from the athletes who followed him home.
 
Greatest British Olympic moment - We have been fortunate to have a lot of those but for me Nick Skelton winning the equestrian jumping gold medal at the age of 58 at his seventh Olympics after being told he would never ride again after breaking his back was very emotional.
 
Greatest Paralympic moment - The enthusiasm of the capacity crowds for the 2012 Games which took the Paralympics to a whole new level. Then four years later attendances at the Paralympics surpassing those at the Olympics.
 
General international sport - 2012 Ryder Cup or "Miracle in Medinah" when Europe's golfers went into the last day trailing the USA 10-6 and came back in the face of hostile crowds to win 14.5-13.5.
 
Domestic sport - I'm not a football fan but even I got caught up in my home town club Leicester City winning the English Premier League at odds of 5,000/1 in the 2015/16 season.
 
 

Peter Snell  3 time Olympic gold medalist, 2 time Commonwealth Gold medalist, and former 800m and mike WR holder.

Jimmy Gressier won the U23 race and of course can't cross the finish line in a normal way  He very much likes himself, it seems  

Race walkers are a durable bunch. Don Thompson the 1960 Olympic champion in the 50 km walk wore his country's vest for the last time at the age of 58 in 1991.

On the other hand, walking possibly the last ever Olympic 50k at age 50, that's something.

Deaths of Olympians in November
 
 Elio Locatelli, 76 - Speed skating
 Alain Porthault, 90 - Athletics
 Bengt-Erik Grahn, 78 - Alpine skiing
 Zoltan Domotov, 84 - Water polo
 Mireille Cayre, 72 - Gymnastics
 Bridget Adams, 91 - Figure skating
 Sandrine Daudet, 47 - Short track speed skating
 Fiorella Negro, 81 - Figure skating
 Irina Cermakovic, 80 - Field hockey
 Maximilian Raub, 93 - Canoe sprint
 Irma Cordero, 77 - Volleyball
 Fabrizio Nassi, 68 - Volleyball
 Uwe Rathjen, 76 - Handball
 Vaclav Pavkovic, 83 - Rowing
 George Breen, 84 - Swimming
 Tsvyatko Pashkulov, 74 - Wrestling
 Bohumel Tomasek, 83 - Basketball 
 Michael Fray, 72 - Athletics
 Jacques Dupont, 91 - Cycling
 Eli Pasquale, 59 - Basketball
 Gerry Carr, 83 - Athletics
 Sigvard Ericsson, 89 - Speed skating
 Dimitri Vasilenko, 43 - Gymnastics
 Stuart Fitzsimmons, 62 - Alpine skiing
 Istvan Szivos, 71 - Water polo
 Luciano De Genova, 88 - Weightlifting
 
In addition, two deaths from this summer of medallists from the Tokyo games in 1964.
 
 Ken Matthews, 84 - Gold medallist in the 20 km walk
 Basil Heatley, 85 - Silver medallist in the marathon
 
 
 
 

yes they are the 2 brothers

Brother.

BIG UPDATE
 
I've updated the sports in which nations can qualify in, including remove some which they are no longer possible to qualify in. I've also took into account tripartite invitations. While the invitations can sometimes be a bit random, I tried my best to see which active nations have a chance at getting one.
 
Fun Facts:
- 12/70 remaining nations only have chances in athletics or athletics+swimming.
- Senegal has the most sports where it has a chance at qualifying in with 11. Behind them are Cameroon, Jordan and Montenegro with 9 each.
- 60/70 remaining nations are eligible to obtain a tripartite invitation. The 10 that aren't includes...
 

 
Without tripartite invitations the nations that will struggle to qualify many athletes are Bolivia and Republic of Congo as they only have chances in three sports each

and finally, Arianna Errigo is back to full success...
 
hopefully, it's a sign of renaissance and she doesn't mess up with her fragile mind when the season comes to the crucial moments...
 
however, as I wrote before, this is definitely not a good day for our fencing...too many flops compared to the only (usual) event where we always come up with something, even in our worst days...

to the finals!!

The winners get promoted, the losers get relegated.

ops...
 
I'm gonna fix it immediately...

Í'm just hoping Wales wins and it's pretty simple: South Africa already were world champions, Wales never reached the final, I'd find it awesome to see a new team in the final.

Yes, the southern hemisphere rugby countries tend to think they are the only ones who can play the game properly and often belittle the game as played in the northern hemisphere. An all northern hemisphere final will be a real shock to the system for the southern hemisphere countries and lead to a lot of soul searching.

This is the first time since 1993 that neither China or Japan managed to win a gold medal. Very surprising so close to Tokyo.

I meant they are not replaceable during the event unlike say a bicycle during the road race or time trial. I just wonder if we'll all be saying it is entirely fair if a nation gets through the cross country phase with three clear rounds and is comfortably leading the competition but is then forced to withdraw following the intervention of the veterinarians. As I say I'm just playing devil's advocate as I don't believe it is directly comparable with other sports. In any event there are are other events where an individual can perform poorly and still get a medal and I'm thinking particularly of all the other team sports.

Becky is Rebecca
 

And two of them are the same person!