Styrka

Violette Braun  6'57 over 5000m is the best ever u20 time at sea-level. She's now very close to clinching a spot at the Olympics in the 3000m, which would be the first time a Frenchwoman qualified since 1988. What is more impressive is that 14 months ago, her name was absent of any speed skating database, as she had never started a race on ice of her life. 

Le retour. 
Les quotas sont déjà plus ou moins acquis dans les sports de neige, mais les qualifications sont en cours au niveau de la glace. 
 
Short-track (étape 3/4) : 4 athlètes, 10 quotas individuels 
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes 500 0 2 1000 2 2 1500 2 2 Relais
Non Non Mixte Oui   Ca avait commencé doucement à Montréal sur la première étape, un peu mieux sur la deuxième, ce qui laissait augurer un bon retour en Europe. Que nenni, troisième étape compliquée ce week-end en Pologne, même si on ne s'en sort finalement pas si mal.
Quentin Fercoq, le leader de l'équipe est à la rue, et on risque de ne pas avoir de quota sur 500m masculin (distance où il a été médaillé mondial). Il peut encore gratter une place au bénéfice d'un bon dernier week-end mais il va être mal placé au départ de son 500 (quasiment rédhibitoire). Les deux départs individuels sur 1000 et 1500 semblent assurés. 
Chez les filles on a récupéré un deuxième départ sur 500 (de 1 à 2), et perdu un sur 1500 (de 3 à 2 ce qui fait perdre une athlète à inscrire). On devrait réussir à garder deux départs par course. On a aussi fait un rapproché sur le relais au gré des chutes et des disqualifications (9ème pour 8 qualifiés) et mine de rien, avec le retrait du plus mauvais résultat à l'issue de la dernière étape on a notre destin entre nos mains (il faudra se comparer avec la Pologne).
Le relais mixte sera qualifié.
 
Patinage de vitesse (étape 2/4) : 5 athlètes, 5 quotas individuels
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes 500 0 0 1000 0 0 1500 1 0 3000/5000
1 1 5000/10000 1 0 Mass-start
1 0 Poursuite Oui Non Au bénéfice de son podium la poursuite par équipe masculine a validé son billet, ce qui assure trois athlètes à minima au départ à Milan. Logiquement 4 quotas individuels = 4 athlètes à inscrire chez les hommes, il faudrait que Belloir repasse dans les qualifiables sur la mass-start pour en avoir un cinquième, sachant qu'on pourra normalement aligner un deuxième coureur sur la mass-start en "bonus" même sans avoir deux quotas basiques. Les quotas individuels sont relativement sûrs et on n'ira pas en chercher d'autres normalement. 
Côté filles le quota de Braun sur 3000 est à confirmer mais elle est plutôt en bonne posture sans forcément avoir son destin entre ses mains. Il faudrait aller chercher un quota sur la mass-start pour obtenir une deuxième fille à inscrire et potentiellement deux départs sur cette épreuve (encore une fois quota bonus).
 
Bobsleigh (étape 1/7) : 6 athlètes, 4 quotas 
 
Epreuve Hommes Femmes Monobob - 1 Bob à 2 1 1 Bob à 4 1 - Romain Heinrich et Margot Boch devraient sans trop de problèmes assurer leur place dans les deux épreuves. D'autres équipages seront alignés plutôt en Coupe d'Europe, ce qui reste un moyen d'optimiser son classement, et ça sera à suivre. Chez les hommes avec le système de qualification qui mêle bob à 2 et bob à 4 il y a moins de prétendants puisque les équipages qui ne s'alignent pas à 4 sont hors course. 
 
Skeleton (étape 1/7) : 1 athlète, 1 quota
 
Deux athlètes sur le circuit, et comme expliqué au-dessus c'est paradoxalement celui engagé sur la coupe Nord-Américaine qui est le mieux placé, en l'occurrence Lucas Defayet, qui a gagné deux courses à Whistler. Une victoire sur les circuits secondaires (NorAm, Europe et Asie) rapporte l'équivalent d'une 13ème place en WC, ce qui est largement suffisant pour aller chercher son ticket. Le classement n'étant mis à jour qu'après chaque étape de WC il a une "course d'avance". Il va enchaîner à Park City et s'il aligne encore encore deux succès il aura déjà enregistré quatre courses bien solides sur les sept nécessaires au ranking. Autrement dit le job sera quasiment fait avant de revenir je présume sur la Coupe du Monde. Maxime Mingeon a fait la WC de Cortina mais il va redescendre en CE pour la suite, il ne se qualifiera probablement pas. 

Silver medal for  France in the men's team pursuit

Bronze for  Teo Rotar/Arnaud Gauthier-Rat!
 
First ever World Championships medal for France, what a dream week for them 

Results from Week 1:
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Foil World Cup #1 in Palma de Mallorca  (6-9 November 2025)
 
Men's Individual:
1. Alexander Choupenitch
2. Gergo Szemes
3. Guillaume Bianchi
3. Tommaso Martini
5. Chen Chih-Chieh
5. Edoardo Luperi
5. Marcello Olivares
5. Anton Borodachev  (Russia)
9. Alessio Foconi  
9. Daniel Dosa  
9. Maxime Pauty  
9. Kazuki Iimura  
9. Ho Shing Him Harris  
9. Gerek Meinhardt  
9. Kyota Kawamura  
9. Damiano Rosatelli  
 
Men's Team:
1. Individual Neutral Athletes  (Russia) (Barannikov - Borodachev A. - Borodachev K. - Mylnikov)
2. Italy  (Bianchi - Foconi - Macchi - Marini)
3. Hungary  (Balint - Dosa - Szemes - Toth)
4. Germany  (Barby - Faul - Kahl - Kappus)
5. Hong Kong  (Choi Chun - Ho Shing - Lam Ho - Leung Chin)
6. United States  (Itkin - Louie - Massialas - Olivares)
7. Japan  (Iimura - Kawamura - Matsuyama - Nagano)
8. Belgium  (De Greef - Geudvert - Nijs - van Campenhout)
 
Women's Individual:
1. Martina Favaretto  
2. Yuka Ueno
3. Eleanor Harvey
3. Komaki Kikuchi
5. Pauline Ranvier  
5. Anne Kleibrink  
5. Marta Martyanova  (Russia)
5. Martina Sinigalia
9. Arianna Errigo  
9. Eva Lacheray  
9. Carolina Stutchbury  
9. Emmie Nayl  
9. Carlotta Ferrari  
9. Francesca Palumbo  
9. Josephina Conway  
9. Ariadna Castro  
 
Women's Team:
1. Italy  (Batini - Cristino - Errigo - Favaretto)
2. United States  (Jing - Kiefer - Liu - Scruggs)
3. France  (Blaze - Lacheray - Patru - Ranvier)
4. Japan  (Azuma - Kikuchi - Tsuji - Ueno)
5. Ukraine  (Budenko - Myroniuk - Poloziuk - Sopit)
6. Canada  (Gu - Harvey - Hayes - Song)
7. South Korea  (Se-joo - By-eoli - Ji-hee - So-eun)
8. China  (Haoxuan - Zhihe - Xinyi)
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Sabre World Cup #1 in Alger  (6-9 November 2025)
 
Men's Individual:
1. Colin Heathcock
2. Fares Ferjani  
3. Oh Sang-uk  
3. Sebastien Patrice
5. Do Gyeong-dong  
5. Maxime Pianfetti  
5. Vlad Covaliu  
5. Musa Aymuratov  
9. Ahmed Hesham  
9. Adham Moataz  
9. Pavel Graudyn  (Russia)
9. Dario Cavaliere  
9. Mao Kokubo  
9. Leon Schlaffer  
9. Yuto Rikitake  
9. Ha Han-sol
 
Men's Team:
1. France  (Pianfetti - Patrice J.P. - Patrice S. - Garrigue)
2. Romania  (Dragomir - Covaliu - Ursachi - Nitu)
3. Japan  (Kokubo - Streets - Tsubo - Tsumori)
4. Individual Neutral Athletes  (Russia) (Ibragimov - Graudyn - Nasonov - Tiuliukov)
5. Uzbekistan  (Aymuratov - Kodirov - Abdukarimbekov - Abdazov)
6. South Korea  (Han-sol - Gyeong-dong - Sang-uk - Sang-won)
7. Germany  (Methner - Schenkel - Schlaffer - Seefeld)
8. United States  (Homer - Heathcock - Lukashenko - Morrill)
 
Women's Individual:
1. Jeon Ha-young
2. Sugar Katinka Battai
3. Yoana Ilieva
3. Alina Mikhailova  (Russia)
5. Despina Georgiadou  
5. Lucia Martin-Portugues  
5. Nisanur Erbil  
5. Olga Nikitina  (Russia)
9. Kim Jeong-mi  
9. Renata Katona  
9. Sara Balzer  
9. Zhang Xinyi  
9. Chiara Mormile  
9. Anna Spiesz  
9. Seo Ji-yeon  
9. Kira Keszei   
 
Women's Team:
1. South Korea  (Ha-young - Jeong-mi - Ji-yeon - So-yeon)
2. Hungary  (Battai - Katona - Szucs - Pusztai)
3. France  (Apithy - Balzer - Berder - Vongsavady)
4. China  (Jiarong - Qimiao - Jiayi - Xinyi)
5. Ukraine  (Gontsova - Bondar - Komashchuk - Korotchenko)
6. Japan  (Kaneko - Ozaki - Sano - Wakita)
7. Spain  (Martin-Portugues - Navarro - Perez Cuenca - Ventura)
8. Germany  (Eifler - Funke - Gette - Herbon)
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Complete Results Palma Mallorca & Complete Results Alger
 
Participating nations in Palma de Mallorca:       (Russia)                                                
 
Participating nations in Alger:         (Russia)                               
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Next:
- Epee World Cup #1 in Vancouver  (4-7 December 2025)
- Foil World Cup #2 in Fukuoka  (Men's) and Busan  (Women's) (5-7 December 2025)
- Sabre Grand Prix #1 in Orleans  (4-6 December 2025)

First location in Palma de Mallorca looks good and very safe:
 
https://www.instagram.com/ysaorathibus/reel/DQtThdwCD3U/

Since the 1990s, the Dutch Olympic Committee has treated sport like a business. Funding is directed toward disciplines with real medal potential (sailing, rowing, (track) cycling, hockey) rather than being spread thin across every sport. These sports that receive the most funding also happen to not be among the most popular Olympic sports if you look on a global scale, so less competition.
 
Sports that we’re not particularly good at but where the competition is high, such as badminton and table tennis get no funding, whereas breakdance, darts and freerunning did get some funding this year. 
 
At the same time, I think sports seemed to have become less important in the eyes of the governments of other (mainly Eastern European) countries such the former Soviet countries, Cuba, Romania and Bulgaria. As larger nations such as Russia and Germany restructured their sports systems after the Cold War, the Netherlands really invested in world-class facilities like Papendal and built expertise in these more niche Olympic sports. At Papendal for example, the Netherlands has built strong links between universities, scientists, and sports federations, turning athletes into data-driven projects focused on small gains. 
 
So yes, funding has increased, but mainly for the more niche sports that we have medal chances in. I think the investments in facilities like Papendal and having a lot of the top athletes and talents be centralized at those facilities where they can live, train and go to school, play a much bigger role. 

Latest World Championships Medal Count in the Road to Los Angeles 2028
 
2024-2028 Olympic Cycle Medal Count in the Road to Los Angeles 2028
 
2025 World Championships in the Road To Los Angeles 2028
 
Updated as of October 6th, 2025

I do love the graphics for the teams  
 

 

I hope Poland is back! Bronze medal for 4x (close to silver), 7 place for women's (1st place easily in final B - they will fight for final A in future for sure), 2x crew in final with a chance for medal, 5 place in semis and final A for mens 8 and still some I hope it will be better than in Paris.

I could missed it but it looks like some new rule - when some spots in semi-finals and finals are determined by best times.
Good decision!

Wow thanks for the insight! Nobody here talks about wrestling..
I will put Ghanem on my sh**list 

Wow thanks for the insight! Nobody here talks about wrestling..
I will put Ghanem on my sh**list 

One match yesterday made everybody upset and angry here. 
 
This is the handiwork of  Ibrahim Ghanem at 72kg quarterfinal. for the entire match he hit Danial Sohrabi all over his face with punch, slap, headbutt, shoulders and eventually ended up winning the match bcz of the end of Sohrabi's bleeding time ! (per UWW rules you have 4 minutes of bleeding time) 
 
Sohrabi came back the next day to win the bronze, with a shaved head. swollen blue eyes (both), lots of stitches on his lips, one eyebrow and his chin. 
 
Ironically the abusive French guy did that again in the final against  Ganizade in the last minute leaving him bloody. only this time the refs weren't corrupt/terrible and penalized him and therefore he lost the gold he never deserved. 
 
 
 

Lyles winning 200 sucks but medals for Hunt & Zapletalova made up for that

Crazy we still tied with GBR in the medal tally after 2 days

She thought she might be at the boxing championships that are happening right now. 😭

Worse, sexual harassment. 

She thought she might be at the boxing championships that are happening right now. 😭

And just like that, our Lead World Cup season finishes, and  get the Gold with Janja climbing much higher than the others (47+ vs. 38+ and below).
 
IFSC World Cup (Lead) - 04-06 Sept 2025 - Koper, SLO 
 
Men
 
Gold - Sorato Anraku 
Silver - Alberto Ginés López 
Bronze - Toby Roberts 
 
Women
 
Gold - Janja Garnbret 
Silver - Seo Chaehyun
Bronze - Laura Rogora 
 
And with this, Boulder and Lead individual seasons are finished.  One final Speed comp next week, then WCH after that!
 
World Cup Final Rankings - Boulder
 
Men
 
Gold - Sorato Anraku 
Silver - Mejdi Schalk 
Bronze- Sohta Amagasa 
 
Women
 
Gold - Oriane Bertone 
Silver - Mao Nakamaura 
Bronze - Annie Sanders 
 
 
World Cup Final Rankings - Lead
 
Men
 
Gold - Alberto Ginés López 
Silver - Sorato Anraku 
Bronze - Satone Yoshida 
 
Women
 
Gold - Erin McNeice 
Silver - Seo Chaehyun 
Bronze - Laura Rogora 
 
(Alberto has yet to win a Gold Medal at World Cup comps, yet his consistency has him atop the World Cup final rankings.  Congrats!)  (Oh, and he does have the Gold from Tokyo 2020.)   
 
(And despite only competing twice in Lead, Janja ends up 7th in the Lead World Cup Rankings.  That's what happens when you're a beast.)   
 
Congrats to all the athletes!
 
 

So...for the first time I had a look at the timetable.....and we in Europe have it pretty easy!  
Only a small number of overnight sessions "Evening" sessions lasting from mid morning to early afternoon Apart from the Road Events, no stupid finals in Morning Sessions!   Plenty of catch-up time at a reasonable hour Plenty of time for morning shopping, exercise etc before vegging out in front of the TV  Was preparing for a State of Siege, but life will be almost normal.

Results:
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Olympic Events:
 
Men's Canoe Single 1000m:
1. Martin Fuksa
2. Stefanos Dimopoulos
3. Balazs Adolf 
4. Catalin Chirila
5. Pablo Crespo
6. Wiktor Glazunow
7. David Bauschke
8. Serghei Tarnovschi  
9. Wu Shengyue  
10. Ivan Patapenka  (Belarus)
11. Ilya Pervukhin  (Russia)
12. Connor Fitzpatrick
 
Men's Canoe Double 500m:
1. Individual Neutral Athletes (Russia)  (Zakhar Petrov - Ivan Shtyl)
2. China  (Yu Yuebin - Yu Chenwei)
3. Hungary  (Kristof Kollar - Istvan Juhasz)
4. Brazil  (Gabriel Assuncao - Jacky Godmann)
5. Spain  (Joan Moreno - Diego Dominguez)
6. Italy  (Gabriele Casadei - Carlo Tacchini)
7. Lithuania  (Henrikas Zustautas - Vadim Korobov)
8. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus) (Uladzislau Paleshko - Danila Verashchaka)
9. Germany  (Nico Pickert - Conrad-Robin Scheibner)
10. Poland  (Wiktor Glazunow - Arsen Sliwinski)
11. Romania  (Ilie Sprincean - Oleg Nuta)
12. Canada  (Alix Plomteux - Andrew Billard)
 
Men's Kayak Single 1000m:
1. Balint Kopasz
2. Thomas Green
3. Fernando Pimenta
4. Josef Dostal
5. Agustin Vernice  
6. Samuel Balaz
7. Uladzislau Kravets  (Belarus)
8. Roi Rodriguez
9. Thorbjorn Rask
10. Jakob Thordsen
11. Hamish Lovemore
12. Jonas Ecker
 
Men's Kayak Double 500m:
1. Hungary  (Levente Kurucz - Bence Nadas)
2. Portugal  (Joao Ribeiro - Messias Baptista)
3. Germany  (Jacob Schopf - Max Lemke)
4. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus) (Uladzislau Kravets - Dzmitry Natynchyk)
5. Australia  (Thomas Green - Pierre van der Westhuyzen)
6. Lithuania  (Mindaugas Maldonis - Andrejus Olijnikas)
7. Italy  (Samuele Burgo - Tommaso Freschi)
7. Spain  (Enrique Adan - Carlos Garcia Ruiz)
9. Individual Neutral Athletes (Russia) (Aleksandr Sergeyev - Viktor Gavrilenko)
10. Serbia  (Veljko Vjestica - Marko Dragosavljevic)
11. France  (Quilian Koch - Francis Mouget) 
12. Slovenia  (Matevz Manfreda - Anze Pikon)
 
Men's Kayak Four 500m:
1. Portugal  (Goncalves - Ribeiro - Baptista - Casinha)
2. Hungary  (Opavszky - Fodor - Balogh - Tamasi)
3. Spain  (del Rio - Graneri - Arevalo - Germade)
4. Germany  (Rendschmidt - Winkelmann - Schopf - Lemke)
5. Lithuania  (Maldonis - Caplinskij - Navakauskas - Seja)
6. Czech Republic  (Kulich - Havel - Spicar - Slouf)
7. Italy  (Rizza - Lanciotti - Volo - Penato)
8. Poland  (Stepun - Vichev - Witczak - Kajdanek)
9. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus)  (Borykau - Kravets - Litvinau - Natynchyk)
10. Denmark  (Bock - Bro Madsen - Graversen - Gairy Aasmul)
11. Individual Neutral Athletes (Russia)  (Sergeyev - Ershov - Spesivtsev - Gavrilenko)
12. Belgium  (Sikkens - Peters - Bastiaens - Vangeel)
 
 
 
 
Women's Canoe Single 200m:
1. Liudmyla Luzan  
2. Yarisleidis Cirilo
3. Ekaterina Shliapnikova  (Russia)
4. Katie Vincent
5. Viktoriia Yarchevska
6. Dorota Borowska
7. Olympia Della Giustina
8. Kincso Takacs
9. Denisa Rahova
10. Yuliya Trushkina  (Belarus)
11. Valdenice Conceicao  
12. Beatriz Fernandes
 
Women's Canoe Double 500m:
1. Ukraine  (Liudmyla Luzan - Iryna Fedoriv)
2. Canada  (Zoe Wojtyk - Katie Vincent)
3. Spain  (Angels Moreno - Viktoriia Yarchevska)
4. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus)  (Anhelina Bardanouskaya - Volha Kimava)
5. Hungary  (Agnes Kiss - Bianka Nagy)
6. Moldova  (Daniela Cociu - Maria Olarasu)
7. China  (Sun Mengya - Ma Yanan)
8. United States  (Audrey Harper - Andreea Ghizila)
9. Portugal  (Beatriz Fernandes - Ines Penetra)
10. Poland  (Sylwia Szczerbinska - Dorota Borowska)
11. Uzbekistan  (Shokhsanam Sherzodova - Nilufar Zokirova)
12. Germany  (Maike Jakob - Hedi Kliemke)
 
Women's Kayak Single 500m:
1. Anna Pulawska
2. Natalia Drobot
3. Zsoka Csikos
4. Aimee Fisher
5. Wang Nan
6. Milica Novakovic
7. Lucrezia Zironi
8. Beatriz Briones
9. Mia Medved
10. Julia Lagerstam  
11. Michelle Russell  
12. Barbora Betlachova  
 
Women's Kayak Double 500m:
1. Poland  (Martyna Klatt - Anna Pulawska)
2. Australia  (Kailey Harlen - Natalia Drobot)
3. Germany  (Paulina Paszek - Pauline Jagsch)
4. New Zealand  (Lisa Carrington - Tara Vaughan)
5. Netherlands  (Selma Konijn - Ruth Vorsselman)
6. Slovenia  (Anja Osterman - Mia Medved)
7. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus)  (Ina Sauchuk - Uladzislava Skryhanava)
8. France  (Manon Hostens - Vanina Paoletti)
9. Spain  (Estefania Fernandez - Begoña Lazkano)
10. Hungary  (Blanka Kiss - Anna Lucz)
11. Belgium  (Hermien Peters - Lize Broekx)
12. China  (Li Dongyin - Yu Shimeng)
 
Women's Kayak Four 500m:
1. Spain  (Ouzande - Val - Fernandez - Pardo)
2. China  (Dongyin - Shimeng - Nan - Ji)
3. Individual Neutral Athletes (Belarus)  (Tkachova - Skryhanava - Sauchuk - Kushner)
4. New Zealand  (Carrington - Hoskin - Vaughan - Matehaere)
5. Slovakia  (Bugar - Bergendi - Gavorova - Sidova)
6. Norway  (Virik - Sletsjoe - Stensholt - Strand Amundsen)
7. Hungary  (Fojt - Pupp - Ujfalvi - Kohalmi)
8. Australia  (Harlen - Drobot - Clarke - Bailey)
9. Great Britain  (Lewis - Kerr - Armstrong - Clark)
10. Argentina  (Garro - Rojas - Sequeira - Dalto)
11. Germany  (Paszek - Diederichs - Jagsch - Spielhagen)
12. Poland  (Naja - Ostrowska - Olszewska - Kakol)
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Complete Results

To be clear, it may indeed be quite bad, but unlike what those headlines suggest, luckily I don't think we need to fear for her life considering she posted on her own social media already.
 
What she is describing doesn't exactly seem like a healthy way to train, by the way, avoiding lunch breaks and with that avoiding important nutrition (and rest) and so on...
 
 

Excellent HJ win for  Pasquier, he was sailing over in all the key jumps.