Vic Liu

is in and I already made the choice. I will post it these two days.

Eileen Gu said she sprained her knees and she will be back in a couple of weeks.

Water Polo qualification document updated and confirmed continental qualifier date and location. Asian qualifier is Asian Games in Hangzhyou, China.

very tricky situation but no serious discussion yet in China. It will not only affect China, other Asian powerhouse like Japan and Korea will also be affected in terms of quotas. I guess it will not be easy to implement.

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Year of the Rabbit.

Well prepared during off season

China published some data of 2022 today. The point is that population of 2022 is 1,411,750,000 and 850,000 less than that of 2021. So after Japan and Korea, China officially enter of era of negative population growth. The population of India either already surpassed China or will surpass in 2023.

No upsets. All five world no.1s won the tournament.

Naraoka vs Axelsen definitely the most attractive final tomorrow. Actually every match of Naraoka of this tournament is very worth watching and he is the super rising star of badminton.

17yo Shang Juncheng advanced to main draw and it's first time 3 Chinese men in the grand slam main draw

China gave up counting over one night as too many people infected at the same time. The number you see I think basically are the ones newly hospitalized and need confirmed to use the almost free health care. But majority just buy some medicine and stay home to recover themselves. Like most other countries, Chinese don’t care about the number anymore and just move on.

Very shocking to me. Zhao Xintong in my mind is a very gentle, polite, disciplined player. I could never link him to match fixing for gambling before. I think all 10 Chinese suspended players linked to Liang Wenbo who was the first one being suspended. He said he would let the thing going big on social media after being investigated. One of the suspended player said on social media that he was forced to fix the match under the pressure of Liang Wenbo only once as a young player.

Without fencing, It would be de facto a running event. With fencing, it's an event combining fencing and running. And it used to be an event combining fencing, running and luck.

Daniel Grassl is reported joining Tutberidze's group for training and sorta shocked figure skating fans.

Almost half population(700 million) got infected in December, 2022 this single month. As many of you already know, Omicron variant is highly contagious but with mild symptoms. Still the sudden surge created stress to hospitals and unavoidably some elderly with underlying disease passed away. However the peak has past now and people are ready to get life back to normal. I am already on my new year's vacation after Covid curbs lifted. The hype doesn't make too much sense right now, at least for Chinese.

Happy new year from 2023 2022 is a tough year for me and most Chinese friends facing lockdown/semi-lockdown/uncertainty of a potential lockdown. Finally it’s all over. Hope that 2023 is year of happiness and progress for all.

Best 10 athletes 2022 by Xinhua news agency ( fairly reflected ordinary Chinese sports fans‘ view ) Gu Ailing, Freestyle Skiing Lionel Messi, Football Irene Schouten, Speed Skating Eliud Kipchoge, Athletics Armand Duplantis, Athletics Karim Benzema, Football Rafael Nadal, Tennis Katie Ledecky, Swimming Iga Swiatek, Tennis Max Verstappen, Auto Racing

Best 10 Athletes 2022 by Xinhua news agency 1. Gu Ailing(W, 19, Freestyle Skiing) - 2 golds and 3 medals on Beijing WOG, phenomenal skiing icon 2. Gao Tingyu(M, 25, Speed Skating) - First Chinese male speed skating WOG champion and 500m WOG record holder 3. Su Yiming(M, 18, Snowboarding) - First Chinese snowboarding WOG champion 4. Xu Mengtao(W, 32, Freestyle Skiing) - 4-time WOG veteran and finally winning ariel gold at home 5. Wang Jianan(M, 26, Athletics) - First Asian long jumping worlds champion 6. Sui Wenjing(W, 27, Figure Skating)/Han Cong(M, 30, Figure Skating) - Second Chinese WOG figure skating champion after 12 years waiting 7. Yang Hongqiong(W, 33, Para Cross-Country Skiing) - 3 Paralympics golds and flag bearer of Paralympics closing ceremony 8. Zheng Qinwen(W, 20, Tennis) - WTA Newcomer of the year 9. Zhang Weili(W, 32, MMA) - UFC Women's Strawweight Champion 10. Chen Yuxi(W, 17, Diving)/Chen Hongchan(W, 15, Diving) - Diving worlds champion and popular diving athletes in China

Some follow-ups of the mass covid curbs protests. As some of you may already noticed, Chinese government decided lifting ALL Covid curbs nationwide at the same time. The result is everyone I know including me got/getting/will get infected on December. I am already recovered with mild symptoms. My parents are still under recovery and most of friends are infected and recovered. Beijing is finally back on track being alive with certainty and confidence.

Athletics is finally released.

What a fantastics game and big congrats to and Messi.

Can't believe it

Some minor updates in red when 2022 season over Archery: Full team. 6 athletes. Artistic Swimming: Favorite gold contender if Russia absent. 8 athletes Athletics: A few more than Tokyo if more tournaments participated with Covid curbs lifted. 54-60 athletes Badminton: Full team. 16 athletes Basketball: Women's team and Women's 3x3. 16 athletes Beach Volleyball: One or two pairs of women. 2-4 athletes Boxing: A few more than Tokyo as we are the host of Asian Games as qualifier and chaos of Tokyo's qualifier. 8-10 athletes Breaking: One boy and One girl are promising based on recent performance and another girl is possible. 2-3 athletes Canoeing - Slalom: Two or three from mk1/wk1/wc1. 2-3 athletes Canoeing - Sprint: Full team for Canoe and half team for Kayak. 13-15 athletes Cycling - BMX: At least one and possible two quotas for women's freestyle given winning World Cup stage gold and silver 0 1-2 athletes Cycling - Mountain Bike: Continental quotas. 1-2 athletes Cycling - Road: Barely get the quota or none. 0-2 athletes Cycling - Track: Progress expected Full team for women and at least one team quota for men. 11-14 athletes Diving: Full quotas but some athletes will attend two events. 10-12 athletes Equestrian: No more team quotas. 1-2 athletes Fencing: Two or three team quotas and rest are individuals. 10-12 athletes Field Hockey: 50% possibility of women's team. 0 or 16 athletes Football: 50% possibility of women's team. 0 or 18 athletes Golf: Full quotas for non world ranking top15. 4 athletes Gymnastics - Artistic: Full team. 10 athletes Gymnastics - Rhythmic: Group should be fine, one individual is quite likely. 5-6 athletes Gymnastics - Trampoline: Full team. 4 athletes Handball: No possibilities. 0 Judo: Very difficult for men and women should be fine. 6-8 athletes Marathon Swimming: continental quotas should be fine and rest is by luck. 2-3 athletes Modern Pentathlon: Full team. 4 athletes Rowing: Most unpredictable sports and my guess is a few less than Tokyo. 21-29 athletes Rugby Sevens: 50% possibility of women's team. 0 or 12 athletes Sailing: We may lose quotas of one or two events, and a few more may lose if Asian Games is not continental qualifier. 10-14 athletes 8-12 athletes Shooting: Possibly drop several quotas of men's shotgun and rest should be fine. 21-24 athletes Skateboarding: Same as Tokyo. 1-2 athletes Sport Climbing: Almost full quotas for speed and possible one or two quotas for boulder and lead. 4-6 athletes Surfing: Possible one quota for women 0 0-1 athlete Swimming: A few more than Tokyo with covid curbs lifted. 38-46 athletes Table Tennis: Full team. 6 athletes Taekwondo: 4-6 athletes Tennis: Full team for women and possible one or two men. 6-7 athletes Triathlon: Maybe one continental quota. 0-1 athlete Volleyball: Women's team should be fine. 12 athletes Water Polo: Women's team should be fine. 12 athletes Weightlifting: Full quotas. 6 athletes Wrestling: Similar to Tokyo. 10-12 athletes Pessimistic: 346 345 Optimistic: 453 454 Realistic: Approx 400 (London 396, Rio 405, Tokyo 406)

It's a full A team. But apparently not everyone is on their best condition. I don't know the reasons either. Covid is a possible reason but I wouldn't blame on it as it's their choice to go abroad late and with no enough time to adjust themselves.