OlympicsFan

Not sure what the official definition of „star“ is, but here are my hopes for 2028: Potential top 8 in pool swimming: Lukas Märtens (200/400/800 free, 20 back) Arne Schubert (400/800/1500 free, 400 IM) Sven Schwarz (800/1500 free) Oliver Klemet (400/800/1500 free) Johannes Liebmann (800/1500 free) Melvin Imodou (100/200 breast) Lucas Matzerath (100/200 breast) Kaii Winkler (100 free/fly) Luca Armbruster (100 fly) Cedric Büssing (200/400 IM) Isabel Gose (400/800/1500 free) Leonie Märtens (400/800/1500 free) Angelina Köhler (100 fly) Alina Baievych (200 fly) Linda Roth (200 IM) Potential top 8 in athletics: Amanal Petros (Marathon) Simon Batz (Long Jump) Clemens Prüfer (discus throw) Steven Richter (discus throw) Mika Sosna (discus throw) Max Dehning (javelin throw) Merlin Hummel (hammer throw) Amadeus Gräber (decathlon) Leo Neugebauer (decathlon) Olivia Gürth (3000 m SC) Lea Meyer (3000 m SC) Jolanda Kallabis (1500 m/3000 m SC) Mikaelle Assani (long jump) Yemisi Ogunleye (shot put) Nina Ndubuisi (shot put) Curly Brown (discus throw) Milina Wepiwe (discus throw) Mirja Lukas (javelin throw) Sandrina Sprengel (heptathlon) Other athletes that will hopefully make big improvements within the next four years: Moritz Wesemann (Diving) Luca Spiegel (track cycling) Richard Vogel (equestrian) Helen Briem (golf) Helen Kevric (artistic gymnastics) Alexandra Föster (rowing) Anna Janssen (shooting) Annett Kaufmann & Koharu Itagaki (table tennis)

Total: 61 20 20 19 19 17 14 12 11 11 10 9 9 9 8 7 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Women: 29 13 11 11 11 9 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Mixed: 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Top 8 finishes: Men: 31 10 9 9 8 7 7 6 6 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Germany will be missing three promising athletes/medal contenders (Jana Becker in women’s 800 m, Milina Wepiwe in women’s discus throw and Clara Hegemann in women’s hammer throw). I am most interested to see the performance of the following German athletes: Steven Freund (men’s triple jump) Amadeus Gräber (men’s decathlon) Johanna Martin (women’s 400 m) Jolanda Kallabis (women’s 1500 m) Curly Brown & Nadjela Wepiwe (women’s discus throw) Nova Kienast (women’s hammer throw) Mirja Lukas (women’s javelin throw) Hopefully Martin and Kallabis will be healthy and close to their best.

Will be interesting to see how many of the medalists will go on to medal at the 2028 Olympics. The following athletes from the 2021 edition of the junior world championships medaled in Paris: Tebogo Wanyonyi Alekna Cherotich A bit surprising that only one female athlete, but three male athletes showed such a rapid improvement within the last three years. Normally you would expect female athletes to become world class at an earlier age.

Have to say that I am deeply hurt by the fact that no one seems to care about the discrimination against men in synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics. The Paris Olympics will, first and foremost, be remembered for their support of toxic anti-/non-masculinity.

They should try their luck at athletics, but the U.S. probably wouldn’t like that … Maybe Uzbekistan could naturalize some russian gymnasts/race runners.

I think China shouldn’t be satisfied with the results here. By now they should be ahead of the U.S., given how good they already were in 2008. China is inexistent in a lot of sports with tons of medals (athletics, rowing, judo, track cycling). Number of top 8 finishes in women’s track events (athletics): France: 6 Netherlands: 6 Jamaica: 6 China: 0 Even Japan is lightyears ahead of China in track events. Time of the fastest athlete in women’s 800 m this year: 2:01.88 Time of the 13th fastest athlete in women’s 800 m this year: 2:01.69 Time of the second fastest athlete in women’s 800 m this year: 2:04.46 Time of the 23rd fastest athlete in women’s 800 m this year: 2:04.22 Time of the fastest athlete in women’s 1500 m this year: 4:15.62 Time of the 31st fastest athlete in women’s 1500 m this year: 4:15.50 Time of the 2nd fastest athlete in women’s 1500 m this year: 4:20.83 Time of the 52nd fastest athlete in women’s 1500 m this year: 4:20.67

I think Padar and Jackl could medal in 2028.

Probably isn’t the right thread, but I can recommend the following website with films about past Olympics (in case anybody hasn’t seen them yet): https://olympics.com/de/originalserien/official-films/

Are you actively trying to make the U.S. even less popular or do you just not realize how annoying you are? Even beatmen is less biased than you are.

Mitchell? Please don’t tell me that you are talking about women’s track cycling sprint … Calling her the favorite is like calling Germany the favorite in women’s basketball.

At least Finland is very high up the world happiness ranking, even without Olympic medals.

Objectively the U.S. has more medals because they won more medals …

They should completely destroy their economy, like southern European countries, and then beg other European nations for billions of euros, so that they can invest in sports and keep the population sedated.

What makes you think that China is improving in every sport, when they won a lot more medals in the past? I don’t see them improving in team sports or athletics for example.

If the nation with by far the biggest talent pool also is the nation that cares the most about that sport, then it will be very difficult to break that dominance. Obviously the IOC could for example only allow one athlete per nation, which would make China more vulnerable, but that would be unfair to them. Maybe they can find an American billionaire that offers one million dollars to whoever beats the Chinese at the Olympics … Personally I would like to see them reducing the number of attempts (only 4 instead of 6) to make results less predictable. Less attempts = More surprises.

Are there actually nations that have tons of hobby divers? Never heard of it, same is true for sports like modern pentathlon, track cycling or ski jumping.

Not sure what those „sins“ have to do with anything … You could have also mentioned the Chinese „sins“ (Tibet, Uyghurs, Taiwan, Hong Kong). Still Asian countries feel much more like „grass roots sports nations“ when you just look at the (healthiness of) population. I think being the number one in sports is very important for the American identity (especially when they have no war to cheer for), so it would be interesting to see what happens if China takes that away from them for good. We saw what happened when the Soviet Union did it. „Bread and circuses“ has been a very effective approach to keep the population sedated/distracted for at least 2000 years.

What does „grass roots sporting nation“ even mean? a) The Chinese practiced fighting „sports“ (king fu) for at least 1000 years before the U.S. even became a thing. b) When you walk through a random American city, you certainly wouldn’t get the impression of a „grass roots sporting nation“. You would get the impression that at least 90 % of their people are morbidly obese (which is only a slight exaggeration), but maybe Ozempic will „solve“ that problem …

Ok, good to know. Still concerning that you weren’t able to get my point.

Impressive by New Zealand to have multiple medalists even without McCartney, Adams and Walsh.

What an insane level in women’s javelin throw … 63 m for silver … Feels like a wasted chance for Tzengko and Vilagos. I think there is also a 15 year old Chinese who threw 63 m this year …

Too bad, given how weak javelin throw is nowadays. Back in the days of Spotakova, Obergföll and Avakumova it took 68 m just to win a medal. At least you got a bronze in women’s 400 m and if I remember correctly also a medal in men’s hammer throw. Too bad that you completely lost the plot in men’s 800 m. What happened to Ennaoui and Roznicki?