OlympicsFan

Hong Kong could win medals in both swimming (olympic disciplines only) and fencing, the only other nations that will achieve that are Italy, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, GB, China, USA and maybe Ukraine/Brazil/France. Much bigger countries like Japan or Germany won't achieve that.

The comparison in athletics would be 400 m and we all know how dirty the 400 m was historically.

You "lost" 4 gold medals in fencing compared to 2018, but at this rate you are gonne make it up in swimming ...

Lucky with what? You produce new talents out of nowhere every year, it's not like you got lucky with 1 or 2 generational talents like Sweden with Sjöstrom or Hungary with Hosszu. I am always skeptical when a nation is much stronger on the women's side in endurance sports, used to be the same with the GDR and chinese women in swimming/middle distance running in the early 90's.

Another surprisingly slow race and another final without medal for the US, pretty bad results for them so far.

Also no chance to give a medal to a german athlete at the fencing world championships ...

Makes no sense, then why are the Netherlands so bad in swimming ... ?!

Our favorite former fencer with another random appearance ... Fun fact: Did you guys know that he won an olympic gold medal in men's team foil at the 1976 olympics?

Could someone please tell me why Canada got so freakishly strong in women's swimming (apart from hiring a great coach)?

Waaaaaay slower than expected, but expected winner. Not sure if Ruck regrets dropping the 200 free now ...

What about 2018? I don't know what it is, but italian swimming has found something after 2016. Everyone peaking at the right time + new talents (Miressi, De Tullio, Martinenghi, Burdisso, Ceccon, Quadarella, Cusinato, Gaetani, Pilato) every year. Currently Italy is number 2 in europe (behind Russia) and number 6 in the world behind USA, Russia, Australia, China and Japan.

If Sun Yang is their leader, then help us god ...

Duncan Scott and Mack Horton are my new idols. It is just so sad that they feel the need to do this, because they don't trust FINA to do the right thing. Apparently FINA hasn't learned anything from what happened to UCI some years ago.

I don't get it ... I mean it is one thing to blatantly cheat and then just don't give a shit about what other people think (like Efimova), but how can you cheat so blatantly and then be surprised that other people don't respect you? I almost have the feeling as if he is only surrounded by people in China who treat him like a god and now he doesn't understand why not everyone treats him like that.

I think he was disqualified because he twitched before the start, it's just weird that FINA doesn't show a replay ...

1) This is a recent development, Italy only became good 3 or 4 years ago and GB wasn't really good until 5 or 6 years ago. France used to be better than both. 2) I think the answer is that they just spend more money on swimming. I think it also helps when you are able to swim outdoors 8 months or so of the year (like in Italy) compared 3 or 4 months (in Germany), swimming outdoors is much less depressing.

Winning a medal with 1:45.63, what a sad state men's 200 free is in ...

I think this was both the minimum and maximum they could have achieved here, given that they only had to beat Japan and South Africa to get into the QF and that Croatia was the clear favorite. I still feel as if they wasted a chance here, both Italy and Croatia seemed beatable and then they could have made the SF.

1) I think part of the reason why Smith isn't very good in the 1500 free is that until now it wasn't an olympic discipline. She might very well swim this event next year and then she will be among the favorites. The chinese girls are indeed not performing well here, but they are very young (4 years younger than Quadarella), so time is on their side. Also Pignatiello was missing here. 2) I think it is McKeon (McKeown is the girl who swims 100/200 back). Not sure how results from 2 years ago are important in this discussion ... ? 3) I think it is too late for him to turn it around here. Given his age and trajectory i would still consider him the favorite for next year in the 1500 free.

1) Didn't see Bingjie or Smith swimming the 1500 free, must have missed them. 2) Fair point, but with Ledecky, Ruck and McKeon all competing, Pellegrini would have had very slim medal chances at best, now she is a favorite for a medal. 3) Wellbrock refused to give interviews after the race, but his coach said that a) His technique was sloppy and b) He had the feeling that after his 10k gold medal, everyone in Germany was expecting him to "save" german swimming here and that pressure apparently got to him. His coach also said that currently Wellbrock is pretty destroyed and has the feeling as if he doesn't know how to swim anymore, so i would say it is more likely for him to not make the 1500 free final than to win a medal. I guess he will have to choose between open water and pool swimming next year and if he is smart, then he will choose pool swimming.

I don't know what italian swimming officials offered to the devil, but it must have been exremely valuable. There is no other explanation for what is currently happening to italian swimming. 1) Ledecky dropping 1500 free + all the other top 800 free girls not even competing -> Gold for Quadarella 2) Everyone dropping out of the 200 free -> Gold for Pellegrini? 3) Wellbrock almost falling asleep in the 800 prelims -> 2 medals for Italy

I have to say that with everything that is happening here, the results will be as good a predictor for the olympic games as the results of track cycling world championships usually are, so they will basically be worthless.

Huge upset by MacNeil, let's see if she can stay at the top longer than Oleksiak.

I think she only was below 59 seconds one time and usually she is at least half a second slower, so i wouldn't be that dramatic, although she doesn't seem to be in top shape. Her in-season 200 back time was so good, that she might even medal being 1-1.5 seconds slower, but when it comes to the gold medal, i would give Masse the edge right now.

She seems to be off her best, but i don't think she is that far off. Even if she would be 20 seconds slower than her best, she should take gold. Quadarella is the favorite for silver this year, only Kesely could be dangerous for her.