OlympicsFan

I think it's surprising because Italy is the current world champion? and the german guys only started competing together a couple of weeks ago. I would say that considering their age and the fact that they just started competing together, they are only gonna get better. The same should be true for Oliver Zeidler. I think women's double sculls is the biggest question mark, this could have been a fluke performance. The 6 boats that won medals here + men's quadruple sculls should be medal contenders at the world championships and the olympics. I would say Zeidler, the men's eight, the men's lightweight double sculls and the women's quadruple sculls have a very good chance of medalling at those events and one or two out of women's double sculls, men's four and men's quadruple sculls will hopefully medal there too. The last time that Germany won more than 4 medals in rowing at the olympics was in 2000!

Sadly they are useless in every sport except for distance running ...

So you predicted that the worst team here would win by 3 goals ... ?

Nice to see that even native? speakers have problems with spelling sometimes ...

Very weird time by the italian guy, he improved his PB by more than 3 minutes ... Let's pray that he will never win any medal!

Great thread! It's a bit early to speculate since we don't even know which athletes will compete, but i will still name my current favorites: - Thomas Röhler (javelin throw) - Isabell Werth (dressage) - Michael Jung (eventing) - Christian Reitz (rapid fire pistol) - Angelique Kerber (tennis) I think Röhler will be around for another olympics, the same should/could be true for Jung and Reitz, so i would probably go with Werth/Kerber for the opening cermony and the other one of those 2 for the closing ceremony or someone who did exceptionally well at the olympics (maybe/hopefully someone like Florian Wellbrock, Max Hartung, Stefan Bötticher or Alexander Zverev).

I don't think all-black suits Germany. I like all-white, but normally many nations have white jerseys, so all-white jersey would lead to a lot of confusion probably. I think white-gold-black-red jersey suit Germany and no other nation (except for Belgium) could have similar jersey, but this retro style just shows a lack of creativity in my opinion. On the other hand this design might bring the german team some luck, since i think that this design was inspired by the men's 1990 world cup jerseys.

Very good world championships for Germany and the Netherlands, GB a bit disappointing. The Netherlands are showing great progress and they could have easily won the medal table. From a german perspective the results in men's eight, men's single sculls and women's quadruple sculls were expected, but the gold medals in women's double sculls and men's lightweight double sculls were rather surprising. In my opinion 6 medals in olympic disciplines should always be the goal for Germany at world championships and olympic games. The men's quadruple sculls result was rather disappointing from a german perspective, i hope that they can turn it around again.

The german jersey looks very retro, i don't really like it though ...

Looks like a pyjama to be honest ...

Men's 200 fly: David Thomasberger swam 1:56.01 in Bergen in April Men's 400 IM: Philip Heintz swam 4:14.27 in Stockholm in April Men's 100 fly: Philip Heintz swam 51.65 last year, but this year he hasn't been faster than 52.41 Women's 400 free: This year the fastest 2 german athletes are Leonie Beck (4:07.06) and Reva Foos (4:08.22), Köhler hasn't been faster than 4:09.07 this year, but last year she swam 4:05.74 Women's 800 free: Köhler swam 8:23.63 in Bergen and Beck swam 8:25.99 in Stockholm Women's 100 back: Laura Riedemann swam 59.81 in Magdeburg (maybe this isn't an approved competition?)

I dont think this means much, they are probably preparing for the next olympics already. Of course its nice to see Germany finally doing great in the single scull again, but i will wait with my judgement until after the olympics.

Germany has also a qualified athlete in the 400 free (Florian Wellbrock), the 200 fly (David Thomasberger) and the 400 IM (Philip Heintz), but i don't know why you have 2 qualified athletes for Germany in the 100 fly? I think only Marius Kusch achieved the standard so far. On the women's side Germany has 2 qualified athletes in the 800 free (Sarah Köhler and Leonie Beck), but as far as i know only Beck has achieved the standard in the 400 free. In the 100 back Germany also has an athlete with the standard (Laura Riedemann).

How the hell is Germany ahead of Switzerland? Switzerland is clearly the better team ...

To be honest i expected this. After all she has won everything and this season i already felt as if she wasn't 100 % motivated anymore. I am glad that she finally retired, now medal decisions will be much more open in the future, while in the past we always had the scenario that anything but a gold medal for Dahlmeier was a huge shock if she was competing at 100 %. It's pretty ironic that the popularity of biathlon in Germany deeply hurts german biathlon for the second time in less than 10 years. Both Neuner and Dahlmeier for sure would have had much longer careers if they wouldnt have earned so much money by such an early age.

Would be too good to be true to finally see Kuzmina getting caught.

Agree. Am i the only one who was "shocked" by how bad the animation was (at least in parts)? I think the parts where the night king attacked Winterfell and when Daenerys saved Jon with dragonfire were animated really poorly ... SPOILER: About your spoiler: Can we be sure that Theon is dead? Not that it matters much, but i dont think we actually saw him die?

I never heard of him and i dont think he will be the next Bond ... My favourites are Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hardy and Michael Fassbender. Cumberbatch would be an absolute horrible choice.

I think you got many of the times wrong (you probably looked at the meet records): 200 breast: I think Person won in 2:08.xxx 400 IM: I think Fraser-Holmes won in 4.14.xx 50 free: Sjöstrom won, but i think the time was a bit slower 100 free: The final will be tonight 200 IM: Heintz won in 1:58.xx 400 free: Beck won with 4:07.xx, Köhler had 4:09.xx and the 800 free final will be tonight

The fullbacks have been a problem for a long time. If you have no decent fullbacks, then you have to play without fullbacks. Germany has no real number 9 anymore, but i think with guys like Sane, Reus, Müller, Gnabry and Werner there are still more than enough guys who can score goals. There is noone coming up in the next couple of years at this position, right now all german fans should pray to god that Youssoufa Moukoko will really turn out to be a generational talent, otherwise the future at this position looks really bad.

On paper 1000 m (his main event) is a sprint event, but it lasts for about 70 seconds, so i am not sure you can really call it a sprint. The main story here shouldnt be that some german athlete doped, but that there is doping in german speed skating and they are still unable to win medals, financing this sport is a complete waste of money. German officials should just accept that Japan, Norway, the Netherlands and Russia are lightyears ahead of Germany when it comes to sport science/doping. The appropriate reaction would be to spend 100 million euros on some more luge/bob/skeleton tracks to get even more dominant there.

No, they were talking about more recent cases with about a dozen dutch speed skaters who had suspicious blood values.

Noone in Germany wants Löw to be the coach anymore. Everyone here wanted Grindel, Bierhoff, Löw and all the other guys gone after the world cup. Löw has absolutely no clue what he is doing and the formation tonight was horrible once again. On the one hand you have guys like Ginter or Schulz starting and on the other hand guys like Gündogan or Reus dont start and guys like Hummels, Boateng, Müller, Mustafi or Can dont even get nominated. Personally i would like to see something like that: Ter Stegen Rüdiger Hummels Süle/Kehrer Gündogan Kroos/Can/Goretzka/Brandt Reus Havertz Sane Gnabry Werner/Müller Germany just doesnt have any quality fullbacks, so the formation has to be one whithout fullbacks. The individual quality definitely is still there with guys like Neuer (Bayern), Ter Stegen (Barcelona), Leno (Arsenal), Hummels (Bayern), Boateng (Bayern), Süle (Bayern), Mustafi (Arsenal), Kehrer (PSG), Rüdiger (Chelsea), Kimmich (Bayern), Khedira (Juventus), Havertz (Leverkusen), Brandt (Leverkusen), Gündogan (Man City), Can (Juventus), Goretzka (Bayern), Kroos (Real), Reus (BVB), Sane (Man City), Gnabry (Bayern), Müller (Bayern), Draxler (PSG), Werner (RB Leipzig). I believe based on individual talent Germany is still easily top 8 and maybe even top 4 in the world. Of course for the next decade or so all big titles will be for France to lose, the talent gap between them and any other nation is just too big.

Ouch ... I must say that hurts. Its been almost 5 years since Germany won its last world title, how long has it been for the Netherlands? All jokes aside: Its pretty sad how happy the team looked after this win, considering that Germany should absolutely destroy the Netherlands based on individual quality, but i guess with a coach like that every win is somewhat of a miracle. Best of luck to your team, maybe you guys can finally qualify for a big tournament again.

Also surprising that we still havent heard any more news about the dutch athletes with suspicious blood values that ARD mentioned during the world cup final. I guess when you are from the country that owns speed skating, you dont have to worry about anything ...