OlympicsFan

Hopefully not Dufter, otherwise they can shut speed skating down completely.

1) Maybe you thought of Joel Embiid (who is from Cameroon)? 2) Hardens still of play/character shouldnt matter for the MVP award. His stats are unique and i think Giannis has a better supporting cast with Lopez, Bledsoe, Brogdon and Middleton. Harden has Paul and Capela but for like half the season Paul and/or Capela were injured, so i would say Harden leading Houston to the record they currently have is more impressive than what Giannis did. The only argument pro Giannis in my opinion is that he is just a way better defender, so some might say that he has more impact overall. 3) You watched it? Really crazy to see how he grew up and where he came from. A lot of NBA players had a difficult childhood, but what guys like Giannis or Embiid went through is probably on another level.

Very weird results on both sides ... Hofer is on a run, first gold in the mass start and now this. If he gets more consistent, he could maybe fight for the 2nd spot in the overall world cup next season.

Me too ... Did i miss something? What about Jernej Damjan and Primoz Peterka?

1) I think he was born in Greece and his parents immigrated from Nigeria. 2) I am not sure Giannis deserves it more, but it for sure should be between those 2. 3) Interesting video about Giannis (TNT feature called "Finding Giannis"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrCU305tzmM

Its a good performance, but nothing extraordinary. That time would be tied 7th on the US all time list for 13/14 year old girls. The american record for 13/14 year old girls is 2:25.75 by Amanda Beard from 1996. Last year at the junior european championships there was a 15 year old russian girl swimming 2:26.29 and a 14 year old girl from Isreal swimming 2:29.31. Especially in the 200 breast we often see girls like that who then never do anything at senior level. Just look at Solnceva who was swimming 2:19 as a junior in 2015 and still hasnt won anything at senior level. Edit: To make the A standard she would have to swim more than 4 seconds faster (2:25.52).

1) If you arent open to change your opinion, then whats the point of leading a discussion? 2) Another unfounded claim by you ... Am i happy when Germany is doing good? Yes, for sure. Do i only cheer for german athletes? Absolutely not. Of my top 10 favorite athletes or so, none is german. I am a huge fan of the NBA and my favorite team right now probably are the 76ers who dont have a german player. My favorite player is Victor Oladipo and before that it was Paul George (none of them is german). My favorite winter sport is snowboarding halfpipe and as you might know, Germany is basically nonexistant in that sport. My second favorite winter sport is figure skating (my favorite athlete until her retirement was Mao Asada) and as you might know Germany isnt doing there well either. As an other example my favorite athletes in track and field are Echevarria (Cuba, long jump), Thompson (Jamaica, 100 & 200 m) and Diallo (France, triple jump), none of them is german either ... 3) To be honest i dont care whether you think that german people hate polish people or not. I am sure you have a reason to think that and you are probably too old to be convinced that this might not be true. Are there certain prejudices when it comes to polish people? Yes, but the same is true when it comes to italian/french/british/whatever people. To be honest Poland doesnt play a huge role in german media nowadays and most german people dont really care about Poland nowadays. I would say there are much stronger feelings when it comes to people from Russia/USA/France/GB. I would also say most german people dont really feel a strong connection with Poland. The prejudices about polish people are also weaker nowadays than they used to be. People used to joke about polish people stealing whenever they can, but nowadays most people shifted those negative feelings to people from Northern Africa/Turkey/Romania/Bosnia/Serbia, which of course might have something to do with the economic development in Poland which lead to fewer and fewer poor people from Poland coming to Germany.

1) Easy for you to be neutral, when Poland never play a part in the outcome of a race. 2) Did you even try to get my point? You made an unfounded claim, then i did the same to show you that this doesnt lead us anywhere in our discussion and now you complain about my claim and make another unfounded claim yourself ("I assume Germans are anti-Polish biased by default ...")? Are we living in twilight zone? Serious question: Did you ever change your opinion after/during a discussion? To me it seems that you dont really care what anyone says and are repeating your point over and over again. Your only intention of being here seems to be to state your opinion and act as if whatever you say is a fact.

Would like to know her name and event?

1) So the meet she competed in wasnt certified? 2) Of course i know that not everyone who makes the cut automatically qualified, but you were only taking about those who made the cut, so ... ?

1) I think one of the Campbell sisters swam 24.41 yesterday. 2) Crazy to think that 14 year old Claire Curzan swam 24.89 yesterday and almost made the cut.

Good to know. Now i know why i never noticed him. Usually when i see a race with irregular conditions i stop watching. Apparently he never did anything of note under regular conditions (maybe apart from the bronze last year).

Not everyone has the time to follow every race, especially those in the US/Canada that take place at weird times for european viewers, i am not surprised you wouldnt know anything about that (See, i can write bullshit about you too, without having any proof. I guess thats what happens when you cant finish a single comment without a personal attack. I guess you need that to feel superior. Pretty sad when a grown man needs to brag about his biathlon knowledge on an online forum to feel good about himself). I remember the relay at the olympics last year, the conditions were irregular so i stopped watching after the 2nd exchange or so. Good for you that you dont have any more important things to remember, some of us do, so dont blame them for not learning all the biathlon results of the last 20 years by heart. What would you say? Did it help our discussion that i made unfounded claims about you or would you say that this will probably distract us from the actual topic?

Good decision, a guy like him shouldnt retire in such a sad state. He should do a Björndalen and peak at the next olympics out of nowhere and then retire at 45 or so. If a guy like Pidrushni can win a gold medal, then a 45 year old Fourcade should be able to do that as well.

I wouldnt count Canmore, probably a lot of top guys werent competing. Already completely forgot the results from the last olympics. When i learnt yesterday that Belarus won gold in the womens relay last year i couldnt believe it as well.

Once in a century day for Italy. On the womens side Italy deserved a gold, although as a german fan i am sad that Herrmann threw away the gold. On the mens side this must be the most surprising top 3 ever. Windish should retire now, it cant get better than that for him. Did he ever make a podium before? Impressive that Fourcade is out of shape and even when Desthieux messes up, some other random french comes out of nowhere and wins a medal. Boe must be very disappointed, only 1 individual gold for him is far less than anyone expected ... Edit: I have never been a fan of Fourcade, but this is not how he should retire. With the weak overall level behind Boe this season i still think that Fourcade could get a lot of top 3 finishes the next couple of season.

I think Davis played for the US in 2012? Barrett would definitely be a good addition to their team. Even without him and Wiggins they still have Murray, SGA, Lyles, Olynyk, Thompson. They are probably the second most athletic team only behind the US. Not sure if Australia is good enough to win a medal. Baynes, Exum, Maker or Ingles are nice players, but none of them really makes a difference at this level. On the other hand guys like Ingles or Broekhoff give them spacing, which is exactly what Simmons needs. With Broekhoff and Simmons they also will be great at defending their opponents bigmen. I think Giannis wont have a much weaker supporting cast and he is quite clearly a better player than Simmons, so if you would consider Australia a medal contender, you have to say the same about Greece. Serbia probably has a better supporting cast than those 2 + Jokic is better than any spanish/french player, so Serbia should be favorite for silver. Bronze should be between Greece (if Giannis plays), France, Spain and Australia (if Simmons plays).

I see, we have a Slovenia/Slovakia situation here. I looked it up here https://basketball.realgm.com/national/teams/19/Dominican-Republic/nba_players and still got it wrong ...

Not related to the world championships, but this is probably still the best place to ask this: Does anyone have any idea what happened with Maren Hammerschmidt and Luise Kummer?

1) Herrmann for sure doesnt regret it. When she made the switch she wasnt world class anymore and biathlon is far more popular in Germany. Even if she would dominate cross-country skiing like Johaug, she would probably earn less money than she does now. 2) Dont know what will happen with Schempp, i am sure he will want to get back to the top. Lesser and Rees are indeed pretty slow currently, Peiffer & Doll & Nawrath are much better in cross-country.

Insane world championships for Norway, the certainly dont have the most talented athletes, but the way all of their womens athletes are peaking here is very impressive, lets hope that this is just a fluke like Germany in 2017 (which is of course very likely). Another shameful relay performance for Germany on the womens side, of course we all saw it coming, the german coaches just seem to be too stupid to ever pick the correct lineup. On the mens side silver is probably the best possible outcome for Germany, Rees instead of Schempp was just too much of a handicap. You cant blame Rees, he knows that he doesnt belong there.

If both Australia and Canada compete with their best possible teams, then they should be favorites ahead of Lithuania. Canada (Barrett, Murry, Wiggins) and Australia (Simmons, Baynes, Ingles) have both more individual quality. I think Brazil also has more individual quality than New Zealand, but their team has gotten old, lets see if all of their best players will compete. I think group F is the most interesting overall. Montenegro, Brazil and New Zealand all could finish second in that group. In group G Germany and France are favorites, but you cant underestimate Puerto Rico, they have 2 great NBA players in Towns and Horford. I think semifinals will be: Spain or Italy vs. USA Serbia vs. Greece/Lithuania/France/Canada/Australia/Germany/Turkey Should be a crazy fight between Greece/Lithuania/France/Canada/Australia/Germany/Turkey to avoid USA in the quarterfinal.

Why? 1) He doesnt even speak the language of his home country ... 2) Someone who has nothing better to do than to entertain his girlfriend doesnt seem very intimidating, would be completely different if he would have written: Hobbies: Getting entertained by my girlfriend Then i would have been impressed, a guy like that must have figured life out.

Maybe they are or maybe not, but what exactly is that article supposed to tell us? I also remember a while ago that some Dortmund official claimed that Dortmund had 10 million fans in Germany alone, which of course is complete bullshit. Often those numbers are based on facebook followers or something like that ... United and Real are clearly the 2 most popular clubs, then Barcelona and after that there are 8 clubs on about the same level in my opinion (AC Milan, Juventus, PSG, Bayern, Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea). Ronaldo makes Juventus interesting, but he is probably their only world class player right now and overall the football City plays is much more entertaining.

Agree, only problem might be that relays normally arent decided before the last leg and its hard to see Fourcade beating any half way decent opponent man to man in his current shape. On paper France has the strongest relay. What a shame that Schempp didnt make it, him in normal shape + Doll, Lesser and Peiffer would have made Germany the favorite for gold in my opinion. Nawrath, Kühn and Rees are completely unpredictable.