OlympicsFan

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.

Why Herrmann-Gontier-Eckhoff show? Surprised that Germany starts with their 2 weakest athletes, there is a good chance that Italy, Norway and maybe some other relays will already be out of reach when Herrmann takes over. Based on what i saw so far my favorites are Norway and Sweden.

Juventus isnt particulary popular anywhere outside of Italy and City is a lot more fun to watch + with City vs. Barca you would have Pep vs. his old team.

Never understood why there is a need for that. If you dont care about a users opinion, then just ignore him (its not like any of you guys has anything more important to do with his time, so i am sure taking 0,1 seconds to recognize that a comment was made by a certain user and that you therefore dont have to bother reading it wont stop you from achieving anything important in your lives). The sad thing is that most guys constantly feel the need to point out that certain users should be ignored, but then they still go on and reply to them (for example like our czech friend did in the biathlon thread after the mens individual race or how our dutch friend keeps answering to comments of mine without actually replying, because he thinks that way he can tell himself that he is actually ignoring me).

Why was that expected? I think Liverpool is more popular than Juventus, maybe City too.

Pretty much the expected draw. City, Juventus and Barca are by far the 3 best teams and UEFA wants them all in the semifinal (alongside Liverpool). Would be a huge surprise if the final wont be between 2 out of City, Juventus and Barca. I dont like any of those teams, but Barca winning the title would be the least bad of those 3 bad options for me.

You also went skating today?

Thanks, but ZDF (german channel that broadcasted the race this afternoon) also just uploaded it, so i will watch it there. Since there wont be any races the next 2 days i will have enough time to catch up until the action resumes on saturday. Very happy for Peiffer, he is my favorite german biathlete because he is always very humble and pragmatic. Quite remarkable that he is olympic and world champion in two different disciplines despite not being very successful in the world cup, probably most guys (except for Fourcade and J. Boe) would love to trade places with him.

Fuuuuark ... Thought that this would be another boring race, so i went skating instead. Now i come home to find out that Peiffer won gold and of course there is no way to rewatch the whole race ...

Lol ... Sweden, Italy and France it is ...

Congrats to the new Tora Berger. If Pichler wouldnt be her coach, i could be happy for her. Very deserved medal for Vitozzi. Braisaz with a once in a lifetime performance by her standards. Dahlmeier in average shape would have won a medal, possibly even gold.

Denise Herrmann will do the same. I guess i dont have to bother watching it then.

Wasnt Loginov banned for 2 years before? Would make it a completely different story imo ...

1) He shouldnt have said it publicly. 2) I think we all feel the same about Pidruchnyi. 3) He will never get caught, considering how IBU is dealing with doping.

Not sure Germany will shoot well, apart from Dahlmeier noone seems to be in a great shooting form. Norway and Germany have won enough already, i would like to see Italy, France or Sweden winning it. Mostly Italy and Sweden because France should win enough medals on the mens side.

I agree, i am shocked actually that girls like Brorsson or Eckhoff completely dominate her in cross-country. Its hard to win races when you are such a slow shooter and are also in a bad cross-country shape. Its surprising that she gave up the inside, especially because 1 minute before a german coach told her to close the inside. I have to give respect to Eckhoff for not completely closing the inside, otherwise Dahlmeier would have had to stop in order to not "miss" the finish, very fair by Eckhoff.

The relay could be really interesting. Sweden, Norway, France, Italy, Russia and Germany could all win it.

I dont think i have ever seen Dahlmeier in such a bad shape in cross-country, she is completely average ...