OlympicsFan

Really unbalanced draw. Germany will probably have to beat Spain or Canada to make the semifinal. Those 3 look like the strongest teams behind the US. Right now i would favor Spain and Canada to make the semifinal from that half. Germany, Spain, Canada and Australia might all be better than the 2nd best team (probably Serbia) in the other half. Germany vs. Spain might turn into the decider for the 2nd olympic spot. Sadly Germany has a very poor track record against Spain and avoiding them would mean Canada as an opponent (which isn't a better option).

1) I didn't consider Canada a medal contender because their individual times weren't really good this season. You could say the same about Italy (or Japan/China in the past), so it probably wouldn't have been a shock to see Canada winning a medal. I considered the US, Jamaica and GB the clear favorites, but i guess in the 4 x 100 m relay you shouldn't count on none of the favorites dropping the baton. 2) You are right about Dunfee's medal record in the 20 km event, but i thought that the removal of the 50 km event from the olympic program would lead him to focus more on the 20 km event and becoming better there. 3) I considered the US, Jamaica, the Netherlands, GB and maybe Poland to be (clearly) better in the women's 4 x 400 m relay, but you can't deny the canadian track record. Canada might become the new Poland in this event, based on their individual times they probably shouldn't be as fast as they are, but somehow they are still always in the fight for the medals, which is even more surprising when you take into consideration that changeovers are less crucial in the longer relay. 4) I would honestly shocked if Mayer would win a medal next year. I probably wouldn't even bet on him fininshing the competition. Not even sure if he will qualify (he will have to finish a decathlon before Paris to qualify). For me LePage is probably the biggest favorite ahead of Neugebauer. I would rank the favorites for bronze as follows: Warner (age), Skottheim, Rooth, Garland, Tilga, Victor (age) I have a lot of trust in the norwegian program. Both of the norwegians focused on the european U23 championships this year, which explains their performance in Budapest. Not sure how likely Moloney is to return at 100 %. I think he hasn't done anything the past 2 years. Neugebauer has horrible technique in multiple events (high jump, pole vault) and is quite heavy, so he might be the most injury prone out of all of them. On the other hand he has a lot of room for improvement if he ever fixes his technique. He could probably gain 100 points alone in high jump and pole vault. Neugebauer might have the problem (unlike LePage and Warner) that he still has to qualify. Germany has multiple guys who could achieve the standard next year, so he will probably have to score higher than them to qualify. 5) The only potential new canadian medal contender (someone who hasn't won a medal before) for me is Sutherland in women's 400 m hurdles, but even for her it will be difficult, given that Bol and McLaughlin seem like locks for 2 of the 3 available medals. Newman in women's pole vault is probably too old to have another big improvement. Anyone else turning into a medal contender would be a shock to me. Of course it doesn't help that athletes like Nettey, Barber or Debues-Stafford flamed out rather quickly.

I watched it too and didn't see any replay that support your claim, the german commentators agreed with this. In the end Germany won, so this shouldn't be a big topic.

1) And you think that the head of the federation could just do his own thing and not follow the official political line without facing any personal consequences? 2) You think that the/any head of the/a federation would be willing to put his own career on the line for one player? 3) You think that the public/media would start asking questions if a player from a russian club can play for the national team, while companies are forbidden to export goods to Russia and while your country can't import things (energy) from Russia?

Most impressive nations for me: : They would have won 7 medals without the "fails" of Bol and Hassan. Next year i could see them winning 10 medals. : Very impressive of them to win 6 medals, 4 of them in high jump/pole vault. Not sure how many other nations won more medals in athletics + swimming (the two core olympic sports). : Insane 10 medals. Not sure if they will be able to repeat this next year. I would be rather surprised if Pattison or the men's 4 x 400 m relay again win a medal next year, but on the other hand Asher-Smith (100/200 m), Muir (1500 m), Lake (high jump), Caudery (pole vault), Hughes (200 m) or the men's 4 x 100 m relay could win a medal. : 4 medals is a great result given their population size and they have the potential for even more (Skottheim/Rooth/Ingvaldsen). : 4 gold medals for them is absolutely absurd, even 6 medals seems like an overperformance. Did any of the canadian medal contenders not win a medal? I didn't consider Ahmed, De Grasse, the men's 4 x 100 m relay or the women's 4 x 400 m relay medal contenders, but Dunfee in men's 20 km race walking might have been considered a medal contender. I think they will win 4-6 medals next year.

I think the additional media attention they/he would have gotten if he would have played, would have had a worse effect on their performance than him not playing at all. France should have beaten this latvian team (without Porzingis) with one hand tied to their back. I think lack of individual quality was the least of their problems.

1) Do you have some sort of proof that he was out of bounds? 2) I definitely disagree that he ALWAYS carries the ball. Often/Regularly = Yes/Possible, but not ALWAYS. 3) I have very strong doubts that he was the only one in the game that carried the ball and still noone else (at least to my knowledge) got a whistle for carrying. 4) You have to ask yourself why they didn't stop him all game, but then 2 minutes before the end suddenly decided to change their officiating.

1) Not sure what you mean with superstar and how many superstars there are if Mihambo doesn't qualify. Personally i am not sure if there are any superstars in athletics right now. Not sure if there is any country except Sweden where someone like Duplantis would be recognized by more than 10 % of the population. 2) All the former greats are injured (reflection of the poor quality of german coaches), like so many other of the best german athletes (Mihambo, Baehre, Klosterhalfen, Kaul). 3) I am not sure if they will change anything, this just isn't how Germany works (anymore). Even someone like Jogi Löw was allowed to keep going after the embarrassement at the 2018 football world championships. It is the same with german politicians, they glue themselves to their position and refuse to leave no matter what happens. Germany has been "infiltrated" by bureaucrats that only care about their own position and not about what is best for the country, there is zero accountability. Of course it also doesn't help that almost all discussions in Germany are based on ideology and not pragmatism. The german energy/migration/defence policy is as braindead/ideology-driven as the german sports system (complete refusal to use performance enhancing substances or hire GDR coaches, while the rest of the world has zero problem doing those things). In a global competition you can't really afford ideology. If Germany wants to do better in sports, they could start by cutting the funding for the NADA and (if possible) make it (close to) impossible for german athletes to be tested by german doping control officers outside of Germany. You can't expect to be competitive at world stage while doing your best to fight doping and also not installing and incentives for athletes to dope. German athletes get pathetically low medal bonuses.

I already mentioned the fact that Chopra is coached by a german coach before this competition. Almost all of the elite german coaches were "killed off" for political/monetary reasons (they would have taken jobs away from west german coaches) after the end of the GDR. Other countries like GB, Australia, China or India had no problem with hiring those coaches and it paid off. Germany in general is one of the least pragmatic countries in the world. Ideology trumps everything else. Germany would rather be trash in sports than to hire coaches with the "wrong" ideology. In a global competition you can't really afford ideology though. I would have no problem with Germany stopping to compete at olympics/global sports competitions, it just makes me angry to see the level of incompetence in german sports that burns millions of tax payer money every year. I am rather relieved that Weber didn't win a medal (and that France won a medal after all), this gives the german federation less excuses. Germany is now pretty much where Canada was around 2012 (being completely irrelevant in athletics), will be interesting to see if they react the same way.

South Korea with only 1 top 8 result, they are in the same boat as Germany to some degree. Obviously South Koreans have reached a new evolutionary stage. They just don't give a fuck about childish games. Most countries need sports as a replacement for war though. Also interesting that Denmark is pretty much nonexistant in sports.

The only indian athlete that won a medal (Chopra) has a german coach (Klaus Bartonietz).

First ever world championships for Germany without a medal. Number of top 8 results: 12 12 12 11 10 9 7 7

Not sure what the point of this comparison is? Pakistan has a much bigger population. Medals at the athletics world championships: India (1.5 billion people): 1 Norway (5.4 million people): 4 Norway has roughly 0.3 % of the indian population, but 4 times as many medals.

Don't see Slovenia close to Germany or Australia, but we will see. Last year at euros even Giannis and Jokic with a better supporting cast couldn't win a medal. Slovenia is basically dogshit apart from Doncic, he would probably have to have a historic game for them to beat Australia/Germany (which sadly isn't impossible for him). Crazy that Germany won without Wagner, with Bonga missing half of the game with a "concussion", with a lot of questionable calls at the end (carrying call against Schröder, Schröder not being out of bounds) and with Australia shooting 47 % from three.

4th place would still be a very good result for all canadians who won a medal here except LePage. Rogers, Katzberg, Mitton and Arop are not dominant enough to consider them locks for a medal and i don't see Warner getting better (given his age), but maybe he once again will shock everyone. LePage might also end up without a medal (considering that Neugebauer and the two norwegians are much younger), but i would be surprised if he wouldn't win at least silver next year. Canada at 2019 worlds: 5 medals, 0 gold Canada at 2021 olympics: 6 medals, 2 gold Canada at 2015 worlds: 8 medals, 2 gold Canada at 2016 olympics: 6 medals, 1 gold Canada at 2011 worlds: 1 medal, 0 gold Canada at 2012 olympics: 1 medal, 0 gold Canada at 2007 worlds: 2 medals, 0 gold Canada at 2008 olympics: 2 medals, 0 gold Canada at 2003 worlds: 2 medals, 0 gold Canada at 2004 olympics: 0 medals Canada at 1999 worlds: 2 medals, 0 gold Canada at 2000 olympics: 0 medals Really interesting to see how bad Canada was until roughly 2012. Apparently the big turnaround happened after the 2012 olympics. 3 medals combined at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 olympics and then 6 medals at the 2016 olympics. At the past 6 pre-olympic world championships Canada has won 2 golds (both in 2015) and at the past 6 olympic games Canada has won 3 golds, so actually Canada has "overperformed" in terms of gold medals at the olympics in the past.

I would have thought that Richard Kilty is your favourite non-lithuanian athlete, but i guess you already consider him a honorary citizen?

Just usual condescending british behavior. The same happened with Ingebrigtsen and at the swimming world championships. You could almost think that those people have anything to do with the success of british athletics. France won 12 more medals than GB at the last winter olympics, so if GB beats them by 11 medals or less next year, France will have won more olympic medals during this cycle.

Understandable, although France seems to have other priorities than countries like GB. If France would be nonexistant in most team sports and winter sports like GB, the whole country would probably be on suicide watch.

Freakishly insane overperformance by Canada. None of their athletes was first on the entry list and now they have 4 golds. Complete insanity. Makes all the complaining about some 4th places even more absurd.

Yes, since there are no "anwers". The majority of countries are good in one of those sports, but not both. You could also ask why Poland/Canada are so amazing in hammer throw, but not existant in discus throw. Why is Denmark amazing in badminton but not existant in table tennis? Why is Germany amazing in table tennis but not existant in badminton? You also have to take into consideration that the talent pool for those sports is very limited in most countries, so most countries can't contend for medals in both sports at a global level, even China is struggling. Germany is much better in canoeing, not sure about Poland. Italians might be able to tell you why they are good in rowing (not sure if italians would even agree that they are good in rowing, at least at the senior level) and not existant in canoeing. One athlete (german-born Josefa Idem) has won more than 1/3 of the (gold) medals Italy ever won at sprint canoeing world championships.

Yes, for casual viewers it's better, but not for the people who want to watch as much as possible. There are a billion other ways they could make the viewing experience better (for example don't take 1 hour to introduce all the athletes before every race, don't allow throwing/jumping disciplines to take 10 hours, don't just randomly change the rules halfway through the competition (Swoboda), don't just randomly sent athletes/teams to the final (Germany in women's 4 x 100 m relay), don't allow athletes to decide themselves if they want to compete for medals or get them for free (women's pole vault), don't have absurd height progressions in jumping competitons (for example in men's high jump)).

1) Wouldn't say that they are amazing in rowing. 2) Why are GB/Netherlands/Romania/USA "amazing" in rowing but not in canoeing? 3) Why is Hungary amazing in canoeing but not in rowing? 4) Why is Hungary amazing in sprint canoeing but not slalom canoeing?

The number of medals doesn't reflect it, but Germany should be very happy with the results, especially on the women's side. The women have been dead for a long time now, but suddenly there are multiple amazing talents. - Pauline Jagsch (born in 2003) finished 7th in women's K1 500 m. The second youngest athlete in the final was 4 years older and the youngest athlete who placed higher than her was 7 years younger. - The german team finished 4th in women's C2 500 m with a girl born in 2005 (Hedi Kliemke). None of the medalists had anyone born later than 2002.

Neugebauer's focus this season was clearly on the NCAA (same as pretty much all US-trained athletes in non-olympic years). Can't wait to see what he can do next year when his focus will be on the olympics. Right now i would put my money on him winning gold next year.

Absolutely horrible schedule, basically only evening sessions. One of the worst world championships ever from a viewer's perspective.