OlympicsFan

And that is because european nations normally dont compete with their best teams + african age cheating. England is really strong this time, its hard to not see them winning the whole thing, probably only France or Brazil can stop them. I got used to never see Germany competing with the best team at junior tournaments, but this time its even more annoying, because i really would have liked to see 12 year old Youssoufa Moukoko play against the best international talents, i think he could have shocked the world, considering his performances at german U17 level. Mbom, Batista-Meier, Früchtl and Evina are also very special talents, overall this age group is the best since the "1996 age group" (Brandt, Dahoud, Tah, Werner) in my opinion.

Groups for FIFA Men's U17 world championships in India, beginning October 6th: Group A: India, USA, Colombia, Ghana Group B: Paraguay, Mali, New Zealand, Turkey Group C: Iran, Costa Rica, Germany, Guinea Group D: North Korea, Brazil, Spain, Niger Group E: Honduras, Japan, France, NEW CALEDONIA Group F: Chile, England, Iraq, Mexico Surprising that Argentina and Nigeria didnt qualify, Italy and Portugal are two other big nations that are missing. In the semifinals we should have: Brazil/Spain vs. England USA/Colombia/Ghana vs. Germany/France Very "weird" draw, the winner of group A doesnt have to face any other group winner until the semifinal, while probably only one out of Germany/France will be able to reach the semifinal (if they win their groups). In my opinion the title should be between England, Brazil, France and maybe Spain, but with all the age cheating in african nations, you never know ... Germany is missing many top players, like Christian Früchtl (second goalkeeper for Bayern München, after Neuer got injured, biggest goalkeeper talent Germany produced in a very long time), Youssoufa Moukoko (only 12 years old, but arguably the best player in the german U17 league), Franck Evina (doenst have the german passport yet), Manuel Mbom (injured, best german defensive midfield talent, described as new Yaya Toure), Oliver Batista-Meier (best german talent in the offensive midfield, but still U16 and DFB basically never nominates younger players ... ). So basically the 5 biggest talents are missing. There are 4 or 5 other talents who should have been nominated (according to most people who follow the german U17 Bundesliga), but werent nominated for one reason or the other, for example Jesaja Herrmann, Marcel Zylla or David Philipp.

I think my comment was pretty clear ...

Just sad that 2 of the last 3 major time trials werent real time trials (Rio and Bergen). Tony Martin is still good enough to medal at real time trials, but his reign is over. Dumoulin will dominate for a couple of years, although he looks really weird on his bike. I hope that Kämna will be good enough by 2020 to take the olympic gold from him.

Germany in.

Interesting that Kämna couldnt even be bothered to compete in the time trial, otherwise he would have completely annihilated this field. Now he basically has to win gold in the road race ...

The top 2 in mens skeet are both only 22 years old, which is very surprising, because normally shotgun events are dominated by older athletes.

I am surprised that Germany won, but not too much. Of course France was missing many good players, but its not as if Germany wasnt missing top players as well (Nowitzki, Kaman, Zipser, Kleber, Pleiß, Zirbes, Mushidi, Wagner). I hope that Germany will loose by less than 15 against Spain.

So you cheer for Russia ... ? As an objective fan i can say that Russia already won enough, so Germany should win.

I dont agree, i think Wieczerzak, Bachmann or Doll winning gold was a bigger surprise, probably even Schmidt winning bronze. The coach is the main reason for this, but i also think that adding many young players was very important, after the team had been basically the same for many years. This really changed things up and brought a whole new dynamic to this team.

Anthony Randolph plays for Slovenia? How did that happen ... ? I also heard something about Slaughter playing for one of those teams ... ? Nice start for Germany, Schröder is clearly the best european point guard and for sure among the 10 best european players currently. With so many missing players (4 NBA players + Zirbes, Pleiß, Mushidi, Wagner) i dont expect more than a 3rd place in this group and a loss in the next round.

Obviously ... i just cant cheer for her, she doesnt amaze me. Russia will always have multiple world class skaters, they have the best depth in the world.

I know, i didnt want to mention it here, because apparently its not confirmed by the russian federation. Their head said that he didnt hear anything about a retirement ...

I just found out that Germany seems to have a pretty young team, which is surprising, considering that Germany never had really good results at junior level on the mens side. Bogachev and Zenger were born in 1997, Krick was born in 1998, Brehme and Weber were born in 1999. Did anyone watch the german matches and could maybe tell me something about those players? Could anyone of them potentially become world class?

Huge blow to russian figure skating. Apparently Yulia Lipnitskaya ended her career. Adelina Sotnikova is injured and will miss the whole season (including the olympics). I am sure that russia will find other medal contenders, but i am absolutely shocked by the news about Lipnitskaya, she has been one of my favorite athletes ever since the 2014 olympics, now i wont have anyone to cheer for at the olympics, without Lipnitskaya and Asada. Here is a video of the legendary performance by Lipnitskaya from Sochi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke0iusvydl8

I really underestimated the canadian team, never heard of Sanchez, Hannah, Smith, Knelson, Zavaros before this week. If Oleksiak and Ruck would have competed in all their best events, Canada would have won the medal table and probably would have come close to 20 medals. Canada has a very good chance of having being the best nation in womens swimming by 2020. Canada could have 2 finallists in most events by then, only "weak" events could be 800/1500 (maybe also 400) free and 200 fly. The depth in womens 100/200 free and 100/200 back is insane. Impossible to see Canada not winning 3 relay medals in 2020 and at least one of them (4x200 free) in gold. The mens side on the other hand ... is just very bad. Is there anyone (besides Acevedo) who might make the final in 2019 or 2020?

Agree, its crazy to compare her to Ledecky (and i dont think that LDOG was serious about that). Ledecky already was an olympic champion when she was 2 years younger than Pignatiello is now. We also shouldnt forget that she wouldnt have medalled in the 400 free, if all the top junior (Bingjie Li, Titmus, Ruck) would have competed and in the 800 free she probably would have fought for silver against Titmus. Nevertheless her 800/1500 free times are very impressive, she would have made the final in both events at the worlds with those times and would have been close to a medal in the 1500 free. She doesnt have to improve much to have a realistic chance to make 2 finals at 2019 worlds/2020 olympics, which would probably an unprecedented performance for a 19/20 yo girl from Argentina. The only thing that concerns me is that her 1500 free time is much stronger than her 400/800 free times, which might indicate that she swims crazy volumes in trainings and might not improve much. I dont see her ever winning a medal at senior level, but the 1500 free isnt too deep, so who knows ... ?

Could someone please tell me, why Germany competed with such a horrible team in jumping? Where are Ahlmann, Deußer, Meredith etc.? What happened in eventing? How did Germany not win gold in the team?

I am not 100% sure that this is true, at least if you judge by the number of medals only? Canada will probably medal in womens 100 free, womens 200 free, womens 100 fly, womens 200 back, all relays and maybe womens 50 free. Any more medal chances for Canada in olympic events? Concerning overall medals this could be the same of maybe worse than Rio, but Canada should win more gold, i guess 3-4 in total.

Dont know if you are interested in the numbers for Germany, but apparently the german wrestling federation had 63.631 members last year, which is clearly less than the 74.889 members in 2002. If you are interested in numbers for other sports, just write me a PM.

So Stäbler won in a weak category? Isnt he good enough to compete in -66 kg?

Wow ... i come home from work just to see two german guys in the fight for gold! Amazing, are those olympic weight categories?

What a story ... https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/farright-news-site-breitbart-mistakes-exarsenal-star-lukas-podolski-for-jetski-gangster-a3615766.html

Other news from Germany: Youssoufa Moukoko scored 8 goals in his first 3 games in the german U17 Bundesliga. That itself is pretty impressive, but might not be too much news, but ... ... (officially) he is only 12 years old! There has never been anything close to that in the german youth leagues. There are many people who doubt whether he is really 12 years old or not, but officially he is, so we might very well see a 13 year old playing for Germany at the U17 European Championships next year.

I noticed before that you are extremely agressive in this thread and basically never write anything sports-related, what is the reason for that? I never said anything about Germany missing out on a medal being the reason for my claims, but i am not surprised that you are desperately trying to use everything you can to troll here, that is apparently what you have become these days. The womens 4x100 m relay is probably the second least competitive relay, only ahead of the womens 4x400 m relay, whether Germany wins a medal there has nothing to do with it. In fact the level was really bad this time and 42.X would have been enough for bronze, which is very weak. I am honestly disappointed that you dont seem to be able to be objetive towards your own athletes, unlike me. You said nothing about the shocking performances of Bosse, Diniz, Robert-Michon and Bigot, which completely contradicts your normal behavior in this thread, i really thought that you were one of the very few who was able to recognize suspicious performances at first sight.