OlympicsFan

Typical american "luck" (i guess we all know the reason why they are always in incredible shape at the world championships) at the world championships, anyone here remembers Caitlin Gregg? Wouldnt be surprised to see them sweeping the medals, Diggins will probably grab a gold medal later on and they will somehow win at least silver in the team sprint. Laukannen's strong performance makes you wonder what Dahlmeier or Kaisa could have done here ... that also shows how weak the level of competition in womens cross-country skiing is.

You are right about taekwondo, i wanted to say that IOC should add some weight categories (because taekwondo seems to be an extremely developed sport), but than i thought: In taekwondo the weight is far less important than in boxing/wrestling/judo, so they probably dont need more weight categories ... I think taekwondo has the same rights as the other fighting sports, so there is really no reason to deny them the right to have as many weight categories as those other sports. About fencing: Yes, of course ... i think team events shouldnt have to "rotate", all 6 team events should constantly be part of the programme. Mens football should be cut, unless they remove the U23 rule. Womens football should stay in my opinion. I dont think that futsal is more popular than womens football, so i dont really see the benefit + i dont think that womens futsal is very developed?

Wow, second gold for Canada! On the mens side it wasnt too surprising, because the big nations dont really seem to care about this event, but on the womens side this is absolutely shocking, especially because the canadian girl was among the fastest on the course, so Canada might finally have a decent athlete on the womens side. The german girls are 3rd, 4th and 5th, not too bad, but a bit disappointing. Belarus also seems to have some strong talents, two of them are currently 6th and 7th, both with 2 misses, so they both could have won bronze with only 1 miss. Edit: Final result: Gold for Bankes from Canada (0) Silver for Schwaiger from Austria (1) (0:47.9 behind) Bronze for Weidel from Germany (1) (1:20.0 behind) Vogt from Germany in 4th (1), Laffont from France in 5th (0), Hettich from Germany in 6th (1), Sola from Belarus in 7th (2) and her teammate Blashko in 8th (2) Sola, Laffont, Voigt (the youngest of the top 8) and Bankes were all born in 1997, so they will probably compete again next year! Very promising bunch of talents, especially Bankes and Sola!

Second german athlete, second medal, not bad! Great to see that we have some good talents on the mens side. Hopefully the girls can win a medal too later on.

So which events will we have in Tokyo if this all works out? As a german fan i dont care about double trap or 50 m pistol being cut (we never won medals in those disciplines anyway) ... but i think Germany has always been good in 10 m rifle, so this is not a dream scenario either. Mixed events are complete nonsense in my opinion. Either the sport is developed enough on the womens side, so that women should have their own team events or the sport isnt developed enough on the womens side, which would mean that there are only very few nations that are competitive in a mixed team event. In my opinion the perfect olympic schedule would look like this: Summer: Diving: 3/10 m individual/synchronized (8 events) Swimming: 100/200 m free/breast/back/fly + 400/800 m free + 200/400 m IM + 4 x 100/200 free relay + Medley relay + 5 km open water (32 events) Water polo/Basketball/Field hockey/Football/Handball/Rugby/(Beach) Volleyball: Mens/womens team (14 events) Archery: Mens/womens individual/team (4 events) Athletics: 100/200/400/800/1500/5000 m + 100/400 m hurdles + 3000 m SC + Marathon + 20 km race walking + High/Long/Triple jump + Pole vault + Decathlon/Heptathlon + Javelin throw + Shot put + Hammer throw + Discus throw + 4 x 100/400 m relay (44 events) Boxing: Not more than 6 weight categories on the mens side (for example -52 kg, -60 kg, -69 kg, -80 kg, -91 kg, +91 kg) and not more than 4 weight categories on the womens side (-50 kg, -58 kg, -70 kg, +70 kg) (10 events) Canoeing slalom: Mens/womens C1/K1 (4 events) Canoeing sprint: Mens/womens k1 200/100 m, mens/womens k2 500 m, mens c1 500 m (7 events) BMX/Mountainbike/Triathlon/Golf/Trampoline: Mens/womens individual (10 events) Badminton/Tennis/Table tennis: Mens/womens individual/doubles (4 events) Cycling road: Mens/womens individual road race/time trial (4 events) Cycling track: Mens/womens Team sprint/pursuit/keirin/individual sprint + Some individual endurance event (10 events) Equestrian: Team/individual eventing/jumping + maybe individual/team dressage (4 events) Fencing: Mens/womens individual/team foil/sabre/epee (6 events) Artistic gymnastics: Mens/womens individual/team all-around + Mens pommel horse/rings/high bar/horizontal bar + Womens uneven bars/balance beam + Mens/womens vault/floor (14 events) Judo: 6 weight categories on both sides (12 events) Taekwondo: 4 weight categories on both sides are fine (8 events) Wrestling: In my opinion there are clearly too many weight categories in wrestling, i think 15 events would be enough (5 in mens freestyle, 4 in womens freestyle, 3 in mens greco-roman, 3 in womens greco-roman) (15 events) Rowing: No leightweight categories anymore (why are there leightweight categories in rowing, but not in canoeing?). Mens/womens single/double/quadruple sculls + Mens/womens pair/four/eight (12 events) Sailing: Mens/womens RS:X/Laser/470/49er (8 events) Shooting: Mens/womens trap/skeet/10 m air rifle/10 m air pistol/50 m pistol/50 m rifle 3 positions/rapid fire pistol (14 events) No weightlifting, synchronized swimming, rhythmic gymnastics, modern pentathlon, baseball, climbing, surfing, skateboard Winter: Alpine skiing: Mens/womens slalom/giant slalom/super g/downhill (8 events) Biathlon: Mens/womens sprint/pursuit/mass start/relay + maybe individual (8-10 events) Bob: Mens/womens individual/double (4 events) Cross-country: Mens womens sprint/relay/team sprint + Mens 15 km classic/free + Womens 10 km classic/free (10 events) Curling/Ice hockey: Mens/womens team (4 events) Figure skating: Mens/womens individual + Pairs + Ice dancing (4 events) Freestyle skiing: Mens/womens ski cross/slopestyle/halfpipe/moguls (8 events) Luge: Mens/womens single + maybe mens doubles (2-3 events) Nordic combined: Mens single/team sprint (2 events) Speed skating: Mens/womens 500/100/1500/5000 m (8 events) Skeleton: Mens/womens individual (2 events) Ski jumping: Mens/womens individual/team (4 events) Snowboarding: Mens/womens parallel slalom/halfpipe/slopestyle/cross (8 events) Short track: Mens/womens 500/1500 + maybe a relay (4-6 events)

Even as a german fan its kind of boring to watch her dominate everyone else, for the same reason most german people dont really care about nordic combined, bob or luge. I think Preuß and the young french girls have the best chance to challenge her in the next couple of years. If Carl decides to change to biathlon, things could also get pretty interesting. Maybe some of the swedish girls will also get there.

Yes, pages 12 to 13: http://www4.biathlonworld.com/media/files/rules_2014/IBU_Rules_2014_e_cap3.pdf

Gabi retiring is very good news for german biathlon. Kuzmina, Daria, Kaisa and Dorin also should be gone pretty soon and then Laura should dominate even more. As a non-german fan you have to hope that either Dahlmeier retires as well or that some new girl somehow manages to challenge her, otherwise this sport will become even more boring than on the mens side.

The start lists for today's races are absolutely shocking. Youth women 10 km individual: 1 girl from France and NO girl from Germany, but 2 girls from Turkey and 3 girls from Hungary. Youth men 15 km individual: 1 boy from France and 1 boy from Germany, but: 4 boys from Romania, 3 boys from Turkey, 4 boys from Lithuania, 2 boys from Moldova, 3 boys from Hungary, 3 from Bulgaria, 5 from Belarus, 4 from Estonia, 4 from Kazakhstan and 3 from Belgium. This is absolutely ridiculous, the big nations (or at least Germany and France) really dont seem to care about this event.

[hide] Event and Date Gold Medal Winner Silver Medal Winner Bronze Medal Winner Athletes CROSS-COUNTRY Women's Sprint Day 1, February 23rd, 2017 Nilsson Falla Weng Marit Bjørgen Maiken Caspersen Falla Ingvild Flugstad Østberg Heidi Weng Natalya Matveyeva Anamarija Lampič Hanna Falk Stina Nilsson Jessica Diggins Kikkan Randall Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's Sprint Day 1, February 23rd, 2017 Ustiugov Klaebo Pellegrino Alex Harvey Federico Pellegrino Emil Iversen Johannes Høsflot Klæbo Finn Hågen Krogh Petter Northug Sindre Bjørnestad Skar Sergey Ustiugov Someone from Sweden Simeon Hamilton Any Other NORDIC COMBINED Individual Normal Hill / 10 km Day 2, February 24th, 2017 Frenzel Rydzek Any other Bernhard Gruber Someone from France Eric Frenzel Fabian Rießle Johannes Rydzek Someone from Italy Akito Watabe Jørgen Graabak Magnus Moan Any Other SKI JUMPING Women's Individual Normal HiIl Day 2, February 24th, 2017 Takanashi Ito Lundby Daniela Iraschko-Stolz Jacqueline Seifriedsberger Katharina Althaus Carina Vogt Yuki Ito Sara Takanashi Maren Lundby Irina Avvakumova Ema Klinec Sarah Hendrickson Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Women's 15 km Skiathlon Day 3, February 25th, 2017 Someone from Norway Someone from Norway Someone from Norway Krista Pärmäkoski Someone from Norway Justyna Kowalczyk Charlotte Kalla Stina Nilsson Jessica Diggins Elizabeth Stephen Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's 30 km Skiathlon Day 3, February 25th, 2017 Sundby Harvey Ustiugov Alex Harvey Matti Heikkinen Martin Johnsrud Sundby Finn Hågen Krogh Sjur Røthe Sergey Ustiugov Calle Halfvarsson Marcus Hellner Dario Cologna Any Other SKI JUMPING Men's Individual Normal Hill Day 3, February 25th, 2017 Stoch Wellinger Kraft Michael Hayböck Stefan Kraft Andreas Wellinger Daniel-André Tande Maciej Kot Kamil Stoch Domen Prevc Peter Prevc Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Women's Team Sprint Day 4, February 26th, 2017 Norway Sweden USA Finland Germany Norway Poland Russia Slovenia Sweden United States Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's Team Sprint Day 4, February 26th, 2017 Norway Russia France Canada Finland France Germany Italy Kazakhstan Norway Russia Sweden United States Any Other NORDIC COMBINED Team Normall Hill / 4 x 5 km Day 4, February 26th, 2017 Germany Austria Norway Austria Czech Republic France Germany Italy Norway United States Any Other SKI JUMPING Mixed Team Normal Hill Day 4, February 26th, 2017 Germany Austria Slovenia Austria Germany Japan Norway Poland Slovenia Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Women's 10 km Classical Day 5, February 28th, 2017 Björgen Weng Kalla Kerttu Niskanen Krista Pärmäkoski Marit Bjørgen Ingvild Flugstad Østberg Heidi Weng Justyna Kowalczyk Charlotte Kalla Stina Nilsson Someone from USA Any Other NORDIC COMBINED Individual Large Hill / 10 km Day 6, March 1st, 2017 Frenzel Rydzek Someone from Austria Someone from Austria Eero Hirvonen Eric Frenzel Fabian Rießle Johannes Rydzek Akito Watabe Jørgen Graabak Magnus Moan Tim Hug Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's 15 km Classical Day 6, March 1st, 2017 Sundby Niskanen Any other Matti Heikkinen Iivo Niskanen Alexey Poltoranin Anders Gløersen Martin Johnsrud Sundby Didrik Tønseth Sergey Ustiugov Marcus Hellner Johan Olsson Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Women's 4 x 5 km Relay Day 7, March 2nd, 2017 Norway Sweden USA Finland Germany Norway Sweden United States Any Other SKI JUMPING Men's Individual Large HiIl Day 7, March 2nd, 2017 Stoch Kraft Wellinger Michael Hayböck Stefan Kraft Andreas Wellinger Daniel-André Tande Maciej Kot Kamil Stoch Domen Prevc Peter Prevc Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's 4 x 10 km Relay Day 8, March 3rd, 2017 Norway Russia Sweden Canada Finland France Germany Italy Norway Russia Sweden Switzerland Any Other NORDIC COMBINED Team Sprint Large Hill / 2 x 7,5 km Day 8, March 3rd, 2017 Germany Austria Norway Austria Czech Republic France Germany Italy Norway Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Women's 30 km Freestyle Day 9, March 4th, 2017 Björgen Weng Östberg Krista Pärmäkoski Marit Bjørgen Ingvild Flugstad Østberg Heidi Weng Charlotte Kalla Stina Nilsson Jessica Diggins Elizabeth Stephen Any Other SKI JUMPING Men's Team Large Hill Day 9, March 4th, 2017 Poland Austria Germany Austria Germany Japan Norway Poland Slovenia Any Other CROSS-COUNTRY Men's 50 km Freestyle Day 10, March 5th, 2017 Someone from Norway Ustiugov Harvey Alex Harvey Matti Heikkinen Maurice Manificat Someone from Norway Alexander Legkov Sergey Ustiugov Calle Halfvarsson Marcus Hellner Johan Olsson Dario Cologna Any Other [/hide]

1) Do you happen to know how many nations we had last year in this contest? 2) What is your take on one user entering the contest for multiple nations (assuming that no one else is willing to represent them)?

True, one of them should start one week earlier, but take it lightly, nordic skiing world championships and biathlon junior world championships will start tuesday.

The russian guys had no clue what to do on this track (hopefully it will be the same next year ), sadly Loch didnt even get that far ...

Thats what you get when Rebensburg (partly due to injury) doesnt perform at her best and when Dopfer is out due to injury. In the end Germany will never be on the same level as Austria or Switzerland, Germany will always be between 0 and 3 medals and only 3 athletes (Rebensburg: Super G + Giant Slalom, Neureuther/Dopfer: Giant Slalom + Slalom) have a realistic chance for a medal, in 2015 it worked out perfectly and this time it didnt. From a german perspective we have to hope that Dopfer and Rebenburg will come back strong + maybe Sander or Luitz will make the next step. Germany, Italy and Norway should be the most disappointed nations here + USA (no medal on the mens side, only bronze for Vonn) and France (no medal on the mens side), Austria and Switzerland on the other hand should be very happy. The way the german alpine skiing team developed the last couple of years is worrying, but german officials probably wont care too much, considering that Germany has already won 10 gold medals and 16 medals in total at world championships this year + the chance for at least 5/14 more gold medals/medals in total.

Here are some of my early favorites for the german entry for this year's song contest:

Thank you very much, i love Robyn and the "Girls" scene where i first heard this song!

I think i will pick either a german-language song this time or a song without any language at all ...

Great to see that pretty much all the favorites will start late, this way there is more time to build up excitement, so we will be able to enjoy the race until the very end. I hope that Kaisa will win ahead of Vittozzi and Wierer, but thats not very realistic. I think Koukalova, Kaisa and especially Domracheva should be considered as top favorites. Dahlmeier has to hope that all of them miss at least one shot, otherwise she wont have a chance for gold.

Germany in! I already have some good songs in mind, but i guess i have to wait wether some other german member will join before i make the final decision ...

[hide] Event and Date Gold Medal Winner Silver Medal Winner Bronze Medal Winner Athletes 2 x 6 km + 2 x 7,5 km Mixed Relay Day 1, February 9th, 2017 Austria Czech Republic France Germany Norway Russia Any Other Women's 7,5 km Sprint Day 2, February 10th, 2017 Gabriela Koukalova Kaisa Mäkäräinen Someone from France Laura Dahlmeier Dorothea Wierer Anastasiya Kuzmina Any Other Men's 10 km Sprint Day 3, February 11th, 2017 Fourcade Boe Shipulin Julian Eberhard Martin Fourcade Simon Schempp Johannes Thingnes Boe Emil Hegle Svendsen Anton Shipulin Any Other Women's 10 km Pursuit Day 4, February 12th, 2017 Dahlmeier Koukalova Dorin Gabriela Koukalova Kaisa Mäkäräinen Anaïs Chevalier Marie Dorin Habert Laura Dahlmeier Dorothea Wierer Any Other Men's 12,5 km Pursuit Day 4, February 12th, 2017 Fourcade Someone from Norway Someone from Germany Martin Fourcade Someone from Germany Someone from Norway Anton Shipulin Jakov Fak Any Other Women's 15 km Individual Day 5, February 15th, 2017 Koukalova Someone from France Mäkäräinen Gabriela Koukalova Kaisa Mäkäräinen Someone from France Laura Dahlmeier Dorothea Wierer Tiril Eckhoff Any Other Men's 20 km Individual Day 6, February 16th, 2017 Fourcade Shipulin Someone from Norway Dominik Landertinger Martin Fourcade Erik Lesser Simon Schempp Someone from Norway Anton Shipulin Any Other Women's 4 x 6 km Relay Day 7, February 17th, 2017 France Germany Italy Czech Republic France Germany Italy Norway Ukraine Any Other Men's 4 x 7,5 km Relay Day 8, February 18th, 2017 Norway Russia Germany Austria France Germany Norway Russia Ukraine Any Other Women's 12,5 km Mass Start Day 9, February 19th, 2017 Dahlmeier Dorin Koukalova Darya Domracheva Gabriela Koukalova Kaisa Mäkäräinen Marie Dorin Habert Someone from Germany Dorothea Wierer Any Other Men's 15 km Mass Start Day 9, February 19th, 2017 Fourcade Someone from Germany Someone from Norway Ondrej Moravec Martin Fourcade Someone from Germany Someone from Norway Anton Shipulin Any Other [/hide]

Amazing result for Pechstein, it was the right decision to focus on this race and drop the 3k. Next year it will be much more difficult to get a medal, with the russian and dutch girls back in top shape. I am shocked that she was so close to Sablikova, just sad that she wasnt in a race with Sablikova, otherwise it couldve become an even closer race. Ihle today very unlucky, yesterday he missed the gold by less than 0.1 and today he missed the bronze by only 0.11 ... Nevertheless he should be very pleased to see that he is currently the third best athlete in mens 500 m.

Talking about someone being obviously biased ... What happened to innocent until proven guilty? Just disgusting!

Normally i always enjoyed watching the road cycling world championships, but this time i am just glad that its over ... 1) Where were the spectators? I feel sorry for the riders, especially the juniors. 2) Why do we have to host the world championships in the desert at 35°C? I think the next 3 world championships will be much better and i might attend in 2018 or even 2017. 3) Pretty much all the races were boring and decided in a sprint (as expected). 4) Congrats to Sagan, i am glad that Cavendish didnt win, every medal for him is bad for the sport. Belgium has had an amazing year, gold at the olympics and bronze here, compared to 0 top 10 finishes for Germany, with riders like Degenkolb, Kittel or Greipel ... 5) The german head coach must go NOW! How is it even possible to make so many bad decisions and never get a good result if you have 3 of the best sprinters in the world? When i heard that a group of more than 20 riders had a lead of more than 3 minutes, i already expected that no german was in that group ... and sadly i was right. If he would write all possible strategies on a paper and randomly pick one, than the results would be much better ... This is a complete waste of talent, its the best generation Germany ever had in road cycling. 6) Results in womens time trial (Another american granny, who was banned for doping before, coming out of nowhere to win a gold. This sport got what it deserves, cycling is the perfect sport for americans, i wonder why they arent any better in weightlifting already ... i guess there is not enough money to earn) and mens u23 time trial (the winner got extremely lucky with the conditions and Kämna got robbed the second year in a row) were absolutely disgusting, all the other results were ok. 7) I just found out that some no-name from Denmark won the gold in womens road race! Amazing to hear that she beat all the elite riders! Great results for nordic countries overall! They seem to have a very bright future in cycling, not only in road cycling, but also in (womens) mountainbike and track cycling. 8) This time it wasnt possible for me to watch the live stream on Youtube, which is one of the main reasons why i didnt watch much. Thanks stupid Eurosport! Hopefully they wont broadcast the next couple of years ...

So you want to say that you knew the guy who won the gold medal before the race? In my opinion he is a complete no name and got extremely lucky with the conditions, he doesnt even have a team for next year ... There cant be any doubt that Kämna wouldve won the gold medal for the last two years if the conditions wouldve been fair. Its just heartbreaking that Kämna didnt win a gold medal the last two years, although he is about 1000 times more talented than the other guys who participated.