OlympicsFan

1) Last year Germany was faster in the bronze medal match than they were in the 2nd round, so what you said is evidently nonsense. 2) Germany was 1.4 seconds behind the fastest team in the 2nd round last year, this year they were only 1.1 seconds behind the fastest team in the 2nd round -> Clear improvement. 3) In my opinion you can only behave in a condescending way (which doesn't mean that you should) if you are actually in the right. Behaving that way while being in the wrong just makes you look foolish.

Ok, obviously I'll need to make my point even clearer ... Germany was closer to the top teams (Netherlands/Australia) than last year and obviously times from the finals don't count. Germany only had 2 rides, so obviously it wouldn't make sense to use times from rounds were Germany didn't even compete. You might say that maybe France didn't give their best in the 2nd round and that their time therefore didn't reflect their true strength, but obviously they would have had zero incentive to do so (since a better time in the 2nd round would have given them a chance to ride for gold, so it would make no sense to assume that they didn't given their best in the 2nd round). Not sure why you felt the need to use a completely different definition of "top teams" just to keep the discussion going ... Whatever the reason was for France not making it into the bronze final last year doesn't matter for this discussion and of course neither of us knows what time they could/would/should have gone. Germany is closer to the top teams time wise than last year, although their ranking this year doesn't reflect it.

1) The gap between France and Germany isn't remotely big enough for you to act as if France beating Germany was/would have been a no-brainer. 2) I said that the gap between Germany and the top teams got smaller, although they placed lower. Their time wasn't really relevant, only the gap to the top teams.

Not sure why you (or anyone else) would/should have expected that ... You didn't make the top 3 at the last olympics or the last 2 world championships. I guess the problem wasn't that they underperformed, but that they didn't met your unreasonably high expectations. The solution should probably be that you have more realistic expectations in the future (if you don't want to keep getting disappointed). Of course this doesn't mean that Italy shouldn't strive to do better. The problem isn't that they underperformed, but that they just aren't any better right now.

Dörnbach 7th in qualification, ahead of Richardson and Yakovlev, absolutely didn't think that i would ever be able to write this. Last year he was only 23th in qualification, huge improvement. Last time a german guy placed higher in qualification was in 2017 (when Niederlag placed 2nd). Maybe Dörnbach has a chance at sneaking into the quarterfinal. Lavreysen obviously in a league of his own. The gap between Lavreysen and the 2nd fastest guy (Rudyk) was bigger than the gap between the 2nd fastest guy and the 7th fastest guy.

Not sure why you keep acting as if France is anything special in team sprint. The Netherlands and Australia are in their own class and then there is a bunch of nations (mainly France, GB, Germany) competing for bronze. GB is the favorite for bronze at the moment. Germany was 0.1 seconds behind the 3rd fastest team tonight.

In men's team sprint Germany is closer to the top teams (time-wise), but placed worse than last year. In the end i don't really see the men winning any medal next year.

Wanted to ask the same. We could see some really great performances: Possible U20 world records: Men's long jump (Furlani) Men's javelin throw (Herczeg) Women's javelin throw (Vilagos) Women's heptathlon (Koscak) Possible U20 european records (apart from those mentioned above): Men's 800 m (Laros) Women's 4 x 100 m (GB) Possible championship records (apart from those mentioned above): Men's 400 m (Szwed) Men's 1500 m (Laros) Men's 5000 m (Laros) Men's 110 m hurdles (Diessl) Men's 400 m hurdles (Kostic) Men's 3000 m SC (Del Barrio) Men's pole vault (Imsand) Women's 100 m (Wedderburn-Goodison) Women's 400 m (Manuel) Women's 800 m (Werro/Ives) Women's 3000 m (Caune) Women's 5000 m (Caune) Women's 100 m hurdles (Koscak) Women's 400 m hurdles (Mashanienkova/Uta/Granat) Women's high jump (Topic/Maes) The 5 most interesting (in my opinion) talents on the men's side: Laros (800/1500/5000 m) Herczeg (Javelin throw) Furlani (Long jump) Gräber (Decathlon) Brudin (Discus throw) The 5 most interesting (in my opinion) talents on the women's side: Koscak (Heptathlon/100 m hurdles) Vilagos (Javelin throw) Topic (High/Long jump) Caune (3000/5000 m) Werro (800 m) I am sure that Serbia never had such a strong team at any level, they could finish top 3 in the medal table.

The german team seems to be treading water. They were closer to the bronze medal race than last year, but a 7th/8th place (if GB wouldn't have put on a clown show) is still far away. Germany has been very good in this event at the junior level for quite some time, but for some reason it doesn't translate.

Italian fans have very high expectations. I think it is impressive that they made the semifinal in 2 out of 3 team events. Not sure how much more they expected, didn't know that Italy was seeded much higher. Also you have to ask how italian fans would react if their team would have underperformed as much as China did.

Agreed, their performance at the fencing world championships has been beyond pathetic.

So your retirement age must be like 72 ... ?

Turkey has a very young team. A 19 year old, a 21 year old and a 24 year old. They should have a lot of potential left to improve. Crazy that Japan has an 18 year old in the team, but also a 38 year old. I think Italy has the oldest team. They other 3 nations in the semifinal all have an 18/19 year old in their team, while the youngest italian athlete is 24 years old. On the women's side Mexico and the Netherlands both had a 17 year old in their team.

Interesting that South Korea is much better on the men's side, since: a) They have 3 in the top 8 of the individual competition on the women's side, but only 1 on the men's side b) Usually the level of competition is higher on the men's side Probably it was a massive underperformance of their women's team.

I guess that is a better attitude than being pessimistic, as long as you are able to handle a possible disappointment. Imagining all the great things that young talents might achieve/fantasizing about their potential is one of the most fun parts of being a supporter. Personally i get excited whenever Germany has a great talent in swimming, although i of course have realized by now that they (almost) never will achieve anything at senior level.

You certainly have a lot of faith. Do you have any influence on the success of the program/how can you be so sure when you don't have any influence (inside knowledge)?

We will see. I definitely wouldn't bet on him, given that Italy hasn't shown that they can produce elite sprinters. Germany also is very good at junior level on the men's side, but they don't know how to get close to the Netherlands/Australia at senior level. Some years ago Greece and India also both had a great talent at junior level, but (as far as i know) neither of them really "clicked" at senior level.

First gold ever in any recurve event on the women's side for Germany. Also first gold in any recurve event since 1987 for Germany. Too bad that the Netherlands "messed it up", otherwise we could have had the first all-european podium since 1955. Great job by "our" french coach. I hereby declare that no german federation is allowed to hire german coaches anymore ... In all seriousness: I wish the german swimming/athletics federation would get some (remotely) top class foreign coaches. I also wonder how every country in the world seems to do better in fencing than former powerhouse Germany. I (with all due respect) don't see how countries like Egypt, Hungary or Estonia keep performing better (given their talent pool/economic strength/tradition).

What happened to the ru... israeli guy? I thought he was supposed to be the "real deal"?

Interesting. For Germany it is the first time since 1983 and Germany never won gold in this event. Actually Germany never won gold in any of the women's recurve events (individual or team). The final will be historic, regardless of who will win it.

Interesting statistics: Last time we had an all-european podium in the women's team event: 1955 Last time South Korea didn't win a medal in the women's team event: 1999 Last time Germany won a medal in the women's team event: 1999 Last time Germany won gold in the women's team event: - Last time Germany won gold in any recurve event: 1987 (Men's team) This year european nations won as many medals in the women's team event as they did in the last 3/4 editions combined (depending on the outcome of the bronze medal match)

I am not an expert, so maybe i missed something, but this seems really unexpected. Only possible explanation i see: Mexico has one elite athlete (who is probably better than all german athlete), but their 2nd/3rd athlete is worse than the 2nd/3rd german athlete. Of course i won't complain about this result. Worst possible outcome for Germany now is two silver medals, which is probably more than expected. Still the individual results and the men's team result were rather underwhelming. Edit: How did Mexico manage to only score 45 points in the first round?

What do you do with the gas?

No, just don't use electricity ...

1 cent per year.