OlympicsFan

I dont really understand your point ... Do you think that all russian athletes are doped? Otherwise there will always be some athletes who didnt dope and will be banned, because other russian athletes doped. Sharapova lives in the US for a couple of years now, so you probably cant really say that she is part of the russian system. I dont think that this has any importance for the IAAF and i still dont believe that the IAAF really thinks about banning Russia. Russian athletes and coaches are still competing as if nothing happened, the recent documentary by Hajo Seppelt shows that nothing really changed. To be honest i dont think that its even possible to completey change the russian sport system in only about a year, so IAAF either has to ban Russia or they just have to pretend that Russia really solved all the problems.

Its funny that he has been caught again. I always knew that he was still dirty, but a certain person in this forum (i dont have to name him) still cheered for him, saying that he is so fast because he has a superior technique. I said more than a year ago that he should stop doping, because he will otherwise get completely bald before turning 25 and now he wont have any other choice. I hope that some german athletes will also get caught, but i doubt that they were "stupid" enough to take this drug.

I guess Sharapova will miss the olympic games ... I dont think that it was just a stupid mistake, but i am still sad that she wont be able to fulfill her dream of winning an olympic gold medal. On the other hand i am glad that she wont retire, she is the biggest star in womens tennis behind Serena. I wonder if this was the reason why she didnt play in FedCup? Will she now loose all her points from the Australian Open? Its funny that many people applaud her for announcing it herself, i think it wouldve been worse for her if ITF wouldve announced it. I am just surprised that ITF allowed her to do it. Tons of russian/ukrainian athletes and Aregawi have been caught already, i think many more might follow. Why didnt anyone of her staff notice that Meldonium will become illegal? Maybe they didnt even know that she was taking it ...

It would be cool if the Netherlands could qualify. They will probably qualify all teams on the womens side except womens rugby/basketball and maybe womens football.

I dont think that those results were really surprising from a german perspective. Our only realistic chance to qualify a team was probably mens foil and there we got surprised by the fast improving british team. I dont see us qualifying a team for Tokyo either, except mens sabre. We have some promising talents in womens foil, mens sabre, mens foil, mens epee and womens epee, but we are clearly missing the depth we had about 10 years ago and this wont change for at least one decade.

German athletics federation has lowered almost all standards to those that the IAAF announced, except for very few events (Marathon, Race Walking). The official reason is that this is a result of the recent doping scandals ... I think we will now see a huge german team in athletics (which i dont like), probably because we have to make up for the athletes we "lost" in volleyball/fencing. Some young german athletes showed big improvements in the last couple of weeks, i hope some of them will qualify for Rio: 60 m women: Pinto 7.07 (1992), Butzek (1997) 7.27, Kwadwo (1999) 7.36 800 m women: Hering 2.00.93 (1994), Klosterhalfen (1997) 2.03.37 1500 m women: Klosterhalfen (1997) 4.08.38, Krause (1992) 4.08.91 3000 m women: Krause (1992) 8.49.43, Klosterhalfen (1997) 8.56.36, Reh (1997) 9.00.58 Womens long jump: Wester (1994) 6.95 Mens triple jump: Heß (1996) 17.00 Especially Klosterhalfen, Heß, Roleder, Wester and Krause have looked really promising this year so far, i think some of them might really surprise a lot of people in Rio.

Biathlon, Figure skating (individual) and Snowboarding (halfpipe/slopestyle), although Germany is extremely bad in figure skating/snowboarding. My ranking would be: 1) Snowboarding (halfpipe/slopestyle) 2) Biathlon 3) Figure skating (individual) I also like Monobob very much, but sadly its not an olympic sport.

Vogel was extremely superior in womens keirin, i think only a crash can stop her in Rio. Her huge advantage is that all the other good sprinters (The russian and chinese girls + Ligtlee) are bad in keirin, so she can always dominate by her raw speed. Mens keirin was closer than expected and i am very surprised that Levy/Kenny didnt win a medal. Eilers always wants to lead for the last 2 or 3 rounds, but i think this might become a problem for him against better opponents (Glaetzer/Pervis) in Rio. Do you know what happened with Ligtlee and the Hoogland? They were extremely dominant at the european championships, but here they have been very disappointing.

Bauge, Tamgho, Moulinet, Livio, Bigot ... You have far more "famous" doping cases than any other western nation, only Russia and Ukraine in Europe are probably worse. If you only want to insult me, than you dont need to quote me, but obviously you are not interested in a discussion, so next time just dont quote me and we both will save a lot of time. Edit: You are somehow right about Shipulin, i will erase him from my list.

Yes i know, but she deserves more medals and especially Mäkäräinen and Soukalov also deserve medals here. I hope that Wierer will win gold in womens individual.

I wouldnt say great form, in great form she wouldve easily won gold in sprint. She is in decent shape, but in Rio her goal has to be to win 2 individual golds. Today Vogel didnt get her strategy right, both runs were really close, but in the first run she was leading too long and in the second run she didnt manage to get past her opponent and had to go a very long way. Welte wasnt in top shape, because she has been injured/ill during preparation, i hope she will get back into form for Rio, otherwise we wont be able to challenge Russia/China (i actually dont think that anyone can beat China in Rio). We have a great future in womens (team) sprint with Hinze and Grabosch, but Rio will come too soon for them, so we have to hope that Welte finds her form.

I dont want France/Ukraine to win any medals, considering their recent doping scandals. France had many doping cases in different sports and Ukraine had a couple of doping cases in biathlon. I wouldnt mind if J. Boe/Svendsen/T. Boe/Schempp/Peiffer/Lesser win all the medals from now and Dahlmeier/Hildebrand/Preuß/Mäkäräinen/Wierer/Soukalova on the womens side. I have given up all hope on the mens side, maybe except for the relay. Schempp has been shooting pretty bad recently, Dahlmeier as well, but she managed to hide it today. I expect gold in womens mass start and womens relay. Mäkäräinen, Wierer and Soukalova deserve to win medals, considering how the season has been going so far, i hope those 3 will win the medals in womens individual. On the mens side i hope for J. Boe, Schempp and Shipulin.

Pretty bad results for us! No gold in womens sprint/mens team sprint, horrible result in mens sprint and mens team pursuit. We have a lot of work to do before Rio, especially in mens (team) sprint. I think GB will be favorite in mens omnium and both team pursuits. Germany will (hopefully) be favorite in mens team sprint, womens sprint, womens keirin and maybe mens keirin. In mens sprint it should be between Bauge, Kenny, Dimitriev and Glaetzer (i think Germany shouldnt compete in mens sprint). In womens team sprint China should be the favorite and in mens omnium it should be Colombia. My predictions: Womens team sprint: China gold, Germany/Russia silver/bronze Womens sprint: Germany gold, China/Netherlands silver/bronze Womens keirin: Germany gold, GB/Australia/Russia silver/bronze Womens omnium: GB gold, USA silver, Many nations for bronze Womens team pursuit: GB gold, USA silver, Australia/Canada bronze Mens team sprint: Germany/New Zealand/France for gold/silver/bronze. Netherlands might win bronze, if Germany/France dont change their team. Mens sprint: GB/France/Australia/Russia for the medals, Bötticher sadly wont compete and Niederlag probably wont make the team. Mens keirin: Germany/GB/France for the medals. Mens omnium: Colombia for gold, Many nations for silver/bronze Mens team pursuit: GB/Australia for gold, Denmark and maybe New Zealand for bronze. Germany absolutely has the potential to fight for bronze, but somehow we managed to become 3s slower in the last 12 months, although we have a really young team. Italy came out of nowhere and might have a small chance for bronze.

Finally a good result for Germany, the results so far have been pretty disappointing. Too many medals for France, Eckhoff, Björndalen and Ukraine.