OlympicsFan

True, but Savchenko was born in Ukrain, so this is a very interesting pair. In the end i am just happy that we have such a great new pair and that Aljona can keep competing. The bronze medal was a great end to their first season and i am sure that they will only get better and that Aljona will be able to fulfill her dream of an olympic gold medal in 2018. Its also interesting to note that they have a german (Alexander König) and a french coach (Jean-Francoic Ballester). I think its fair to say that its an "international project", but they have to compete for one country and they decided to compete for Germany. Aljona might be the more important part of the pair, but both profit from each other and in the end they could have as well competed for France and noone wouldve had a problem, because they are just a great pair. Its also interesting to know that France also has a history of "buying" athletes, for example Vanessa James who was born in Canada and formerly competed for GB. Andrei Novoselov was born in Russia but now competes for France. Florent Amodio is a bit different case, but also quite interesting. He was born in Brazil and still has the brazilian citizenship but got adopted by a french couple early in his life and decided to represent France internationally. Overall figure skating and especially pair skating seems to be very "international". Other interesting cases: Tatiana Volosozhar also was born in Ukraine but now competes for Russia. Vladimir Morozov was born in Germany but represents Russia. Ashley Wagner was born in Germany but competes for USA. Yuko Kavaguti was born in Japan but competes for Russia now. Lubov Ilyushechkina was born in Russia but now competes for Canada. Ivan Righini was born in Russia but now competes for Italy. Oleksii Bychenko was born in Ukraine but now competes for Israel. Misha Ge was born in Russia but now competes for Uzbekistan. Elizabet Tursynbayeva was born in Russia but now competes for Kazakhstan. Kaitlyn Weaver was born in the US but now competes for Canada. Piper Gilles was born in the US but now competes for Canada. Charlene Guignard was born in France but now competes for Italy. ... Overall 3 of the top 20 in mens single skating dont represent their country of birth. Overall 3 of the top 20 in womens single skating dont represent their country of birth. Overall 9 of the top 20 pairs in ice dance have at least one athlete who doesnt represent his/her country of birth. Overall 11 of the top 20 pairs in pair skating have athletes who dont represent his/her country of birth. Its really interesting that 50% of the pairs in ice dance or pair skating have an athlete who was born in an other country.

We have to become third in our group to avoid Hungary. On a good day we can beat Romania, France or Russia, but we are missing 3 important players. Do you have any news about the russian doping cases in mens volleyball? I still have hope that we can go to Rio. I would clearly prefer our mens volleyball team over our mens water polo team in Rio. Even our mens basketball team might still have a tiny chance, if FIBA decides to "ban" the italian federation any time soon, although its very unlikely and wouldnt be fair for the italian national team.

I really dont know whats going on with Ebert ... just the fact that she still competes in this age category shows that she isnt very confident. By now she should dominate at this level, but it looks as if she at the moment isnt better than 2 or 3 years ago. I hope she will recover soon! On the other hand very good for Eifler finally, she always was a big talent but never was able to show it at the big stage.

I think Giorgi wont play for Italy in the future. It will be interesting to see which italian girl will go to Rio instead ...

Mitchell Whitmore wont be allowed to compete in ISU events until March 31st 2017: http://static.isu.org/media/1001/2016-01-donagrandi-vs-whitmore-final-decision-for-publication.pdf

Two (more or less) interesting news from german handball: 1) Our mens team won today 33:26 (17:15) against Denmark in Cologne. I think this should give a lot of hope to Norway and Croatia. 2) From now on our womens national team will be coached by Michael Biegler.

The qualification format was a bit more complicated and i have only a german source. The qualification consisted of 3 competitions and the final decision was made after the results at the "Trofeo Princesa Sofia" this week. I can also tell you that Brauchli/Hausser (mens 470) will compete for Switzerland in Rio.

Really? He wont be able to swim the individual mens 100 free, although many people saw him as a gold medal contender. I think this is quite a big upset. On the other hand he will probably win 2 gold medals, so this wont hurt him too much. I think that athletes like Grangeon, Santamans or Joly all will be selected in the end, so no need for all the stress, in addition to that many athletes will be selected for the relays, so France will probably have about 20 athletes in swimming at the olympics.

Its official that Germany will be represented by Heil/Plößel (mens 49er) and Jurczok/Lorenz (womens 49er).

Great result for Schöneborn again, she has become extremely consistent this year, everything but gold in Rio now would be disappointing. At the moment Schleu is much better than Kohlmann, but for some reason Kohlmann is already qualified for Rio ... I am happy to see that we seem to get better on the mens side, Zillekens always has been a big talent, but now he seems to finally become consistent on senior level.

Its really disgusting that Spain is "buying" tons of athletes in all sports. I think they are the 3rd worst european nation, only behind Turkey and Azerbaijan. If you also take the big doping scandal a couple of years ago into account, then there is absolutely no reason to be a fan of spanish sport. They did the same with Mirotic and they will probably try the same with talents like Doncic. So far only one german talent has been bought by Spain (Nicola Kuhn in tennis) and i am happy that Mushidi or Hartenstein dont play in Spain, otherwise they would probably also try to buy them, although they have absolutely no connection to Spain.

Great result for your team, so Italy wont defend their title from 2014. At the moment we are destroying France (60:30 before the last quarter), although our 2 best players here (Mushidi and Freudenberg) are playing pretty bad so far.

What a disgusting result, obviously the judges are trying to push Gracie Gold. If we look at the results of this season so far, the only acceptable result would be a gold for one of the russian girls, although i would love to see Mao Asada winning the gold.

I wouldnt call Germany vs. France a final before a final, i dont think that anyone can stop Italy here. Do you know if France/Italy/Serbia are missing any of their best players? Germany is missing Hartenstein and Bonga both due to injury, both apart from that we are playing with our best team.

The german womens head coach said that its only a minor injury and that she is optimistic that Schäfer will be able to compete. We already had enough bad luck this year (Schrader, Holzdeppe, Dissinger, Hambüchen), so we also deserve some luck. I hope that our womens team will qualify, because Seitz and Scheder are possible medal contenders in womens uneven bars. On the mens side i am not too worried honestly. Lets say we wouldve competed with Rittschik instead of Hambüchen at the world championships last year and Rittschik wouldve scored about 14.5 on mens pommel horse and 0 points everywhere else, then we wouldve had only about 0.5 points less overall, so we still wouldve had more than 345 points. France and South Korea were the only 2 other teams to score 342 points or more. I dont think that 2 out of Netherlands/Romania/Ukraine/Spain can score 345 points or more, so our team should qualify, unless they completely loose their nerves. In addition to that Nguyen and Bretschneider are in a clearly better shape now, so i think that 345 points would be pretty much the minimum for us.

Kerber seems to be back, its really great to see that she can reach the semifinal of such a big tournament, although she isnt at 100% and in addition to that this surface is too slow for her. This is her best result ever in Miami and she is back to number 2. Cmon Angie, you can beat guest again! Wilander quit working with Keys after just 8 days ...

It would be sad, especially because Janas and Berger are also missing, but we still should be able to qualify. I think in top shape we would have the 5th best team in the world behind GB, USA, Russia and China. Lets say our team wont qualify, would we be able to send Scheder or Seitz to Rio instead of Schäfer? I think Scheder and Seitz would have clearly better medal chances.

Pretty easy wins for us against Serbia (+13) and Turkey (+24), even without our 2 most talented players (Bonga and Hartenstein). I think the other group is better overall, France and Italy look very strong. I pray to god that we will be able to play with our best team at the european u18 championships. In my opinion this is the most talented age group we ever had. The problem is that our league is too weak, those players have to leave Germany early, otherwise they will never be able to show their true potential.

Italy looked extremely weak ... I know that they missed some of their best players, but the same was true for us. It will be really interesting to see which of our talents will play in France/Rio, i think we should send our best talents to Rio, then we would be the favorite for the gold medal. In my opinion France, Spain and Germany should fight for the title, Belgium or England might surprise. France has probably the most talented team in the world right now.

In general i agree with you, there shouldnt be any "tourists" at olympic games, but ... ... lets be honest: You wouldve been really happy if your team wouldve qualified?! I think the same about our teams in mens water polo or mens rugby, but they really wouldve been chanceless in Rio, your mens football team probably wouldnt have advanced to the next round, but i think they at least wouldve been a worthy opponent for the other teams. I think your problem is that you play with too many players who grew up in Europe, you should try to "create" your own talents and your second problem is that your league is too weak, your homegrown players cant play at the highest level.

Are you talking about 2016 mens hockey champion trophy?

I know, i thought that i pointed it out, but maybe not enough. I said that Germany has two other athletes who won a quota place (and therefore those athletes didnt win a quota place). I know that the quota places are for nations and not for athletes, but in my opinion those athletes who won the quota places should be nominated for Rio, unless Engleder does something really special in the next couple of months.

Are you talking about France or your own team? Sorry, i probably didnt understand the irony ... Edit: I think your u17 national team will beat us, this age group is the worst in many years for us. Only Dadachov seems to be a really big talent.

Very sad for Durkovic, but i understand your federation. I think in a nation like China this wouldnt happen, they would never give away a possible medal chance so easy. Durkovic could maybe try to qualify in mens 10 m air rifle, taking away the quota place from Gorsa?

Yes i know, you said it before and you dont have to repeat it every day. In my opinion winning the quota place first is also an "achievement", so those athletes should be the first choices for the quota places. Engleder had the same chance as everyone else, but there were two athletes who won the quota places before her, so those athletes performed better under pressure and in my opinion those athletes are more likely to medal at the olympic games.