OlympicsFan

I think i can find the show on Youtube, but i dont know the episodes that wouldve aired today ... At least i recorded two episodes of "Curb", so i am not completely desperate now. Thank god pay tv (at least in Germany) doesnt care about terrorist attacks, otherwise i would have also missed "Curb".

Yes, i am fine, at the moment i am not in Belgium. I hope that there wont be any more terrorist attacks in the next couple of days. Terrorist should at least wait until 3 pm (CET) before they attack, so that i can watch one of my favorite shows.

Until now i never really cared about all the terrorist attacks, but today it completely changed. Thanks to those asshole terrorists N24 didnt show one of my favorite shows today, this is unforgivable! German TV said that Russia warned Belgium about 3 people from Belarus who came to Belgium recently and before that converted to Islam and spent some time in Syria. Terrorists from Belarus ... this would be something completely new ...

I didnt even know that we play at this tournament, in my opinion its a waste of money, we wont win a single game. I think at this moment our best chance to qualify an additional team for Rio is men volleyball (followed by womens handball, mens rugby and mens water polo).

Does Germany (Monika Karsch) have any chance to get that place? Does Germany have any (other) chance to get a place in womens air pistol? I think otherwise we should trade one of our quota places in mens 10 m air rifle or mens double trap for a place in womens air pistol. List of athletes who won a quota place by nation: http://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/ogqualification/quota_places/quota_places_by_nation_and_name.ashx

Some recent results: World cup Glasgow: Womens individual all around: Skinner 56.999, Seitz 55.732, Fragapane 55.398 15.566 for Skinner on vault, 14.800 for Seitz on uneven bars, 14.366 for Fragapane on floor Mens individual all around: Whitlock 89.299, Mariano 86.598, Purvis 86.465 (only 85.464 for Belyavskiy) 15.033 for Whitlock on floor, 15.500 for Whitlock on pommel horse, World cup Stuttgart: Womens individual all around: Scheder 57.032, Onyhsko 56.665, Hundley 56.499 (only 55.899 for Tutkhalian) 15.033 for Scheder/15.366 for Seitz (team competition) and 15.133 for Spiridonova (team competition) on uneven bars, 14.800 for Tutkhalian on balance beam Mens individual all around: Bretschneider 87.132, Leyva 86.631, Kuksenkov 86.432 (86.132 for Nguyen) 15.866 for Wilson on parallel bars (team competition), 15.733 for Leyva on high bar, 15.266 for Mariano on floor (team competition), 15.766 for Tulloch on rings (team competition), 15.366 for Verniaiev on pommel horse (team competition), 15.266 for Radivilov on vault (team competition) Verniaiev scored 90.431 in the team competition overall Hambüchen couldnt compete, because his is injured at the moment, its not safe that he will compete at the test event ... This would be really bad news for our team, but even without him we should be good enough to qualify.

So sorry for Rebensburg, she was definitely the best athlete in giant slalom this season, sadly she had a pretty bad start into the season. Rebensburg with a better first run would be the Shiffrin of giant slalom. This was a rather boring season on the womens side for me. No Maze or Fenninger and Shiffrin/Vonn with a lot of bad luck, otherwise Gut never wouldve won the overall world cup. Next year we should see an amazing fight for the overall world cup, hopefully Shiffrin/Rebensburg will get better in giant slalom/speed events. We could see an amazing fight in all disciplines except slalom. In speed events we could see a fight between Maze/Fenninger/Vonn/Gut/Weirather/Rebensburg/all the other girls and in giant slalom we could see a fight between Fenninger/Maze/Brem/Rebensburg/Shiffrin. Maybe Vlhova or Holdener can "grow up" to challenge Shiffrin ... On the mens side i really wouldve liked to see Svindal winning the overall world cup, but he also had a lot of bad luck and Hirscher was just too consistent. I hope Svindal (if he scores better in giant slalom and wont get injured again) or maybe even Pintaurault (if he improves in slalom) will challenge Hirscher, but in maybe opinion Kristoffersen has the best chance to beat Hirscher.

Without the referees mistake it still wouldve been only 2:0 for Juve, so noone can tell if Cuadrado wouldve scored if Juve already wouldve been up 2:0 ... Of course we can also talk about the first match, where for example Mandzukic shouldve seen a red card. In 2014 for example Real had to play against Bayern in the semifinal and i think Atletico or Chelsea might have been even easier opponents for them. In addition to that Real often gets very difficult groups.

In the end we got the same result ... I think there are 105 possible draws and in 45 of them we have Bayern-Barca, Barca-Real or Real-Bayern. Edit: Why did you put the 8/8 in there? You wanted to make it more intuitive? I dont really see the intuition behind it, could you please explain (maybe with a PM)?

I agree, its also funny that Chelsea, PSG and City often play against each other or against Barca, as if UEFA doesnt want them to go far. On the other hand UEFA did a bad job protecting Barca/Bayern by drawing them against Atletico/Juve. There wouldve been many easier opponents for Bayern in the round of last 16. Its funny that Bayern had to eliminate the strongest team in the round of last 16 (Juve) and now Barca has to eliminate the strongest team in the quarterfinal (Atletico), as if they planned it before, so that every big club has almost the same chances. I think UEFA would always like to have a semifinal with Bayern, Barca, Real and City/Chelsea/PSG.

How did you calculate? 4/7 for Bayern/Barca/Real not playing against each other and then 4/7*4/7*4/7*4/7*4/7?

You dont want "Der Harting" to win a medal? Why? He is such a nice guy ...

Yes, you can read it here if you understand a bit of german: http://www.bild.de/regional/ruhrgebiet/mord/vater-von-leichtathletik-star-wegen-mordes-angeklagt-43343042.bild.html I am very "proud" that she came back so strong, many other athletes/people never wouldve been able to recover. Its amazing that she came back so strong, improving her 60 m indoor PB by 0.16.

Yes Gambassi and me posted the rules earlier, but do you really think that an organization like FIVB will necessarily apply the rules? We are talking about Russia, the defending olympic champion ... After all that happened with Goijman i dont expect anything at all from FIVB (anymore) ... Of course we could go to CAS, but there probably wont be enough time to decide before the qualification tournament starts. First we should wait if the positive test was really at the qualification tournament or if there will be even more positive doping tests (for other nations). I am pretty sure now that one positive doping test wont be enough to disqualify Russia. For our team and especially our coach it would be amazing to play in Rio, considering that it will be the last tournament for our coach and for many of our players (for example Grozer). In 2008 and 2012 we were pretty lucky to qualify, so maybe we just used up all our luck for the last 2 olympic games ...

Pinto and Wester were pretty disappointing in Portland, but they are both pretty young, so its ok. It was the first time that Wester competed for Germany and Pinto didnt compete internationally last year, so she might have been a bit nervous. Heß improved his PB again to 17.14 in Portland and his 5th jump was about 17.60, but sadly it didnt count. Heß could even be a medal contender in Rio, if Tamgho wont get back to his old shape. 17.50 could be enough for a medal in Rio and Heß has the ability to do it. For Wester it will be pretty difficult to qualify for Rio, considering that Malkus, Mihambo and Moguenara all jumped at least 6.90 in one of the last two years. I would say that Wester and Mihambo will definitely qualify and the third place will probably go to Moguenara. Pinto has to lead our very young relay in Rio, i think she will be the oldest member of our relay, with just 24 years of age. We have tons of potential on the womens side (Butzek, Lückenkemper, Mayer, Kwadwo), but Rio might be too early. I think the medals will go to Jamaica, USA and GB. I am happy that we finally got some talent in track events. Last year we won 2 individual medals in track events, for the first time since 1999. Both Roleder and Krause clearly improved their PBs this winter, so they could really fight for a medal in Rio. In addition to that we could also fight for a medal in womens 800 m (Kohlmann, Hering) and mens 1500 m (Tesfaye). I am most impressed by Klosterhalfen, she was running very fast from 800 m to 10000 m this winter and set multiple records. At 800 m she improved the 36 year old german u20 indoor record by running 2:03:37. At 1500 m and 3000 m she set new european u20 indoor records. She also improved the 26 year old german 10 km road race u20 record (33:03) by running 32:24. I think if she wont get injured, she could qualify at 1500 m and/or 5000 m and/or 10000 m for Rio.

FIVB still would have two possible excuses: 1) He wasnt really part of the team, because he didnt play. He didnt have any impact on the game. 2) Meldonium became illegal at the end of 2015. Maybe the russian players took it at the end of 2015 (when it was still legal), but the test was still positive, because their body wasnt able to "get rid" of Meldonium fast enough.

Why should i like it if a german athlete gets caught for the 2nd time and probably will be banned for ever? She wouldve had a good chance for 2 medals in Rio, so i would be pretty sad if she would be a german athlete. I think there is no doubt that she deserves to get banned, she has been caught two times at just 23 years of age, so she obviously doesnt want to play fair. The same is true for Kulizhnikov. I am really surprised how stupid/careless many russian athletes seem to be. I dont think that german athletes are necessarily "cleaner", but at least they hide it better ... Its really interesting that so many russian swimmers have been caught in the last couple of years, although Russia isnt very good in swimming. On the other hand chinese/japanese/british/french/american/australian/hungarian athletes are (almost) never caught, but i doubt that they are any better.

He didnt play against Germany or France (in the final), so this probably wont have any effect on the decision whether Russia will be disqualified or not. Edit: I think he played in the 4th set against France, but he didnt have a big impact.

I am surprised that both Braz and Barber didnt win a medal. I expected Barber to not repeat his performances from last year, but of course he still has a lot of time to prepare for Rio. In Rio it could be very interesting between Barber, Lavillenie, Holzdeppe and Braz. The level on the womens side has really exploded. About 10 athletes are able to jump 4.80 m or more, apparently there has been some new discovery. We have seen tons of junior/youth world records in the last couple of months.

I really like the german and the american kits, they look very elegant. The brazilian and kenyan kits dont look very special.

I am happy that Efimova finally is gone. She shouldnt have been allowed to compete in Kazan anyway. I dont understand why someone like her (who has been banned before) isnt more careful ... Why bother to read WADA mails, if you have been banned before and cant afford another positiv test ...

I am sad that our mens team has to work with a new coach. Markus Weise, who won gold at the last 3 olympic games (2004 with our womens team, 2008 and 2012 with our mens team), now works for german football association. Until a couple of months ago i was pretty confident that we would win gold again, but now i think that even a medal will be difficult.

I know, but some predictions are still pretty "brave" ... Gold for Berian and Centrowitz? Bronze for Kendricks? I would favor Braz ... Two medals in mens triple jump? Gold in womens long jump? BUT: Only bronze in womens high jump? Some american fans are really going crazy over Cunningham. Some of them predict her to jump world record (2.09) as a junior (until the end of 2017), although she just set a PB of 1.99 ...

Zonderland isnt qualified until now for Rio? I think your main goal should be to qualify Zonderland, all your other athletes wont have a medal chance. I think he can also qualify individually if your team fails to qualify. Germany, France and Ukraine are stronger in my opinion, but you should beat Romania and Spain, especially if Zonderland is fit. Zonderland should score close to 16 points at high bar, which should put you out of the reach of Romania/Spain. I think you can actually be pretty relaxed. Team qualification would be a bonus and Zonderland should have no problem to qualify if he is not completely out of shape. As a german fan i cant be that relaxed, because Nguyen, Bretschneider and Hambüchen all have to qualify and all could be medal contenders in Rio, so we really have to qualify a team. You really should talk to the guys of Infostrada, they dont predict a gold medal for Zonderland in Rio. He might struggle with injuries, but all the other guys (maybe except for Hambüchen) are pretty inconsistent. Leyva, Uchimura and Larduet all could challenge for a medal, but i think only Larduet has enough upside to challnge in-shape Zonderland. From a german perspective all my hopes are on Bretschneider and not on Hambüchen. Bretschneider wouldve won the gold medal at the last world championships without the fall, so you clearly have to consider him as a possible medal contender.

In general they have very interesting picks, i think they are overstimating american athletes in most disciplines. In womens long jump they didnt predict a medal for the top 2 in world ranking, which is very interesting ... Nataliia Lupu (2nd at 2012 world indoor championships) wont be allowed to compete, she apparently took Meldonium for a couple of years as a medicine. At the 2014 world indoor championships she tested positive for Methylhexaneamine and therefore got a 9 months ban.