OlympicsFan

2) Mori is half a year older than Kuhn from Germany and "only" 30 cm ahead of her in the world rankings. I never would look with the same optimism at Kuhn as you do with Mori. The difference might be that Fantini is clearly ahead of every german athlete, so at least your system has proven recently that it can produce (fringe) world class athletes in women's hammer throw. I can't say the same about the german system. 4) You don't have to look back that far. At the last olympics it took 6.97 m to win bronze. At 2022 world it took 7.02 m to win silver and at 2017 worlds it also took 6.97 m to win bronze. I don't think the level will be as high this year. I won't call someone an established medal favorite until she/he has won multiple medals at worlds/olympics. Iapichino is without a doubt a medal favorite (probably ahead of Mihambo for example), but i wouldn't call her "established". Too bad that Davis will be allowed to compete ...

We will see about Mitsin ... I am sure you heard the talk about bulgarian swimming federation. Their last big talent (Miladinov) also hasn't looked great recently. There are other talents that i find more promising than Mitsin, mainly Cooper and Blocksidge.

Really surprised to see the results of the weekend: 1) Germany had 3 in the top 5 of the women's race. Where were all the american/british women and the woman from Bermuda? Did they skip this competition to prepare for the olympics? Also i have the feeling that Switzerland used to be better. 2) Germany was actually somewhat decent on the men's side as well. What happened to Blummenfelt (didn't he use to dominate) and the british men? 3) Did Germany mainly profit from the home advantage or do the results actually reflect the current level?

I am sure that you could ... that is probably also the reason why you need to lie about what i said (where did i say that they are a magical combination?) and can't provide a single reason for why exactly Canada should be favored over the US. I guess i just have to accept the opinion of a brilliant basketball mind like you who doesn't think that Olynyk and Powell are a clearly worse center rotation than Banchero/JJJ/Kessler or that Canada doesn't have clearly worse wings. Not sure if any basketball expert agrees with your take, but probably they just don't have your wisdom ...

Really surprised by Germany winning gold. What happened to the better teams (for example France and GB)? I fear that this will lead the german federation to believe that they are better than they actually are. The goal should be to have 2 medal contenders in both individual events and as far as i know they are currently lightyears away from that (especially on the men's side).

I am sorry for using arguments. Maybe i should as well just reply with one-liners that don't contribute anything. I guess your strategy is better suited for your "abilities". If you can't win an argument you just declare yourself the winner without even trying to disprove anything the other person said. That way you don't have to face your own shortcomings. Sadly this strategy prevents you from growing as a person. It only raises the question why you post comments on a discussion forum when you aren't willing to actually lead discussions ... seems like a waste of time.

1) I don't care about race walking and think that this shouldn't be a sport, so i can't judge the perspective of your race walkers. 2) Mori hasn't really progressed recently, so it doesn't look good, 69 m isn't very impressive. Women's hammer throw doesn't have a lot of depth, so maybe she can still reach the top 8 some day. 3) Someone born in 2000 wouldn't have been allowed to participate. U23 -> 22 or younger -> born in 2001 or later 4) Women's long jump clearly regressed recently. It looks as if 6.90 or even 6.85 might be enough for a medal at world level currently. Personally i wouldn't call someone an established contender who has never done anything at world level.

No, your arguments aren't compelling. All of the things you mentioned are completely irrelevant for my point. 1) Maybe them retiring/not competing might have something to do with them knowing that they won't get to compete at the highest level for quite some time ... ? 2) I doesn't matter how old they will be come Paris. I was talking about the current level of competition in diving. 3) Him having been born in Ukraine doesn't matter either. If Russia wouldn't have attacked, they wouldn't be banned and he wouldn't have a problem to compete for them. My whole point was that them being banned (for attacking Ukraine) lead to a lower level of competition ... Also he didn't seem to have a problem competing for them in 2021, 7 years after Russia originally attacked Ukraine. Maybe he was from eastern Ukraine and identified as russian. 4) Maybe Russia has ten 16 year olds who could have won gold here, we simply don't know where they are currently at. Even if we would know it, it wouldn't really mean much, since noone can seriously believe that them knowing that they won't get to compete at the highest level for quite some time didn't lead to less motivation and therefore worse performances. We can only look at their level before they were banned and when we do that, we will see that they were very competitive in at least 3 events. I understand that you feel the need to tell yourself that the level hasn't dropped considerably, since you want to believe that GB winning all those medals is a sign of how great their team is. In reality this british team is by no means anything special, which you would understand if you would look at the gap between them and the chinese. The main reason for them winning all those medals is that they are "less shit" than their competitors.

No, you didn't answer because even you know that your original claim was absurd. I also don't remember saying that Coach K is "some college coach", but that he is "only" a college coach (one of the best of all times, but not an NBA coach -> not used to working with grown-ups/not used to NBA basketball). I didn't make your point in any way. This american team is stronger (while their last team was also strong and the strongest team on paper, but less balanced than their current team). I also never blamed their performance on their coach, i said that he also deserves some of the blame for their performances and for not being able to create a more balanced roster (maybe him not being an NBA coach made it difficult for him to know which players to pick ...). So if i understand you correctly your "proof" of Canada having a roster that is better/at least as good as the american roster is that you would be perfectly fine with Powell/Olynyk and that we can't judge the players before the start of the competition ... ? What exactly was the point of talking about roster strength then? According to you we should just disregard what we know about the players. Also the actual performances won't tell us which nation has the better roster on paper. We have a big enough sample size of NBA games to judge the players. Team A finishing ahead of team B doesn't automatically mean that team A has better players. I don't remember claiming that Canada can't finish ahead of the US, but my claim was that the US has the better roster and that we have no indication (since Canada basically never did anything at national team level and they also have a new coach) that Canada can offset this disadvantage (by for example having great team chemistry or a superior coach). Objectively the US has to be considered the favorite, which (again) doesn't mean that they will finish ahead of Canada. Also SGA might very well be better than any player the US has.

I think Iapichino and Simonelli are your most promising talents (+ Furlani of course), not sure if any of your other talents could become world class.

Normally around 10 of the medalists go on to reach world-class (top 8 at world championships/olympics). I think the following athletes are the most likely (Hodgkinson, Kosonen, Alekna and Kokhan excluded, since they already did it) to do it: Felfner Vanninen Dokter M. Rooth Skotheim Zhoya Iapichino Tzengko Kambundji Attaoui/Ingvaldsen Overall a very strong generation in my opinion (even if two of the largest countries, Poland and Germany, don't contribute much). I didn't even include athletes like Ammirati, Anselmini, Azu, Afrifrah, Alesaari, Askag, Bouju, Flatnes, Hummel, Hussey, Healy, John, Jaeger, Meziane, O'Sullivan, Simonelli, Vicente or Van Daalen + we also shouldn't forget that some of the best athletes like Mahuchikh, Adeleke or Skrzyszowska didn't even compete. I don't remember the last time we had so many promising talents at U23 european championships.

Please forgive me ... I thought Kerr took over from Coach K, but in fact Kerr took over from Popovich, who in turn took over from Coach K. Who was their coach at the last world championships? You must think that all the the american players at the 2019 world cup (for example Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Khris Middleton and Donovan Mitchell) were extremely overrated if you don't think that them losing against Serbia and France didn't have anything to do with the coach (some might also say that the coach has the responsibility of selecting the right players). Popovich without a doubt is one of the greatest NBA coaches ever, but there is a difference between the NBA and FIBA basketball + Popovich hasn't done anything with the Spurs in quite some time. I think that Kerr is a better fit for this team and FIBA basketball in general. Of course your "relationship" with Popovich explains why you aren't able to judge his performance at the last world cup objectively. Also i must have missed the part of your comment where you explained how exactly Canada has a stronger roster (when their 3rd best player would probably only be the 8th best player on the american team and they have no wings at the level of Ingram/Bridges/Banchero and no bigs at the level of JJJ/Kessler). 3 of the worst american players (Kessler, Johnson, Portis) might even be starters for the canadian team ...

JJJ, Kessler and Banchero are lightyears ahead of every canadian big man.

Canada has had good teams before that were hyped but pretty much always underperformed. I guess we won't agree on this topic. As far as i know the former american coach was "only" a college coach who, according to many, didn't do a super impressive job recently (considering the talents he recruited every year). Their new coach is seen as one of the best coaches of all time as well + many think that he is better suited for FIBA basketball + he is younger and should be more "up-to-date". Personally i absolutely don't see how anyone could think that Canada has more talent, but i guess you are seeing something that i don't see. In my opinion the 3rd best canadian player (Barrett) would only be the 8th best player on the american team.

No. On the women's side they weren't a big factor at the last olympics, but on the men's side they definitely were. They won bronze in men's 10 m synchronized. In men's 10 m they finished 4th and 5th (behind Daley who has since retired) and in men's 3 m they finished 5th (behind Laugher who won't compete here). I think their athletes would have been clear medal contenders in at least 3 events. Also at the world championships before that they won 2 medals and finished 5th in men's 3 m synchronized, 5th in women's 10 m synchronized and 4th in women's 3 m sychronized. So overall they finished top 5 in 5 of the 8 events at the last world championships they were allowed to compete.

Paltrinieri seems to be using the same strategy as his training partner Beck did yesterday. Let's see if the result will be the same.

I also think that some discus results are fishy. If you got perfect conditions (wind) you can throw 2-3 m farther than you normally could. Not sure if that was the case with him.

Not sure it makes sense to lead this discussion with you if you feel attacked by someone not praising France ... Germany won bronze last year with a completely new team, which as well was a clear sign that the field isn't very strong. I don't have to ask myself why Germany didn't qualify. Germany just doesn't have a strong team and i don't remember Barthel ever achieving much in individual competitions. GB (and of course China) are clearly ahead of the rest (France, Italy, USA, Germany, Mexico). If we would contest this competition ten times under the same circumstances, then all of those nations (France, Italy, USA, Germany, Mexico) would probably win bronze at least once, because none of those teams has much consistency. I was also talking about diving as a whole and men's 3 m synchronised is only one out of eight competitions, so this criticism wasn't focused on France, but the general level. It would be nice if you could answer me the following questions? 1) Don't you think that the absence of Russia (and the fact that ukrainian athletes can't prepare optimally) lowered the level? 2) Don't you agree that Mexico and the US used to be stronger in (men's) diving? 3) Don't you think that the dominance of China harmed the sport by creating the impression that it is pretty much impossible for athletes from other nations to win gold?

Maybe that is the goal ... IAA ... world athletics should maybe take notes (if they want to get rid of race walking)

1) I don't agree that they had a better team on paper last time. 2) They have a new coach. 3) How does/did Canada impress you when the US didn't? I am exaggerating a bit, but has Canada ever won a game at the basketball world cup ... ?

I think the most likey candidates are Nemeth (100 free), Telegdy (200 back), Zombori (400 IM), Padar (200/400 free), Fabian (1500 free), Mihalyvari-Farkas (400 IM/1500 free), Burian (200 back), Molnar (200 back), Kapas (200 fly, maybe 400/800 free), Sebestyen (200 IM), Jackl (400 IM) and maybe Magda (100 free). In the end you should have at least 16 athletes with an OQT.

On the one hand that is good to hear, on the other hand it kind of kills the sport of open water swimming. The easier it gets to switch/transition, the more "open water specialists" will disappear. Open water swimming might turn into another pure distance swimming event.

I don't think that Beck needs any magic. She only narrowly missed gold last year and won 2 of the 3 world cups this year. She is clearly the best in the world right now if we exclude Grimes. If Beck is at 100 %, then noone except Grimes and maybe Kirpichnikova should beat her. The question is whether other athletes will switch from the 1500 m. Athletes like Quadarella, Pallister, Gose, Johnson or one of the fast american girls (Weinstein/Cox?) could see this as their only chance to win a gold medal.

France winning a medal out of nowhere shows how weak most events in diving are. Men's 3 m: Two strong chinese + Laugher -> Difficult to win a medal Men's 10 m: Two strong chinese + maybe Tamai/Sereda -> Difficult, but possible to win a medal Men's 3 m synchronised: China and GB are strong, but all other teams are rather weak -> Not too difficult to win a medal Men's 10 m synchronised: China is strong, but all other teams aren't very impressive -> Not too difficult to win a medal Women's 3 m: Two strong chinese -> Bronze is pretty open Women's 10 m: Two strong chinese -> Bronze is pretty open Women's 3 m synchronised: China is strong, but all other teams are rather weak -> Not too difficult to win a medal Women's 10 m synchronised: China is strong, but all other teams are rather weak -> Not too dificult to win a medal The absence of Russia has opened up a lot of opportunities. Also i have the feeling that Mexico (overall), the US (mainly on the men's side) and GB (mainly on the women's side) used to be stronger. I think if one nation would really focus on it, they could win 5 or 6 "easy" medals in diving. Not sure how many sports there are were you can get 5 or 6 medals that "easily".

First gold for Germany in the women's 10 km since 2001 when this event was contested for the first time ... in Fukuoka of all places. Also might be interesting to know that Beck trains in the same group as Paltrinieri ... maybe a good sign for him.