OlympicsFan

4 hours ago, Josh said:

Think @intoronto is talking about Oleksiak, but I’m not sure. 

Didn't know that she is still considered relevant. When was the last time that she produced a fast time? I think even someone like Jansen might be more relevant, but we will see. I think Australia, USA, China and probably even GB are bigger favorites for Paris, so it might be best for McIntosh to drop the 4 x 100 free relay, but maybe things will look different after trials.

3 hours ago, EselTheDonkey said:

Hafnaoui actually was there, but he missed the final.

I know, i meant that Short and Hafnaoui both were non-factors. Hafanoui apparently ended his studies in the U.S. and then had to go back to Tunisia waiting for a new visa, so it is understandable that he wasn't anywhere near his best. He still has enough time to turn it around before Paris.

So many 4th places for Germany ... Maira Jasch finished 4th three times. Sonnekalb looks like the biggest male talent at the moment, he was very close to winning 2 individual golds (1000 m and 1500 m). I don't think that Germany ever had a talent like him. He can come back next year and finish the job. At this rate he could qualify for the olympics in 2026 as an 18 year old and make some waves there. Hopefully he can improve to something like 35.5/1:09.5/1:46.5 next season.

3 minutes ago, Benolympique said:

 Qualified ?

Ok

4 hours ago, NearPup said:

Funny thing for a German to say to a Hungarian

You mean because of 1954? More recently the hungarian team has usually been better than the sum of it parts and has often managed not to lose against teams that were much better on paper.

4 minutes ago, Vektor said:

That's Hungarian team sports for you in a nutshell outside of water polo. 

What about men's football? I think you usually overperform there.

1 minute ago, Fran-UDA said:

Hello friend, what were you saying? 

Congratulations, i always knew that Spain would turn it around!

A lot of people (myself included) have to go back and delete their comments in this thread, otherwise they will look foolish ...

Really weird turn of events, i still think it would have been smarter for Spain to eliminate Canada. Either Hungary massively choked or Spain knew from the beginning that they could turn this around whenever they wanted.

38 minutes ago, intoronto said:

winning bronze without arguably it 3 best swimmers shows how low quality this event is tbh

 

And

MacNeil, McIntosh and ... ? Will be interesting to see how many relays McIntosh will swim in Paris, given her packed schedule.

Not sure what to make of Gose's and Märtens' performances. Gose set a new national record, but i absolutely don't see her challenging Titmus, Ledecky, McIntosh or Fairweather in Paris. Even Li Bingjie and Pallister might be out of reach. The 1500 free seems like her best shot if she can get down to sub 15:45.

Märtens was ill for many weeks and should be way off 100 %, but him only finishing 3rd without Short/Hafnaoui isn't super encouraging. It will be interesting to see if he will plan to swim the 800 free at the olympics. He will focus on the 200 free here, but in the 800 free he might be closer to a medal.

Could be a very good medal haul for the Netherlands. 8 or 9 medals in olympic events seem possible (2 medals by Schouten, 2 medals by Kamminga, 1 medal by Corbeau, 2 medals by Steenbergen, women's 4 x 100 free relay, Korstanje). At the olympics that ceiling should be 5 medals (2 x Kamminga, 2 x Schouten, 1 x Steenbergen).

If Hungary throws away this chance ...

41 minutes ago, Benolympique said:

I find it dishonest to deprive athletes in this way, played its 3 matches seriously!!

Dishonest? Don't think that it makes sense to use that word in this situation. I think you could call it "unsports(wo)manlike". I think France had a much easier group, so you probably wouldn't even have noticed if they would have played at 80 %. I also think that Canada has more potential than Hungary, so from a spanish perspective it was smart to eliminate Canada from the olympics. Of course Spain won't be "allowed" to complain if Canada does the same to them in the future, but i guess the odds of Canada ever getting in such a position are rather small, so Spain obviously thought that it was "worth the risk".

Canada lost 2 out of 3 games, they can't complain. I think Australia might/will do the same against Serbia.

What happens if Brazil wins by 7 against Germany?

I think that Brazil will win against Germany, but not sure by how much. Germany not qualifying would be a huge blow, given that they could have won by 15-20 points against Serbia and probably have more upside for Paris (given the age of their best players) than many other teams.

Edit: Don't see Serbia beating Australia, but we will see.

2 hours ago, ChandlerMne said:

I am to old to do that staff. Plus, i dont mind losing games as i used to, to use anything like that. Its simple, worse team loses and thats it.

Brazil lost 5 points vs Australia, same team that destroyed Germany, who easily won over Serbia. 

Brazil played better, thats it.

That trick, as you call it, is universal, not "in some parts of the world", btw. 

You have to keep in mind that Germany played without their 2 best players against Australia and that even before the start of the tournament the plan was to save energy against Australia in order to be fully fit for the match against Brazil.

Will be interesting to see how many of the medal winners will also win a medal in Paris. I would say 1 or 2 on the men's side and maybe 1 on the women's side. Pretty much all the big names apparently didn't take this competition very seriously.

Medals were very evenly distributed, 8 nations each with 15 - 20 medals. Canada and Norway (and Switzerland) were rather disappointing.

Medal winners that are most likely to shine at the 2026 winter olympics (in my opinion):

Mao Shimada (women's figure skating)

Shin Ji-a (women's figure skating)

Angel Daleman (women's speed skating/short track)

Taja Bodlaj (women's ski jumping)

Ingvild Midtskogen (women's ski jumping)

Lee Chae-un (men's snowboard)

Eli Bouchard (men's snowboard)

Yura Murase (women's snowboard)

Lucia Georgalli (women's snowboard)

Hanna Karrer (women's snowboard)

Rise Kudo (women's snowboard)

Sara Shimizu (women's snowboard)

Alessandro Barbieri (men's snowboard)

Flora Tabanelli (women's ski freestyle)

Elizabeth Lemley (women's ski freestyle)

Porter Huff (men's ski freestyle)

Luke Harrold (men's ski freestyle)

Charlie Beatty (men's ski freestyle)

Yishan Liu (women's ski freestyle)

Zihan Chen (women's ski freestyle)

Finley Melville Ives (men's ski freestyle)

Jingru Yang (women's short track)

Jinzi Li (women's short track)

Anna Falkowska (women's short track)

Minji Kang (women's short track)

Xinzhe Zhang (men's short track)

German athletes who might have an impact at the 2026 winter olympics:

Muriel Mohr (women's ski freestyle)

Finn Sonnekalb (men's speed skating)

17 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

 Sara Benfares has been provisionally suspended after positive drug test. German Anti-Doping Agency reporting positive test for EPO and the steroid testosterone. 

 

I have seen on other sources that she has been receiving medical treatment, so it is possible that the adverse finding could be linked to that rather than performance enhancement. 

She (apparently) has bone cancer and EPO is part of her treatment.

Norway and Canada have been disappointing so far, i guess they don't care much about this event.

Great for the sport to have an elite player from China. Japan is doing pretty good at junior level as well, maybe Osaka inspired some of their younger girls. Interestingly i don't remember any remotely decent player from South Korea + Asia is pretty much irrelevant on the men's side. I think Nigeria for example also has a lot of potential.

Extremely impressive by Italy, although i think that most of their medal winners (except for Tabanelli) won't be ready come 2026.

Maybe their new biathlon talents will progress better than Zingerle/Auchentaller/Passler.

From a german perspective i hope that Mohr and Sonnekalb will be ready come 2026.