OlympicsFan

Agreed. Reminds me of the situation in Turkey some years ago. At least Putin now has a better idea of who is/isn’t loyal to him.

Interesting situation from the perspective of the Ukrainian military: They can’t afford to become too careless/take too much risk (in case this is all a trap/ploy), but on the other hand they can’t afford to waste this chance (in case it isn’t a trap/ploy).

Can we be sure that Hungary is on a different level than Serbia/Germany? I don’t know who Hungary could add, but Germany was missing their two best players here (including Satou Sabally, who might be the best European player at the moment). Hungary also „only“ narrowly beat the Czech Republic here, who then lost to Germany. If Hungary won’t add any elite players, then they might be roughly on the same level as Germany/Serbia. I think Japan and Puerto Rico are also on the same level or maybe even better.

1) I don’t think that it would be smart for him to (publicly) switch sides just now. 2) Not sure if his own people seem him as a traitor. Sadly he has a lot of leverage/NATO allows him to have a lot of leverage, so he can play both sides without having to fear a lot of consequences.

It is really interesting that Wagner „suddenly“ has so many „soldiers“. As someone who doesn’t know much about the military, I wonder how it took them so long to take Bakhmut when they apparently had such a large reserve?

Is there any chance that Prick isn’t backed/payed by the US? Always seemed like the „easiest“ way to „defeat“ a country/Russia to me. During WW1 Germany „sent“ Lenin to Russia and I am not sure what happened with Gorbachev …, so there are some precedents.

Very happy that I was wrong. Maybe the Czech Republic was still not at 100 % after a gut-punching loss against Hungary. Now Germany has a very realistic/good chance to qualify. The OQT will be during the WNBA offseason, so the Sabally sisters should be able to play. Satou already said that she plans to participate. Hopefully the German federation will find a way to keep coach Thomaidis at least until after the Olympics. Without her they probably wouldn’t have been able to pull this off.

1) Why do you have Serbia as a lock? Won’t they have to beat Montenegro to qualify? 2) It looks to me as if the biggest hurdle for the European teams is finishing top 6 at the European championships. In order to qualify you only have to finish top 3 at the OQT. All European teams have a realistic chance to qualify. Japan should be the easiest opponent from pot 2 and South Korea and Brazil should be the easiest opponents from pot 3. 3) I don’t like the fact that the European championships take place during the WNBA season, it is a clear disadvantage for nations with WNBA players.

Agreed, seems absurd that they can influence which other teams will qualify. They could lose on purpose against weaker teams in order to help them qualify.

So Germany will have to beat the Czech Republic to qualify for the OQT? Doesn’t seem very likely (looking at the way both teams played against Slovakia). Maybe Germany could have had a chance against Montenegro or Serbia, but the draw wasn’t in favor of Germany this time. I still think that Germany would be at a much higher level if the Sabally sisters would play.

Had to happen at some point. Hungary producing one star after an other (Egerszegi, Cseh, Gyurta, Hosszu, Kapas, Milak) was very impressive while it lasted. Kos could win gold or maybe even miss the final. The men’s 200 back seems very open this year (Especially looking at the absence of the Russians, Greenbank and Edwards-Smith) and easily looks like the weakest event on the men’s side. There are a lot of guys who could take gold if they step up at the right time. I thought that Ndoye-Brouard would do it, but he has been underwhelming this year so far. Kos training under Bowman probably means that you have to trust him as much as anybody to step up at worlds. Going forward I am not sure where Hungary will find new medal contenders. Their biggest talents seem to be on the women’s side (Padar, Mihalyvari-Farkas, Jackl), but unfortunately for them the level on the women’s side is very strong and not many European women are currently able to fight for medals.

I am not an expert for women’s basketball, but I still have hope that Germany will seriously challenge for a spot IF both Sabally sisters play at the qualifying tournament.

Really weird comment. 1) There is no reason to consider Titmus the favorite in the 400 free. 2) You say that you trust McIntosh more than Smith but not enough to beat Titmus in the 400 free (despite swimming a world record this season and being much younger)? In 2021 and 2022 McIntosh improved by more than 2 seconds from trials to worlds/Olympics. I would almost be shocked if she wouldn’t go 3:54 at worlds.

1) Why don’t you wait with your predictions until the end of the American trials? 2) Franceschi (and to a lesser degree Colbert) winning a medal in the 400 IM would be one of the biggest surprises in the history of swimming.

Still rather disappointing that they only have one male medal contender in non-freestyle events (ZSC in the 200 breast). No medal contenders in men’s 100 breast, men’s 100/200 back, men’s 100/200 fly and men’s 200/400 IM. The US, GB, Italy, China and France might all win at least as many medals as them on the men’s side. They might walk away without a single gold medal on the men’s side (although McEvoy in the 50 free, Chalmers in the 100 free, Short in the 400/800 free and ZSC in the 200 breast could all win gold).

Probably the best roster „we“ ever had. Too bad that Hartenstein, Olinde, Jallow and Reaves aren’t part of the roster. Completely understandable that Reaves decided to compete for the US instead, but I don’t really see any chance for him to make the Olympics next year (while he easily would have made the German team for Paris, should they qualify). Personally I would cut Wohlfarth-Bottermann, Kratzer, Sengfelder, Da Silva, Hollatz and Krämer/Obst.

Extremely impressive time, I absolutely didn’t think that he would be this fast. Now we know that he can medal/win gold in at least 4 different individual events (200 IM/breast/fly + 400 IM). The question is whether he will also become a medal contender in the 100 fly/200 free. I don’t really see it (given how competitive those two events are), but after tonight I probably shouldn’t doubt him. Personally I think that he might have a better shot in the 100 breast/200 back. It will be interesting to see which events he will swim at the Olympics. 200 breast and 200 fly are in the same session, so he will probably drop one of them. The schedule probably also won’t allow him to swim the 100 breast or 200 back, so he might go for the 200 IM, the 400 IM, the 100 fly (which doesn’t collide with any of his other events) and the 200 breast or the 200 fly. It might sound crazy, but maybe he would be better off dropping the 200 fly. I think he has a better chance for gold in the 200 breast than in the 200 fly.

Agreed. People that miss multiple tests should be regarded as dopers. We all know that there have been cases in the past were athletes retired (to dope without the risk of getting caught) and then came back better than before (just recently we witnessed the miracle of Meilutyte being thrash before retiring, just to come back stealing medals shortly after. Gatlin or Efimova would be other examples of athletes that came back stronger/as strong as before). I am glad that WADA didn’t trust him and I wish they would have banned him longer. Absolutely wouldn’t be shocked if he returns eventually.

8th place for generational talent Colin Heathcock. Right now I’d give him a 50 % chance to medal in Paris.

Those times are very impressive for someone of her age, but it is absolutely ridiculous to compare her to McIntosh or predict that she will be the next big thing in women’s distance swimming. McIntosh might very well be the biggest talent in the history of women’s swimming and is on a trajectory to become the GOAT female swimmer. There have been tons of female teenage phenoms in women’s distance swimming that never won anything at senior level and apart from that there are also a lot of other young girls who are clearly ahead of Blocksidge while not being much older (Grimes, Sims, Weinstein, McIntosh, Chinese girls, Dyakova (Russian girl born in 2008 who went 4:07 in the 400 free this week)). McIntosh (born in 2006) only narrowly missed a medal at the 2021 Olympics. I don’t really see Blocksidge (born in 2009) doing the same next year in Paris. She would have to drop 15-20 seconds in the 800 free and/or 35-40 seconds in the 1500 free, which means that she would have to go more than 2 seconds faster per 100 m than she did this year.

I don’t think that it makes much sense to make predictions when many countries haven’t even had their trials yet. Personally I would be surprised if the following swimmers would win an individual medal: Women: 50 free: Wasick 100 free: Steenbergen 100 breast: Van Niekerk/„China“ (Meilutyte? Elendt? King? Pilato?) 100 fly: Hansson/Wattel 400 IM: Franceschi/Colbert/Forrester

Insane how pathetic german fencing is. They can't even get near the top 3, complete waste of money.

https://swimswam.com/a-motorcycle-accident-and-coaching-change-sparked-diogo-ribeiros-breakout-summer/ I think getting famous brazilian coach Alberto Silva really helped. Let's just hope that they don't use the same "methods" that Cesar Cielo used.

https://fpnatacao.pt/Resultados/provas2223/11cnjuvabsOPEN/ResultList_142_us.pdf Not sure if it counts, apparently he didn't swim against any competitors.

Who exactly believes that? The probability of him becoming as great as McIntosh is extremely low. His freestlye times are very good, but he hasn't shown much in other events. McIntosh finished 4th in Tokyo as a 14 year old. Kim would have to qualify for Paris and final there in order to remotely justify this comparison. I think that he will have to be able to swim the following times if he wants to final in Paris: 50 free: 21.7 (His current PB: 23.55) 100 free: 47.8 (His current PB: 51.05) 200 free: 1:45.5 (His current PB: 1:52.82) 400 free: 3:45.0 (His current PB: 3:56.79) 800 free: 7:45.0 (His current PB: 8:17.16) 1500 free: 14:50.0 (Couldn't find his current PB) He will have to drop an insane amount of time within the next year if he wants to be on the same trajectory as McIntosh was.