OlympicsFan

Really unfortunate for Germany that Schauffele decided to compete for the US instead.

Completely stupid event. Mixed relays make some sense, but mixed events where the individual performances are just added up and don't really have anything to do with each other are completely pointless. Why not make a mixed football event: Final ranking in men's tournament + final ranking in women's tournament and the nation with the highest average finish gets a gold medal ...

So where do the other 6 medals in athletics come from?

GB and the US both having multiple runners in women's 800 m final while doping countries Ethiopia and Kenya only combine for one finalist, but i am sure that it is only due to their great coaches and not their doping programs.

Dissgraceful that this joke event counts for the medal table.

I feel very sorry for his partner.

I think Andrade's medal was your best medal considering that women's gymnastics is one of the most competitive sports. Also bronze in men's 200 freestyle was very impressive, considering that this is one of the most competitive disciplines in swimming. A medal in volleyball would also be very impressive.

No mention of Okagbare ... ?

Yes, but you don't need a mixed relay for that. Mixed relays were always promoted as a way for smaller nations, that don't have enough elite athletes for traditional relays, to compete for a medal. At the moment most mixed relays are basically just another free medal for the big nations and don't add any new dimension to the program. I think that mixed archery doubles is a good example of a mixed event that makes sense, swimming mixed medley relays for example are the complete opposite.

Shockingly slow women's 800 free, Quadarella probably can't believe her luck, completely out of shape and still bronze, same was true for Paltrinieri in men's 800 free. Wellbrock and Köhler threw away two ultra easy medals despite clearly being in shape. Their coach must be super frustrated, he told them exactly what to do and from the first moment of the race they did exactly the opposite.

What a pointless event. Makes no sense to add a relay where only the big nations can medal.

Yes, that is my impression as well. I would say Kambundji/Asher-Smith/Jackson might have an outside shot. In the 100 m a disqualifcation always is a possibility and in that case the fight for bronze could be very open.

Pinto actually was really good compared to expectations. I don't think Germany is your main competitor, Switzerland looks much more dangerous. Depending on the level of Richardson, Switzerland and GB might actually be the favorites for silver and bronze. Germany good hit hard by the injuries of Lückenkemper and Mayer, with those two in normal shape, Germany would probably be favorite for silver. I think realistically 42 low would be a very good time for Germany (especially thanks to the lack of relay training) and both GB and Switzerland should be able to go sub 42.

I think Thompson, SAFP and Ta Lou are a lock for the final and Jackson/Neita/Asher-Smith/Kambundji/Del Ponte are the favorites for the remaining spots, the americans are pretty hard to read at this point. GB could have two women in the final or none, at this point a medal for Asher-Smith would be surprising.

Would make sense and would be nice to see (her disappear). Whenever a country pays insane amounts of money for medals (like Singapore or Hong Kong) it basically translates to "We don't care if you dope, just win a medal".

South African swimming is ultra suspicious. Somehow they always find someone who becomes elite very quickly. First Van der Burgh, then Le Clos and now Schoenmaker, kind of reminds me of Hungary. Whenever someone fades away, suddenly some new generational talent magically turns up. Will be interesting to watch the progression of Sates/Coetze/Du Preez. All of them were completely irrelevant at junior level and then during the pandemic their performances completely exploded.

Not that surprising that countries without Covid (New Zealand & Australia) and countries that pretend that Covid doesn't exist (Netherlands) are doing great ... Only surprising that Sweden and North Korea didn't do better ... Also interesting progression by the greek guy in single sculls ... from being completely irrelevant all of his career to olympic gold in such a short time.

36 medals would still be disappointing for Germany, but maybe it is the logical consequence of more and more countries pouring more money into sports. If you want to stay competitive, you have to do the same and allow the athletes to become pros. I would like to see what would happen if Germany would for example start paying 500k for a gold medal. I think the number of golds for Germany would increase rather quickly.

Tons of easy golds in fighting sports (judo & wrestling). Would like to see some day how many golds Russia could win at home (gymnastics, wrestling, boxing, judo) ...

I am not sure if any nation ever had a worse day (compared to expectations) than Germany today: Zeidler: Out in semifinals instead of gold Wellbrock: No medal instead of gold Herzog: From defending world champion to bronze Wagner: From defending world champion to bronze Ovtcharov: From possible gold (Fan Zhendong is his "favorite" chinese player) to bronze at best Men's hockey: From possible medal to very likely elimination in group stage Germany lost 2-4 medals today and 4 possible golds.

Completely absurd performance by Finke. This guy never did anything at world stage and now he massively improves his PB at the olympics and swims the last 100 m 2 seconds faster than Wellbrock/Romanchuk/Paltrinieri (the guys who dominated men's distance freestyle for years). I fear that he will be difficult to beat in the 1500 free as well. Always sad to see when a nobody magically appears at the olympics and steals a medal from those athletes who dominated before the olympics.

For Germany (compared to expectations): One medal less than expected (women's quadruple sculls had a safe silver and then they made a mistake and dropped to 4th or 5th) The two by far biggest gold medal chances (men's single sculls and men's eight) are still to come.

Hoping for 4 german medals today: Swimming men's 800 free, slalom canoeing women's C1 (Herzog), judo women's -78 kg (Wagner) and rowing men's lightweight double sculls. Herzog and Wagner are the defending world champions, so anything less than gold would be a bit disappointing, although putting that kind of pressure on them is probably unfair. The german team in men's lightweight double sculls looked great so far, but realistically silver is the best possible outcome. Wellbrock wasn't a medal favorite before the heats, but he looked great and it would be disappointing if anyone other than Romanchuk would beat him (given that Paltrinieri seems to be off). Ovtcharov could also secure a medal by beating Ma Long, but obviously that won't happen. He got a bit unlucky with the draw, he usually performs much better against Fan Zhendong.

I think it is quite interesting to compare the current medal table to the summer sports world championships medal table. Germany for example only „should“ have won 6 medals so far (instead of 10). Köhler in Womens 1500 free, dressage team and dressage individual repeated, but all other medals are new. On the other hand Trajdos (judo women’s -63 kg), table tennis mixed doubles and Vennekamp (women’s 25 m pistol) lost their medal.

Yes, only 4 medal chances and then they throw away a safe silver. German rowing has been declining for a long time now, 6 medals should be the absolute minimum for the importance of rowing, the funding they receive and the population size. There is no excuse for Germany to win less medals than Australia or the Netherlands.