OlympicsFan

Hmmm ...

1) Did Germany qualify anyone? 2) What the hell is going on with Russia? After taking a short look at the results it seemed as if they won half the races ...

The entry list is available, but why aren’t you able to look it up yourself?

1) Depends on what you mean with „dominate“. I think they are just too far away in all sprint events (especially on the women’s side). Keirin is the least predictable, so maybe they have a shot there. In the endurance events they look better, but even winning 4 out of 6 will be super difficult. Personally I would be surprised if they would win more than 4 golds. I think they could win the medal table again, but the Netherlands and/or Germany could challenge them. At 2016 worlds they won golds in men’s Madison/sprint and women’s omnium + 3 minor medals (women’s Madison wasn’t contested). At 2020 world they didn’t win a single gold and only 3 medals in Olympic disciplines (when women’s Madison was contested). If the Olympics would have taken place last year, I would have been comfortable to predict that they won’t dominate, but with one more year to improve ... who knows? Personally I hope that they won’t dominate again. 2) I think it has already been established that British cycling has a massive doping problem, so in my opinion if you don’t get the impression that people are skeptical, then probably only because most people who follow cycling are beyond the point of just being skeptical and don’t feel the need to point out the British doping all the time.

Germany won’t have a shot at winning a medal on the men’s side. The best possible outcome is a 6th place. On the women’s side anything but gold would be disappointing for Germany. I think on the men’s side the Netherlands are a lock for gold, GB is a lock for silver and France/Australia will fight for bronze.

I am absolutely shocked by the result of the poll on the women’s side ... Do people even realize that Germany had the fastest time of all teams at the 2020 world championships (a couple of months before the original date of the Olympics)? The correct answer is GB, USA and Germany.

What language is this?

The only thing that is nonsensical here is your reasoning. Your whole point was that reducing the number of spots was good, because it made the sports more competitive. So unless you can give me a good reason why the same wouldn’t apply for winter sports, you can’t seriously be in favor of only having one athlete per nation in canoe slalom, but not in speed skating or cross-country. Also there are many summer sports where certain nations are more dominant than any nation in canoe slalom, for example diving, table tennis, archery or women’s gymnastics.

Threaten to give the games to China if Japan doesn’t get it under control, then Japan will definitely go ahead with them ...

If you look at the medalists at the last Olympics, then the following sports are more euro-centric: Road cycling Mountain biking Water polo Field hockey Handball Also in the following sports Asia was more dominant than Europe in slalom canoeing: Table tennis Badminton Also: Slalom canoeing doesn’t require an artificially built stadium unlike swimming and other sports.

And that is your OPINION. Over time pretty much all sports got more diverse, no matter how many athletes per nation they allowed. Also at World Championships every nation can have more than 1 athlete, so how do you explain that this didn’t offset the effect of only having 1 athlete per nation at the Olympics (an event that only takes place every 4 years)? More importantly: You missed the point! It isn’t necessarily about the number of athletes per nation in slalom canoeing, but the fact that IOC randomly decides to only allow 1 athlete per nation in some sports, just to allow 3 athletes per nation in other sports. Even before the introduction of that rule no nation in slalom canoeing was remotely as dominant as for example South Korea in archery or the Netherlands in speed skating.

Nope ... At the 2016 Olympics triathlon had clearly more athletes than slalom canoeing despite only having half the number of events. Also slalom canoeing only had slightly more athletes than modern pentathlon. At the Tokyo Olympics it will be the same. The truth is the IOC randomly decides that in some sports a nation can have 3 athletes per event and in other sports they can‘t. There is absolutely no reason why the Netherlands or Norway can have 3 athletes per event in speed skating/cross-country while nations can’t even have 2 athletes per event in slalom canoeing where no nation is remotely as dominant as the Netherlands/Norway are in speed skating/cross-country.

In fighting sports it is somewhat understandable that they only allow one athlete per country, but in slalom canoeing it doesn’t make sense. Obviously some might say that this sport isn’t important enough to have more athletes, but then why the hell are nations allowed to have multiple athletes in the same event in sports like triathlon or modern pentathlon?

Ledecky finally might have found a worthy competitor and it’s a 14 yo girl from Canada. There is no question that she will qualify for the Olympics, the only question is how many events she will qualify in. My guess is that she will qualify in 4 individual events + the 800 free relay and she might very well become this Olympic Games Penny Oleksiak (although in other events). Canada is really blessed in women’s swimming, it would be great if Germany could learn from them. Might be an interesting question/quiz: Will she be the youngest medalist at the Olympics? I think she has a realistic chance, unless there is some younger girl in skateboarding, but obviously winning a medal in swimming would be far more impressive.

Are there any men who are competitive in both events? If not, then isn’t that in itself proof that the women’s events are less competitive and that therefore men’s events should have more quota places?

Why are there almost twice as many quota places in kayak? Also this again shows how absurd (and bad for the athletes) the IOC‘s policies are. In some sports a gazillion athletes from the same nation can qualify in the same event, but in other sports not even two athletes from the same nation can qualify. They should just allow 2 or 3 athletes from the same nation in every sport and if they have to reduce the number of athletes, they should do it by reducing the number of teams and/or nobody’s from third-world countries. Even if they would only get rid of football, there would easily be enough spots for all competitive athletes in all the other sports. When you think about it, an Olympic gold actually isn’t as difficult to achieve in many sports as a world championship gold. In canoe slalom it definitely is easier to win Olympic gold (if we are talking about one specific year, obviously world championships take place more frequently and therefore there are more chances to win world championship gold).

Would be rather surprising for her to get the standard, especially at her age. On the other hand you should never underestimate what is possible with doping and the new shoes.

You are right about butterfly. It is the stroke the makes the least sense. You are wrong about comparing different weight categories to different strokes. Different weight categories exist because naturally different heights exist and it would be unfair to have someone who is 170 cm fighting against someone who is 190 cm. If there wouldn’t be any weight categories, Asian countries would do much worse in fighting sports.

Would be very thankful if someone could name the athletes who are still in the running to qualify. Any German athletes left?

Too bad that Kimia doesn’t compete for Germany (yet). Maybe in 2024 ... Imagine an Iranian fighter fleeing Iran and deciding to compete for Israel ... Would be kind of a brilliant plan for Israel. Get someone from Iran to fight for you in each weight category in Wrestling/Taekwondo -> prevent Iran from winning medals and win more medals yourself

Smith vs. Scott seems pretty random (and i would have preferred something like Hungary in swimming vs. China in swimming before going to individual athletes). Scott could win 4 golds and Smith could win 5 golds. The difference is that Smith is guaranteed one gold and in two of her individual events there is only one person who could beat her, while Scott will have much more competition in his individual events.

I can’t believe that someone actually voted for men’s 800 freestyle.

Hopefully not!

Then I agree with the person who earlier said in this thread that only allowing 8 teams is absurd, they wouldn’t even have to allow more athletes. At the same time tons of completely hopeless teams are allowed to compete in other sports: Water polo: South Africa, Kazakhstan Field hockey: South Africa Football: South Africa, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Honduras, Zambia, Chile Handball: Bahrain, Angola Table tennis: Australia, Egypt, Serbia, Slovenia, USA, Hungary, Poland, Canada, Cuba, India Volleyball: Tunisia, Venezuela, Canada, Kenya, Argentina Swimming: Poland, Hong Kong, South Korea, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Israel, Lithuania, Switzerland If they would reduce team sports to 8 teams by throwing out useless teams, they could actually allow all good athletes to compete in other sports like fencing.

Not sure if you follow athletics ... ? Belgium, Colombia and Botswana all should be better than GB, maybe even South Africa if Van Niekerk comes back strong. Realistically best case for the Netherlands is finishing 8th.