OlympicsFan

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.

Very early in the season. I am sure that they will be ready in Tokyo. Poland might be more likely to win bronze, but the Netherlands should definitely make the final and probably finish top 6.

Are you really from Germany? All your comments in this thread are about France ...

Is it possible for a nation to compete in a synchronized event at the Olympics if the two athletes qualified individually or in another synchronized event (but not as a duo in the same event)?

1) I was thinking about the following gold medal chances in swimming: Men’s 200 free (Scott and Dean), men’s 200 IM (Scott), men’s 100 breast, men’s medley relay, men’s 800 free relay. 2) I think the chance of them winning all track cycling golds is less than 1 %. Especially in women’s sprint events they are way off. Realistically they won’t win more than 4 or 5 golds.

I don’t care about the new sports and I don’t count them, so maybe you are right. If we only count the same sports as in 2016, then I absolutely don’t see them winning 20+ golds.

Not sure how realistic 2 golds for GB in equestrian is ... On the other hand they should win at least 2 golds in swimming, probably more.

If you really see it like that, you are definitely wrong. At the worst they will finish 5th in terms of gold medals. In swimming alone they could win 5 golds. Would be surprising if they win less than 20 golds and there aren’t 6 other nations that could win 20 golds or more.

No, don’t see where 20+ golds should come from, which is probably what it will take to finish top 4. I really like that Japan didn’t try as desperately as GB pre-2012 for example to win more medals at their home Olympics. I always admired Japan and South Korea for not wasting shitloads of tax payer money to become better in something as irrelevant as professional sports. Obviously hosting the Olympics doesn’t really fit that strategy ...

Also men’s 5000 m and women’s 800 m ...

1) Lol @ Someone thinking that the Netherlands could win the 3rd most gold medals. Realistically the top 4 will be USA and then Russia, GB and China in some order. 2) Maybe Namibia could also win a gold after not winning anything in 2016. 3) Interesting that China is considered a lock for second most golds, I think before 2016 it was the same ...

1) Why? 2) Who? Do you mean ROC(K)?

Not sure if you read my comment, but the main reason why I think that breaststroke should be removed is that it clearly isn’t a level playing field when FINA either doesn’t try to make sure that everyone only uses the allowed number of dolphin kicks or they just don’t care. Swimming and athletics are sports where decisions of individual judges shouldn’t matter, unlike in other sports like gymnastics, figure skating, boxing or ski jumping. I used the same reasoning in the past when I wanted race walking to be eliminated. In backstroke and butterfly you don’t have that Problem or at least not to that extent. I just don’t see a reason (apart from Tradition) why some sports (swimming, wrestling, canoeing) should be allowed to blow up their number of medal events by using different techniques, while most other sports don’t have that option. Why not also include compound archery for example by that logic?

Would be great if FINA would get rid of breaststroke, completely pointless when they don’t even try to create a level playing field. The number of dolphin kicks is the most important factor for success and FINA either doesn’t want to control it or they are too stupid to do it. Also not sure what the point is in swimming with a technique that isn’t even among the 3 fastest techniques. Why not also have a 100 m/200 m/400 m/800 m/1500 m/5000 m/10000 m track race at the Olympics where people are only allowed to run backwards? Would make about as much sense ...

Hungary and Poland are hosting 99 % of all important competitions ...

The women’s 400 m will definitely be a funny freak show with Miller-Uibo, the athletes from Namibia and Eid Naser. Would be great if Seyni would also be allowed to compete.

Could you maybe tell me why Ukraine is so good in men’s gymnastics? I am sure that they have less money than Germany and I also don’t think that gymnastics is sport number one in Ukraine, so what is your secret?

Why do you ask whether we would like a prediction contest and than not give us the option to vote No? I think many top athletes won’t show up and even if they do, they won’t be at their best, so predictions will be kind of pointless.