Suneet

This is awesome!
 
 

@Prashanth @Madhusudhan will be writing a blog about my experience. Will share the link here when it's done. Regarding Madhusudhan's question, yep the atmosphere is electric. But on tv you have the option of following everything. So pros and cons in both. I would definitely advise that being over there is much more fun!
 
Moreover, now you can carry a smart device with you and stream whatever you want to follow, a lot of people were doing that. Let's Tokyo 2020!

A little bit about my last days in Rio. Friday was a pretty good day but also a sad one as it marked my last day as a spectator of the Rio Games. Day started in Deodoro, probably my favourite cluster of all, in which I watched the Women's Modern Pentathlon. The day was very sunny so it couldn't be more perfect. Unfortunately Yane Marques didn't have a great result, even with the venue packed with fans from Pernambuco (a brazilian State from the Northeast region), including me. At the end of the competition, it was kinda sad for me to leave that magical place where many good moments happened. At night, it was time for my only Athletics session in the Games, which bruoght an incredible Women's Pole Vault final (I was seating reatively close to this event, which was great), and of course the much talked Men's 4x100m Relay.
 
 
Saturday was a day off and I took the opportunity to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue. The ride by train is pretty cool and there you can see not only people from all over the world, but also a fantastic view of Rio. As we approached the final days of the Games, I confess I was extremely tired, and because of that I didn't even attempted to watch the Men's Football final in one of the live sites of the city - even with rain, a total of 1 million of people went to the Olympic Boulevard that day. Just like in London (when Brazil lost to Mexico), I was sleeping during the whole match. Just woke up with celebrations after the penaltis, which were pretty wild and went on all night.
 
 
Last day of Olympics, nothing to do, but I decided not to spend all day in the apartment. Before the Men's Volleyball final, I went to Olympic Boulevard and watched the match there. Pretty good crowd, but obviously smaller than the day before. Saw again the Olympic flame and walked through the Port area, which is really beautiful (including the Museum of Tomorrow, which I believe was shown a lot on TV). Also watched the last show of Rio Fest.
 
 
Still on Sunday, out of nowhere by brother calls saying that were tickets available for the Closing Ceremony starting in just a few hours, and of course I bought them. Arrival at Maracanã was pretty chaotic as it was raining a lot (also: strongest winds I ever saw), but once there everything was perfect - many empty seats in the down sector, but I saw many people went to the upper sector just to escape rain. Most ceremonies I watch on TV left me kinda cold, but it's a whole other story to watch it live - especially when is showing your own culture. I can't remember exactly how many times I cried during this ceremony, but it was a LOT. Most of those moments probably meant nothing for international viewers, but if you're brazilian, it's impossible not to relate to some of those things. Moments that left amazed: formation of Rio spots in the beggining, use of regional songs (especially from Northeast and Pernambuco, with "Asa Branca" and frevo), the "baianas" and Tokyo segments, the big carnaval at the end. Moments that left in tears: national anthem (never thought I would cry listening to it) and that Mariene de Castro song (Jesus Christ, what was that? I have tears in my eyes just remembering when the flame was gone). I'm glad that Rio made ceremonies that left brazilians proud, and the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. In the end, it was hard to leave the stadium but it was time to say goodbye to the Rio Olympics.
 
 
On Monday, that awful post-Olympic depression feeling, and it was finally time to return home. Saw many athletes in the airport, including our medalist Arthur Mariano. In the plane, our flag bearer (and bronze medalist from London) Yane Marques was on the same flight as me and everyone clapped their hands for her. On the arrival in Recife, I finally met her, and she's exactly as I pictured her: an extremely humble person. Talked a little with her, including her competition which I went in Deodoro. Graciously, she autographed my ticket, while I was literally shaking. She's such a simple person that she went to organize the baggage of the whole Modern Pentathlon crew in the carts. Felipe Nascimento (our other athlete from this sport, which is also from Pernambuco) was also there, and I took a photo with him - very nice guy. This was a great ending to a great trip. I will never forget these memories and I hope to return to Rio someday. I also hope to go to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires  Thanks all for the patience in reading my reports, hope this was a special event for all of you
 
 

Woah woah woah! What a great experience it was! I'm starting to save up for Tokyo 
 
Sorry guys was so disconnected and the really long travels between venues and my accommodation didn't give me an opportunity to check this forum out. Am back home and will post detailed records of my experience once I am over my jet-lag

As much as I like Totallympics, is a little hard to have time to visit this forum with all of the things the Olympic Games has to offer (for instance, is 3AM here now, and I'm only knowing about some medalists now - congrats Argentina!). But I plan to share some things about about my experiences, so here's a little bit of what happened this weekend.
 
I arrived in Rio at Saturday morning and soon after lunch I went to the Deodoro Olympic Park, which takes forever from the apartment I'm at. For instance, from the first Deodoro access to the Shooting Center, you have to walk for about 30 minutes. Fortunately, I arrived at the venue few minutes before the 10m Air Pistol medal, which gave Brazil the first medal of these Olympic Games. It was an absolutely amazing moment and it was great to be there. Felipe Wu 
 
 
Soon after, I went to the Field Hockey Center with tickets for a session that brought two exciting matches. First one was Argentina vs USA in Women's. There was fans from both teams, but I have to say that argentines really "invaded" Rio, they're everywhere! Very passionate fans, even in defeat. Next match was the first ever Brazilian Hockey men's team match in the history of Olympics and man... they're just not good. That didn't stop the brazilian fans (me included), that cheered every defense of our guys  In the return for home at the train, argentine fans singing all the way - some healthy rivalry with brazilians, all in good fun.
 
 
Saturday was a great first day but incredibly tiresome (as I have predicted), so on Sunday I slept a little more than I should. I had tickets for Tennis in the Olympic Park starting at 10AM, but I went only after lunch. Park is huge (as one may expect) and you have a lot to do there beside the sport events. I had no idea about the schedule so it was surprising that, by the end of the day, I had seen matches of three Tennis super stars (an two of them lost). First match was Nadal vs Delbonis, dominance from the spanish. After that it was time for Teliana Pereira but I decided to see what was happening in the secondary courts and went to the Makarova vs Buyukakcay match because I like the russian, but somehow I ended up rooting for the turkish like pretty much everyone, including her coach beside us. After Makarova's win, I went back to Court 1 and Pereira already had lost 
 
 
For the night, two Doubles matches. First the Williams sisters vs Safarova/Strycova. Ecstatic to see Serena (again, I had no idea about the schedule). Lots of czech coaches/athletes (? - they were wearing the official uniforms), that were very happy with their win. Ready to go home, I hear there was going to be another Doubles match, now with Bellucci/Sá vs the Murrays. Aside from the Shooting medal, this was probably my favourite moment so far. Amazing atmosphere in the arena, brazilian joy. Transportation/access perfect, much easier than Deodoro - for which I will return this Monday afternoon for Basketball/Rugby competitions.
 

World Junior Record for Oleksiak!!

The best and most active national thread here. If the GB thread was half as active as the Indian thread.
 
Good luck to Indian athletes.

Report on live streaming ( Only English ) on day minus2 of the olympics 
 
Yesterday ...Did a check on trying live stream videos for the Olympics as the womens football matches were on ( this was test for me as I am not planning to use TV at all and only use live streams )
 
Results 
 
1. Live TV - Does not need any DNS /VPN options .../gave a lot of links with different languages and quality is OK but not fantastic ......Try this link out ....this seems to be a good default option for live streaming for Rio ..was able to see the live stream from NBC which had  good english commentary , they do not have any specific arrangements for rio so at times you will have to search your event 
 
http://livetv.sx/en/allupcoming/
 
2.  CBC - Canadian broadcasting corporation - This is a truly excellent free to air channel was able to see the game / the video takes some time to load and video quality was good ...you would need a geoblocking software like hola ...I did it using hola and quality was good. what I loved was they seem to be having a lot of video of older events which can be watched - which is not available on other sites 
 
http://olympics.cbc.ca/
 
3. Cricfree - This site has live streaming video of all major streams ...only slight issue was some cluttering ads and did seem to call in some popups ...but if you maniacially clear all ads before they start playing it seems to work you can pick and chose the channel , I did not find a clear resize button so the video was showing in a small screen and could not resize it ...but the advantage seems to be you can really pick and choose the channels and they also seem to have seperate button specifically to for Rio ( but the button is not working now maybe will work from today ?)
 
http://www.cricfree.tv/
 
4. BBC - Open to air ... very good quality of video and great commentary in english ...probably may become my default site ..you need a VPN or DNS option to watch ..I use hola and got good results . also has a great sub portal just for the olympics 
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport
 
5. Sky TV - NZ -  seems to require a seperate password so could not get through. I presume this channel is not free to air   ( by the way if someone really wants to get the NZ point of view - cricfree seems to have the 
 
6. Seven ( aus ) - official Australian free to air , could not get through live streaming but could see old videos 
 
7. NBC - requires a password but possibly you can watch a slightly poor mans version on cricfree 
 
some surprises -      did not find anything on youtube which was really sad ..............did not find anything on sportstream ( not sure why )  and also on batman stream may be I was missing out something 
 
 
guys if you have any more suggestions please add ( By the way i did not look at non english options - so I am sure there are many of them ) 
 
 
 
 
 

On Brazilian GMT, 00:02, so, it's August 3rd, today is the first day of Rio 2016!!!  

Some of my favorite olympic moments:
Steven Bradbury 2002 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYUjmEH9NNk 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAADWfJO2qM
USA vs. Spain mens basketball gold medal match at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9wUr-CK1Y4
The story of the german table tennis team at Beijing 2008:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFSYDGjf5qU
Yuzuru Hanyu 2014 olympics:
https://youtu.be/Bk6qrBrqAqo 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUskvEAITdE
Serena Williams at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osVIRIw-c74
Canada vs. USA mens ice hockey gold medal match at 2010 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7DeQbTzPE8
USA mens 4x100 m free relay at 2008 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFiV4ymEDfY
Vancouver 2010 opening ceremony:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxZpUueDAvc
Sotnikova at 2014 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrVL5tM926s
Mens 200 m fly at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGMoYB8ORYo 
Some of the best moments of the opening ceremony at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft3yUKjzV4s 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgPRI6-8Efw
Mens high bar at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0TM2sOnvyI 
Mens 4x100 m free relay at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XI_XeoIFnI 
Mens 50 m free at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lt167-csds
Womens 200 m at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tvUQslnII0
Mens 800 m at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKEOjWEzVGs
Mens 10000 m at 2012 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-gOCOu_KGU
Lipnitskaya at 2014 olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke0iusvydl8 
 
More general:
Why the Sochi olympics are the most expensive in history:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_MBOeqSYVk
Inside Story - What's behind the IOC's decision on Russia?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeEZhyPhEkg
 
 
Rio 2016 olympics:
2016 olympics: What Rio doesn't want the world to see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W_zM7koJy8
Which team can challenge team USA at the olympics (basketball)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NwZMvjqQ1A
Training for Rio with the cuban boxing team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jySjXsM0Gw 
Aquece Rio mountain bike - Full Lap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JToIw88YEM8
Hello, Rio! Team USA looks forward to the Olympics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Trs1Z4s_1Pw
Fault Lines - Rio: Olympic City:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVWs3eO5K4U
Training for Rio with India's first female olympic gymnast Dipa Karmakar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JRAM2clPhw
 

Thats Big bro ..................... significantly makes  a difference between a medal and coming 4th because any day the chinese would have beaten mirakhom ...............
 
Currently if you look at the last couple of years records comparing with mirakhoms olympic trial weight of 192 with the rest............... There is no PRK and CHN .. which means there are only two 48 kg weightlifters who have beaten that weight JPN hiroke( 194 )  and VIE  Voung ( 193) ...from that angle she is a medal hopful but the INA Agustiani ( 191 ) and TPE Chen with ( 191 ) are also lifting almost in the same range ........but the lady who worries me the most is Thanasan of THA she has come down from a 53 weight and has lifted 210 last year and thailand have preferred her over khamsri panida who has been lifting 194 herself ...so she is going to be I am sure in medal contention and more KAZ margarita also has come down one weight class she has been lifting 202 in 53 weight category but I am sure will come down at least 10-12 kgs so she will also be at 190 or so I feel and also UKR paratova whoi has lifted 200 but is coming down to the lower weight class which mean she would also lose at least 10-12 kgs and be at 185-190....
 
so this is the super pool ........IND, JPN, VIE, INA,TPE, THA, KAZ, UKR ................... it can be anybodies game , I feel that THA Thanasan may be the GOLD medal prospect unless she has last minute weight issues and is weak............The fact that the CHI removed their weightlofter is possibly they figure that thanasan may be lifting above theirs or very close where they may not win a gold...remember china get only 4 lifters in women and they would hope for 4 Gold ........................The rest will be depending on their performance on the day ....a medal upto silver is possible by Mirakhom now that the chinese has moved out  ...... I feel a 194-195 lift will medal her which is well within her capability ................
 
Interesting shiva s weigtht category is the slimmest with just 13 ...of course he cannot medal but he can look to come in the top 8 which is a good result for him .......KAZ, EGY, ARM, THA, PRK , CHN will surely beat him but he can beat the rest on his day so a top  8 is possible with this draw .......
 
good final list on the whole in weight lifiting ...............
 
 

Totally! Totallympics Meeting is a must! 

Woah! Love the behind the scenes feel in your posts! 

Hi Guys,
 
This is my schedule:
 
Day Time Event Session ID Highlights           Sat, 13/8 9.30-12.50 Athletics AT003D Discuss Throw Final; 100m round 1   19.00-21.00 Weightlifting WL018A Men's 94 kg           Sun, 14/8 19.50-23.20 Handball HB027C 2 Women's Prelims: Spain vs Angola; Argentina vs South Korea           Mon, 15/8 10.00-14.45 Hockey HO033A 2 Womens QF   14.10-16.50 Water Polo WP022B 2 Women QF   17.30-23.00 Badminton BD014B MS RO16, WS RO16           Tue, 16/8 17.30-23.00 Badminton BD016A WS QFs   11.00-13.15 Boxing BX021A 56,64,81,91+;women's 51 QF           Wed, 17/8 11.00-12.45 Basketball BK053C Men's QFs   16.00-19.00 Football FB034D Men's SF           Thu, 18/8 17.00-19.30 Hockey HO040B Final   10.00-13.00 Wrestling WF003B Prelims - women's wrestling           Fri, 19/8 8.30-13.30 Badminton BD019B WS medals; MS semis   16.00-19.00 Wrestling WF006C Sandeep, Narsingh Medal Matches   20.10-22.45 Athletics AT014C M and W 4x100 Relay Final           Sat, 20/8 14.00-15.30 Boxing BX026A Finals   10.00-11.10 Gymnastics GR003D Rhythmic           Sun 21/8 8.30-11.15 Wrestling WF009B Yogeshwar Dutt   12.45-15.15 Wrestling WF010C Yogeshwar Dutt  
 
A few pointers:
1. One of my friends cancelled his plans so I have spare tickets for majority of the events here. Let me know if any of you are interested in any of the events, would be giving them out at their face value 
2. I might not be interested to watch a few of the events I have bought tickets for if Indian athletes do not reach the medal matches and would be willing to trade tickets for events where I might catch interest during the games. We can use this forum to exchange tickets according to our interests 
3. We all could in general hang out and meet regularly during the period of the games! 

You may see India win it's first medal at the games!!

Guys, I've been thinking that it would be a lot of fun if we could watch the Olympics together, at least people living in the same cities. What do you guys think?
 
I'm a resident of Mumbai, @People in Mumbai: do you know of any place where there is a projector-screen arrangement which we could rent out for the duration of the Olympics? 

thanks  ..............Please do use this suneet ( my pleasure in fact ) ...as well as the next list of 20 long shots if you find this useful for your analysis

Well deserved reputation with crisp information reasoning your choices. I was wanting to blog about India's chances of medals at the Olympics. Would surely want to use all the info and opinions on this forum

I saw so many lists for possible medallists so my listicle 
 
Top 20 Medal chances for India( this is in no order ) 
 
1. 50m Prone - Gagan Narang - Medalllist last year in one of the Fort benning world cups 2015  , has the big occasion temperament 
2. 10m Air rifle(m) - Abhinav Bindra - Big occasion shooter , is showing signs of a return to form ( in baku world cup was leading finals after 2 rounds  by a big margin ), a gold medallist has the temperament to shoot ( only a fool would say that Abhinav cannot medal in Rio..... In case any of you want to dispute that  )  
3. 10m Air Pistol(m) - Jitu Rai - Bronze medal at the chongwon world cup - consistently has been in finals - One of Indias top hopes 
4. 50m Air Pistol(m)- Jitu Rai - Currently Ranked world number 2 in this event , silver at the world championships - a class act 
5. Skeet(m) - Mairaj - The only Indian who won a medal at the Rio World cup this year - currently ranked world no 4 ( never thought we would have a skeet prospect )
6. 10m Air rifle(w) - Apurvi - broke the world record last year , last years world cup final silver medal 
7. Womens Badminton - Sania Nehwal - world championship silver medallist , in good form 
8. Mens Hockey Team - Last two major tournaments - Silver and Bronze 
9. Tennis Mixed Doubles - With Sania in the team we have one of the best women's players with a very small field just two good matches and you are in with a medal 
10.Boxing - Shiva - A medal at the world championship ....... 
11. Boxing - Vikas - Indias finest boxer reached quarters of the world championship , is a world championship medallist 
12. Wrestling - Narsingh - The only indian till now to win the olympic quota at the world championship , shows his class 
13. Wrestling - Yogi- Missed the world championship due to injury but his form at the asian qualifiers was fearsome 
14. Wrestling - Vignesh - Awesome form at the last qualifiers , again her form was so good 
15. Archery womens team - Current world championship silver medal , has consistently been medal-ling 
16. Archery womens individual - Deepika is a true championship so many medals  , was immature last time in her first olympics , now is more mature 
17. 10m air pistol ( w) - Heena Sidhu has been ranked world number one in 2014 was in fine form in the run up to the asian qualifiers 
18. Womens weightlifiting - Mirabhai Chanu in the 48 Kgs has lifted 192 which puts her in the elite list of top 3-4 weightlifters, she has been consistenly improving in the last few months and I feel will reach the level of 194 or so at Rio ..that should fetch her a medal with some luck 
19. Womens Vault - The fast improving Dipa Kramakar came 5th at the world championship , she has been getting a lot of support and will improve further , a medal prospect  in gymnastics 
20. Womens Badminton - PV sindhu - two times world championship bronze medallist is definately a prospect 

Unfortunately No .................  Mirabai is in the 48 Kg category and her main rivals will come from just 4 countries - CHN ( almost sure gold ) ...... tough fight with vie , tha, prk for the rest of the medals as china is likely to field just one lifter ................. only advantage may be that she may have sanjita for company in the 48 kg and the two are close which would boost her morale 

Does this improve the chances of Mirabai Chanu winning a medal? Are any athletes of the aforementioned countries higher ranked than her? 

Athletics
 
Indian last week performance summary
 
Opole, Poland: Men, 400m: Race 1: 1. Jakub Krzewina (Pol) 46.84s, 2. A. Dharun (Ind) 47.08, 3. Kunhumohammed (Ind) 47.09. Race 2: A. Lalith (Ind) 46.88s, 2. Mohan Kumar (Ind) 46.89. Race 3: 1. Sumith Kumar (Ind) 47.45s, V. Sajin (Ind) did not finish.
Women’s 400m (Indians in top 3): Race 1: Anu Raghavan (54.27s), 2. Priyanka Panwar (54.49), 3. Sini Jose (55.11). Race 2: 1. M. R. Poovamma (53.18s), Debashree Mazumdar (54.52), Jauna Murmu (54.75).
 
Bishek, Kyrgyzstan: Men, 100m: 4. Amiya Mallick (Ind) 10.84s. 4x100m relay: 1. India (39.92s).
Women, 100m: 2. Dutee Chand (Ind) 11.47s. 4x100m relay: 2. India (44.45).
 
Budapest, Hungary: Men's javelin throw: 1. Shivpal Singh (Ind) 76.74m, 2. Rajender Singh (Ind) 70.64, 3. Mark Schmolcz 70.19.
Women's javelin throw: 1. Annu Rani (Ind) 57.24m, 2. Suman Devi (Ind) 55.38, 3. Annabella Bogdan 54.65.
 
Chula Vista, USA: Women’s discus throw: 1. Rachel Longfors (US) 57.63m, 2. Krishna Poonia (Ind) 56.50.

Yes, Prashanth. She got this 2min 5.4s in 800m timing in an event with absolutely no competition for her, I rmbr in the Junior nationals a month back she clocked around 4min 10s, so a 5s improvement in a month.
I was just wondering if she can be quickly moved to Europe and compete with Tintu in a couple of events, there's still a month to go for the qualification period to close, and Lily is a junior athlete so can improve much faster than the seniors. Can we somehow contribute here maybe build up an opinion poll quickly on this and share with AFI/PT Usha, even if we are ignored, we can at least make an attempt with facts from our side.
 
Thoughts and opinions from everyone is welcome on this.

Sanity prevails 

sorry to say that the two situations are not the same. in 2012 leander was the top ranked indian player in MD and he wanted to form the bets team by teaming up with bopanna or bhupathi who were the next best players.how is that an unfair demand? it was they who had ganged up against him to prevent india from fielding its best possible MD team. the result was for all to see. so its completely incorrect to blame paes for this fiasco. i will agree AITA messed up the situation last time by using sania as a bait for paes to give up his claim on bopanna for MD. and the difference in ranking is due to paes' injuries also -its not as if bopanna is setting the circuit on fire. and if you consider rankings -how come saketh is preferred over leander? nobody should have complete freedom - personal choice cannot trump national interest. sania can play with whoever she wants in the circuit. In the olympics - it has to be in consultation over AITA