MHSN

that happened to so many people. Khomeini at the time of revolution had probably something like 90% support. maybe even more (which I still can't understand how and why) he was supposed to be someone like Pope, stay in the holy city of Qom and do not interfere with the government. of course that didn't happen and some people slowly started to realize the catastrophe. but make no mistake Khomeini was still extremely popular until his death. there is a famous thing about Khomeini, when he landed in Iran with Air France 10 days before the revolution, lots of high profile people (exiled by Shah's regime) accompanied him inside the plane. none of them are with the regime anymore. they are either killed by MEK terrorists, killed or jailed by Khomeini himself or fled the country later.

Iran's economy before the revolution was OK but not good. M.R. Pahlavi wasn't the worst dictator in the world but still a dictator and in my book there is no good dictator, they are all bad. and yeah that 1953 coup or what we call 28th Mordad Coup played big role in the current mess. (ironically those responsible for that coup now consider themselves defending democracy) 50 years before that Iran had a revolution called "Constitutional Revolution" to limit the king's (Shah) power massively and creating the parliament, that coup was essentially the end of that era, completely destroying the parliament and giving 100% power to the king. if you rule a big country like Iran for something like 40 years, you start to believe you are the God himself, that was the problem with A. Khameneyi too. btw at the time of revolution nobody knew he was dealing with cancer, that was revealed later.

of course the regime is stronger than it was 2 months ago, probably with more supporters, it's easy to gather people (some people at least) around the flag when the enemy bombards schools killing hundreds of schoolkids. they are rallying and celebrating on the streets every nights which is really annoying. the 8 years war with Iraq solidified the regime at the time and I assume this one did the same. I wasn't alive in 1970s, but I can tell there was Khomeini who was charismatic (I don't know why, he never even tried to look like a nice person, I still can't understand what people saw in him) he managed to gather all groups from left to right under his umbrella. there is no such a thing right now and beside that, this is not a simple dictatorship regime with one head. this regime is almost impossible to fall with force. the only way to beat it is through civil activities and we are far from that right now.

last year (I mean in Iranian calendar which finished couple weeks ago) was terrible, both personally (since I had couple of personal losses) and also because of what happened to the country, two wars against bloodthirsty vampires and on top of that the Dey (January) Massacre. but the country still stands as a whole which wasn't my prediction. I certainly underestimated our resilience. of course there are lots of wounds to be healed (even if the war stops right now), some of them very deep wounds, mostly non-physical wounds. we have to wait for the dust to settle to see how the regime will do domestically moving forward, not really optimistic about that though

yeah, apparently the new rule only applies to post-2025 naturalized wrestlers

that little fella in CC skiing trying to beat those two ladies on the finish line sprint. thinking about it, having a Dog sprint event makes more sense than some events there.

what a terrible Olympics for Italy, no hope at all. disastrosamente I didn't read the whole forum but I'm kind of sure one certain user wrote something like this yesterday or today or will write tomorrow when couple of Italians fail somewhere

out of curiosity, what if Wennemars put a time worse than his original time (which gave him the 5th place) which one will be counted for him ? the better time or re-run race result no matter what ?

is Fontana the only athlete in history to win medals in two home Olympics ?! how many athlete even participated in two home Olympics, let alone winning medals

Weightlifting formula is more or less similar to 2020 which was considered terrible by everybody! this is a tough sport, you can't be in your best shape for too many events. there will be risks of serious injuries this way. with these rules you need 5 good results to qualify. if you bomb out in an event to score a zero you are out of the Olympics unless you replace it with another event. which means most of these poor guys have to participate in 7-8 events (and not just 5) to make up for possible bomb outs. most importantly if you get injured anytime during this period (almost 2 years) you are out of the Olympics! that's how Sohrab Moradi missed the Tokyo Olympics despite breaking the WR during the qualification period. you can miss the Olympics in 2028 if you get injured late 2026 ! Karlos Nasar couldn't win the Olympic title if we had these rules in 2024 I understand 2024 qualification formula wasn't great either, it had its own flaws but this one is much worse for threatening athletes' health.

UWW announced they are going to review the ranking points allocation. we will see if they come up with something good. the current system is terrible terrible and unfair. they also made few other little changes to make the ranking more relevant I gave it a little thought, something like 50-55 NOCs will qualify at least one wrestlers before the last chance qualifier. they won't be allowed to participate in this event. we usually have something like 60-70 countries in a World Championships, around 80-90 the year before the Olympics. NOCs without quota can send max 2 wrestlers to the last tournament. by my count something like 30-40 NOCs with active wrestling program will be left without a quota. if all of them send 2 wrestlers we will have 70-80 wrestlers across 18 events. that's average of 3 or 4 wrestlers per event. we may end up with only 1 wrestler in some events. I don't know maybe this isn't that bad. this will encourage some weaker non-active countries to take the last chance qualifier seriously. everybody has a chance there. it will be a super weak event. unless countries start buying Russian mercenaries also there is a loophole here. if you are a NOC with 2 good/solid wrestlers, it's better if both of them fail to qualify, therefore you can have two near 100% chances in the last event. but if one of them qualifies earlier the other one is out of the Olympics already.

Wrestling will have a completely new format, I do not like the changes. ranking isn't really a good idea in this sport, this will force wrestlers to compete in so many events to collect points. which is not good for their health. specially with the current UWW ranking points distribution system which is plain stupid they are also gifting 18 quotas to very weak countries by that last qualification event. but I understand their point of view. can't wait to see lots of Russian wrestlers compete for weak countries for that 1 available quota.

the ranking lasts for 24 months but unlike all other sports they reset the ranking in June of even years, 2026, 2026 etc. current scores will be deleted on June 2026 and they start a new ranking from zero. so for the Olympic qualification, results from 1 June 2026 until 1 January 2028 will be counted. a period of 19 months

apparently the Japanese organizers rejected OCA's nice request now OCA is ordering them to do so in a not-so-nice language https://oca.asia/media/attachments/memberships_subcommittee/5/Decision_-_103rd_OCA_EB_Meeting_5ypY8y4.pdf the last line is very interesting I knew this for a while, for example that's why Jujjtsu is included in all of OCA events (despite being the worst sport to watch) but good to see OCA admit this. so with the corrupt OCA you can buy your way in. how much they paid the OCA officials for this ? OK I know Qatar is financially supporting Padel (and UAE is paying everything for Jujitsu) but who is behind Teqball? ! I don't think Thailand can do that.

don't know if we are supposed to have a refugee team in 2026 WOG but FIS RT lost its only member Atefeh Ahmadi (Iran's flagbearer 2022 WOG) all of a sudden decided to go back to her former country and take back whatever she did and said in past 2 years !!