orangeman

OMG! Drag Race and Olympic sports together at last! My two favourite things!

I have to agree with you that American media is unnecessarily suspicious of non-American swimmers (and athletes in general) doing well. There's even rumblings on other sites about how suspicious the sudden rise of Canadian women is. I find this interesting considering the US's history with performance enhancements, both caught and obvious yet allowed. As a Canadian it was frustrating to watch Ben Johnson embarrass our nation while Carl Lewis had to remove syringes from his neck to get the gold (metaphorically, of course). However, Sun is a proven cheat and has a terrible attitude. I only heard praise of Hosszu in 2016, the Canadian media was fawning over her. I think Sun is a strange hill to die on to defend non-Western athletes. Efinova has done much more to recover her image and has earned the, marginal, respect of her competitors again.

No, it was started by Yang being a drug cheat, destroying evidence and being ridiculously over the top after winning on a technicality. Some other competitors are protesting silently and peacefully, that doesn't give Sun the right to be aggressive and insulting. Maybe he's getting his cues from the thugs in HK right now, but I'll leave that to the politics page. Just to be clear, I lived and worked in China for 3 years. I loved it, and the people. The pollution and weather is what drove me away.

Sun got aggressive on the podium and shouted on live TV at another competitor, "You're a loser and I'm a winner!". And yet it's everyone else's fault.

Have there ever been so many swim offs?

Masse is the first Canadian to defend her/his gold medal at the WC. Second Canadian to get a 2nd gold medal at the WC after the great Victor Davis.

Oleksiak went out really hard, faded towards the end. But that should get her into the finals anyway.

Just trying to make excuses for you guys!

It's decriminalized in the Netherlands, not legal. I lived there for a while. Locals don't partake, just the tourists, anyway.

Legalization of marijuana.

Very happy for Masse, but not a great time for her. Sorry for Ruck.

Ok, ok, ok. Enough drama. Let's just have a nice boring race where everyone does their best.

Fina has to pay the bills somehow. Warning: Unsubstantiated claims contained in this post!

The synchro swimmers are telling these swimmers to settle down.

At this point, it's FINA's fault for even allowing him to be here. Same with the Olympics allowing the Russians. Apparently twitching on the starting blocks (not false starting) gets you DQ'd, but doping and smashing the evidence is a-o-k.

Apparently it was movement on the starting blocks. People over at swimswam, who have no love for Sun, agree. But I haven't seen a replay.

Scott not shaking Sun's hand. The drama continues.

I don't criticize people for celebrating aggressively, as Sun always does. But doing it when someone else gets DQ'd is classless. Not surprised, though.

I hope the necessary nightly drama is done now. No need to have drama in the women's 100m backstroke. Everything should go according to plan there.

She isn't entered for the 50m free. I think she was only entered in the 100 and 200 free and back. And then the 5 relays, one assumes. You're right though, the mixed free relay would probably go if she's in the 200 back final since it's Canada's weakest shot at a medal and isn't an Olympic event.

Disappointed about Ruck in the 200. I guess she's focusing on the 100m back tonight and the relays (as well as 100m later on). Too bad, she was a real medal threat in this event, especially considering the other withdrawals. Maybe the coaches are smelling a gold in the medley relay and want to make sure Ruck is rested enough. Maybe they found a breaststroker somewhere in the Boreal forest. Edit to say: At least Oleksiak moved on, and she's looking good.

According to her coaches she is in fact sick, and has been since arriving in Korea. 1500m up in the air.

And now a chance for another Canadian to stop the favourite from winning her 4th consecutive title.....

That was a nice message by the butterfly ladies. Canada, Sweden and Australia: Nice people.