dcro

51 days to go. Perhaps we can open some countdown thread? Don't know if @OlympicIRL is planning that.

Well, it's not actually China only. Asia is better in lighter events while Europe (+KAZ/UZB/IRI) are ahead in heavier events, generally speaking.

[hide] Knockout Round June 16th - June 26th, 2016 8 Nations, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match, winning Nation will become Men's Football CONCACAF/CONMEBOL Copa América Centenario 2016 champion Quarterfinals All times are Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4) Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 June 16th 2016, h. 21:30, CenturyLink Field, Seattle United States 1 0 Ecuador June 17th 2016, h. 20:00, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford Peru 1 2 Colombia June 18th 2016, h. 19:00, Gillete Stadium, Foxborough Argentina 2 0 Venezuela June 18th 2016, h. 22:00, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara Mexico 1 0 Chile [/hide]

Well, team competitions are traditionally very important in equestrian, to both national federations and athletes themselves. In eventing for example. athletes are quite ready to sacrifice their individual chances just to do some "experiments" on cross-country course. So that the following athletes on team know what's the best way to deal with certain obstacles.

I also voted for 2nd! The ugliest logo (3rd) is leading though. 3rd is too generic.

Ah, Zhou Lulu... One of those that look like a man.

Here are some videos of eventing (cross-country) from Berlin Olympics in 1936. This was the first time that water jumps were used so it caused a lot of problems, Though, that particular water jump was craziness.

Olympics have a special competition format as team medals will be decided during the first two stages of competition (both Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special). And that's different to Worlds and Europeans where only Grand Prix counts for team. 32 athletes will advance to Special. 4 athletes from each of top 6 teams + top 8 individuals. That actually makes things harder for individuals as all athletes from top 6 teams advance, no matter if their individual score was not high. Though, I don't think we will see many such riders advancing (1-2 at most). Pujals will be an outsider for qualification, and she will need to hit at least 70%-71% to have a chance. She got 69.920% last month in Mannheim. It's not impossible but she will need her best performance and some luck. I think it would be really cool if she makes it.

Just cruel. They dropped out because Belarus didn't bother to play... I hate when things like this happen.

Netherlands was also an outsider at Europeans last year, but amazingly took the gold. But yeah, not looking too hopeful at the moment. Btw. I just became the third Totallympics' medalist.

In dressage Germany is the favorite for gold, especially after the form their riders shown at the German championships. As in most sports, World rankings are not the best reference. The key of German favoritism are the young horses that are really coming through this year. Werth will ride a younger horse which is actually better than her injured ones. They also have Dorothee Schneider & Showtime and Sonke Rothenberger & Cosmo as the shooting stars with young horses. Sonke is actually the son of Sven Rothenberger, who "deflected" from Germany to Netherlands in the 90s and actually won a couple of Olympic medals for your nation Great Britain should be the second best. Charlotte Dujardin & Valegro dropped from the top of World ranking only because they didn't compete since the Europeans last August. They also have Fiona Bigwood & Orthilia who are going very well lately. As for Netherlands, I don't see them winning anything more than a bronze, and even that could be a problem. Edward Gal competed only once this year with Undercover, and Undercover was so tense that he almost jumped out of the arena in that competition. A lot of people are saying that the horse lost his confidence in the arena after being eliminated at the Europeans last year. And just this week, it was announced that Gal withdrew from the 1st (out of 2) Dutch selection event. " The KNHS has not disclosed that proving form at just one show can suffice for team selection." There are also some rumors that Diederik van Silfhout's horse is struggling with fitness. So it seems that Dutch team might very well depend on Adelinde Cornelissen & Parzival scores once again. Although it's never good when you have to depend on "grandpa" horse, who is already 19-years old. Considering how well USA (and Sweden) are going this year, I actually wouldn't be surprised if Dutch miss out on the team medal. USA's chances were especially boosted by Kasey Perry-Glass & Dublet, who stunned everyone in their first ever competition in Europe. In eventing Germany is the favorite, following the tradition of recent years. They should be followed by New Zealand, Great Britain, USA, France and Australia. Saying that, Netherlands has overperformed at some recent championships so maybe they can do it again. Traditionally, jumping is the least predictable of the three. USA, Germany, France, Netherlands and Great Britain are the big five I guess. American guy McLain Ward is looking very good this year. But we mustn't discount Switzerland, Brazil, Canada and the World selection team called "Ukraine". Yep, Ukraine's new addition to the team is Ulrich Kirchoff, German guy who won both jumping gold medals in Atlanta in 1996... Ukraine is the Azerbaijan of equestrian World, a disgrace. Their team for Rio will likely be made of two Germans, one Brazilian and one Hungarian.

Very successful day for our predictors.

I like the podium very much, but medals look a bit uninspiring.

Well, looks like someone could stop China. Spain destroyed them today, with 77 - 43 win.

Here's top 8 in each. Men's springboard Germany Austria Poland Malaysia Canada Spain New Zealand Switzerland Men's platform Italy Canada Belarus Sweden Brazil South Korea Norway Ukraine Women's platform Ukraine Germany Hungary Netherlands Brazil Russia Cuba Brazil

Tomorrow is the deadline for NOCs to confirm their quota places. Reallocations will be held right after that. Looking at the women's 3m synchro diving, these should be the (likely) teams. China - Shi Tingmao, Wu Minxia Australia - Samantha Mills, Esther Qin Canada - Jennifer Abel, Pamela Ware Italy - Tania Cagnotto, Francesca Dallape Malaysia - Cheong Hoong, Nur Dhabitah Sabri Great Britain - Rebecca Gallantree, Alicia Blagg Germany - Maria Kurjo, Nora Subschinski Brazil - Juliana Veloso, Tammy Galera Wu Minxia, Samantha Mills, Francesca Dallape, Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Alicia Blagg and Tammy Galera are the athletes that will most likely compete only in synchro event. Meaning that there should be 28 starters in individual springboard competition. But, Nur Dhabitah Sabri is entered for individual and synchro platform competition so I don't think she should count as the extra athlete. If true then we'll have 29 athletes in individual. These are potential reallocations (23 individuals already qualified). 24th Nora Subschinski (GER) 25th Abigail Johnston (USA) 26th Diana Pineda (COL) 27th? Minami Itahashi (JPN) (will likely not use, as per Japanese selection rules; plus Itahashi is already qualified for platform event, so I'm again not sure if that means anything in case she gets selected to compete in springboard) 27th/28th Diana Chaplieva (RUS) 28th/29th Maha Eissa (EGY) 29th/30th? Elizabeth Cui (NZL) (New Zealand will likely refuse) 29th/30th/31st Marcela Marić (CRO) 30th/31st/32nd Habiba Ashraf (EGY) There is also a chance that Netherlands will not accept Inge Jansen's quota... It's going to be so close for us. But I'm afraid that we will miss out by a whisker, as we always do in these situations.

All four European teams + China will qualify from this tournament, anything else would be a complete upset.

Why everyone dislikes Spain?

Looks like Sweden has selected the first two dressage riders in their team. Patrik Kittel (Deja) Tinne Vilhelmson-Silfven (Don Auriello) Tinne is going to her 7th Olympics (first in 1992).

Yes, it should be. Peru and Chinese Taipei are the only ones that can miss out in case of unfortunate injuries (because they have only one rider each, but I'm really hoping that it won't happen). And if it somehow happens then those quotas will be reallocated within the continental qualification events.

For a while I was worried that Chinese Taipei show jumping rider will not make minimum requirements for Rio, because she is really struggling this year with a lot of retirements and eliminations in pretty much every high level class. But, looks like her performance at the qualification event was enough to make minimum requirements (although that was only CSI1* competition ). https://data.fei.org/Horse/Detail.aspx?horseFeiID=102WM64 Nevertheless, Isheau Wong is probably going to get crushed in jumping competition. But it's great that Chinese Taipei will still be able to have their Olympic debut in equestrian. And hopefully she will at least complete the first round.

That's right, but it's very unlikely though. In 2012 they qualified on merit and still didn't get selected. Quite unlikely that they will accept a reallocation now. And, as heywoodu said before, all Dutch athletes are aware about what they have to do to get selected. So every Dutch female mountain bike athlete knows there's no chance to get selected after they failed to qualify.

Yep, especially since every Azeri lifter tested positive for the same drug. Obviously they were taking it systematically.

And what about Agger? I'll just say: May the better team win.

Wow, Bhutan actually did amazingly well. Even qualification is not impossible.