thiago_simoes

I'll move back to Rio in a couple of months, and this time I'll work in a military school. I guess I'll have a hard time not laughing at people there. It was the only feasible place for me to work in Rio now, though, at least for the time being.

When I was your age I was a fan of the Spice Girls. Believe me: you will eventually regret many decisions. I haven't watched the show because I hate superhero movies and series. Seriously, I can't stand them. The only people in uniform I don't laugh at are athletes.

I would love to see your face in 20 years when you read again some of the posts you regularly write here.

Honestly, I don't see any reason for it to exist. Many sports federations have their own hall of fame, so why create another one for the Olympics? If someone is, indeed, a legend, and this has been acknowledged once, why repeat it again? We all knew about it the first time.

Only two events with gymnastics. I understand that the focus is the Olympic Games, but still... In my dream world, multi-sport events would be staged like this: 1) South American Games, Mediterranean Games, Pacific Mini Games, CAC Games, Winter Youth Olympics 2) Universiade, SEA Games, World Games, Commonwealth Games, Winter Olympics, Winter Paralympics 3) European Games, Pan-American Games, Asian Games, African Games, Pacific Games, Summer Youth Olympics 4) Universiade, SEA Games, Summer Olympics, Summer Paralympics, Military World Games

It's sad that nothing caught my attention besides the Olympic Games. I'm usually starved for more action during the Olympic year, but other than the continental championships and the World Cup series, there's nothing else to look for concerning artistic and rhythmic gymnastics events. Maybe the Gymnasiade, but it's usually something I completely ignore.

So, that means only the best should be able to compete. Why force representation of different parts of the world in team sports when there are much better teams not even allowed to compete? I understand getting people from small nations to compete in some individual sports, but not team sports. It's not like small teams will benefit from the experience at all after a bunch of humiliating defeats.

I totally agree. It's already pretty bad as is with many weak nations earning free passes, especially in individual sports. I would award universal places in athletics and swimming for most (probably all) nations and severely restrict the number of invitational places in other sports. And I am not favorable to any invitational place in team sports. I don't want to watch a match in football where New Zealand loses 8 to 0. I have better things to do with my life.

I hope so too. I'm also happy that now every one of the six continents has a medal at the Winter Youth Olympics. I didn't think this would happen anytime soon, to be honest, but here it is!

I can't believe I've lived to see Colombia earning a medal at the Winter (Youth) Olympics while Canada hasn't earned one yet.

As I mentioned, I'm not aware of the scoring system but it's great that there's an electronic system where the technical points are displayed right after the skaters perform the skills. This would have been amazing in gymnastics, since it's actually pretty simple to keep track of what each gymnast is doing once you learn how to count twists and saltos properly. Gymnastics is amazing but FIG is really, really bad.

Men's artistic gymnastics is very fair overall. I can't even remember the last time I completely disagreed with a major medal result, but women's artistic gymnastics is a joke nowadays. Daiane dos Santos lost an Olympic medal on floor because she stepped out of bounds with one foot in 2004, but in 2019 Biles basically messed her routine with several steps out of bounds and uncontrolled landing, but still won gold comfortably. This would never have happened in men's artistic gymnastics. Uchimura had the best floor routine of the competition in 2016, but he stepped out of bounds and finished out of the podium. The women's technical committee in artistic gymnastics, led by Nellie Kim, is a complete disgrace. They just can't pull their heads out of their asses.

Even in rhythmic gymnastics things have changed substantially (Kapranova had big mistakes in 2008 and didn't get a medal), but I have to say I'm completely unaware of the rules of figure skating. It's a sport I find unbearably boring. The jumps all look the same, the long program is, well, too long to keep my interest and most of the performances are over the top and tacky.

Calendar of events:

Trump made me think the unthinkable: I'll side with Iran this time.

This looks a lot like galinha, hen in Portuguese, so it's a big no in Brazil.

Thank you. Gelukkig nieuwjaar.

I didn't even know about that. Thanks for teaching me something new.

Any reason for that?

It could be a loaned expression too. I know it's considered a Romance language, but many langues take loan words as if there's no tomorrow, like Japanese, for example: iyaringu (ear ring), aisukuriimu (ice cream), both from English; arubaito (arbeit) from German; pan (pão), sarada (salada), both from Portuguese; resutoran (restaurant) from French.

As a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker, I can hardly understand anything Portuguese people say. Whenever there's someone speaking Portuguese on TV with the European Portuguese accent, the shows use captions for us to read. It's hilarious. Now, about Latin American Spanish, I believe it's fairly easy for us Brazilians to understand the accents from Peru and Mexico, and not too hard to understand accents from Paraguay and Bolivia. Argentinian Spanish in theory should not be too hard if they speak slowly and don't use slangs. Chilean Spanish is damn near impossible to understand, though, and Uruguayan Spanish is not so far behind.

How long does it usually take for IWF to announce a decision about doping cases? It was announced that Rustam Djangabaev was provisionally suspended in April, but it's December now and no further comments have been made. Given that they are still tangled in affairs from London 2012, I believe I should expect a final statement about Djangabaev by 2028.

So, why even let her compete? This is getting more and more ridiculous, and Brazil will end up only with Mayra Aguiar's medal at the WCh. I'm worried with our chances at the Olympics at this rate. Judo used to be a source of 3+ medals at the Olympics and now we'll be lucky to have even one.