thiago_simoes

I knew about this, but my question is: was he tested after he got drunk? And if he did, did it count as doping violation?

Wait, the Dutch federation pulled him from competing at the rings final at the 2016 Olympics before he was tested, right? Or did it count as a second offense?

The ones I know: Artistic gymnastics: Andreea Raducan Daiane dos Santos Do Thi Ngan Thuong Gervasio Deferr Hong Su-jong Luiza Galiulina Morgan Hamm Yuri van Gelder Rhythmic gymnastics: Alina Kabaeva Anna Bessonova Irina Tchatchina Nadzeya Vysotskaya Rut Castillo Sabina Ashirbayeva Simona Peycheva

I don't know what to think about Zeng. This is the second doping case in rhythmic gymnastics this year (after Sabina Ashirbayeva), what is really surprising since this sport had very few convicted dopers in the past.

What a shame. Looking at the build of most weightlifters from Iran, I wonder how many great talents in the field part of athletics are denied a chance because of lack of investment. How many hammer/discus/javelin throwers and shot putters could have arisen from the country? Even a little investment does wonders for a sport. Look at what happens in artistic gymnastics: Iran only really cares about one event (men's pommel horse) and in a very short time gymnasts from the country earned three bronze medals at the Asian Championships, one bronze medal at the Youth Olympics (and this is HUGE), and a fourth place at the Asian Games.

I love it how the beginning of South Africa's anthem sounds like tribal music.

Three bronze medals in a row for Brazil!

Daiene Dias was so surprised with her bronze medal that after the interview with the Brazilian journalist she spontaneously hugged him trying to control tears. So cute.

Fu Yanhui failed to get a medal altogether on the 50 m backstroke event, even with Ethiene Medeiros out of competition. Now this is what I call underperformance on home soil.

Nicholas Santos won two medals (one of them gold) today and this made him the oldest medalist at the short course worlds (and the oldest champion, of course) at 38 years old. And got a medal! Nice achievement for Dylan Carter!

The population of the whole state of Roraima is 576,000 people. This is roughly the same number of people in the town I currently live in, Joinville.

This relay gold medal got me all tearful here. First because I would never ever expect a medal for Brazil in distances longer than 100 m. Our commentators are always proud to say we are the "sprint nation" and 200 m is not exactly a sprint distance, let alone a relay event. Second, because all five medalists come from completely different parts of the country, from the northernmost state (Roraima) to the southernmost state (Rio Grande do Sul), from a western state (Mato Grosso do Sul) to two eastern states (Rio de Janeiro and Bahia). This is incredible. Truly an effort involving swimmers from all parts of the nation! Now, Ethiene Medeiros... No comments. Edit: For those who care, here is a map of Brazil showing the states where all five swimmers come from.

Again? Parkour was accepted as a discipline in late 2017, so they probably only ratified their their previous decision. I completely agree. Parkour is not gymnastics. I feel ashamed as a fan of gymnastics to even call parkour practitioners "gymnasts".

What a surprise! I only remember them being Brazilian champions in 2001 and then basically disappearing for the next years. They don't seem to have many supporters even in their own state.

An Iranian swimmer won his heat and I got curious because we basically never hear about swimmers from Iran... Then I checked the results of the Swimming events at the Asian Games and Iran has never won a medal there. Even Cambodia has won medals at the Asian Games, so what the hell happens with Iran?

I'm really happy for Matheus. He deserved a world medal for a long time, so I'm glad he finally got it. Also, Cielo hinted he might retire after this competition.

Shout out to Marta Pihan-Kulesza who returned to competition after retirement (she had a baby) at the Cottbus World Cup and won a bronze medal on floor, despite the insanely deep field of athletes. Placing ahead or Lara Mori and Jade Carey was truly awesome! Respect! Love her floor routine and her infectious smile!

Artistic gymnastics, please! Even though I usually do pretty bad, it's the most fun I ever have in prediction contests. Also, for the first time ever we will have a junior artistic gymnastics world championships next year, so if you have some space left for even more gymnastics, it would be great. Rhythmic gymnastics would be nice as well, but I see there are not many people who would be interested. There will be a junior worlds in rhythmic gymnastics, for those who care.

Praise the Lord!

Any word about artistic gymnastics? Women's artistic gymnastics is going through the best ever moment in the Americas, so I hope Canada sends the best of the best.

Rebeca Andrade scored 14.766 on vault at the Cottbus World Cup. This would have been enough for a silver medal at the World Championships two weeks ago. It's insane how Brazil lacks planning. She didn't try a second vault at the World Championships.

Women's futsal and roller hockey are the ones I remember, but it's not like they are thriving Olympic candidates, I know. But it makes me uncomfortable when federations allow a non-UN state to compete against other UN states. Imagine what it is like for Spanish players to play against... Spain (or Catalonia, as they call it).

I disagree. If these sports federations want to be part of the Olympics, they must keep consistency with the way the International Olympics Committee organizes its events. There are federations that allow Catalonia to compete against other nations, and this is absurd, in my opinion, as much as it is absurd to let Tahiti compete. These territories will not be able to qualify for the Olympics, so if you want your sport to be at the Olympics you either follow their rules or you drop out entirely. This really bothers me. I am not familiar with qualification systems in rugby or curling, but I can imagine two situations: 1) the best ranked team qualifies; or 2) there is a chosen team (let's take Scotland, for example) that would represent Great Britain, and if they fail to qualify even if England is ahead of them, no place for Great Britain then. The first situation is outrageous, since they would have 4 or 5 chances to qualify (Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and some federations even allow Gibraltar to compete). The second situation is fair to some degree, but at the same time it would seem like some teams are more "British" than other teams, or that one particular sports federation is allowed to go with whatever they want, what could be chaotic.

This is why I believe the IOC needs to discuss their position and demand that affiliated sports federation follow their rules if they want to be part of the Olympics. Either the IOC accepts Macau, Faroe Islands, Tahiti, Gibraltar, New Caledonia and other few territories, or they end support altogether for dependent territories such as Aruba, Puerto Rico, Hong Kong, American Samoa, Guam and a few others. It bothers me to see swimmers from the Faroe Islands competing at the World Championships, or Tahiti at FIFA events, but when it comes to the Olympics the international federations suddenly pretend these territories do not exist. Great Britain's situation also bothers me a little. I don't care what sort of political scheme they got themselves into: if you are going to send four, five football teams to compete at the FIFA World Cup -- an event nearly as important as the Olympics -- have the balls to compete independently at the Olympics as well. Then there's the case of Taiwan, Palestine and Kosovo. Palestine is an UN observer, so they should not be bothered. If we use the limited recognition bullshit, then we should reconsider allowing other states with limited recognition as well, including Israel, since the state is not recognized by other 31 UN members. The Kosovo situation is still a mess, and the IOC has jumped the gun by allowing them to compete, in my opinion. Taiwan is, well, a mess that was more or less sorted out, but now they want to open the can of worms again. It makes a lot more sense, historically, for them to ask for recognition than, say, Hong Kong, but it's still weird. I would leave things as they are, but if Taiwan is gone (for good) from the Olympics, I would not be sad and, in this case, I would still call for other territories to get the chop as well.