CCB

I especially like Hannah Ohrtmann and Lisa Alsmeier. Germany really became stronger last year. Interesting to see if they can qualify for Paris with competition from Dominican Republic, Canada and Netherlands. Serbia played the first two weeks with their B-squad. But Ojgenovic and the legend Boskovic came back in the third week. But Serbia was still a little shaky.

Watch out for indeed. Don't know why, but somehow I think they will reach the final against .

Yeah, I really think she is the most important player. I agree she's maybe not the best of the team, but her position (opposite) is the most important! And Dambrink is way better than Celeste Plak and Iris Scholten on that position. They did better than I thought in the last two weeks of the VNL. But losing to Germany and Dominican Republic (and Canada) was really unnecessary.

Point differential count towards World Ranking points. There is a very complicated formula to determine how many points a winner gets. Kind of tournament, place on the ranking, differences in places, difference in points, and 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2 all matter. This VNL counts more heavily than the OQT and Continentals.

Well, congrats! Netherlands didn't deserve this win, they did not play constant today. And they missed a good opposite, our best (Elles Dambrink) sits at home (nobody knows why, she really could have helped the team today). So a deserved win for Canada, nice to see they improved so much the last years. With the points of this match, they are full in the race for the Olympics. About that: all the surprising wins of Dominican Republic today do not help Netherlands and Canada at all.

I totally agree with the women's prediction. At the men's side I predict instead of . Maybe or as winners of the European League instead of ? Will be a close call.

Well, losing 3-2 against Italy actually is a good result, it means only -0.01 on the WRL. Losing in four sets would mean -3.00, so the hard work (a sort of) paid off after all. Very surprising win of The Netherlands against Japan. Tomorrow an important game for Canada and The Netherlands. Let's hope for a nice battle!

Don't worry about the match against Netherlands. Canadian women's volleyball team has improved so much, I think their level is far beyond the Netherlands now, especially because we miss our best player this week. A win against Netherlands means a lot of points for Canada. And honestly: they can win against Italy (without Egonu) as well. When you beat Brazil, you can beat every other team in this competition. My prediction is that The Netherlands will have to fight it out with Germany, Belgium and Dominican Republic for the last Olympic spot. And in fact Canada already has passed Belgium, because Belgium lost 3:0 to Sweden yesterday in the European League. So Belgium therefore gets about 5 points deducted.

B-boys and B-girls ... It won't be my favorite sport, but maybe I'm just too sour

The Netherlands will simply try to win that match. After the 12-8 win against Spain in the semi-finals of the World Cup, it would be too flashy to lose. There is still a chance for the Netherlands at the European Championships and the next World Championships. It is annoying that the countries already placed for the OG are also participating again. A certain form of match fixing is therefore unavoidable. After the women's hockey, the water polo players are the Dutch team from which the best performance is expected in Paris. It is assumed that the hockey teams and the water polo team are the three qualifying team sports of the Netherlands in Paris.

The Dutch federation will not be happy with the results of the Dutch boats. They have gone all out to win more gold instead of all the silver and bronze medals of the past. If you disregard the single scull, they failed to do that. Only silver and bronze and almost no connection with the gold. Fortunately, we won two gold medals in the single scull. Florijn was expected, but Van Lierop winning was completely unexpected. Anyway, I think the Netherlands did well with 10 medals in Olympic classes. While we competed in 11 of the 14 classes. I expect and hope very much that most boats will be reconstituted and that the women of the W2x and W2- eventually end up in the W4x and W4- again. Especially if the Romanian twos become even stronger.

Well, as expected only silver and bronze medals for the Dutch boats. Except for the Men's Eight, all the boats (even the M4x) were far from gold.

That surprises me too. Roos de Jong and Laila Youssifou are the best Dutch rowers at the moment. Together with Ymkje Clevering and Veronique Meester they could form a very strong Four or Quadruple, but the union prefers 2x silver to 1x gold. Romania is just way too strong in the W2x. There were rumors that Simona Radis from the Romanian Double Sculls was going to skiff, but luckily she didn't. Otherwise Karolien Florijn would have a problem.

That is indeed correct. The Netherlands has also changed the composition of a number of boats. The priority boats are the Men's Eight, Men's Four, Women's Four and Women's Quadruple Sculls. And it is precisely in those numbers that Great Britain is much too strong. True to tradition, I expect a lot of silver and bronze for the Netherlands.

The eight best nations are pre-seeded in the WCh: A: C: B: D: E: G: F: H: This normally means a quarterfinal for against Norway or France, in my opinion the two best teams in the world. Both are already qualified for the OG, so the winners of A/B/E/F are playing for the third place and the Olympic spot. Countries ranked 4 to 9 will play an OQT. I think it's really unfair that the number 9 ends up in the easiest OQT-poule with only 1 other European country.

Well, unfortunately I had to decide not to buy any tickets. Wanted jumping (sold out), BMX (sold out), track cycling (way too expensive) and some other tickets, but all in all only the most expensive were left for a lot of sports. So, I'm going to watch the Games from my couch with Totallympics on my laptop next to me. Also nice! And I'm going to save money for Milaan 2026 ... But ofcourse I wish everyone with tickets a very nice time in Paris. And for those who still want to buy tickets, good luck!

This afternoon I also received an email saying my allocation time is from 12th of May at 10.00. Very curious which tickets are left at that time. Hoping for some track cycling, athletics, hockey and beach volleyball.

Eindhoven Qualification Meet - afternoon session Women's 50m freestyle Marrit Steenbergen (24,42)

Eindhoven Qualification Meet - morning session Women's 100m breaststroke Tes Schouten (1.05,71, NR) Women's 50m freestyle Kim Busch (24,68) Men's 50 freestyle Kenzo Simons (21,91)

Women's 200m medley Marrit Steenbergen (2.09,16) Women's 100m backstroke Maaike de Waard (59,65) Kira Toussaint (59,88) Women's 100m freestyle Marrit Steenbergen (53,10)

Women's 200m breaststroke Tes Schouten (2.22,21) Although she was already qualified for the OG, Schouten swam a really good time and Dutch record on day 2 of the Eindhoven Qualification Meet. Like yesterday, there was only one performance worth mentioning.

Women's 200m Freestyle Marrit Steenbergen (1.56,22) Further only disappointing results on day 1 of the Eindhoven Qualification Meet.

Indeed, such a group sounds nice, but the Dutch men's team is not that much, especially if Nimir has a less good day. At last year's World Champs they impressed against Argentina and Iran, before losing in the first knock out round to Ukrain without a chance.

Well, I think it is the worst possible draw: against the world champion and against China: there's no chance at all. We only would have a chance if we could play in Japan or in Poland. For me the favourites: China/Serbia - Brazil/Japan - Poland/Italy.

PREDICTION DESIGN - START COPYING HERE ---> [hide] Event & Date Athletes Gold Silver Bronze Women's 1500m Day 1 March 11th 2023 Hanne Desmet x Claudia Gagnon Courtney Sarault x Renee Marie Steenge Any Chinese Athlete Anna Seidel Arianna Sighel Olga Tikhonova Selma Poutsma Suzanne Schulting Xandra Velzeboer Choi Minjeong x Kim Gilli Shim Suk Hee Kristen Santos-Griswold Any Other Athlete Men's 1500m Day 1 March 11th 2023 Brendan Corey Stijn Desmet x Pascal Dion Any Other Canadian Athlete Any Chinese Athlete Pietro Sighel Nurtilek Kazhgali Reinis Berzins Friso Emons Sjinkie Knegt Jens van 't Wout Hong Kyung Hwan Park Ji Won x Any Other Korean Athlete x Any Other Athlete Women's 500m Day 1 March 11th 2023 Kim Boutin x Rikki Doak Petra Jaszapati Selma Poutsma Suzanne Schulting x Xandra Velzeboer x Natalia Maliszewska Nikola Mazur Choi Minjeong Seo Whimin Any Other Korean Athlete Kristen Santos-Griswold Corinne Stoddard Any Other Athlete Men's 500m Day 1 March 11th 2023 Stijn Desmet Steven Dubois x Maxime Laoun Any Other Canadian Athlete Lin Xiaojun Zhong Yuchen Pietro Sighel x Any Japanese Athlete Abzal Azhgaliyev Denis Nikisha x Jens van 't Wout Any Other Dutch Athlete Diane Sellier Lim Yong Jin Any Other Korean Athlete Any Other Athlete Women's 1000m Day 2 March 12th 2023 Hanne Desmet x Kim Boutin x Courtney Sarault Zhang Chutong Anna Seidel Selma Poutsma Suzanne Schulting Xandra Velzeboer Kim Gilli Shim Suk Hee Any Other Korean Athlete Kristen Santos-Griswold x Corinne Stoddard Any Other Athlete Men's 1000m Day 2 March 12th 2023 Pascal Dion x Steven Dubois Any Other Canadian Athlete Any Chinese Athlete Quentin Fercoq Adil Galiakhmetov Roberts Kruzbergs Jens van 't Wout Any Other Dutch Athlete Hong Kyung Hwan Park Ji Won x Any Other Korean Athlete Furkan Akar Any Other Athlete x Mixed 2000m Relay Day 2 March 12th 2023 Canada China Hungary Italy Netherlands x Poland South Korea x Any Other Nation x Women's 3000m Relay Day 2 March 12th 2023 Canada x China Hungary Italy Netherlands x Poland South Korea x Any Other Nation Men's 5000m Relay Day 2 March 12th 2023 Canada x China Hungary Italy x Japan Kazakhstan Netherlands South Korea x Any Other Nation [/hide]