zob79

""The most important thing, in my opinion, is mental preparation" - Maria Vynnyk said this on Thursday after winning the first major gold medal; maybe this is where the secret lies. As you said, Ukrainian girls have always been strong, but not dominant at continental level; my conjecture is that the Russian invasion has made them mentally stronger, giving them that extra edge needed to tilt the balance in the final stages of a competition.

""The most important thing, in my opinion, is mental preparation" - Maria Vynnyk said this on Thursday after winning the first major gold medal; maybe this is where the secret lies. As you said, Ukrainian girls have always been strong, but not dominant at continental level; my conjecture is that the Russian invasion has made them mentally stronger, giving them that extra edge needed to tilt the balance in the final stages of a competition.

""The most important thing, in my opinion, is mental preparation" - Maria Vynnyk said this on Thursday after winning the first major gold medal; maybe this is where the secret lies. As you said, Ukrainian girls have always been strong, but not dominant at continental level; my conjecture is that the Russian invasion has made them mentally stronger, giving them that extra edge needed to tilt the balance in the final stages of a competition.

It happens to me since I went past 40; I got lazy and I find myself not willing to run around forests and swamps like our mutual dutch friend

It happened to a friend of mine in 2008, I remember it vividly.
 
Yes, travelling in Eastern Europe was safer during communism, as police kept a tight grip on society
 

This happened until 2010s, travellers were hijacked by criminals impersonating Bulgarian policemen; felt like Wild West 
 
Tbh, if heywoody travelled through Romania, I'd pull the same stunt nowadays 

Corruption is a plague in the Balkans. It's a cultural heritage, a "trojan horse" of the ottoman administration; I honestly doubt this can be adressed in a predictable future.
 
Regarding Bulgaria, I share your amazement, especially knowing that the EU was the driving force behind Romania’s progress. Yesterday I had a bout of nostalgia— I watched some YouTube videos depicting Bucharest in the '90s and, believe me, it looked like stone age..

theocracy = institutionalised murder and khomeini was a brainless butcher; no comparison can ever be made to the former Shah, despite all his flaws. Dictators are not alike, as graveyards around the world can testify...

This "guy" is not for real; he's a troll, an arab hey woody

of course the regime is stronger than it was 2 months ago, probably with more supporters, it's easy to gather people (some people at least) around the flag when the enemy bombards schools killing hundreds of schoolkids. they are rallying and celebrating on the streets every nights which is really annoying. 
 
the 8 years war with Iraq solidified the regime at the time and I assume this one did the same.
 
I wasn't alive in 1970s, but I can tell there was Khomeini who was charismatic (I don't know why, he never even tried to look like a nice person, I still can't understand what people saw in him) he managed to gather all groups from left to right under his umbrella. there is no such a thing right now and beside that, this is not a simple dictatorship regime with one head. this regime is almost impossible to fall with force. the only way to beat it is through civil activities and we are far from that right now.

Eights were and even now are most important events of the Games alltogether.
Tradition is obviously irrelevant for younger generations but it actually means something, no matter what someone thinks about it.

They are, without question, the blue riband events in the sport . That you seem not to know that suggests your expertise in the area is limited, and your advice unlikely to be useful.

Beware, Radis and Bodnar will be back in W2x next year 
 
Congrats for Fitsiou/Kontou, though

We are alive again

It's only bad Censorship when the Right do it!  
 
When the Left do it, it is Enlightened Guidance. 

I liked Eriksson's style a lot.
Was real gentleman on field.
RIP

@thiago_simoes Thiago, pls tell me why Sabrina Voinea got such a low score at floor exercise; I can't think of anything...neither can she

What can I say, my friend? hope I'll never feel what Ana Barbosu and Sabina Voinea must've felt today
 
Shameful refereeing, some of you guys may remember what happened to Nadia in 1980. That's it...it seems the book was already written.

The thing is: FIG did nothing. The CAS is the entity responsible for changing the results and FIG merely had to accept their sheer incompetence being exposed. FIG was forced to change the results, and pushing for another change is just not wise at this point. There's nothing that can be done about Voinea's score since her coach did not challenge it when she had the opportunity after the score was displayed. Even the CAS final report released today mentioned this. If FIG had a choice, you can bet they would never have changed the results.

There would be no positives in sharing the medal. The judges did everything to promote the American and screw the Romanian and they probably realize the world actually still pays attention to this sport and see the biased scoring so they found a technical reason not to look biased for once.

BREAKING NEWS: According to Romanian media, TAS (Tribunal arbitral du sport) decided that the bronze medal of floor rutine should be awarded to Ana-Maria Barbosu!
 
More to follow soon

for me its a stupidity. But havent we see so many of them so far???

BREAKING NEWS: According to Romanian media, TAS (Tribunal arbitral du sport) decided that the bronze medal of floor rutine should be awarded to Ana-Maria Barbosu!
 
More to follow soon

I’m so happy for Romania  but the referees are garbage no matter what.