Federer91

Very nice to see many of the snowboarders showing support for Malena today and competing with painted lines on their faces, a trademark of Malena. I'm still so angry of this whole incident.

First race of the season, first win for Tadej And a great showing from Seixas. There must be some truth in the hype for the young fella

Malena Zamfirova was hit by a drunk tourist today (not with a car), while she was preparing for the next World Cup in Czechia. It happened in the so called "safe zone" near the lift, where there were a lot of people and this drunk just uncontrollably ran her. She had many fractures and had to be flown by helicopter. Tomorrow she is moving to Austria with a special transport, where on Friday she is having a surgery. I am fuming

Seems a bit stupid to cancel them. If you can't go, then the tournament continues without you, just like it would in other cases. Realistically how many teams won't be able to go to Italy or Greece?

Apparently not included in the official World Boxing calendar, but yesterday finished the 77th edition of the traditional "Strandja" Tournament, the oldest Boxing tournament in Europe. Women: W48 kg - Sabina Bobokulova def. Hanna Okhota - 5:0 W51 kg - Zlatislava Chukanova def. Feruza Kazakova - W/O W54 kg - Elina Bazarova def. Lauren Mackie - 5:0 W57 kg - Nigina Uktamova def. Michaela Walsh - 3:2 W60 kg - Donjeta Sadiku def. Rebeca de Lima Santos - 3:2 W65 kg - Navbakhor Khamidova def. Laura Yessenkeldi - 5:0 W70 kg - Chantelle Reid def. Viviane dos Santos Pereira - 5:0 W75 kg - Aziza Zokirova def. Emma Sue Greentree - 5:0 W80 kg - Nadezhda Ryabets def. Yaren Duztas - 5:0 W80+ kg - Valeriya Axenova def. Oltinoy Sotimboeva - 5:0 Men: M50 kg - Daniyal Sabit def. Bilalhabashi Nazarov - 3:2 M55 kg - Maksym Zymenko def. Lorenzo Patricio - 3:2 M60 kg - Radoslav Rosenov def. Gabriel Oliveira - 5:0 M65 kg - Elvin Aliiev def. Yuri Falcao Reis - 4:1 M70 kg - Lavant Brownlee def. Farukh Tokhtassunov - 4:1 M75 kg - Fazliddin Erkinboev def. Rami Kiwan - 5:0 M80 kg - Pavlo Illiusha def. Javokhir Ummataliev - 3:2 M85 kg - Akmaljon Isroilov def. Matvii Razhba - 5:0 M90 kg - Turabek Khabibullaev def. Bogdan Tolmachov - 5:0 M90+ kg - Damar Thomas def. Ozodbek Aliev - 5:0 Final Standings: 1. Uzbekistan - 7-4-6 2. Kazakhstan - 4-2-3 3. Ukraine - 3-3-4 4. Bulgaria - 2-1-4 5. England - 2-1-3 6. USA - 1-1-5 7. Kosovo - 1-0-0 8. Brazil - 0-4-1 9. Ireland - 0-1-3 10. Australia - 0-1-1 10. Azerbaijan - 0-1-1 12. Turkey - 0-1-0 13. Mongolia - 0-0-3 14. Italy - 0-0-1 14. Germany - 0-0-1 14. Egypt - 0-0-1 14. Romania - 0-0-1 14. Armenia - 0-0-1

Watching replay of yesterday Krynica start and boy what a clusterfuck it was. One it was the most uneven course of the season so far and two there were multiple instances of one of the gates not opening. So they had to redo a couple of races.

Having a World Championships right after the Olympics is very underwhelming, but that is the world of curling and ice hockey You would think skipping a year would actually make the WCH more valuable.

Interesting, for only 2 months i think i have seen some kind of coin from all of the big countries - Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and yes the 2 euro from Croatia. But some of them were the smaller ones, 10, 5, 2 cents. Expectedly there aren't any from the smaller countries so far. Nothing from the Baltics, Cyprus, Slovenia, Malta, Andorra etc. But also a bit surprising i haven't seen any from Greece yet. Don't know from what part of Italy are you, but it's safe to say that when summer hits there will be a lot of Bulgarians visiting Rome, so i'm sure they'll bring some of our coins to spread around.

Yes, i saw that there are a lot of commemorative coins. But to get some of those, i would need to buy them, as i don't know how much of them are in circulation. And the chances of such making it to Bulgaria are rather slim. Still, if i find some sports ones on a good price, maybe i will order a few.

Don't know if someone else is collecting Euro coins, but since we joined the zone it's been fun looking at what you can get. It took only 2 months, but today i finally got my first Slovakian coin. @hckošice

The best part of last nights closing ceremony was the highlight montage Eurosport made. Anyone who didn't see it NEEDS to see it. Amazing. Probably my second favourite montage of an OG after the London one in 2012.

With the end of yet another Olympic Games comes the time of my traditional round-up of the activity in the forum. And we have a new record for a Winter Games, at least when it comes to the last 3 editions. One factor is that we had them back in Europe in a much more convenient time zone for many users, than the last two, which were in Asia. Also having stuff before the Opening Ceremony plays a big factor, as Curling took advantage of the concentration of eyes early on. Having the largest program in sessions helps as well.

Germany should compile all variations beside GDR. During that time FRG was the official successor of unified Germany, while GDR was a run-away country. Plus having 2 German teams was an unfair advantage, as they had double the chances to compete in sports. If Catalonia left Spain and competed in 3 Olympics before reuniting again with Spain, the medals won in those 3 Olympics we wouldn't count as Spanish, because at that time they were an independent country. Russia is correctly inheriting the USSR lineage, as well as all the other BS they like to make up like ROC etc., because at the end of the day it is still Russia regardless of the "official naming".

Thailand took the wrong plane or something, what are they doing at the Balkan Championships Also, that Turkey flag

Lol this is something you don't see everyday. Did Nepryaeva enter the wrong corridor?

Dave Ryding didn't train or see snow until he was 12 years old. Even after that he mainly trained on grass until his teenage years and it didn't stop him from becoming one of the elite slalomers and a World Cup winner. Biathlon and cross-country athletes train 7 months on roller skies. They don't have snow 12 months a year. All the technique, posture, conditioning, balance can be practiced on roller skies before transitioning on snow. If it's required to send kids to the Alps for training camps for a few weeks than be it. This isn't a sport where some kid wants to play it in their backyard. The Ski Federation puts up a program and it starts seeking children who want to practice snow sports and then organize the trainings. In today's open world no one is training only in their neighborhood club, because it's convenient.

There is still a whole month of World Cup events to ease the transition. At least with Winter sports it's easier, because the World Cup is basically the regular version of the Olympics, unlike the Summer ones where this giant void is left after they are done.

I will jump here. No country is required to have snow and/or mountains to be good at Winter sports. They will just invest in sending the prospects to train in places where there is snow. We have snow and mountains and still our few athletes have camps around 80% of their season in the Alps, because the conditions, facilities, competition etc. is better. The Netherlands which is far richer, far more sporting organized and has far more people willing to become elite athletes could set up programs with ease on snow sports. They just don't, because it's not in their culture and not because they don't have the resources/conditions.

Probably Lora Hristova, as everyone else is rushed out of the Olympics once their program ends. Can't even enjoy a day or two of the Games when their starts are finished.

Germans and their sensitivity. Just give it to Turkey or Hungary.

You have good athletes already in snowboard and freestyle, they just need some extra guidance to make the jump to being elite ones. Alpine is lacking, especially on the women's side, so a lot of work needs to be done there. Cross-country showed big potential on the men's side, but the women are again not present. Ski-jumping has Faubert, but that is a specific sport. The biggest problems are in the skating and sliding sports. As we see those sports bring looooooooots of medals and France is nowhere near competitive in them (bar one Loubineaud).

Everyone (bar Canada ) having their best Olympics, but it's expected with the never ending expansion of events. In 2034 when we have 150 events the next benchmarks will be set.

Another stupid tactic by anyone not named Holland..

Doesn't matter who it is, you should never let anyone take such a lead in a mass start. You only need to follow, follow, follow from the start.

If we are having Italy and previously China as examples, I'm sure France will have elite performances in many more sports than just biathlon in 2030