Federer91

Yeah, Kamminga is coming for the inevitable second place

China looking very strong. Third place in the medal table look very appealing for a betting man.

So the 3 biggest male stars - Dressel, Peaty and Milak all have mental problems... Usually being the best at something prevents these things, but maybe that is my thought.

Any reason Peaty isn't here?

AUS starts with a bang as usual, since the 400 free is as AUS discipline as any. Throw in the 4x100 women's and day 1 is always amongst their strongest. Let's see how long they will keep the lead in the table.

It's juts the first event. Now if people expected her to win 6 golds ala Phelps, then yeah, it might be a disappointment.

Titmus with a WR and a triumphant return to the big stage. And that is a big WR Tokyo nightmares have returned for the others. Ledecky started very slow, but it didn't matter at the end either way. McIntosh sinks, which posts a few questions.

Ceccon looks to be in form, this bods well for Italia

Damn, first final and that was so close. New AUS sensation takes the gold right in front of the Olympic champion.

Almost time for the first finals session and the only one i will watch live until next weekend. (damn work.. ) Most interested to see if Italia can continue their rise and fight against the giants of US and AUS. Mainly starting with the 4x100 men's free The US don't feel the juggernaut they usually are, let's see if they could finish with sub 10 golds, which would be madness.

Nonetheless, i don't know if i have ever seen another elite athlete have such an instant, rapid decline, as Sagan has had. It's like he went to bed and woke up the next day, as a completely different person, like in a Latino telenovela... The closest one to compare is probably Gregor Schlierenzauer.

Have you seen this person? Name: Peter Sagan Country: Slovakia Palmares: Multiple times World Champion, Tour de France Legend, One of the most versatile and talented riders of the past 30 years, Cycling Hall of Famer. Missing since 2021 ...

Looks like there is still a chance for Switzerland to join the race. If this comes to fruition, then takes my preferred position. can have the 2038 ones.

Impossible is the IOC to award 3 straight Winter Games to Europe. 2034 is most likely going to US or Canada, which leaves 2038 as the next European option.

And i thought Ludogorets is going to be the sensational loss of the round

I told you Pogacar was disappointing... He is going to have a complex now when competing against Vingegaard, just like Valverde and Purito had with Contador.

Sweden should still be in 2030. France ideally could have 2038.

That was really disappointing from Pogacar

It's a historic day today, as for the first time since 1980, that actors in Hollywood are on a strike (and deservedly so!! ). Even more pivotal is that it the first time that both actors and writers are on strike since 1960. All productions on US soil are shutting down for the foreseeable future and we will see how this affects the International stage. I've read some of the demands and it's all very logical. These big corporations, especially the new tech companies, think they are invincible and can boss around the people. There is only so much time to watch movies and shows, so the strike is actually welcomed from my point of view. I have stuff from all the past few decades, that i've wanted to watch.

So, after XX number of years Bulgaria can finally join the Schengen zone Just maybe

Third title for Petar Mitsin, this time in the 400 free with a new Junior World Record of 3:44.31 He beat Mack Horton's junior record from 2014. This is the first time Bulgaria has any kind of world record in swimming. If that dumbass Antoni Ivanov hadn't been suspended, we could have had a men's relay at the Olympics...

For Bulgarian players, there are 3 clear superstars - Kaziyski, Sokolov and now Nikolov. Kaziyski was the best player in the world for a number of years, but hasn't played for the NT for over a decade now, because he has beef with the federation. Sokolov has gotten older now and for many years all expectations were on him to bring success to the NT. But when the other players weren't at his level, even his 20+ points per game were leading to defeats. And people were getting frustrated with him, because he was playing amazing for his clubs, the MVP and so on, but things weren't working out for the NT, so they thought he was holding back, or relaxing, when in the NT. Nikolov right now is on track to being one of the biggest stars in volleyball. He has the talent to be the new Kaziyski. Atanasov for me is an above average player. His attack is very good, but his receiving and defending are abysmal. He has a good serve, but doesn't have the confidence to perform it. More often then not it leads to errors or just an easy pass over the net. There has been one final, this is the last chance push to have Kaziyski return for the Olympic qualification and play with Nikolov and Sokolov in one team. But i have learned over the years to not have my hopes up.

A hundred bucks, that Cavendish cancels his retirement now, or they retroactively give him the win from yesterday. It would be too good, if he goes out without breaking Merckx's record.

Another pathetic year in VNL, but at least we are not relegated.... There is no other team, that has such a drastic change of performance, after they changed the format of this competition. When it was the old World League we were regularly playing the finals. They switched it and we are always bottom 3-4 teams now. Yes, we are having worst teams/players than before, but i never knew how home dependent we were to get wins. In the WL it was 6 home and 6 away matches, which apparently was a big advantage to us.

As this thing is coming to an end, i'll make a quick medal summary for the BG performance, compared with the previous EG. 2015 Baku - 10 medals (1-4-5) 2019 Minsk - 18 medals (3-7-8) 2023 Krakow - 12 medals (3-4-5) 2015 - (1-4-5) Badminton - (1-0-1) Sambo - (0-1-1) Shooting - (0-1-0) Volleyball - (0-1-0) Wrestling - (0-1-3) 2019 - (3-7-8) Aerobic Gymnastics - (0-1-0) Boxing - (1-1-1) Judo - (0-1-0) Karate - (1-0-0) Rhythmic Gymnastics - (0-3-2) Sambo - (1-0-1) Shooting - (0-0-2) Wrestling - (0-1-2) 2023 - (3-4-5) Badminton - (1-0-0) Boxing - (2-1-1) Karate - (0-1-0) Kickboxing - (0-1-2) Shooting - (0-1-1) Taekwondo - (0-0-1) Given that our 2 best sports, rhythmic gymnastics and wrestling, along with sambo, weren't on the program, i'd say it's a much better performance, than expected. It could have been our best EG, as 3 of our silver medals were very close loses too. Going in, the most important sport was by far boxing, because of the quotas and the team delivered. I believe we can earn 3-4 more in the WQT. Kostadinova in shooting and Goranova in karate were reliable as usual, one of the very few names in our sports, which can perform at big events. I'm very pleased with our athletes in fencing and taekwondo, there is definitely an upward trajectory there. Unlike boat sports like canoeing (and rowing), where it is Val Gardena downhill. We have some medals in kickboxing, but that's....whatever. There were like 50 categories and you had to win one match for a medal..