Federer91

I've said it multiple times, that smaller sports should definitely be adopting a World Cup circuit like FIS does with skiing, or in tennis etc. in order to somehow popularize the sport. It's always better to have a clear competition system for the athletes, for the fans, for the TVs, to know which are big events, what are the stakes, have some continuity etc. As for LA28 qualification, let's hope the rankings quotas won't be more than 50% in an event and there are still the direct qualification regattas for people who for some reason couldn't be performing year out.

Boe brothers: "We are at the top of our sport and next year are the Olympics, but nah, let's someone else do it, who cares." Meanwhile Teddy Riner (and hundreds of others) "I will go to the Olympics until i'm 50, as long as my body allows it"

Ayuso showing very good form yesterday and UAE as a whole were on point as usual. Del Toro especially is doing a breakthrough performance (at least for me) and having a Mexican in this sport is something unique

Don't know if there is a bigger fall from relevancy (at least in this century) than the demise of the WTCC ->WTCR -> TCR or whatever it's called now series. Eurosport is showing highlights from the opening round in Mexico (with a 10 day delay i might add ) and there are literally only 400-500 people there. In Mexico nonetheless, a place where they worship motorsports. If they didn't show the start line stand you would think the only people there were the organizers, some media and the teams and their friends. For race 3 now there are a bit more fans, but races 1 & 2 were like a ghost track. Why Hyundai, Volvo and Honda continue to spend money on this is beyond me.

We are having hopes for a much better campaign this year. Our legend Antonina Zetova is now the coach of the women's senior NT after having wonderful results with the junior ones. This led to the return of some of the older and well established players like Elitsa Atanasijevic and Hristina Vuchkova who were not playing in the NT the past couple of years. They are also calling some of the junior players to start incorporating them to the team. Short term goals is to start beating teams slightly above us in the rankings and managing to finish mid-table in the VNL. Big goal is qualifying for LA28.

I'm sure Karlos would have definitely preferred it to stay at 98 kg. While 94 isn't bad, he expected to gain weight in the coming years. But yeah, the five you mentioned seem the most logical to be selected.

Hopefully this won't be a Roglic breakaway and people like Ayuso, Gee, Tiberi can give him some pushback.

It's not too late to remove cricket from LA28 now that we could (hopefully follow "protocol") ban India and Pakistan from competing. This conflict/war should go for a couple of years I reckon.

That could be said for 80% of all sports without defining how much money is actually enough.

Belarus being a favorite in a beach soccer World Cup seems out of place

Very surprising in a sport, where athletes compete until 60

Caleb Ewan has announced his retirement with immediate effect. https://www.instagram.com/p/DJTfvV8MBov/?utm_source=ig_embed

At one point it seemed we were making good progress in this sport, but in the past 1-2 years things seem to have hit a standstill.. Ivaylo Ivanov is still our only elite judoka, but he is passing 30. There were/are some promising youngsters, but they haven't been able to make a jump to the senior level. At this Euro we barely had any first round wins (not including Ivanov). In fencing and taekwondo the results are much more visible for us.

Pogacar just makes it look so easy. As absurd as it may seem, i actually believe he is thinking about winning all 5 Monuments in one year. He is likely to have 3 wins and 2 podiums this year, so the goals are set for 26,27

Wow, what a disappointment for Marin Robu who missed a career moment to get a home Gold medal. With Karlos moving to the next weight and no Pizzolato too, this was a golden chance for him.

Nah, they are too good to be kicked out. I presume anyone who is currently in the teams will remain, but they won't be naturalizing new wrestlers going forward. For now at least

Wrestling is getting a complete overhaul here and the scandals have began as usual. I will lay a not so quick summary of the situation. Last month there were Elections for the Wrestling Federation, where the legend Stanka Zlateva (2 OG medals, 5 World & 6 European titles) was elected President. Earlier in the year she very vividly blamed in the media the old guard for bringing in an armada of foreigners and allegedly destroying the Bulgarian kids in the sport. She also said, that they wanted to take away her junior wrestlers from her club and move them to national selections with different coaches, while she wanted to continue working with them. After getting lots of attention Zlateva decided to run in the elections. She again was mentioning, that it was unacceptable to have so many foreigners and wrestling needs an overhaul. Going into the elections she had support, but wasn't a favourite. Don't know what exactly happened on the day, but everyone else (including the old regime) withdrew and Zlateva was the only one left. A few days after she was elected there were news, that the majority of the Federation's employees were quitting and didn't want to work for her (probably encouraged from the old regime). At one point there were concerns that the teams could miss the European Championships, because of these organizational issues, but luckily they sorted it out. Now that the Euro is over, today they announced that all National team coaches were fired. The new NT coaches are: Men's Greco - Stoyan Dobrev - UWW Coach of the year in 2023, he led Serbia to 4 Golds at the 2022 Worlds. After the revolution he did for Serbian Greco he is coming home to take over GR. Men's Freestyle - Radoslav Velikov (Olympic Medalist, World Champion). As a coach, alongside Simeon Shterev, he had coached the Women's National teams of China, Azerbaijan and Russia until Covid. Then they returned to coach clubs here. Women's Freestyle - Simeon Shterev - A veteran of coaching Women's wrestling for 20-30 years. He discovered Stanka Zlateva and was the biggest figure here during her reign. After her career there were some issues and he was practically exiled, hence why he went to lead the NTs of China, Azerbaijan and Russia like i mentioned above. We will see what happens next and how they will try to "revive" Bulgarian wrestling, but it's not been a good start. Yesterday there was another semi scandal. The Greco team returned from the Euro with a Gold and Silver and there were many people to greet them, but no one from the new Federation....

Мнението ми е, че в България всеки се смята за вечният Президент, Премиер, Кмет, Директор и прочие. Седнеш ли на стола и вече си мислиш, че ти се полага пожизнено. Стефка много ми падна в очите. Уж големите изказвания на конгреса, че приема резултата, така гласували, пожелава успех и т.н, а на следващият ден почна циркът. Може и тя да не го иска това, ама е цялото лице на този комитет дето оспорват и едва ли някой ще тръгне да го прави ей така от скука. Просто тези хора 20 години са в БОК да цоцат и са си втълпили, че им се полага всичко. Ти можеш ли да си представиш 20 години да си там, та това е една трета от живота на хората. Съмнявам се да са обновявали персонала всеки 2-3 години. Белчо Горанов обиколи светът десет пъти, а до ден днешен знае ли някой какво точно върши? Важното е да придружава състезателите всеки месец не знам къде си на форуми. А колко ли такива като него има още. Той Томислав Русев по Дарик много добре го беше казал на скоро в Спортното шоу - "Хората асоциират БОК с 2 неща, че закупуват самолетните билети за спортистите и че ушиват униформите за Олимпиадата на всеки 2 години. Какво друго правят не се знае" Иначе и Лечева не ми е от най-симпатичните. И тя 20 години се бута ли бута в политиката къде ли не. То за депутат, то за кметове, то за БОК, то за Министър, къде ли не се кандидатира. Където има пост тя е там. Но гласуваха за нея, така че да поеме управлението и да се види какво ще излезе.

Weightlifting Euro starts today and will be the last with the bloated 10 categories. Karlos Nasar will be here, even though he had some shoulder issues and they were thinking of doing an operation, but looks like things were fixed without one. He is going up to the 96 kg weight, so people at 89 will be very happy to see that Especially one host competitor named Marin Robu. Don't know in what form Nasar will be and if he has been thinking about attacking the 96 world record or just play it safe with getting the gold.

Класиците много добре, чак да се учудиш. Жалко, че Новиков не успя вчера, дано днеска поне единият грабне титлата. Ако и някога Едмонд се оправи (което май не върви на добре, след като вече отсъства години) може да имаме наистина един супер качествен отбор в класическата, както едно време. Но разбира се везната се обръща и за сметка на това женската ни борба взе да пропада. Десетилетие там винаги отивахме с надежда за 4-5 медала едва ли не и се борихме с Русия, Украйна и Турция за отборната титла, а сега тези новите момичета и един мач не вземат..

Hmm, this seems rather ..... unusual swim from a European in mid-April.

Prevolaraki finally getting a Gold Medal at a big championships is probably going to be the most wholesome moment at this Euro.

Ah yes, today was the dreaded "IOC news day"... As usual there is barely anything to smile at. Men's boxing losing more weights is absurd, especially since their "gender parity agenda" is out of the window after switching the football. Swimming getting the 50s in an already bloated program was sadly inevitable. With US and AUS the next hosts, I'm surprised swimming doesn't have 100 events to begin with. All the new mixed stuff is Frankenstein as usual, especially the tennis and gymnastics. No one asks for these, even within these sports, but the IOC only care about "Let's have all the stars interact more with each other for maximum TV talk and social engagement, who cares about sporting traditions". Climbing splitting the events is a positive, though for me personally I didn't see any problem with the combined. It actually showed the true overall best climbers, while now the specialists in one event will get more chances to sneak a medal. Host sports with 6 teams are a joke and shouldn't award medals! Have them as exhibition events with a trophy etc. for the winners, but shouldn't be included in the medal table. But what do I know. And still no news on the most important thing for me - extending the Games to 3 full weeks. Things will be crammed, crammed again..

So it beats the purpose of having this rule in the first place...

When were the new UWW rules for foreigners going to start.