Federer91

We had the US trials tonight/today with a big big surprise. Olympic Champion and 2022 and 2023 World Champion David Taylor is not going to defend his Olympic title, he lost twice to Aaron Brooks ! 
 
Freestyle
57: Spencer Lee (has to qualify)
65: Zain Retherford (has to qualify)
74: Kyle Dake
86: Aaron Brooks
97: Kyle Snyder
125: Mason Parris
 
Greco
60: Dalton Roberts (has to qualify)
67: Ellis Coleman (has to qualify)
77: Kamal Bey (has to qualify)
87: Payton Jacobson
97: Josef Rau
130: Adam Coon
 
interestingly all 3 guys won the quota in Pan-Am qualifiers lost here to the challenger ! 
 
Women
50: Sarah Hildebrandt
53: Dominique Parrish
57: Helen Maroulis
62: Kayla Miracle
68: Amit Elor
76: Kennedy Blades

US / AUS / UK already have the paperwork and statements ready for the upcoming China success in Paris. 

I am still fond how people who don't like sports are working overtime today to spam the forum.

I am still fond how people who don't like sports are working overtime today to spam the forum.

I am still fond how people who don't like sports are working overtime today to spam the forum.

I am still fond how people who don't like sports are working overtime today to spam the forum.

US / AUS / UK already have the paperwork and statements ready for the upcoming China success in Paris. 

Spoken truly like someone, who has read only headlines growing up and never bothered learning how the system was functioning. 

The country is growing in every aspect, bar the sporting one. And this has nothing to do with the EU, as the change started happening already in 1990. It just took 15 years for everything that was built in the prior decades to fully crumble. All results in the 90s and up to Athens was the last pipeline, that was structured in the old system.
 
The truth is, like JoshMartini mentioned, that sport funding, country wide structuring and people's mentality completely changed in one day after the old regime fell. The next day and upcoming years no one was thinking about sports as an important issue. On the contrary, it became the bottom of the barrel. Which is true to this day still. Every time there is a new Government, in the 20 or so Departments, that are structured, the Sports one is always not taken seriously and the sports Minister is looked like a joke amongst the rest. There were even years, when there was no Sports Ministry and sports were added as a backburner in the Education or Youth Ministry. 
 
Regardless of the money aspect, i have talked in length before on the old system and how it will never be duplicated. 
 
In those days, for every kid, from every town and village, it was mandatory to do sport already from 1 grade. Lots of sports, after school sports, not your typical 2 hours a week killing time, like in the present. Then there were agents, or a special committee, that had a job to go to every town, to every school and scout the best children and navigate them to which sport will be best suited for their abilities, so that they can start specifically training in their pre-teenage days. 
 
After that they were taken first from the local coaches, again every big town had training camps for a dozen sports, it wasn't just the one camp, where you could go train for gymnastics etc. Then there were selections between the different regions and only after that you were elevated to National team status and get the full system structure. 
 
Nothing like this is being done today. Kids are not only not encouraged to do sports, everything in the system actively tries to discourage them. Any top level athlete we have is purely based on the individual person's desire and a small team around them. 
 
I can also add the notion, that kids in the 70-90s were waking up and going to bed with only the thought of playing sports. It doesn't have to be on an organized level, just your regular play with friends. You couldn't find a street, where the neighboring children weren't playing. Even in my teen years, in the mid to late 00s, you had to wait your turn for a football field in my school, even though there are 5. Each of them were always taken, from schoolers to people on their 50s playing matches. You make a goal post on the street and play, it was a luxury to get a normal (concrete) pitch. 
 
You walk in the school today and you would be lucky to see 10 children play after school. Everything is phones, tik tok, instagram, video games, cafes etc. Who wants to sweat doing dumb sports.
 
Multiply that for the grind and dedication required for how many years before you become an elite athlete, garnered with non-existing funding, crumbling facilities, not enough knowledgeable coaches and staff in general and you get and optimistic prognosis of 5 medals. And yet, it would still be better, than a huge part of the World. People may laugh, but if we had even 40% of the system and desires from the 80s, we could be fighting for a top 20 in the medal table at least..
 
(Or you could still say it was only magical potions and mushrooms..)

Gracenote are predicting 5 medals for team BG, which more or less is what should be expected. Though the configuration is to be seen.
 
They are predicting 1 silver and 4 bronzes:
 
- Silver for the Group in Rhythmic Gymnastics;
- Bronze for Stilyana Nikolova in Rhythmic Gymnastics individual;
- Bronze for Svetlana Staneva in Boxing W57 kg;
- Bronze for Bozhidar Andreev in Weightlifting M73 kg;
- Bronze for Semen Novikov in Wrestling GR87 kg.
 
Interestingly, Gracenote are not seeing any medal for Karlos Nasar in weightlifting 89kg  

The country is growing in every aspect, bar the sporting one. And this has nothing to do with the EU, as the change started happening already in 1990. It just took 15 years for everything that was built in the prior decades to fully crumble. All results in the 90s and up to Athens was the last pipeline, that was structured in the old system.
 
The truth is, like JoshMartini mentioned, that sport funding, country wide structuring and people's mentality completely changed in one day after the old regime fell. The next day and upcoming years no one was thinking about sports as an important issue. On the contrary, it became the bottom of the barrel. Which is true to this day still. Every time there is a new Government, in the 20 or so Departments, that are structured, the Sports one is always not taken seriously and the sports Minister is looked like a joke amongst the rest. There were even years, when there was no Sports Ministry and sports were added as a backburner in the Education or Youth Ministry. 
 
Regardless of the money aspect, i have talked in length before on the old system and how it will never be duplicated. 
 
In those days, for every kid, from every town and village, it was mandatory to do sport already from 1 grade. Lots of sports, after school sports, not your typical 2 hours a week killing time, like in the present. Then there were agents, or a special committee, that had a job to go to every town, to every school and scout the best children and navigate them to which sport will be best suited for their abilities, so that they can start specifically training in their pre-teenage days. 
 
After that they were taken first from the local coaches, again every big town had training camps for a dozen sports, it wasn't just the one camp, where you could go train for gymnastics etc. Then there were selections between the different regions and only after that you were elevated to National team status and get the full system structure. 
 
Nothing like this is being done today. Kids are not only not encouraged to do sports, everything in the system actively tries to discourage them. Any top level athlete we have is purely based on the individual person's desire and a small team around them. 
 
I can also add the notion, that kids in the 70-90s were waking up and going to bed with only the thought of playing sports. It doesn't have to be on an organized level, just your regular play with friends. You couldn't find a street, where the neighboring children weren't playing. Even in my teen years, in the mid to late 00s, you had to wait your turn for a football field in my school, even though there are 5. Each of them were always taken, from schoolers to people on their 50s playing matches. You make a goal post on the street and play, it was a luxury to get a normal (concrete) pitch. 
 
You walk in the school today and you would be lucky to see 10 children play after school. Everything is phones, tik tok, instagram, video games, cafes etc. Who wants to sweat doing dumb sports.
 
Multiply that for the grind and dedication required for how many years before you become an elite athlete, garnered with non-existing funding, crumbling facilities, not enough knowledgeable coaches and staff in general and you get and optimistic prognosis of 5 medals. And yet, it would still be better, than a huge part of the World. People may laugh, but if we had even 40% of the system and desires from the 80s, we could be fighting for a top 20 in the medal table at least..
 
(Or you could still say it was only magical potions and mushrooms..)

The country is growing in every aspect, bar the sporting one. And this has nothing to do with the EU, as the change started happening already in 1990. It just took 15 years for everything that was built in the prior decades to fully crumble. All results in the 90s and up to Athens was the last pipeline, that was structured in the old system.
 
The truth is, like JoshMartini mentioned, that sport funding, country wide structuring and people's mentality completely changed in one day after the old regime fell. The next day and upcoming years no one was thinking about sports as an important issue. On the contrary, it became the bottom of the barrel. Which is true to this day still. Every time there is a new Government, in the 20 or so Departments, that are structured, the Sports one is always not taken seriously and the sports Minister is looked like a joke amongst the rest. There were even years, when there was no Sports Ministry and sports were added as a backburner in the Education or Youth Ministry. 
 
Regardless of the money aspect, i have talked in length before on the old system and how it will never be duplicated. 
 
In those days, for every kid, from every town and village, it was mandatory to do sport already from 1 grade. Lots of sports, after school sports, not your typical 2 hours a week killing time, like in the present. Then there were agents, or a special committee, that had a job to go to every town, to every school and scout the best children and navigate them to which sport will be best suited for their abilities, so that they can start specifically training in their pre-teenage days. 
 
After that they were taken first from the local coaches, again every big town had training camps for a dozen sports, it wasn't just the one camp, where you could go train for gymnastics etc. Then there were selections between the different regions and only after that you were elevated to National team status and get the full system structure. 
 
Nothing like this is being done today. Kids are not only not encouraged to do sports, everything in the system actively tries to discourage them. Any top level athlete we have is purely based on the individual person's desire and a small team around them. 
 
I can also add the notion, that kids in the 70-90s were waking up and going to bed with only the thought of playing sports. It doesn't have to be on an organized level, just your regular play with friends. You couldn't find a street, where the neighboring children weren't playing. Even in my teen years, in the mid to late 00s, you had to wait your turn for a football field in my school, even though there are 5. Each of them were always taken, from schoolers to people on their 50s playing matches. You make a goal post on the street and play, it was a luxury to get a normal (concrete) pitch. 
 
You walk in the school today and you would be lucky to see 10 children play after school. Everything is phones, tik tok, instagram, video games, cafes etc. Who wants to sweat doing dumb sports.
 
Multiply that for the grind and dedication required for how many years before you become an elite athlete, garnered with non-existing funding, crumbling facilities, not enough knowledgeable coaches and staff in general and you get and optimistic prognosis of 5 medals. And yet, it would still be better, than a huge part of the World. People may laugh, but if we had even 40% of the system and desires from the 80s, we could be fighting for a top 20 in the medal table at least..
 
(Or you could still say it was only magical potions and mushrooms..)

Gracenote are predicting 5 medals for team BG, which more or less is what should be expected. Though the configuration is to be seen.
 
They are predicting 1 silver and 4 bronzes:
 
- Silver for the Group in Rhythmic Gymnastics;
- Bronze for Stilyana Nikolova in Rhythmic Gymnastics individual;
- Bronze for Svetlana Staneva in Boxing W57 kg;
- Bronze for Bozhidar Andreev in Weightlifting M73 kg;
- Bronze for Semen Novikov in Wrestling GR87 kg.
 
Interestingly, Gracenote are not seeing any medal for Karlos Nasar in weightlifting 89kg  

Gracenote are predicting 5 medals for team BG, which more or less is what should be expected. Though the configuration is to be seen.
 
They are predicting 1 silver and 4 bronzes:
 
- Silver for the Group in Rhythmic Gymnastics;
- Bronze for Stilyana Nikolova in Rhythmic Gymnastics individual;
- Bronze for Svetlana Staneva in Boxing W57 kg;
- Bronze for Bozhidar Andreev in Weightlifting M73 kg;
- Bronze for Semen Novikov in Wrestling GR87 kg.
 
Interestingly, Gracenote are not seeing any medal for Karlos Nasar in weightlifting 89kg  

The difference is, that i am not deaf, blind or from The Netherlands  Take it as you will.

Bulgaria at this tournament,
Bulgaria at this Qualification period,
Bulgaria in wrestling in general...
 

MVDP getting a free pass this spring without Pogacar and Van Aert. Everyone else just not on the same level. Haven't seen so few classic specialists in these big races like this year.

Bulgaria at this tournament,
Bulgaria at this Qualification period,
Bulgaria in wrestling in general...
 

Bulgaria at this tournament,
Bulgaria at this Qualification period,
Bulgaria in wrestling in general...
 

The draw for team BG  seems more favorable, than not. Still, i'm keeping my expectations at the bare minimum, as the Euros showed, that we are having trouble getting people to finals   Also, not having Nazaryan and Milov in GR is a huge blow, which i'm still not over of 
 
Freestyle:
 
- FS 57 kg - Vangelov (TS 3) needs only 2 wins for the quota and has a dream draw with  Lehr or Tsiutryn. All the big favorites  Rzazade,  Atli and  Dingashvili are on the other side.
- FS 65 kg - Naim is on the better half too, even though with the number 1 seed  Sacultan, but he is a very unreliable first seed. If Naim gets passed him he has a 50-50 chance with whoever reaches the 1/2 from the other quarter. The big names, Euro Champ  Dudaev,  Aliyev will fight it out on the other half. 
 
- FS 74 kg - Kirov with absolutely no chance. Pretty even draw on both sides.
- FS 86 kg - Ramazanov (TS 2) with a perfect draw and i will be disappointed, if he doesn't get the quota. The top 4 names  Kurugliev,  Naifonov,  Gocen and  Makoev are all on the other side.
- FS 125 kg - Khubulov should be the favorite, but he could lose to  or  
 
Greco-Roman:
 
- GR 67 kg - Amaev has a tricky first match against  Nasibov. If he gets passed him, then it will probably be a fight with  Vancza for the quota. This is a pretty open category.
- GR 77 kg - Kubatov is a good wrestler with lot's of heart, but this is a tough weight. He has to win (the most) 4 matches with great opponents at every coming round, so no chance for him to reach the final.
- GR 130 kg - Ivanov with his first ever GR competition (he was a FS wrestler until now), so yeah 
 
Women:
 
- WW 50 kg - Selishka (TS 3) missed the scariest  Stadnik and  Livach, but still has  Sokolova (  Lukasiak). Can't say i'm confident.
- WW 53 kg - Binkova, just no..
 
- WW 57 kg - Nikolova (TS 4) with a fantastic draw. She missed  Kurachkina &  Hrushyna, who were the ones always beating her at big events. Now only has  Kamaloglu, who she already beat at the Euros earlier this year. There won't be a better chance for the quota.
 
- WW 62 kg - Dudova (TS 1) has a rematch with  Lindborg from the Euro. She lost there and is very prone to psychological problems.. But, if Dudova gets passed her she should get the quota.
 
- WW 68 kg - I had big fate in Hristova (TS 2), but she is one, who doesn't have a nice draw. Very tough first match with fellow BG (  )Manolova. After that it's a battle with the two  's for the quota.
- WW 76 kg - Georgieva is only for the participation here.
  

Let's hope in Paris Karlos will go over 400 

Frankly i don't see it happening. There are just too many good wrestlers on both sides of the draw. 
 
The best chances are probably Magamadov at FS 86 kg and Lecarpentier at WW 76 kg.

Frankly i don't see it happening. There are just too many good wrestlers on both sides of the draw. 
 
The best chances are probably Magamadov at FS 86 kg and Lecarpentier at WW 76 kg.

https://arena.uww.org/sport-event/show/1eedaad3-a110-6ece-86c8-65c730caa373

I read that Istanbul has been chosen as the host for the 2027 European Games with the ambition as a testing ground for the 2036 Olympic Games.