phelps

no, it won't happen... this same course has already hosted 3 world champs in the past 30 years or so if they had to change something, they would have done it already years ago yeah, it's not only about the sprint races, all the mass start events will suffer from that uncommon, too long (and not adequate) final straight

first time in history miss out on the final four of the men's Jr. Worlds 2 years in a row what a game by the young Czechs I already saw that weren't that good this year in the previous games, but still, I didn't expect to upset them like that

this week is mostly about Hockey (NHL, SHL, NLA and Junior Worlds), CC Skiing (Tour de Ski), Football (NCAA Bowls and NFL), Basketball (Euroleague) and Cricket (mainly BBL, but also some BPL highlights...sorry, but I just can't stand Test Cricket )

Christmas has gone... however, I did nothing special...I'm not in any party mood (and I'm not religious, so basically Christmas Day is just another day on my calendar)

Alberto Razzetti will also join the group from January 2nd through the end of March (Ceccon will be in from January 10th through April 15th) from January 10th through January 24th also Alberto Burlina (Ceccon's coach) will act as an assistent to the high caliber training group

I'm all in!

so... my 2 cents for this year (unfortunately, I couldn't pick anybody in the last couple of categories because of a lack of time )... BEST MALE ATHLETE for sportsmen in Olympic sports #1: Leon Marchand (Swimming) #2: Harry Lavreysen (Track Cycling) #3: Tadej Pogacar (Road Cycling) #4: Marco Odermatt (Alpine Skiing) #5: Jannik Sinner (Tennis) #6: Armand Duplantis (Athletics) BEST FEMALE ATHLETE for sportswomen in Olympic sports #1: Summer McIntosh (Swimming) #2: Simone Biles (Artistic Gymnastics) #3: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Athletics) #4: Lisa Carrington (Sprint Canoeing) #5: Beatrice Chebet (Athletics) #6: Imane Khelif / Raygun (IOC Circus Farce) BEST NON-OLYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes in Non-Olympic sports and disciplines #1: Shoei Ohtani (Baseball) #2: Naoya Inoue (Boxing) #3: Oleksandr Usyk (Boxing) #4: Patrick Mahomes (American Football) #5: Jasprit Bumrah (Cricket) #6: / Ilia Topuria (Mixed Martial Arts) BEST PARALYMPIC ATHLETE for athletes with a disability #1: Jiang Yuyan (Swimming) #2: Stefano Raimondi (Swimming) #3: Catherine Debrunner (Athletics) #4: Ilhar Boki (Swimming) #5: Sun Gang (Fencing) #6: Saysunee Jana (Fencing) BEST YOUTH ATHLETE for athletes up to 18 years old (born after January 1st, 2006) (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Kaylia Nemour (Artistic Gymnastics) #2: Huang Yuting (Shooting) #3: Viviana Marton (Taekwondo) #4: Tara Babulfath (Judo) #5: Metodej Jilek (Inline & Ice Speedskating) #6: Sorato Anraku (Sport Climbing) BEST MEN'S TEAM for national men's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: United States (Basketball) #2: Denmark (Handball) #3: Spain (Football) #4: India (Cricket) #5: South Africa (Rugby XV) #6: Australia Pursuit Team (Track Cycling) BEST WOMEN'S TEAM for national women's teams or groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Italy (Volleyball) #2: United States (Basketball) #3: Netherlands (Field Hockey) #4: Norway (Handball) #5: Japan (Softball) #6: Canada (Ice Hockey) BEST DOUBLES/PAIR OR MIXED TEAM for doubles and pairs or mixed teams and groups (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti (Sailing) #2: David Åhman/Jonatan Hellvig (Beach Volleyball) #3: Ana Patricia & Duda Lisboa (Beach Volleyball) #4: Fintan McCarty & Paul Donovan (Rowing) #5: women's 4*100m Medley Relay Team (Swimming) #6: France Mixed Team (Judo) BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR for the most improved athlete (aged 19 or over) or national team (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Adriana Ruano (Shooting) #2: Daniel Wiffen (Swimming) #3: Jasmine Paolini (Tennis) #4: women's Field Hockey Team #5: Eleanor Harvey (Fencing) #6: men's Epee Team (Fencing) COMEBACK OF THE YEAR for athletes or national teams who made a comeback performance in 2024 (including Olympic, Non-Olympic and Paralympic sports) #1: Lisa Vittozzi (Biathlon) #2: Kristof Milak (Swimming) #3: Steeve Guerdat (Equestrian) #4: Tom Daley (Diving) #5: Sunisa Lee (Artistic Gymnastics) #6: Therese Johaug (Cross Country Skiing)

can we share our votes in this thread like in the past years or is it better to keep them hidden until after the deadline?

I haven't read anything about that meanwhile many skiers were complaining about the snow and the different consistency of it between the sectors of the track Odermatt was quite polite but very tough at the same time on that...

we already have something like that...it's the regular world championships! I mean, if we spread the Games all around the Globe, we completely lose the fascination of a single great multi-disciplinary event in a single place (more or less, given that some sports are always held far away from the actual Olympic City) it's just another thing, it's not the Olympic Games anymore if that's to be the case, I'd rather prefer the single championships to be well spread through the whole year, so to be able to watch the most of them without losing hours of sleep

my picks...

and Pietro Zazzi also had a bad crash, ending up with broken tibia and fibula in his right leg a few more skiers also went down Today, but luckily with no injuries the different quality and consistence of the snow (and ice) in some points of the track made it very difficult and will be a problem also Tomorrow, when the skiers will have to go full speed

before the Olympics, all the teams will not have a proper warm up period it's like putting on an all-star team...individuals are called to find the way to play together in the most effective way through the early games of the tournament technically, they're all on the same boat

I made the list of current NHL players who could be declared eligible to play for Italy in 2026 1 or 2 pages back in this thread and there are a lot more playing in the AHL and in the best European leagues if NHL and IOC want, it's never too late even if they want the players to have the italian passport, many of them already have it...meanwhile for some others, it would only take a few days to our President of the Republic to give it to them for special sport reasons the true obstacle is such an idiot of a fisg president, who would like to oppose even a direct request by nhl, iihf and ioc

no, as I wrote, Wintersports is FISI (Snow disciplines, Lugue, Bobsleigh, Skeleton) all the Ice sports are a different federation (FISG) with separate funding, of course