phelps

yeah and also because it can be played easily in small temporary venues, it's not a big issue for the organizers (if it needed a football sized stadium there would be no FINA to save it)

yes, it's the top 4 overall and then the best from every Continent (Asia and Oceania are to be considered a single entity, even if Oceania actually doesn't count anything in Fencing) p.s. to qualify as a continental quota, a team must be within the top 16 of the world ranking the tournaments counting for the Olympic qualification are the world championships (with major points), the continental championships (already contested...for Europe it was the EGs in Poland one month ago) and 5 selected world cup tournaments in most weapons there are 4 world cup tournaments left (the season should start in November, the OQP will end next April), women's Foil has only 3 events left, if I remember well the world cup points are 64 for a win, 52 for the second place, 40 for bronze, 36 for 4th place, 32/30/28/26 for places from 5th through 8th and 26 to 18 (down one by one) from 9th through 16th place, 8 for all the teams not making the top 16, 0 if you get black carded (DSQ) in a tournament and/or if you don't participate (and all the other European teams) have to hope than the 3 European "big names" make the top 4 of the ranking at the end of the OQP to earn the continental spot...it highly likely that's gonna happen, therefore good luck for the battle vs and (they're still the favourites to take the European quota imho, even if they missed out badly at the world champs -that's why they're so low in the standings)

however, Modern Pentathlon won't exist anymore after Paris changing one of the five disciplines means that we'll have a new sport...it should change also its name (Futuristic Pentathlon, for instance...or Loughable Pentathlon )

well, you need a dedicated big sized stadium (expensive, even if it normally have small stands) and it's always about the same 12 Nations qualifying in both men and women's tournaments (and not all of them are truly competitive at the highest level) in terms of competitivity it's more or less like Waterpolo...too little interest outside the usual 4/5 places p.s. I like FH and WP and I don't want them to be thrown out of the Olympic schedule, but I understand if someone shuold make it a case international federations should try and find the way to develop those sports in a lot more places

well, tbh Japan I'm sure would stop the NPB for 15 days should Baseball return to the Games and Korea does stop the KBO even for the Asian Games (at least they do it for the Home Games, not sure they do it this year)...in any case, I'm more than certain that they would stop the league for the Olympics the only problem is the MLBPA and the MLB team owners (Commish Manfred would agree to stop the league for 10/12 days, I know that for sure because it's been discussed many times with Riccardo Fraccari, former Italian and now WBSC President). p.s. men's Softball no, please...it's unwatchable

to me, they are both entertaining...in different ways, but still...

wow! what an epic afternoon! I didn't really expect this double...I'm so happy!

men's Team Epee Gold: Italy Silver: France Bronze: Venezuela Semifinals Italy b. Venezuela 35-23 France b. South Korea 45-28 Bronze Medal Match Venezuela b. South Korea 45-41 Gold Medal Match Italy b. France 45-32 Full Ranking & Results https://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/2986-2022/results/

women's Team Foil Gold: Italy Silver: France Bronze: Japan Semifinals Italy b. Japan 43-30 France b. USA 45-42 Bronze Medal Match Japan b. USA 45-34 Gold Medal Match Italy b. France 45-39 Full Ranking & Results https://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/2985-2022/results/

put a lot of money into swimming...not improving the Tokyo 2020 final score (0/3/2) is definitely a nightmerish result swimming only 2 PBs in the whole tournament this year, it's still a disaster despite all the medals...it means that all the team had a bad preparation hopefully, next year we'll be a little luckier in terms of our best swimmers being healthy all season long and our coaches learn something from this year's mistakes

and in fact they axed next year's race in Leeds because of the increasing cost UK Sport in spending review mode

it might be convenient for right now (not that in those disciplines -except for Fencing, where we actually would be happier with less opponents- we've always won tons of medals), but my opinion wasn't created keeping our interests in mind it's just what I think (and a couple of things I know) p.s. boxing is not so safe as many still think, imho I know that Bach and its current agenda are determined to save it at all costs, but the 1976 olympic champion and his crew are going in 12 months time the new leadership might think that keeping such bunch of corrupted people around is not worth the effort IOC management can still go from worse to worst...and once on the bottom, they can always start digging deep

however, I can tell you right now that if T20 Cricket is coming to the Games, it's at the expense of Rugby Sevens or Field Hockey and I fear it will really be only a 5/6 team competition -like it happened for Baseball/Softball in Tokyo Boxing and Modern Pentathlon being axed (Weightlifting will be saved, I'm more than sure about that...and could even regain a bit of quota places and a couple of weight classes after being almost cancelled in Paris) would likely open the space to increase the number of quota places in those combat sports that are currently heavily penalized in terms of participation (namely, Fencing -going from the current 8 teams, 36 individuals to 12 teams, 48 individuals per event and above all, Taekwondo -increasing to 5 if not 6 weight classes) there's also a small chance that Karate would comeback into the Olympic program, but it's still a long road

don't worry, an actual game of T20 Cricket normally is no longer than a commercial breaks filled NHL RS game going to penalty-shootout (with the difference that Cricket has only 1 long interval, meanwhile Hockey has 2)

except for the first 2, it was a really average race even Panziera's Italian record is 1.2 secs faster than today's bronze medal clocking

yes, my bad... I already removed that because it's not an Olympic event

men's Team Epee Bronze Medal Match: vs Gold Medal Match: vs

35-23 and we're through to the men's team epee final later this afternoon we're gonna have twice the super-classic of the fincing history, both women's foil and men's epee gold medal matches will be vs it's gonna be fun!

through to the gold medal match in the men's team epee they won 45-28 vs in the semifinal match

women's Team Foil Bronze Medal Match: vs Gold Medal Match: vs

women's Team Sabre, Quarterfinals vs vs vs vs men's Team Foil, Quarterfinals vs vs vs vs

still 49...but I think I'm gonna die 10 years earlier than what I thought however, I'm ready to lose more years of life in this semifinal match vs

lost 10 years of life...but finally we're through to the semis in the men's team epee

I just can't stand those losers of the women's sabre they absolutely lack both talent and mentality I'm more than disgusted! however, also the epee specialists among the men are trying to suicide against Vismara a total disaster...and our coaches let him play also a second stint where he blew a very big lead out now it's Di Veroli getting mad vs Jurka in a very close finish (it looks we have some electrical malfunctiong, too...really what we need right now )

still, it's wrong (and I only checked ) in the pool we only have 4 silver medals so far (and no gold) if they count also the open water swimming, then they should add a silver and a bronze to that list hwerever you look at it, it's always full of mistakes