phelps

I don't know why? it's this current coaching stuff that's particularly obsessed...and yeah, ouyr strenght has always been in the 2 and 4-man boats (other than the lightweights)... p.s. but I still dream of a single sculler on top of the Olympic podium (actually, we won a lot of junior world gold medals in the single sculls, but we always moved them to double and/or quadruple sculls before they can even think of a career in the singles)...

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/fina-removes-25k-open-water-event-from-2023-world-championships/#:~:text=FINA Removes 25K Open Water Event from 2023 World Championships,-Photo Courtesy%3A Andrea&text=FINA has removed the 25K,detailing the decision on Thursday. the 25kms has more competitive athletes and Nations than all that fuckin' sh*t they just put on the Olympic program... it's a wonderful event (like the race walking 50kms)... it's just this tendency to kill all the competitions that take more than 2 minutes...it's insane (as if those youth and urban sh*t could really bring new audience to the Games/Championships)...

funding (or, better, federation's politics to show they're winning medals and therefore they deserve more consideration/funding) is one reason, but we also have a problem to find big men and women to be really competitive in the senior boats. we still have a lot of guys practicing the sport (but also a high rate of early retirements, compared to other sports, because rowing is truly an amateur discipline, there's no chance to make even reasonable money with it, even if you win the Olympic gold), but our population is basically average sized, so we have a lot of good rowers in the lightweight classes, but we lack people in the senior ranks (and often we use lightweights also in the senior boats). moreover, the current coaches are obsessed with the Eights and are destroying the pairs and fours to put our best rowers on the main boat (but normally they don't have the same approach and results when they go on the Eight, there's no chemistry among those used to be good in the shorter boats when they are together on the longer one), wasting chances to shine in the other events.

Mixed Junior Team Trap Gold: Italy 2 (Marika Patera & Gianmarco Barletta) Silver: Italy 1 (Sofia Littame & Emanuele Iezzi) Bronze: Finland (Sara Silja Patricia Nummela & Juho Johannes Maekelae) and Spain 2 (Paula Morcillo & Juan Antonio Garcia)

Athletics, women's 100m HS...my pick is Yordanka Donkova. Swimming, women's 200 IM...I chose Yana Klockova because of her longevity at the top of the discipline and because she's the only girl to repeat herself at the Olympics. Shooting, men's 3-Position Rifle...the most obvious pick of the day... Niccolò Campriani, as this was the blue riband event of the best rifle specialist ever. Shooting, women's 3-Position Rifle...not a big fan of any of the women in this list, however I opted for Du Li. Taekwondo, women's Featherweights...double Olympic champion...even if I'm definitely not a fan of her, Jade Jones is the only option for me in this poll.

meanwhile the team standings (men + women, combined) so far: =1. France, 5180 (max) =1. United States, 5180 (max) =1. Portugal, 5180 (max) 4. Australia, 4780 5. Japan, 4730 6. Canada, 4175 7. Brazil, 4110 full ranking: https://isa.surfscores.com/USA/2022/isawsg/#

to complete the field... Repechage Rd #7: Sophie McCulloch, Leilani McGonagle, Nadia Erostarbe, Chelsea Tuach (Heat #1) Tessa Thyssen, India Robinson, Rachel Presti, Vahinè Fierro (Heat #2)

it was just a question of when, not if... troubles for the NHL opening games in Prague https://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/czech-government-tells-nhl-that-russian-players-are-unwelcome-at-2022-global-series-in-prague/

women's left in round #5: Daniella Rosas, Teresa Bonvalot, Sally Fitzgibbons, Yolanda Hopkins (Heat #1) Pauline Ado, Gabriela Bryan, Kirra Pinkerton, Sanoa Dempfle-Olin (Heat #2) still in competition in the repechage rounds: (Rd #6, Heat #2) (Rd #6, Heat #3) (Rd #6, Heat #4) from Heat #1 already advanced to RD #7 Sophie McCulloch and India Robinson (both )

men left in round #6: Kanoa Igarashi, Jackson Baker, Nat Young (Heat #1) Guilherme Fonseca, Lucca Mesinas, Kolohe Andino (Heat #2) still in the competition in the repechage rounds: Shun Murakami, I Ketut Agus, Miguel Pupo (Rd #9, Heat #1) Samuel Pupo, Rio Waida, Joshua Burke (Rd #9, Heat #2)

just jinxed him badly...

Men's Junior Individual Trap Gold: Gianmarco Barletta Silver: Emanuele Iezzi Bronze: Juho Johannes Maekelae

Women's Junior Individual Trap Gold: Kiara Sioux-Lin Dean Silver: Han Ting Bronze: Breanna Maree Dowse Collins

it's yesterday's decision...Russia and Belarus now have been banned also by IJF at least until January 2023... https://www.ijf.org/news/show/ijf-decision-regarding-participation-of-russian-and-belorussian-athletes

what a disaster of a championship for Italy... basically, we're down to a single competitive crew, the men's quadruple sculls...

wow! Leo Fioravanti looks hot this week!

7 hours and 10 minutes (Communist Party Congress in Havana in 1986) by the way, the world record is held by Venezuela's former President Hugo Chavez, 9 hours and 30 minutes (National Assembly, 2012...after coming back from cancer treatment )

In the same day of the retirement of 3 among the greatest defensemen in the history of the NHL (Zdeno Chara, P.K. Subban and Keith Yandle...see apprpriate thread), Nathan McKinnon signed a new mega-deal with Colorado... 100.8 million US dollars is the supposed (not officially confirmed yet) amount of money he will get in the next 8 years with the Avalanche (12.6 annual value). This is the 4th most expensive deal ever signed by an NHL player/franchise (meanwhile the annual value is the highest in the history of the league). https://www.nhl.com/news/nathan-mackinnon-signs-eight-year-contract-with-colorado-avalanche/c-335655376

and a third great veteran defenseman, "Iron Man" Keith Yandle, also called it a career officially (even if he already said he wouldn't return at the end of last season)... https://www.nhl.com/news/keith-yandle-retires-from-hockey/c-335652050 wow! 3 big names lost in 24 hours...not the best day in history for the NHL... p.s @hckošice will "Big Zee" be the next President of the Slovak Republic, now that he's free from hockey duties?

jokes aside, however, I could list way more than a top 5 or a top 10... as many of you know, I like so many sports (even among the non-Olympic disciplines) that it would be a lot easier to make a list of those I don't enjoy at 100%... by the way, this time I voted for Swimming, Fencing, Judo, Slalom Canoeing and Shooting, but I feel I did a true injustice to at least another 5/10 sports I always follow with passion and attention...

"urban" for sure...I live in Milan, which, for the Italian standard, is a large city... "youthful"...well, my beard and my hair are starting to show some shades of grey and my soul has always been like a 80-year old man (not to mention my knees, my stomach, my lungs and my heart)... so, no...I don't feel "youthful" at all...

nice, I like it... as our friend @heywoodu said, the news section is "very present", but after years of practice avoiding spoilers here and there, it's not a problem to me (unless you start publishing last minute feeds)...

happy to hear that.

in Italy, advertising are allowed max at 12% every hour for the public TV (RAI) and 18% every hour for the private commercial networks (pay-tv included). there must be at least a 20-minute interval between one series of advertisings and another and kids programs can't be interrupted at all if they're 30 mins or less long. In the sport events ads can only be shown in the technical intervals, live action can't be interrupted. between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. no alchool, cigarettes and weapons ads are allowed (actually, I think weapons ads are not allowed at all...I've never seen any on our tv stations). then there are also a few more "minor" limitations, most people are not even aware of... p.s. commercial networks never respect the 18% per hour limit, especially Berlusconi's Mediaset channels, but usually nobody does anything against that, just a few euros insignificant fines once every while...

nowadays I'm so disillusioned and disappointed...that I'm following only Padel and Breakdance...