phelps

WTF!!! watch hockey coverage is not for free... they want 16.99€ for the tournament (with that shit of an app...playing at 25 fps, not being present on any major streaming device like apple tv, android tv or amazon firestick and with no chance to watch the games on catch-up because they have a full spoiler of all the matches)... fu*k you, world hockey! I hope to find some satellite tv feeds, but the start is not promising at all (yesterday night there wasn's any)...

nice to read that there are still a few Italian guys playing hockey... tbh, I don't know anything about those 2...but I hope that they can have some good future ahead of them (and I hope they try the North-American experience, which is still a big if, knowing our youngsters)...

no, it will be another time... by the way, clean sweep by China among the men and Gold & Silver among the women...not good at all for the sport...

naaaa...that's true because the Cricket Board makes everything to keep the game within the very few Countries where it's a big thing... they always find the way to keep the rest of the world with dark screens even for their flagship events... the Rugby Board, instead, makes all the efforts to keep the game within the usual suspects on the field, but they always find the way to promote their events and let all the world watch them... from a certain point of view, the rugby guys are a lot smarter than the Cricket ones...

and it's Italy vs Spain once again, just like 3 years ago... Spain have been really impressive so far, they already beat Italy in the group stage and dominated all of their opponents in the knockout phase, givin'up very few goals (the only team scoring 10+ goals against them is Italy)... Italy have shown great personality so far and they've been capable of adapting very well to different kind of tactics used by our opponents in the previous matches... since it's not the Olympics, I think we have a chance to repeat ourselves and go back-to-back... we'll see on Sunday afternoon...

Athletics 50km walk M and W (as if ) Individual cross country (replacing the 10000m on the track) Women's Decathlon instead of the Eptathlon Badminton Get rid of all doubles events (the same for tennis and table tennis -team event included) Boxing Get rid of this farce Canoeing complete remoduling (restoration) of the current program: 6 men's events (K1, K2, K4, C1, C2, C4) over the 1000m distance and 5 women's events (K1, K2, K4, C1, C2) over the 500m distance Cycling Get rid of Road time trial Track: get rid of Omnium and putting into the schedule the Individual Pursuit, Points race and Elimination race as standalone events BMX...get rid of the freestyle events MTB...adding Downhill Diving no more synchro events Judo Remove mixed team event Shooting Double trap M + W or have mixed team events for both trap and skeet (the 1st option being a lot more preferable) get rid of air rifle/pistol team events and get back men's Running Targets and 50m Free Pistol... Sport Climbing Lead, Boulder and Speed as standalone events Remove combined Surfing get rid of that Swimming in the pool: add 50m back, breast and fly and get rid of the mixed medley relay in the Open Water: add the mixed relay (but with women and men racing only against each other) over the 4*2.5km distance and the 25km race M + W Table tennis get rid of mixed doubles and team events Taekwondo Add two weight classes per gender ( having a schedule like this: 58, 66, 74, 82, +82 for men; 49, 56, 63, 70, +70 for women) Tennis get rid of doubles events Weightlifting get rid of that farce More Sports/Events to get rid of Artistic Swimming, Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnastics, Breakdance (Skateboarding must change their age limits or go, too), Rugby 7's New Sports Get back Karate (5 men and 5 women's kumite classes only) and bring in Roller Speedskating (500m sprint, elimination race -3000m heats, 5000m final- points race -5000m heats, 10000m final, madison relay all M + F on the track and the Marathon race on the road) and Squash (men and women's singles)

earlier Today... Acquatics Worlds Open Water Swimming, men and women's 25km Waterpolo, women's semifinal, USA vs Italy right now... Acquatics Worlds Waterpolo, women's semifinal, Hungary vs Netherlands later Tonight... Athletics, Diamond League from Stockholm (catch-up)

Table Tennis, men's Team...here I pick Germany, because they're the only team to have won silver twice and because of Timo Boll, most likely the best non-Chinese born player ever... Table Tennis, women's team...my pick is Japan because they won silver twice and because they're the only non-Chinese born players to at least really trying to give CHN a scare (even if they aren't even close for now)... Taekwondo, men's -58kg...maybe I'm biased, but having followed all of his career and his growth up until the top level, I can only pick Vito Dell'Aquila...his effort in Tokyo was amazing and unstoppable like never before, to say the least... Athletics, women's Pole Vault...her majesty, the queen of pole vault... Elena Isinbayeva, who else? Track Cycling, women's Sprint...here I'm going to pick Felicia Ballanger because of her amazing career, even if I think that Kristina Vogel could have matched the French woman, if only she wasn't so unlucky...surely she deserve a mention of honor...

yes, the reigning Olympic Champions always have the golden bib in all the IJF-sanctioned tournaments (and the reigning world champions always have the red bib on their shoulders)... I don't remember if they started this "tradition" after London or Rio?

where's our favourite cat?

you're lucky...I've felt very few of them in my life (and originated quite far away from my location), but I was always really scared... I just can't imagine what would happen if I were in the middle of one big earthquake...most likely, I'd die because of an heart attack... nooo...pooor cat! hope you'll see her again (and maybe take some more pictures/videos)...

points a) and b) are great (and logical)... point c) well, let's see how they manage to adjust the scores before giving any opinion...

according to the Italian press, an earthquake of 4.2 on the Richter scale hit Oran last night while the Gymnastics competition was still running... @Sindo did you feel that? p.s. news about our lovely cat?

watched a bit of Karate earlier today... let's say that I'm a bit confused...last time I checked the rules and the scoring system it all looked a bit different to me from what I saw this afternoon, especially when the Algerians were on the mat (but also Serap Ozcelik losing against the Moroccan girl in the bronze medal contest in the women's -50kg)...

yeah, but if there's a place in the world where this can happen, it's Tacen, with that particularly big jump in the strong stream just to enter the course... even in a week with less water in the river and a shortened course... p.s. being almost a home course for us, I expected a bit more from the Italians (except for the usual serial loser De Gennaro, once again capable of missing a gate in the final of yesterday's race, which wasn't exactly the most tricky course of the year -apart from the weird start jump- and miss a podium place after dominating heats and semis)...

they've been the most exciting world champs ever! jokes aside, we've seen a lot of great races in terms of finals and podium places, the real disappointment were loughable heats and sometimes "easy" semifinals... we've had a few world records and some new youngsters finally reaching the top of the game where they were predicted to be one day or another...the new stars are born... so, despite the early slot in the Summer and the very little promotion and hype prior to the event, I think that in the end it's been a really entertaining championship... my personal highlight, Paltrinieri showing all of his class and character in the 1500m after the the blowdown of the 800m... my biggest regret, the missed super-final in the men's 100m free with Popovici against the "old owners" of the distance, Dressel and Chalmers...that would have been a heck of a race...

yeah, Shinty and Hurling deserve an Olympic spot more than many disciplines that actually have it...

he's so lovely!

also Ukraine might well be an option sooner or later, isn't it? and even Georgia, as they've been stopped at least for a while by the EU...

gotta change my schedule, then!

I'm pretty sure that early in the history of the event there will be a lot of double starters in the women's doubles... I guess ISU tried once again to put forward the synchronized skating (groups)... it's at least 20 years that they're pushing for that sh*t... Speed Skating...Team Sprint is the only missing event they could have tried to sneak in into the Olympic program... I wouldn't be surprised if they also asked for the individual 3000m in Short Track Speedskating... then we can add to the list the Biathlon's Single Mixed Relay and a few weird mixed events in Cross-Country Skiing, the Individual events in Ski Moutaineering and then, who knows?

reading these pages really doesn't help my current bad health and mood... so disappointed and frustrated with all this...

got really sick in the last week or so (no covid...and most likely it would have been easier to go through that)...and no sign of improvement so far... but trying to stay updated with the Swimming and Waterpolo World Champs, Slalom Canoeing, Judo and Sport Climbing as much as I can (followed also the Fencing European Champs earlier this week)... hoping for better times as soon as possible...

Men's Individual Sabre Gold: Sandro Bazadze Silver: Luca Curatoli Bronze: Ellitt Bibi & Bolade Apithy Semifinals Bazadze b. Bibi 15-4 Curatoli b. Apithy 15-11 Final Bazadze b. Curatoli 15-11 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/743

Women's Individual Foil Gold: Leonie Ebert Silver: Arianna Errigo Bronze: Alice Volpi & Ysaora Thibus Semifinals Ebert b. Volpi 15-9 Errigo b. Thibus 15-11 Final Ebert b. Errigo 15-11 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/740