phelps

Gut gone... by the way, I think the early numbers did the damage today... something has changed, there's no way all the late starters are losing so much in the top part of the track...

and Curtoni underperforming big time, once again...

Johnson down...and she wasn't that bad until then...

because she hasn't the gliding skills for a DH like this. don't forget she had the 35th split time in the top part of the SG she won on Wednesday. meanwhile she's the defending champion in the Parallel sh*t.

the Swiss girls look to have the best skis on the top part of the track.

and Flury can start dreaming...

disaster... from bad to worse... she's never been in contention...I fear Fanchini's death has hit harder than expected...

so far, good ride by Jasmin Flury in the women's Downhill... and now let's call the cardiologist...my heart rate is already out of control...

Italy have chosen the skiers for the Team Event and the Parallel Slalom race: Team Event Anita Gulli (W) Beatrice Sola (W) Filippo Della Vite (M) Tobias Kastlunger (M) Parallel Slalom Marta Bassino (W) Anita Gulli (W) Beatrice Sola (W) Lara Della Mea (W) Filippo Della Vite (M) Tobias Kastlunger (M) Luca De Aliprandini (M) Alex Vinatzer (M)

they might be run not under authority of IBA, but people (officials, judges, NFs' members, those "behind the scenes") are always the same...and they're biased/corrupted in their souls... the only difference is that the winners will be decided by someone not being the IBA "magic circle", but still the medals won't go to the truly best fighters.

quite decent team... not much offensive power, I guess (except for a couple of big bats, especially Pasquantino) and average pitching staff (surprised to see a boiled icon like Matt Harvey, I didn't know he has any connection with Italy, tbh). the best quality most likely would be the team spirit and Piazza's personality. hopefully, our youngsters would end up being more motivated and performing with more enthusiasm than the veterans that decided not to show up. at least, it should be in their personal interest. I hope we can play for the second place in the group stage...only Cuba look a lot stronger than us on paper, even if Taipei playing at home is not gonna be a walk in the park either.

it's true only for Italy, Israel and, partially, the Netherlands... and even if this tournament has its own rules and features that might differ from any other major competition (Olympics included), it's not that ITA and/or NED can't field a good team with players born in our Countries. all the Latin American and Asian teams are made of players with really tight connections with their respective Countries (actually, most of them being born in those Nations, where they also learned their basic skills before moving to the Promise Land, aka the USA). Mexico might look different with a few players born in the USA, but you should know that's an insignificant detail, as they are true Mexicans even if they are born North of the border. it's always easy to fall on prejudice when people doesn't know how things really are...

women's DH, Training #3 1. Sofia Goggia, 1.28.31 2. Mirjam Puchner, 1.28.77 3. Kajsa Vickhoff Lie, 1.28.81 men's DH, Training #2 1. Christof Innerhofer, 1.48.45 2. James Crawford, +0.31 3. Alexis Monney, +0.34 p.s. many "big names" were not at the start (Odermatt, Kilde and Kryechmeier among others)

stage #5 will be next week in Italy (Marmotta Trophy @ Val Martello).

Stage #4 ( Morgins) Men's Individual Race (NOT an Olympic event) Gold: Remi Bonnet Silver: Xavier Gachet Bronze: Matteo Eydallin

Stage #4 ( Morgins) Women's Individual Race (NOT an Olympic event) Gold: Axelle Gachet-Mollaret Silver: Giulia Murada Bronze: Emily Harrop

surprise, surprise! despite the early notice about the Individual Races of the Stage #4 being cancelled, the organizers found somehow the way not only to hold the competitions, but they even anticipated them of 24 hours therefore, Yesterday both the men and women's Individual races were held as by the original schedule.

just another sport losing big part of theur (already small) audience. time to cut them off the Olympic program (it should be the automatic punishment for those who leave the free comfortable streaming platforms for obscure and/or paid services). my beloved Judo is another sport that needs a big slap in their face because of their choices about the media coverage

if it's State organized doping, there are no clean athletes at all. especially in a Country like Russia, there are no athletes that can say "no" to the officials and coaches telling them "take this & that" to improve your performance. and Belarus have also a lot of troubles in that field, too...don't forget the whole canoeing team DQ from Rio 2016 because they were caught while collectively using banned substances (meldonium, but not only). not to mention the weightlifting team, basically caught in full in the past few years.

they wrote a note about the track not being in condition to host the very much anticipated race. I don't know what they mean, if there's not enough snow or there's a high risk of avalanche in that area

not so immediate, imho...nice design, though.

Friday's Individual races have already been cancelled because of snow conditions.

Stage #4 ( Morgins) Men's Vertical Race (NOT an Olympic event) Gold: Remi Bonnet Silver: Maximilien Drion Du Chapois Bronze: Werner Marti

Stage #4 ( Morgins) Women's Vertical Race (NOT an Olympic event) Gold: Axelle Gachet-Mollaret Silver: Sarah Dreier Bronze: Giulia Murada

one of my favourites all time!