phelps

Stage #2 ( Passo Paradiso) Women's Individual Race (NOT an Olympic Event) Gold: Axelle Gachet-Mollaret Silver: Giulia Murada Bronze: Alba De Silvestro

i circuiti inferiori contano 0 (specie negli sport invernali, dove c'è un vero abisso tra questi e i corrispettivi maggiori e dove, trattandosi per la maggior parte di sport di prestazione, non c'è modo di nascondere le differenze con accorgimenti tattici e/o trovare il proverbiale "jolly"); quelli giovanili...be', diciamo che siamo già stati scottati più di una volta da mancate transizioni tra quel livello e la dura realtà senior... quindi io non li considero indicativi di una "luce in fondo al tunnel" (anzi, a leggere i numeri dei praticanti dei vari sport, c'è da rabbrividire pensando al futuro). gli sport "giudicati" sono troppo politici...e quando conta, l'Italia vale 0... inutile fare troppo affidamento...gli ori tanto andranno sempre a USA, CAN e "amici". senza contare che, per gusti personali, sarebbero "medaglie non godute", in pratica come se non ci fossero (fanno bene solo leggendo il medagliere finale, ma non mi danno emozioni). comunque questo è un problema mio... insomma, queste sono le "poche punte" che ho citato prima (hai giusto aggiunto qualche nome molto "aleatorio", tipo Peveri, che non è competitiva per nulla, a parte la lotteria della mass start...e solo se resta "tattica", perchè se qualcuna delle nazioni forti decidesse di rendere la gara selettiva, allora addio a Laura). e in ogni caso, di questi quanti ne rimarranno dopo Milano-Cortina? Ghiotto, Bassino, Goggia e Vittozzi al massimo, direi (come detto, non conto Peveri). e andrebbero tutti verso fine carriera, con quel che comporta. mah, io mi fermerei a Giacomel come prospettiva di rendimento "continuo"...sperando più che altro in qualche exploit saltuario degli altri... Felderer ormai fa parte delle speranze non mantenute...fosse davvero un top, sarebbe già ai livelli di D-Fisch. e comunque nello slittino abbiamo sempre troppi problemi di materiali per vincere con costanza, il che rende anche lo skeleton una "one hit wonder" da sfruttare in questi 2 anni in cui abbiamo a disposizione Schneider, Platzer e il loro gruppo di lavoro (che di sicuro non resteranno oltre il 2026, riconfinandoci nella mediocrità assoluta), più che uno sport che ci darà tanto a lungo termine. sicuramente qualcosa ci inventeremo, ma io proprio non riesco a essere ottimista sul futuro degli sport invernali azzurri...temo che Sochi 2014 non resterà l'unico "0 tituli" della nostra storia "moderna".

I fear (I hope) they get destroyed by the star-filled Latin American lineups... by the way, Ottavino is a traitor of the worst kind...he played with Italy in the past, he committed for us a few months ago and then he chooses to play for the USA...I wish him a nice Tommy John as soon as possible...

we had to wait for a day like today to win a non mass start race in speedskating... by the way, amazing effort by Ghiotto.

fossimo stati alle Olimpiadi, tra ieri e oggi avremmo vinto più medaglie di tutte le edizioni precedenti (esclusa la leggendaria Lillehammer 1994)... e ho detto tutto... nonostante questo, però, se analizziamo seriamente e serenamente la situazione, exploits del genere servono solo a nascondere gli enormi problemi del movimento sportivo invernale azzurro: tolte quelle 4/5 "punte" che stanno spremendo letteralmente il sangue dalle rape, le prospettive future fanno rabbrividire...e non in senso positivo.

the Italian fest isn't over yet... and it's gone up to a level beyond any imagination... the eternal Roland Fischnaller has just won the men's PGS in Cortina (with Aaron March 3rd), meanwhile at the same time the 16-year young Ian Matteoli, at his very first world cup participation, is 3rd in the men's Big Air in Copper Mountain please, don't wake me up

Fossesholm 2.0?

Chiccoooo!!! Finally, Pellegrino beats Klaebo in a direct match-up in a Sprint race. Today it's really the Italian fest in the wonderful world of Winter sports (I'm not going to write anything more than this to avoid any spoiler...but I still can't believe what happened in the last few hours)...

Pencak Silat XXX in my world they don't even exist!

uff! once again! I always choose my picks and then I forget to click on the "Submit your Vote" button... now I fixed it, by the way...

Athletics, women's 800m...difficult choice, plenty of doping cheaters and "real men" here...so, my pick is Kelly Holmes, just to limit the damage. Fencing, men's Team Foil...I was tempted to choose the 1976 German team but then I stopped joking and I decided to pick the strongest team/school ever, even if they have always been terribly underachieving...so, my pick is Italy. Judo, women's Half-Heavyweights (currently at -78kg)...not a fan of the Chinese girls (even if they were really good), definitely not a fan of the Japanese girls in this class, not a fan of Harrison and her disrespect for the sport of Judo (let her enjoy UFC and WWE), therefore here my pick is the great Ulla Werbrouck. Taekwondo, men's Featherweight (-68kg), in absence of the great Kim Dae-Hoon in this list, my pick is the living legend Steven Lopez (despite being a shameful human being, apparently). Weightlifting, women's Super-Heavyweights...among all those Chinese champions, my pick is the great Jang Mi-Ran, who beat them on their home soil and, considering their body weight, also has the best overall performance among them.

Full Results Book https://iwf.sport/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=2390

Yesterday's Recap men's +109kg Gold: Lasha Talakhadze Silver: Gor Minasyan Bronze: Varazdat Lalayan Full Results https://iwf.sport/results/results-by-events/?event_id=562

gonna wait at least until tomorrow for them very happy for Stuhec... but Sofia... legend among the legends...

actually, I like more the trash of the early days* with the lesser known schools and the most classic New Year's Six than the true National Championship game (I just can't stand Saban/'Bama and Ohio State, so I always have "that bitter taste" when watching those 3 games "that actually matter" ) *and I really love the Bahamas Bowl and the hawai'i Bowl because of the tv shots in the broadcast's transitions more than the games themselves

and what a day for Italy! (once again) and if the men's medals were somehow expected, Franceschi's silver in the women's 400m IM comes really out of nowhere... waiting for tomorrow, to finally match the target we had before the start of the Champs (being better than last year).

Gold!

Stage #2 ( Pontedilegno) Men's Sprint Race Gold: Arno Lietha Silver: Iwan Arnold Bronze: Niccolò Ernesto Canclini

Stage #2 ( Pontedilegno) Women's Sprint Race Gold: Celia Perillat-Pessey Silver: Mariana Jagercikova @hckošice Bronze: Lena Bonnel

better hire a beautician, then...

Swimming (SC Worlds), Wintersports (especially Biathlon, Alpine Skiing and both versions of Speedskating), Hockey from all around the Globe and a lot of (American) Football (NFL, but also NCAA...the Bowl season has already started about 3 hours ago ).

Sinisa Mihajlovic lost his battle against Leukemia... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-11546393/Sinisa-Mihajlovic-dies-aged-53-battle-leukaemia.html

just a couple of numbers... Karlos Nasar's C&J effort at 220kg in the -89kg is the highest measure of the tournament so far, equalled only by Nurudinov in a weight class 20kg heavier (-109kg). Lesman Paredes' 185kg Snatch in the -96kg class would give him at least 8kg advantage over any other lifter also in the heaviest categories and his 397kg total is the same as Nurudinov and way better than any other lifter in all the other weight classes. Antonino Pizzolato's total of 392kg in the -89kg at the last European Champs would have given him an easy gold in his weight category (and also the -102kg gold) and it would also be the 3rd highest total of the entire World tournament so far (only behind Paredes and Nurudinov).

Yesterday's Recap women's +87kg Gold: Li Wenwen Silver: Emily Jade Campbell Bronze: Duangakskorn Chaidee Full Results https://iwf.sport/results/results-by-events/?event_id=562 men's -109kg Gold: Ruslan Nurudinov Silver: Giorgi Chkheidze Bronze: Rafael De Jesus Cerro Castillo Full Results https://iwf.sport/results/results-by-events/?event_id=562