phelps

last Finnish medal by competition... Pitkamaki won world bronze in 2015, Ruskanen won bronze at the 2016 Europeans (and at the 2012 Olympics)...

yes, she is a more beautiful woman, but a less effective jumper than 2/3 years ago...she definitely put on some weight in the last couple of years...

ah, OK...

I think you completely misunderstood what I wrote, my friend...

what all the swimming detractors need to understand, it's the fact that swimming, athletics and gymnastics are the symbol of the basic human activity...they remind to prehistoric life and the fight between man and nature... moreover, they are the core of the core sports at the Olympics since the very first edition in 1896 (and they were present -in different form, but still- also in the ancient Greek Olimpiads)... there's no chance the other sports can be compared to those 3 and ask for the same consideration...it will never happen, even with this IOC obsessed by the youth and urban sh*t (or, better, what they think it's youth and urban, but actually it's at least aged by today's youngsters if not even unknown by them)...

then, let's go back to the old glory days before this 200m mess...all the men's events over the 1000m distance and the women's events over the 500m distance (provided we can't have anymore 2 races in the same discipline in the men's division to respect the gender equality and so on)... but just stay away from any messy mix of distances in both the male and female divisions...

team relay about to start (15 mins later than expected, after another messy setup by LEN)... only 5 teams competing (ITA, GER, FRA, HUN and ESP) with almost all the swimmers doubling up the 10k effort from earlier this morning...

I'm OK with everything you wrote, except for the Briton being better than Bartolini...not in this world, at least...

I think it's just the fact of having 3 different distances that did fuck canoeing up (and also the women developing too little and too late the "C" disciplines)... imho, Flatwater Canoeing shouldn't be afraid to take inspiration from Rowing and they should choose an Olympic distance and run all their 12 races (K1, K2, K4, C1, C2 and C4, all of them for both M and W) on that given distance (to be trustable, I'd prefer 1000m for all, but 500m could also be an option...200m definitely not, it's not even canoeing, it's a strenght competition with a paddle in the hands)... that would be the perfect Olympic program, matching also all the IOC requirements in terms of gender equality and having the same events for men and women... if ICF wasn't so messy in their management, they would have come up with a proposal like that many years ago and they wouldn't have been screwed big time by the IOC like it happened, instead...

and quickly we get punished for the unexpected team success, with reigning world champion Bartolini deprived of a medal by the judges (underscoring him and overscoring the Briton, as usual)...

earlier this morning, during the 10k our TV made an interview with our Open Water Swimming National Director, Stefano Rubaudo, and he confirmed that all the mess was created by the LEN judges (no one of them being Italian), who were completely clueless in a difficult situation like that... and it happened because 99% of European judges are a bunch of amateurs, not used to consistently work on this kind of races, as most Countries have very few races/year and almost all in those "big pools" like small lakes and artificial basins... at the same time, in Italy we organize hundreds of open water swimming races/year, almost all of them at sea...and we have a corpse of well trained judges who know how to manage these situations... not only, he also said that LEN didn't want to take in consideration any sort of plan B (which were proposed by our team and by the organizers), when they were said that the sea in the afternoon might well get complicated... so, the only part to blame is LEN...and that was to be expected after the new (inept) president replaced Barelli last year (p.s. expect more disasters in the future with these people in charge)...

Argentina 2...ops...I mean, Italy beat twice Ukraine (1-0 in today's decider) and they're back in the Top Division...

una farsa assoluta... una figuraccia organizzativa e giuridica senza precedenti... se fossi negli atleti che hanno rischiato la salute in mezzo alle onde per 4 ore e passa e poi si sono visti disconoscere lo sforzo in quel modo, farei causa a tutti...LEN, giudici, organizzatori e persino a Dio per aver piazzato un weekend così proprio questa settimana dopo mesi di sole spaccaossa e mare piatto...

solo se rimettono la Balsamo a tirare il quartetto... la Germania è ancora lontana (più di quanto si pensi)...

6.06 for Duplantis, championship record... let's see if he goes for 6.22 now...

not the top names, the only Dutch successful skater in both disciplines was Ronald Mulder...

In Italy she's way more relevant in Summer... ah, those Ibiza bikini pics!

here I am! an Instagram follower of Jutta, I mean...

Bol just too strong... but amazing relay...I didn't expect it to be so close... and Belgium...

no, she already started saying that she might make up her mind after Thursday night's triumph... at least, this is according to our usually well informed broadcasters...

GBR dominated the team final, but Italy pulled out a miracle and earned the most unexpected silver medal of them all (especially considering that we're missing so many of our top gymnasts here in Munich)...

no, that's easy to setup again...the finish gate is removable and it's usually prepared just before the race start, so, if tomorrow the sea is OK, the 10k will be held regularly (in the morning there shouldn't be too much troubles)... I have a lot more doubts regarding the team relay, because of the start time and because most swimmers could refuse to double up the races in the same day... however, today we just saw a true farce, with the LEN's judges putting at risk the health of many swimmers...

tbh, that's all the LEN's jury fault... the organizers don't have anything to do with any decision to swim when the sea doesn't allow to do it nor with the whole mess the judges did during the race... actually, they made a miracle to allow the 5k to be contested under regular conditions after the bad weather destroyed all the infrastructure that was originally supposed to be used for the championship... even the crazy idea to hold the 25k in the afternoon was all LEN's (our TV was available to produce the event even going further into next week, but LEN said that all must be done by tomorrow)... I expect more troubles tomorrow with many athletes forced to double up the 10kms and the relay (if the waves aren't so high as today)...

because most people just don't know that, I guess...

Feigen...