phelps

slow at the half distance, completely gassed in the last 15 meters... shocking loss by Peaty, great win by James Wilby (but with a modest time)...

time for the Adam Peaty show...

the Australian wins it once again...

I know we already had the Division III junior worlds earlier this week, but from today things get a lot more serious... it's time for the first top tier tournament of the season, the Hlinka-Gretky Cup... this year, all the games are played in Red Deer, Alberta... this is the official website with all the schedules, score and infos: https://www.hlinkagretzkycup.ca/en-ca Czech Republic and Finland are playing the opening match right now (they're playing the OT, after the 3-3 tie in regulation)... unfortunately, no stream is available for this game... JOJ Sport is going to show live all the Slovak NT matches, TSN has a couple of games/day in Canada (and maybe they'll be available also to the international audience without a VPN at least ondemand -like the Junior Worlds around Christmas in the past)... unfortunately, I haven't found any other worldswide available TV network/stream for this tournament...

good news for all those involved in the horrific crash earlier in Track Cycling... it looks that no major damages have been suffered by anybody... Olympic Champion Matt Walls (the man who literally flied into the crowd) has already been released by the hospital...

yes... unless the leader makes a dumb mistake (choosing the wrong trajectory, for instance), it's impossible to overtake...

really... I'd really like to know who thought in his/her sick mind that could be a serious event worth a place on the international scene...even more, an Olympic event..

and the guy (Peter Strecansky) was closer to GER for silver than the other crews were close to him... hopefully he can have a good transition to the senior ranks in the next few years and maybe qualify for the 2028 Olympics (Paris is still too early for this year's juniors, I fear)...

there were 8 Dutch boats... 4 made the B final (JM2- and JM4- finished 3rd, JM4X and JM1X finished 5th)... 4 made the A final (JM2X and JW2X finished 4th just outside the medals, JW1X finished 5th and JW4X ended up in 6th place)...

no, it happened in the men's Single scull, which was one of the most crowded* and competitive events of the whole program... *29 starters, to be precise

Junior (U19) Worlds Final Medal Table (Olympic Events only, no Lightweights in this age class) 3 / 0 / 1 2 / 4 / 1 2 / 2 / 4 1 / 2 / 1 1 / 1 / 1 1 / 0 / 1 1 / 0 / 0 1 / 0 / 0 0 / 1 / 0 0 / 1 / 0 0 / 1 / 0 0 / 0 / 1 0 / 0 / 1 0 / 0 / 1 ( @hckošice Slovak Rowing is still alive! )

disaster in the men's C1...all 3 of our paddlers are already out of the final when there are still 8 guys left at the start...

qualification shouldn't really be a problem for you...even in a place like Augsburg... on the Italian side, no comment on yesterday's missed gate by Horn (even if I think she was going to end up 4th without mistakes)... pity for Borghi...I expected her to make some noise among the big names...

usual Italian playboys...

and a new accurate skin care treatment, I fear...

he was already a finalist over the distance at the world Champs in Budapest, where he did swim 23.03... he's not so unknown...

I'm pretty sure Truman won't be part of today's races after his crash in yesterday's Keirin... for those who haven't watched that, it was really scary...finally the damage was limited (early news: broken collarbone and bruises, but he also lost consciousness for a few seconds after falling down heavily on the track), but he did really risk his life...

of course I don't agree at all with our friend @Fly_like_a_don because Swimming has offered the audience some of the most exciting moments in the Olympic history... and if in general liking it or not it's up to personal taste, saying that there's no action it's pure blasphemy... coming to the quote, I just made a quick research and I found out that in the entire Olympic history (some events were already there in the 1st modern Games, Athens 1896, most of them though are there since 1968 only) there have been very, very few "doubles" between 100m and 200m meters races (and 200m + 400m Freestyle)... that's the full list: Men 100m + 200m Freestyle 1968, Michael Wenden, AUS 1972, Mark Spitz, USA 2000, Pieter Van Den Hoogenband, NED 200m + 400m Freestyle 1992, Yevgeny Sadovyi, RUS (CIS) 1996, Danyon Loader, NZL 2004, Ian Thorpe, AUS 100m + 200m Backstroke 1968 and 1972, Roland Matthes, GDR 1976, John Naber, USA 1984, Rick Carey, USA 2000, Lenny Kreyzelburg, USA 2004, Aaron Peirsol, USA 2016, Ryan Murphy, USA 2020, Evgeny Rylov, RUS 100m + 200m Breastroke 2000, Domenico Fioravanti, ITA 2004 and 2008, Kosuke Kitajima, JPN 100m + 200m Butterfly 1972, Mark Spitz, USA 1996, Denis Pankratov, RUS 2004 and 2008, Michael Phelps, USA Women 100m + 200m Freestyle 1976, Kornelia Ender, GDR 1980, Barbara Krause, GDR 200m + 400m Freestyle 1968, Debbie Meyer, USA 1972, Shane Gould, AUS 2016, Katie Ledecky, USA 2020, Ariarne Titmus, AUS 100m + 200m Backstroke 1972, Melissa Belote, USA 1976, Ulrike Richter, GDR 1984, Rica Reinisch, GDR 1992, Krisztina Egerszegi, HUN 2000, Diana Mocanu, ROU 2012, Missy Franklin, USA 2020, Kaylee McKeown, AUS 100m + 200m Breastroke 1996, Penelope Heyns, RSA 100m + 200m Butterfly 1984, Mary T. Meagher, USA as you might notice, the only style with a few more doubles is Backstroke (actually 200m and 400m Medley are usually a double for the same athlete, but it's the only exception in the whole individual schedule)... in a few disciplines, the doubles are almost unheard of... so, that's the simple demonstration that there's way more diversity than people can even imagine in the current swimming program (which doesn't need too much changes, just add the 50m for Back, Breast and Fly and get rid of the mixed gender relays)... p.s. and if we eliminate the doubles obtained by the East Germany's girls (you know why) and by the 2 greatest male swimmers ever (Spitz and Phelps, who got the most of them), the list is basically down to a few "white flies" in the whole history of the Olympic Swimming... so, please...feel free to dislike swimming on personal taste, but stop all the bullshits about the rest...

I just missed to click on "Vote!" I'm gonna fix it immediately...

Artistic Gymnastics, men's Parallel Bars...not an easy choice, because I don't follow the sport closely and because this is one of the events that I don't like more than others (only the Floor exercise is more boring to me)... I go with Li Xiaopeng, mainly because he's the only gymnast to win the event twice in this Century... Wrestling, Freestyle, men's Superheavyweights...here I go with Bruce Baumgartner because Taymazov is just a cheater, even if on the mat he looked really great and I used to be his fan... Modern Pentathlon, women's Individual...no brainer, Laura Asadauskaite is surely the strongest and most complete pentathlete among all those who had the privilege of winning an Olympig gold medal... Fencing, men's Individual Foil...always considering that's almost impossible (and unfair) to compare such different ages, I have no doubt that Nedo Nadi is on top of the list... Cycling Track, men's Individual Sprint...trying not to be biased, I have to pick Daniel Morelon, most likely the GOAT of this discipline... mention of honor for the great Lutz Hesslich, but he has somehow to pay the prize for the system he grew up in... for what concerns the modern specialists, I just can't pick them because they're only power, they can only put themselves in front of the race and push hard, they just can't show any trick, any "magic" on the track (I know it's mainly the modern rules' fault, but still)... the last guy on that list that could show something unusual was Ryan Bailey, but frankly I've never liked the Australian (very dirty) style of racing and I have more than one concern on them being clean in the other sense (remember the Michelin man Steven Pate?)

thanks! yeah, I was sick during that period and I didn't spend any time in front of my PC... but now I'm OK... well, let's see... Canoe Sprint, women's K4 500m...not an easy choice for me...most likely, the latest crews from Hungary are stronger, but I go with the longer streak of Germany, also because many of those wins were led by Birgit Fischer, who I already picked in the individual event as the best female canoeist ever... Cycling Track, men's Team Sprint...very much a British discipline for most of the times it has been contested, so I go with Great Britain... Fencing, women's Team Epee... France 1996 all the way, mainly because of Laura Flessel leading that great team... Swimming, men's 4*100m Freestyle Relay...no brainer, the USA are so far away from the rest of the field in this event (even if the 2012 France was really a great team and deserved to be mentioned for a consolation prize)... Swimming, women's 4*100m Freestyle Relay...another no brainer...2016 & 2020 Australia were just on another planet (but also here, mention of honor for the 2008 Dutch girls, another truly great relay)...

CyberGhost is also easy to use on smart TV (android TV system)... but Express VPN right now is the best choice in terms of effectivness, the best VPN on the market for sure (even if not the cheapest)...

CyberGhost (I took an offer for a very few bucks for 26 months last November)... working well with most European networks*, some random troubles with the CBS stream from the USA and with the Swiss public TV (they often update their anti-VPN tracker and we have to wait for an update by the VPN to get back viewing)... *never tried with BBC, as I can watch their channels for free on satellite...

and our "more than surprising" silver medallists from last year in the men's K1, Marcello Beda, is back to reality...and he's the only Italian competing today not capable of reaching at least the semifinal round... very good performance by the rest of our team, instead...especially Stefanie Horn (feeling her former home's smell in the air?), winning the whole preliminary stage in the women's K1...

I confirm what I wrote...Weintraub is a good and promising youngster, but she's far from being "pretty phenomenal"... if you look for those kind of fencers, look at Lauren Scruggs (who was not in the US team at this world championship, luckily for all the other Nations)... and among those younger than Weintraub, I can name at least 5 or 6 girls that are way better at the moment (I don't forsee the future...I only talk of today)... the fact that she won against a limited (and poorly performing) Volpi doesn't matter...in fencing, it's quite normal having upsets at any tournament...