phelps

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Men's Individual Sabre ( Budapest) Gold: Aron Szilagyi Silver: Luca Curatoli Bronze: Kim Jung Hwan & Oh Sanguk Semifinals Szilagyi b. Kim 15-14 Curatoli b. Oh 15-8 Final Szilagyi b. Curatoli 15-7 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/160

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Women's Individual Sabre ( Istanbul) Gold: Manon Apithy-Brunet Silver: Anne Poupinet Bronze: Lucia Martin-Portugues & Malgorzata Kozaczuk Semifinals Apithy-Brunet b. Martin-Portugues 15-13 Poupinet b. Kozaczuk 15-8 Final Apithy-Brunet b. Poupinet 15-8 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/151

women's Hammer Throw...of course this can't be anything but a plebiscite for Anita Wlodarczyk, but here I just want to honor the poor Kamila Skolimowska, who could have won a lot more medals if she wasn't gone too early... however, my final choice is obviously Wlodarczyk... men's Swimming 50m Freestyle...here my pick is "the Tsar", AKA Alexandr Popov, one of the classiest swimmers ever... Canoe Slalom, women's K1...here I go with Stepanka Hilgertova, even if Kaliska is surely also among those who deserve a honourable mention... Canoe Slalom, men's K1...here I'm totally biased, I go with Daniele Molmenti...and to be honest, I think it's also a good choice overall, because in London he was so dominant and basically he's the only man winning the gold medal entering the competition as the main (if not the only) favourite until maybe Tokyo 2020... Rowing, women's Single Sculls...here it's a no brainer, Elisabeta Lipa is arguably the best female rower ever and I'm genuinely surprised that she got so few votes in this poll (maybe many people don't know how many gold medals she won on different boats and are influenced by the fact that she only rarely competed in the single sculls and therefore she won "only" a single Olympic Gold in that discipline)...

I'm back! Unfortunately I was stuck without internet connection in the past couple of days... Luckily, the problem has just been fixed by my internet provider... my picks in this poll, however, are quite obvious, as in all of this events we have established no.1... women's Field Hockey...even if AUS were really dominant in the late Nineties/early 2000's, I chose the Netherlands, because they've been the true owner of the game in the last 20 years, and sometimes they've been really untouchable... men's Archery...I pick Darrell Pace, arguably the best man ever to practice this sport... men's Rapid Fire Pistol is actually a no brainer... Ralf Schumann is "the shooter" par exellence... women's Triathlon...I've never seen anybody as dominant as Gwen Jorgensen when she was on top of her game...therefore, she's my pick... finally, men's Golf...I think the sport is too young (in Olympic terms) to express a truly qualified vote, however, Justin Rose is surely the best golfer overall among those who won an Olympic Gold, so, he's my pick...

news from Italy... men's High Jump Olympic Champion, Gianmarco Tamberi confirmed his participation to the World Indoor Champs, meanwhile Paolo Dal Molin (men's 60m HS) is out because of an injury...

finally, some decent show up by the Italians...

Mixed Team Skeet Gold: Italy 2 (Diana Bacosi & Tammaro Cassandro) Silver: United States 2 (Caitlin Connor & Adam McBee) Bronze: Italy 1 (Chiara Cainero & Gabriele Rossetti) and United States 1 (Austen Jewell Smith & Phillip Russell Jungman) Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15903

2 missed shots in the last double did cost Cassandro the gold medal... however, his silver for sure isn't enough to save the day for Italy, once again not performing as expected as a team...

women's Individual Skeet Gold: Amber Hill Silver: Danka Bartekova Bronze: Austen Jewell Smith Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15896 men's Individual Skeet Gold: Azmy Mehelba Silver: Tammaro Cassandro Bronze: Eric Delaunay Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15899

the men's 1500m in Athletics is the first poll that makes it really difficult for me... it's complicated because we're going through more than 100 years of history and it's basically impossible to properly compare such kind of different ages, with all the different social/economical/technical conditions and resources available to the people...even the access to the sport was so much different so long ago... therefore, among all those great names, I'm going with someone at least I had the chance to follow closely through his entire career...and I pick maybe the classies runner (and man) I ever heard of/watched: Hicham El Guerrouj... he was so beautiful and effortless when he was on top of his game...a pleasure to watch... and he was so respectful of his opponents (and of the fans) when he was off the track...a truly pleasant human being... in the swimming 50m free for women, my pick is maybe a bit controversial, but, even she might have been built in a laboratory rather than in a swimming pool, I think Kristin Otto has really been the best sprint specialist ever...and she was untouchable not only in 1 style, not in 2...but in 3 disciplines out of 4! men's triathlon is actually a no brainer because both the young age of the sport (at least in Olympic terms) and the superiority of one man among those in the list (the only one capable of repeating the Olympic Gold medal in 2 editions of the Games)... so, my pick is quite obviously Alistair Brownlee

women's Team Trap Gold: Australia Silver: USA Bronze: Kazakhstan Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15886 men's Team Trap Gold: Kuwait Silver: India Bronze: Poland Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15889

mixed Team Trap Gold: Turkey 2 Silver: Australia 1 Bronze: Australia 2 & Slovakia 2 Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15882

sssshhhhh...please, remember that the 1976, Fencing Olympic Champion is reading...don't give him this kind of idea...

so, the shotgun shooting world cup has started and Italy's Trap specialists are still searching for themselves like modern Diogenes, especially in the men's division... on the other hand, @hckošice Slovakian shooters are on fire...first Jany in the rifle events, now Stefecekova...what a start of the season for your team... if they continue like this, shooting is going to replace slalom canoeing as your most successful discipline...

women's Individual Trap Gold: Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova Silver: Silvana Stanco Bronze: Rachel Leighanne Tozier Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15873 men's Individual Trap Gold: Oguzhan Tozun Silver: Giovanni Cernogoraz Bronze: Talal Alrashidi Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15876

new update... Roberta Bruni and Elisa Molinarolo have been added to the team after the WA's invitation to compete in the women's Pole Vault...

the Thialf finally back to capacity crowd! and what a wonderful farewell to Ireen Wust...

not following racket sports that closely, but I think Serena at her best was just untouchable, even if she always missed out on the Grand Slam and Steffi Graf instead did the super-Slam in 1988... but it was another era in Tennis, where the athletic/physical aspect of the game wasn't that dominant as it is since the 2000's... therefore, my pick is Serena Williams... in Badminton, I admit I haven't watched Zhang Ning play enough to express a truly qualified vote, so I picked Carolina Marin as the lone not Asian superstar of the game... in Table Tennis, I think Ma Long is just GOAT...with all respect for the many other great players that dominated the sport through the previous generations...

no way, 10 of the 11 teams have max 4 foreign players in their rosters (only exception is Zalgiris, but I'm not sure they can use all of their imported talents in the national league...some of them might be able to play only in the Euroleague)... and a few of them are from other Eastern European Countries (mainly CRO)... not only, most foreigners are guards...the "big men" in the middle are often locals (the rebounding ranking is the most homeboy-filled stat among the main ones)... by the way, if you want to know something about LKL, this is their website (with a very useful English version)... https://en.lkl.lt/

the project of the new Arena that is going to host the men's Hockey games in 2026 has been revealed earlier Today... https://www.milanotoday.it/sport/olimpiadi-invernali-2026/progetto-definitivo-arena-santa-giulia.html

it will be in Livigno... there's no chance to host a snow event (even something like big air) in Milan in the middle of February... 15 days ago, we were up to well above 20°C during those sunny days... the 2015 Expo Area is no longer available, as many new projects are being completed in the 2022/2026 period (the new site of the Galeazzi Hospital, the new Milan State University campus, one of the biggest Research Institute in Europe -named Human Technopole- and a whole new commercial and residential block, with new sites for many important industries/banks operating in town)...

yes, the heritage of the family tree is from Friuli Venezia Giulia, north east of Italy... and you can find that name mainly in Canada (especially in the Thunder Bay area, the true "little Italy" of this world, if there's one), but also sometimes in South America (Brazil and Venezuela)...

trust me, Slaf is going to end up at no.1 overall... I refuse to see anybody else in that spot after his Olympic show... Nemec maybe could end up a bit lower than 5th, but surely is a legitimate top 10 guy (especially in this year's draft, where no other d-man looks to catch the eye)... and once you have 2 guys in the top 10, also the others are going to benefit from that because you know, the "school" where they come from is so good and "trendy"...

update... Filippo Randazzo (men's Long Jump) and Elena Vallortigara (women's High Jump) have been added to the team thanks to the invitation by WA (Target Numbers)...

Italy Men Marcell Jacobs (60m) Giovanni Galbieri (60m) Nesim Amsellek (1500m) Pietro Arese (1500m) Yassin Bouih (3000m) Ossama Meslek (3000m) Paolo Dal Molin (60m HS) Hassane Fofana (60m HS) Gianmarco Tamberi (High Jump)* Emmanuel Ihemeje (Triple Jump) Nick Ponzio (Shot Put) Zane Weir (Shot Put) Dario Dester (Eptathlon) *still to be confirmed by the athlete, it will be a last minute decision Women Aurora Berton (60m) Zaynab Dosso (60m) Elena Bellò (800m) Elisa Maria Di Lazzaro (60m HS) Larissa Iapichino (Long Jump) Dariya Derkach (Triple Jump) Sveva Gerevini (Pentathlon)