phelps

my picks: in the individual time trial, I voted for Miguel Indurain... in the mountain bike race, this is a no brainer... Nino Schurter is simply the GOAT... in the men's Keirin, it's more or less the same...I don't see anybody capable of getting even close to the best of Sir Chris Hoy...

is there any idea when a first preliminary (detailed) version of the Olympic schedule will come out?

this is from around Christmas time (from Spanish press, in Spanish, of course)... https://as.com/masdeporte/2021/12/23/polideportivo/1640259722_225440.html it seems that they're still trying to find a deal, rather than being done and dusted (he is/was not the only candidate)...or maybe, now they've finally got the agreement they were looking for... we'll see in the next few weeks, I guess (sooner or later they have to make some kind of announcement)...

according to the Italian press, it wasn't a false start at all...and even the audience present at the hall did blow a lot of whistles against the judges... by the way, in the same meet in Belgrade, Nick Ponzio won the men's Shot Put with the new Italian record of 21.61m and Zeynab Dosso won the women's 60m in 7.21 secs... so, some good results for Italy, too... but the star of the night was of course Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, who won the men's Pole Vault with the new Indoor World Record of 6.19m...

2022 Junior European Championships ( Novi Sad) Cadets Team Events Results women's Epee Gold: Italy Silver: Spain Bronze: Israel women's Foil Gold: Italy Silver: Turkey Bronze: Great Britain women's Sabre Gold: Hungary Silver: Romania Bronze: France men's Epee Gold: Italy Silver: Hungary Bronze: Israel men's Foil Gold: Hungary Silver: Great Britain Bronze: France men's Sabre Gold: Hungary Silver: France Bronze: Romania Cadets only Medal Table HUN 6 - 3 - 1 ITA 5 - 1 - 1 GER 1 - 0 - 1 FRA 0 - 2 - 3 ISR 0 - 2 - 2 GBR 0 - 1 - 3 ROU 0 - 1 - 2 ESP 0 - 1 - 0 TUR 0 - 1 - 2 LAT 0 - 0 - 1 NOR 0 - 0 - 1 UKR 0 - 0 - 1

Fencing superstar Olga Kharlan and her sister (with her son) are now safely out of Ukraine and heading to Budapest, where later tonight they are supposed to join Olga's fiancèe, men's sabre Olympic silver medallist Luigi Samele before finally coming to Italy...

and here we go with the last event of the 1st world cup stage in Egypt... Mixed Team 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Gold: India Silver: Thailand Bronze: Singapore Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15853 next stop, the Shotgun Shooting World Cup stage #1 in Nicosia ( Cyprus) from March 8th through March 19th, 2022

2022 Junior European Championships ( Novi Sad) Cadets Individual Events Results women's Epee Gold: Greta Gachalyi Silver: Alexandra Kravets Bronze: Sofija Prosina & Emily Conrad women's Foil Gold: Matilde Molinari Silver: Jazmin Papp Bronze: Alisa Izbir & Sofia Giordani women's Sabre Gold: Anna Spiesz Silver: Martina Giancola Bronze: Tiziana Nitschmann & Maria Alexe men's Epee Gold: Jacopo Rizzi Silver: Alon Sarid Bronze: Alec Brooke & Aleksander Malvik men's Foil Gold: Ambros Budahazy Silver: Almos Balint Bronze: Numa Crist & Jaimie Cook men's Sabre Gold: Colin Heathcock Silver: Lucas Guilley Bronze: Frigyes Andràs Godo & Tolga Aslan

2022 Cadets & Juniors Asian Championships ( Tashkent) Juniors Results Women's Individual Epee: Dilnaz Murzataeva Women's Individual Foil: Leung Ya Lei Janelle Women's Individual Sabre: Gulistan Perdibaeva Men's Individual Epee: Hussain Altaweel Men's Individual Foil: Leung Chin Yu Men's Individual Sabre: Sherzod Mamutov Women's Team Epee: Uzbekistan Women's Team Foil: Hong Kong Women's Team Sabre: Result Not Available Men's Team Epee: Hong Kong Men's Team Foil: Hong Kong Men's Team Sabre: Uzbekistan Juniors only Medal Table HKG 5 - 4 - 3 UZB 5 - 2 - 7 KSA 1 - 0 - 0 KAZ 0 - 3 - 2 IND 0 - 1 - 1 AUS 0 - 1 - 0 JOR 0 - 0 - 2 UAE 0 - 0 - 2

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Men's Individual Epee ( Budapest) Gold: Ruben Limardo Gascòn Silver: David Nagy Bronze: Gabriele Cimini & Niko Vuorinen Semifinals Nagy b. Vuorinen 12-11 Limardo Gascòn b. Cimini 13-9 Final Limardo Gascòn b. Nagy 13-5 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/112

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Women's Individual Epee ( Budapest) Gold: Alberta Santuccio Silver: Anna Kun Bronze: Choi In Jeong & Katrina Lehis Semifinals Santuccio b. Choi 12-11 Kun b. Lehis 14-11 Final Santuccio b. Kun 15-7 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/449

men's Individual 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Gold: Jean Quiquampoix Silver: Ruslan Lunev Bronze: Martin Strnad Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15839 men's Team 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Gold: Germany Silver: India Bronze: Czech Republic Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15850

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Women's Team Sabre ( Athens) Gold: Italy Silver: Japan Bronze: United States Semifinals Italy b. USA 45-37 Japan b. Poland 45-35 Bronze Medal Match USA b. Poland by 45-44 Gold Medal Match Italy b. Japan 45-43 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/216

women's Team 25m Pistol Gold: India Silver: Singapore Bronze: Chinese Taipei Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15842

Mixed Team 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Norway 2 Silver: Germany 1 Bronze: India 1 Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15837

women's Team 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Slovenia Silver: USA Bronze: Switzerland Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15827

only bad words, though... when they had to talk about basketball, they usually did speak Italian (I heard them more than once)...

more than surprising results in Athens... and the usual Italian disaster...

2021/2022 Fencing World Cup Women's Individual Sabre ( Athens) Gold: Anna Bashta Silver: Lucia Martin-Portugues Bronze: Sara Balzer & Sylwia Matuszak Semifinals Bashta b. Matuszak 15-13 Martin-Portugues b. Balzer 15-4 Final Bashta b. Martin-Portugues 15-12 Full Ranking & Results https://fie.org/competitions/2022/469

I mean the entire world of sports, not only wrestling... to me, the "Siberian bear" is second only to Michael Phelps, pound for pound... I know it's always wrong to compare different sports and ages, but that's the target of this entire series of polls, it's just a game... so, I feel comfortable playing...and that's my strictly personal opinion...

not truly an expert, but in the Gymnastics poll I picked Svetlana Khorkina...I think that at her best she was a class apart, especially in terms of artistic impression, compared to some totally unexpressive executing machines we've seen from time to time... in Slalom Canoeing, it's a really tough battle between the 2 greatest champions in the history of the sport...I have a personal bias, so I picked Michal Martikan over Tony Estanguet, but it could well be the other way round... for sure, there's a big hole between those 2 and the rest of the (still amazing) field... in Wrestling, we also have a clash between 2 true titans of the whole world of sport, not only of the discipline... my pick is still Alexandr Karelin, imho the second best sportsman overall pound for pound in the entire sports history...

men's Team 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Austria Silver: Czech Republic Bronze: Norway Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15826

no, unfortunately he couldn't compete in this world cup stage...

and Sofia once again missed the last shot...

women's Individual 50m 3-Position Rifle Gold: Jeanette Hegg Duestad Silver: Sofia Ceccarello Bronze: Jenny Stene Full Results page: https://www.issf-sports.org/competitions/venue/csevent.ashx?cseventid=15824