phelps

by the way, I have in mind a couple of questions that might be used for a poll... for instance, should IOC take some kind of decision (political decision) on this question and sanction Russia also in sports terms? could this be a perfect opportunity for the IOC to put the end mark on their fight against Russia and throw them out of the window for a long while using this war as a pretext for what they haven't been capable to do when they had to?

I'm not going to give any vote on this, but I can tell you that this forum should be our "fantasy island" where we can find some relief from the awful news running in these days... and therefore I think that there's nothing bad or a lack of respect for anybody if you (we) decide to continue to write about beautiful things also in this dark period instead of being focus only and exclusively on watching how a bunch of idiots are trying to destroy the world and ruin people's lives for I don't know which purposes? in any case, I'm going to respect and accept your decision, whatever it is...

no, the direct spot for Italy no... please! for the good of the game, let Italy qualify on the ice, if they can...

my 2 cents (and I know anybody would never agree with me...but it's just my personal opinion/taste )... Alpine skiing - Only the 4 traditional events (slalom, GS, super-G, downhill) for both men and women - NO team event, no combined, no mixed gender events Biathlon - Drop the pursuit - Mass Start featuring heats and final and not leaving it to the privileged biathletes who have done well in previous events - NO supersprint nor single mixed relay or any other mixed farce they might think about... Bobsleigh - Get rid of monobob, the women's game depth is so poor that 2-woman bob is even too much...fuck the gender equality - NO more "research & development allowed"...standard sleds and equipment provided by IBSF only for all the 3 remaining events... Cross-country skiing - Relay: Don't change anything - Team sprint: OUT (because it's all but a sprint event) - Skiathlon: OUT(technically it's pure nonsense) - only 2 real endurance races, both as time trial (and always in the same technique: 30km men/15km women freestyle, 50km men/30km women classic, because that's always been the epic race of them all, and the Games must feature that race) - Individual sprint for pure specialists (so, always in freestyle; lenght between 1000m and 1100m, no more than that and no climbs and downhills, a totally flat terrain) Curling - No mixed gender events. point. Men and women's teams are more than enough (if you want more action, make the traditional game more attractive using some of the rules currently in play in the mixed event)... Figure skating - Get rid of the team event Freestyle skiing - Moguls & Aerials: OUT - Big Air: OUT - Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Skicross individual events for both men and women are more than enough Hockey - increase the depth of the game or throw the women's hockey out...at the moment, only USA vs CAN is a barely watchable matchup... Luge - women's doubles instead of the team relay...it's already the direction towards they're going, just accelerate that... - add men and women's singles in Natural Track Luge (there's already more depth in these events now than in artificial track's...imagine if it would become an olympic discipline)... - also here, no more "research & development"...standard equipment for all lugers provided by FIL only Nordic Combined - get rid of normal hills...therefore, men's individual race, men's team event and women's individula event (all of them on the large hill) are more than enough (once the game has enough depth at the top level, the women's team even can easily be added)... Short track speed skating - NO mixed gender relay - Increase to at least 12 (16 would be a lot better) the number of teams taking part into the men and women's relays, so to have 3 competitive rounds instead of only 2... Skeleton - It's OK as it is...but once again, standard equipment for every rider provided by IBSF only Ski Jumping - Get rid of normal hill: men and women's individual and team events (all of them on the large hill) are more than enough - if you didn't understand the refrain yet, NO mixed gender event Snowboarding - Big Air: OUT - Mixed Team Snowboardcross: OUT - men and women's individual Halfpipe, Slopestyle and Snowboardcross are more than enough - in the alpine section of the sport, no more PGS, but PSL and GS (like the old one, the same rules of the alpine skiing "cousin") for both men and women Speed Skating - Keep only the 5 traditional distances (500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000/5000m, 5000m/10000m) for both men and women - 500m events absolutely to be held over 2 races (with skaters going on both inner and outer lane once) - Get rid of every other thing... Ski Mountaineering - OK the individual races for both men and women over the Sprint and Classic distance - NO mixed relay, but 4-man and 4-woman's relays over the Classic relay distance (every leg being half the Classic individual race) p.s. happy to see the men and women's Individual events in Ice Climbing to be added to the program and the number of athletes allowed to compete at the Games increased by a few hundreds p.s. I forgot one thing: FUCK THE GENDER EQUALITY!!!

it won't happen... we're already down to personal fights within the Ice Sports Federation, as usual... nobody wants to invest a cent on Ice Hockey... even a China-alike solution (basically a National Team based in Milan made with NHLers with Italian heritage playing a couple of seasons in the KHL just to have a competitive team in 2026 and being "inspirational" to grow up at least the number of people practicing hockey outside the South Tyrol valleys) has been declared "not an option"... and if you're not ready to go through the shortest route, imagine how (non) realistic is trying to develop the sport in a duopolistic (soccer & Ferrari...now we don't even have Valentino Rossi anymore to follow) Country like Italy...

but you know how much I care about hockey and how much I'd like Italy to be a Hockey-Nation... I'd really give at least half of our medals away for that...

well, when you take part in so many sports and events, it's difficult to make a summary without analyzing every aspect of it... in general, some sports performed well, some others made all the fans get ashamed to waste time following them... for Italy, however, the final outcome was better than expected in terms of total medals, but a bit worse in terms of golds... the ups were surely all the podium places, from the mixed curling to Arianna Fontana (our overall MVP and my personal highlight of the Games in Italian perspective without any doubt), from Francesca Lollobrigida to Sofia Goggia to all the other medallists... the absolute downs were the men's alpine skiing (epic fail if there's one) and cross-country skiing, where we used to be a powerhouse and now we are just a 1-man movement, with no athletes and no hope for the future... they are in particular those who I was referring to when I wrote that they made me (and all our sports fans) ashamed of following them...

you can't even imagine how envious am I right now, watching those newspapers...

and this is my full ranking of the fighters named in the poll... 1. Roberto Balado Mendez 2. Vladimir Klitschko 3. Lennox Lewis 4. Roberto Cammarelle 5. Alexander Povetkin then, those who frankly don't even deserved to be named in the same page with those above... 6. Anthony Joshua 7. Tyrrel Biggs 8. Audley Harrison 9. Tony Yoka 10. Bakhodir Jalolov the last 4, imho, don't deserve even to be named Olympic Champions, they just robbed that honor...

by the way, having followed all of these guys at the Olympics and through their pro career (those who had one), the choice for gold is truly a no brainer... Roberto Balado Mendez, the greatest heavyweight boxer of all times (R.I.P. my hero)... he was just a class apart, fast, strong, technically superior...if only he had been able to fight for a few more years (and why not? turning pro), probably most people would still talking of him more than they talk of Cassius Clay/Muhammad Alì (because on the ring Balado was better than Stevenson and Alì)... apologies for the poor picture quality, but every boxing fan (and not only the boxing fans) should watch this tribute...

since it's an imaginary tournament, we can also assume it's placed in an imaginary super-fair neutral site with super-fair judges that don't even know what corruption and match fixing mean...

Knockout Stage, Final Single Leg Tuesday 01.03.2022 - Schedule 19:00 Rögle Ängelholm (SWE) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) *All times CET Watch live Check here for details of live TV broadcasts: https://www.championshockeyleague.com/en/fans/where-to-watch All games are also live on the CHL website for free, subject to geo-blocking restrictions in certain countries due to TV rights.

Knockout Stage, Semifinals Single Leg, Match Highlights Tappara Tampere (FIN) - Red Bull Munich (GER)

Knockout Stage, Semifinals Single Leg Tuesday 01.02.2022 - Results 18:00 Tappara Tampere (FIN) - Red Bull Munich (GER) 3-0

very late update, after being distracted by the Olympic Games and annoyed by all the rescheduling due to covid protocols... finally, on February 1st, the semifinal game between Munich and Tampere was played... and... TAPPARA THROUGH TO THE FINAL WITH WIN OVER MUNICH It’ll be a Nordic affair in the Grand Final of the Champions Hockey League, as Tappara Tampere took a 3-0 victory over Red Bull Munich in a one-game semi-final, setting up a meeting with Swedish side Rögle Ängelholm. Coming into the game, Tappara had scored a total of 14 goals on the powerplay, and as Munich took a high-sticking penalty in the early moments of the contest, it gave the hosts the opportunity they needed. It was the playmaker finally getting his first goal of the season, Kristian Kuusela was open on the left and his one-time effort opened the scoring less than five minutes in. Munich looked to try and stop the fast-paced game of Tappara, but couldn’t get much offence going of their own, and as Munich’s late powerplay was cancelled out by a penalty of their own, the score remained at one to nothing at the end of 20 minutes, with Tappara outshooting Munich by 14-3. Munich had to kill a penalty left over from the first to start the second period, and once they returned to full strength, they managed to find a bit more of an offensive rhythm. A powerplay saw a lot of zone time, but not the right execution on their shots, but they grew in confidence as they began to find more ways of putting pucks on Christian Heljanko, but it still wouldn’t be enough for them to get one on the board. Tappara had a great chance to net their second midway through, a great move towards net saw Tyler Morley cut through on a breakaway, but it was read brilliantly by Henrik Haukeland who denied the Canadian forward. With a place in the Final up for grabs, the physicality rose with neither side wanting to lose, but neither side could find a decisive second period goal, setting up a grandstand finish as Tappara held their one-goal advantage into the third period of play. Both sides looked to play strong in their own end, with both teams not really looking to take too many risks, but as time started winding down, someone needed to take hold of the game. Joona Luoto picked up the puck at the blueline after a long stretch pass by Otso Rantakari, and Luoto faked out Haukeland to bury the second of the night for Tappara, giving them a 2-0 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining. Shortly after doubling their lead, Tappara were back on the powerplay and in a very similar vein, Kristian Kuusela punished Munich. As Tappara moved the puck well, Kuusela was open in the left circle and fired a one-timer into the back of the net for his second of the night, and second of the tournament to add to his 11 assists coming into the Semi-Finals. Tappara survived a late powerplay scare, and as time ticked away, Tappara were the ones celebrating a shutout win to move on to the Grand Final.

Karate 1 Premier League Stage #1 ( Fujarah) Medallists Recap Women's Individual Kata Gold: Kiyou Shimizu Silver: Hikaru Ono Bronze #1: Grace Lau Mo Sheung Bronze #2: Maho Ono Men's Individual Kata Gold: Enes Ozdemir Silver: Kazumasa Moto Bronze #1: Sakichi Abe Bronze #2: Ariel Torres Gutierrez Women's Individual Kumite, -50kg Gold: Moldir Zhangbyrbay Silver: Yasmin Elgewily Bronze #1: Yorgelis Salazar Bronze #2: Shara Hubrich Women's Individual Kumite, -55kg Gold: Anna Chernysheva Silver: Anzhelika Terliuga Bronze #1: Ahlam Youssef Bronze #2: Tuba Yakan Women's Individual Kumite, -61kg Gold: Alessandra Mangiacapra Silver: Anita Serogina Bronze #1: Assel Kanay Bronze #2: Diana Shostak Women's Individual Kumite, -68kg Gold: Irina Zaretska Silver: Silvia Semeraro Bronze #1: Feryal Abdelaziz Bronze #2: Elena Quirici Women's Individual Kumite, +68kg Gold: Nancy Garcia Silver: Maria Torres Garcia Bronze #1: Dominika Tatarova Bronze #2: Titta Keinanen Men's Individual Kumite, -60kg Gold: Abdallah Hammad Silver: Iurik Ogannisian Bronze #1: Abdullah Shaaban Bronze #2: Yerkinbek Baitureyev Men's Individual Kumite, -67kg Gold: Didar Amirali Silver: Tural Aghalarzade Bronze #1: Luca Maresca Bronze #2: Alì Elsawy Men's Individual Kumite, -75kg Gold: Abdalla Abdelaziz Silver: Gabor Harspataki Bronze #1: Stanislav Horuna Bronze #2: Hasan Masarweh Men's Individual Kumite, -84kg Gold: Youssef Badawy Silver: Mohamed Ramadan Bronze #1: Turgut Hasanov Bronze #2: Mehdi Sriti Men's Individual Kumite, +84kg Gold: Hazem Mohamed Silver: Taha Mahmoud Bronze #1: Rob Timmermans Bronze #2: Babacar Seck Sakho

tonight and tomorrow, catching up with Karate (Fujarah Premier League finals), Judo (Tel Aviv Grand Slam tournament) and Athletics (Birmingham meet)... then, in the next days/weeks I'm going to follow NHL Hockey, of course...and Euroleague / NCAA College Basket, Fencing World Cup and the final stint of the Wintersports season...

no, the entry level contract is 3 years long (and gives you a lower salary than the average, of course...it's all written in the rules of the collective bargaining agreement)... of course a player can refuse to play for a team that drafted him, but he has to play in another league for the whole 3 years of his original entry level contract...after that, he becomes free agent and can search for a deal with any team he wants...

c'mon, guys! I just can't wait for the breakdance qualifying period to start!

so, this is... the final effort is gonna be all ondemand only... if they are somehow held, when I wake up (not so early, I guess ) I'm gonna start with alpine skiing (team event) and cross-country skiing (women's supposed to be 30km freestyle)... and (hoping to stay away from any spoiler) in the afternoon, I'm gonna wrap it up in style with the men's Hockey Gold Medal match between Russia and Finland... then, it's already time to start looking at the next Summer Games...can't wait to follow all the qualification pathway of the breakdance on the road to Paris 2024...

Slovakia, the great! and Slafkovsky...oh, boy! he's just amazing, a mega-talent... hope he's the next first overall choice at the NHL draft...he' s really special...

women's (most likely not) 30km freestyle 9th place: Rosie Brennan 12th place: Charlotte Kalla

yeah, that was my first tought, too...

and here comes the damage: the new competition format... New Karate 1 Premier League: Round Robin system to take event to new competitive heights The 2022 Karate 1-Premier League is introducing a new competition system. The Round Robin format will now be applied to the elimination rounds to further raise the competitive level of the tournaments. With the introduction of the Round Robin, competitors have now the opportunity to progress even more as athletes. The karatekas taking part in Karate 1-Premier League events will now fight a minimum number of bouts in the first stages of the competition. As the amount of bouts in each event is increased, competitors can now improve their sports performance at Karate’s biggest international tournaments. Moreover, greater fairness to the competition is added as karatekas will have to show their skills in several bouts before reaching the final phases of the competition. ROUND ROBIN EXPLAINED In the Round Robin system, karatekas are divided into pools of three or four competitors each. The participants in each pool will clash all against all in the elimination round. Athletes receive points for their performance in each bout of the pool phase, with two points being awarded for a victory, 1 for a tie, and 0 for a loss. "Hikiwake" or draw is permitted in Round Robin. The top-ranked competitors in each pool at the end of the elimination round will then qualify for the quarterfinals. The last rounds of the competition (quarterfinals, semi-finals, medal bouts, and repechages) will be done in a knockout format.

here are some news about the "new" K1PL... New Karate 1 Premier League: Updated registration process gives athletes more chances to shine The season of Karate 1-Premier League begins this month with the first event to be held in Fujairah (UAE) from February 18 to 20. New features are added this year to further increase the prominence of the event and to consolidate the tournaments as truly elite sporting competitions. In order to stimulate the competitiveness of athletes even more, the registration process of the Karate 1-Premier League has now been updated. The main elements of the new registration format are: Limited number of competitors Greater importance of WKF World Ranking Priority to top-ranked athletes As it happened in previous editions, the participation in Karate 1-Premier League is limited to a maximum of 32 competitors per category. To establish the event as a truly elite competition, the tournaments are restricted to the Top 100 athletes in WKF World Ranking. THREE PHASES OF REGISTRATION Additionally, the registration process has been updated to provide more opportunities for the best karatekas to participate. The new inscription system is divided into three phases: The first phase is limited to competitors placed in positions 1 to 32 of the WKF World Ranking. The second phase is open to athletes ranked in positions 33 to 64. The final phase is for competitors in positions 65 to 100. The second and third phases will be available until the maximum of 32 athletes per category is completed. With this update, the top-ranked athletes find now an easier path to register, as they have now priority in the registration of the events. Therefore, the competitive level of the events is now guaranteed.