phelps

it's official...Michela Moioli is the new Italian Flagbearer at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing... https://www.coni.it/it/news/18936-michela-moioli-portabandiera-dell-italia-a-pechino-2022.html

tbh, I'd give my vote to Rocco Siffredi... at least, we're sure he has "huevos"...big "huevos"...

Italy 118 athletes, 72 men, 46 women BIATHLON (10) Men (5): Didier Bionaz, Thomas Bormolini, Tommaso Giacomel, Lukas Hofer, Dominik Windisch. Women (5): Michela Carrara, Samuela Comola, Federica Sanfilippo, Lisa Vittozzi, Dorothea Wierer. BOBSLEIGH (9) Men (8): Patrick Baumgartner, Lorenzo Bilotti, Eric Fantazzini, Robert Mircea, Josè Delmas Obou, Alex Pagnini, Mattia Variola, Alex Verginer. Women (1): Giada Andreutti. NORDIC COMBINED (4) Men: Iacopo Bortolas, Raffaele Buzzi, Alessandro Pittin, Samuel Costa. FREESTYLE (5) Men (2): Simone Deromedis, Leonardo Donaggio. Women (3): Silvia Bertagna, Lucrezia Fantelli, Jole Galli. SKI JUMPING (2) Men (1): Giovanni Bresadola. Women (1): Jessica Malsiner. ALPINE SKIING (16) Men (7): To be named after Tomorrow's Slalom in Schladming, AUT Women (9): Marta Bassino, Federica Brignone, Elena Curtoni, Nadia Delago, Nicol Delago, Lara Della Mea, Sofia Goggia, Anita Gulli, Francesca Marsaglia. CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING (12) Men (6): Francesco De Fabiani, Davide Graz, Federico Pellegrino, Maicol Rastelli, Giandomenico Salvadori, Paolo Ventura. Women (6): Anna Comarella, Martina Di Centa, Caterina Ganz, Greta Laurent, Cristina Pittin, Lucia Scardoni. SKELETON (3) Men (2): Amedeo Bagnis, Mattia Gaspari. Women (1): Valentina Margaglio. LUGE (8) Men (5): Leon Felderer, Dominik Fischnaller, Kevin Fischnaller, Simon Kainzwaldner, Emanuel Rieder. Women (3): Verena Hofer, Andrea Voetter, Nina Zoeggeler. SNOWBOARD (17) Men (11): Daniele Bagozza, Edwin Coratti, Mirko Felicetti, Filippo Ferrari, Roland Fischnaller, Lorenzo Gennero, Emiliano Lauzi, Tommaso Leoni, Lorenzo Sommariva, Omar Visintin, Louis Philip Vito III. Women (6): Sofia Belingheri, Caterina Carpano, Lucia Dalmasso, Francesca Gallina, Michela Moioli, Nadya Ochner. CURLING (6) Men (5): Sebastiano Arman, Mattia Giovanella, Simone Gonin, Amos Mosaner, Joel Thierry Retornaz. Women (1): Stefania Constantini. FIGURE SKATING (9) Men (5): Filippo Ambrosini, Marco Fabbri, Daniel Grassl, Matteo Guarise, Matteo Rizzo. Women (4): Nicole Della Monica, Rebecca Ghilardi, Charlene Guignard, Lara Naki Gutmann. SPEEDSKATING (7) Men (6): David Bosa, Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini, Michele Malfatti, Jeffrey Rosanelli, Alessio Trentini. Women (1): Francesca Lollobrigida. SHORT TRACK (10) Men (5): Andrea Cassinelli, Yuri Confortola, Tommaso Dotti, Pietro Sighel, Luca Spechenhauser. Women (5): Arianna Fontana, Cynthia Mascitto, Arianna Sighel, Arianna Valcepina, Martina Valcepina.

there's a good chance that Michela Moioli is going to replace Sofia Goggia as our Flagbearer at the Opening ceremony (Italy will definitely have an athlete carrying the Flag and a few more walking behind her)...

if you think she's paranoid and you have enough of her and her style, please, can you borrow her to Italy? we do really need someone like her...she would be perfect as our new President of the Republic, instead of those idiots they're trying to elect starting from today...

no, in a few Countries they gave up the full tv rights to the National broadcasters...DEN is one of them...

I hope Paris, but I bet on Feuz...

no baby shark...ops...I meant, baby super-talent Michkov...

love that! quite creative... for sure, your skiers will be easily recognizable (and many commentators will stop exchanging your Country for Slovenia)...

yeah, it's a good point...

on that slope, if they set the course pretty straight, without any tricky turn, the gold medal imho is already at Kira Weidle's neck... if they set it up like bastards, well, that might get really a mess...

so, we have 2 uphill sections one Kitz alike narrow road (completely flat)... how can people say this is a difficult slope? obviously it's all about the design of the actual course, but man...this track is going to make the Sochi and Pyeongchang's some kind of "great classics"... I think we're gonna see some surprising results there...

look at the news on the alpine skiing thread...

normal people usually go to hell for 6/7 months at least (I had more or less the same kind of injury last april -without the broken fibula- and I experienced very strong pain until december, despite physio, laser and ultrasound terapy and I just couldn't put my leg down, I couldn't even walk without a crutch for quite a while)... but she's definitely not a normal woman...so, good luck to her (she's surely going through a lot of pain in the next 3 weeks...hope it's worth the effort)...

to be precise: the left knee's ACL is partially broken and that's the same knee she already destroyed in 2013 (when it was completely rebuilt)... imho, she doesn't stand a chance to be competitive in 3 weeks time (not to mention the psychological aspect, with 2 hard crashes in the last 4 races)...

no, Italy are only asking to switch a couple of their women's alpine skiing quota places to the men's squad, which imho could and should be always possible (at least for 1, max 2 quota...like they already do in other sports -shooting is the first that comes to my mind)...

I haven't seen a single outdoor sport event in the Far East not experiencing weather troubles...all the Winter Olympics held there have always had many events postponed/disturbed by inclement weather... so, why should this time be different? I hate Winter Olympics held in Asia!

no

that's her style...she only knows the top gear... and the many, too many severe injuries she sustained in her still young career didn't teach her anything...it's always all or nothing... by the way, I'm spent right now...

we can make a quick review of the Italian perspective... Alpine Skiing: -2 medals (1 Gold)... so, we're down to 3 real shots...the infamous 2014 Olympics would quickly lose their status of "worst Italian Olympics ever"...

I don't have many...but our tv commentators always say that's a very difficult track that favors the most technical skiers in the speed events... basically, Brignone should have more chances than Goggia and Shiffrin could really make a clean sweep if she starts all the individual races... but it's always only about "rumors"...nobody has seen the tracks in person, so it might be very much different from what they're saying right now... we'll see in 10 days time when the men's training runs start...

no doubt about that... even if they end up not deserving the sweep, the biased skating judges will gift them the top 3 places in any case...

not on that Olympic track...

I think Norway is the safest bet...but I fear France (and I secretly hope for an Italian miracle, even for a bronze medal only...it would be amazing)...