phelps

as OE Bjorndalen said, it's very similar to Antholz, wind from left to right, a demanding uphill section approaching the range and about 1700m above the sea level... the main difference is the kind of snow...they say the Chinese snow is quite "aggressive", similar to the US kind rather than the European (Alpine) snow... thinking about Hofer and Wierer's perspective, I only hope it's not gonna be too cold at Games' time...

temperature was up to 12° Celsius... in the second run, apart for the usual 2 or 3 Germans used to manage these conditions, all the others who were in top the part of the ranking after the 1st run, were just screwed by the track getting worse and worse after every ride...

Giorgia Villa has structural bone damage in her back and therefore in the future she's going to focus only on Balance Beam and Uneven Bars, meanwhile she's going to stop working on new excercises on the Floor and Vault, which means that she won't be a threat in the All Around competitions anymore... here's an article about that (unfortunately it's in Italian only)... https://www.oasport.it/2021/12/giorgia-villa-ho-un-problema-osseo-alla-schiena-mi-dedico-a-parallele-e-trave-posso-fare-ginnastica-ad-alto-livello/?refresh_ce

yeah, theoretically they have quite a good number of gold medal chances... if they're going to take advantage of all/most of them, well, that's another story... imho, they have true gold medal chances in men's skeleton; men's 500m, 1000m and 1500m in speedskating; men's 1000m, 1500m and all 3 relays in short track (and you can't really count them off in any other race in that sport); artistic pairs in figure skating; all 3 aerials events in freestyle skiing; women's half pipe in snowboarding... I'd be really surprised if they're going to miss more than 25% of all these chances...

there's no baseball at all in Paris 2024...

don't remember me that! it's so painful losing one of the best sports channels in Europe... still, I have the Slovak TV, the satellite feeds (but unfortunately yesterday only the Edmonton games were within reach with my modest 120cm dish), but also a good VPN (aka, above all, Swedish SVT and their high quality tv pictures)... and the original TSN broadcasts are available for free on their website, if you watch them ondemand on the following day (which is almost always the case, as most games are in the middle of our nights)...

as I suspected, the stream wasn't a legal one...and as soon as they heard the voice, they removed it quite quickly... it was too beautiful to last for a long period of time...

Norway might be the big favourite, but I think this time it's not so obvious as it was in the recent past... I think there are at least 3/4 Nations (Germany, Sweden, USA...even Canada and China are not to be excluded "a priori") that could challenge the Norwegians with true chances to make better than them... by the way, I still take the "easy" route and I say Norway...

so, the IIHF is stealing tsn's stream with a good 5 minute-delay... I'm watching the live feed on satellite and this stream is way behind live pictures... ps spoiler: Germany just tied the game...

if you want to watch it live, you need a vpn... but if you want to watch any program on delay, it's free all around Europe...just need to wait for the next stint to start and the previous one becomes available... https://www.npostart.nl/gids?date=2021-12-26&type=tv

Merry Christmas to all the Totallympians!

my very own Italian Sports Awards 2021... Best Male 1. Lamont Marcell Jacobs (athletics) 2. Filippo Ganna (cycling) 3. Robert Antonioli (ski mountaneering) Best Female 1. Antonella Palmisano (athletics) 2. Elisa Balsamo (cycling) 3. Sofia Goggia (alpine skiing) Best Team 1. Men's 4*100m Relay (athletics) 2. Men's Euro 2020 Champions (football) 3. Valentina Rodini & Federica Cesarini (rowing) tied with Ruggero Tita & Caterina Banti (sailing) and men's Team Pursuit (cycling)

Italian raisport+ hd channel is live every afternoon....

@Makedonas@maestro and all the Greek users... that's quite a story... Carolina Ioannou (Greek father and Italian mother), raised and trained in Italy (where she played also for our youth/junior National teams) has chosen to switch her sports nationality and from now on she's committed to play for the Greek National team, after coming to play club Waterpolo in Greece last Summer (at the Ethnikos Piraeus club)... my bad, but I only found this article in Italian... https://www.oasport.it/2021/12/pallanuoto-la-storia-di-carolina-ioannou-cambio-di-cittadinanza-sportiva-convocata-dalla-grecia/?refresh_ce

The first competitions have been held at the Adamello, Pontedilegno-Tonale Ski Resort Men's Sprint Gold: Arno Lietha Silver: Hans-Inge Klette Bronze: Thibault Anselmet Women's Sprint Gold: Emily Harrop Silver: Lena Bonnel Bronze: Giulia Murada Men's Vertical Race (Non-Olympic event in 2026) Gold: Rèmi Bonnet Silver: Werner Marti Bronze: Michele Boscacci Women's Vertical Race (Non-Olympic event in 2026) Gold: Axelle Gachet Mollaret Silver: Tove Alexandersson Bronze: Sarah Dreier the "classic" Individual Races will be held on Sunday... tbh, not a good couple of days for Italy, at least in the senior events... in particular, the discipline's superstar Robert Antonioli was only 4th in the Sprint Race and 9th in the Vertical Race... hopefully, we'll be better on Sunday... to save the day, the U-23 & U-20 races, where Italy got a lot of medals (also a couple of Golds)...

this name must be a technical requirement to make the team...

surprising end of the day in Carezza... Ester Ledecka made a capital mistake in the final run and Ulbing took advantage of that to take an unexpected win home... however, if we close our eyes in front of her final mistake, Ledecka did show a clear superiority over the rest of the field in her comeback to Snowboard... she's still one of the most predictable gold medallist in Beijing... among the men, instead, it's always a mess...there are so many guys capable of winning an event on a given day... today the Italians were better than last week in Russia, but still they couldn't take advantage in full of the home soil and of a group of 5 in the top 16 (and 2 in the semis)... last year's wins in series are far behind us, unfortunately...

Italy have already selected their team for the Olympic Games... Men Andrea Cassinelli Yuri Confortola Tommaso Dotti Pietro Sighel Luca Spechenhauser Women Arianna Fontana Cynthia Mascitto Arianna Sighel Arianna Valcepina Martina Valcepina

yeah, the problem is that first Russia "B" and then Norway (Russia's substitute) pulled out of the tournament at the last minute because of covid protocol, so the whole schedule had to be changed... afternoon games have been cancelled and now Switzerland play Latvia later tonight and Slovakia tomorrow night (both games at 7.45 p.m. CET)... at least, tomorrow's game will be covered by the Swiss TV, so you'll be able to watch that game with better picture quality... p.s. I'm still furious because JOJ Sport forced to close CT Sport down for skylink's Slovak cards (and my subscription is a Slovak one)... and the new Slovak :ŠPORT is no consolation for what I'm going to miss so much...

Knockout Stage, Semifinals Pairings 1st Leg, Tuesday & Wednesday 4 & 5.01.2022 2nd Leg, Tuesday & Wednesday 11 & 12.01.2022 Red Bull Munich (GER) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) Rögle Ängelholm (SWE) - Frölunda Gothenburg (SWE)

Knockout Stage, Quarterfinals 2nd Leg, Match Highlights Red Bull Munich (GER) - Lukko Rauma (FIN) Rouen Dragons (FRA) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) Rögle Ängelholm (SWE) - Sparta Prague (CZE) Frölunda Gothenburg (SWE) - Leksands IF (SWE)

Knockout Stage, Quarterfinals 2nd Leg Wednesday 14.12.2021 - Results 19:00 Frölunda Gothenburg (SWE) - Leksands IF (SWE) 3-3 (Aggr. 8-5) 19:00 Rögle Ängelholm (SWE) - Sparta Prague (CZE) 1-3 (Aggr. 6-5) 19:30 Rouen Dragons (FRA) - Tappara Tampere (FIN) 0-4 (Aggr. 3-7) 20:15 Red Bull Munich (GER) - Lukko Rauma (FIN) 2-1 [OT] (Aggr. 4-3)

the "grandeur" is a very bad disease... however, they forgot to say that the opening speech by the 1976 Olympic Champion aka the IOC President dr. Thomas Bach will feature the greatest breakdance show ever as the intro...

you can still watch all the games on Youtube for free (most likely with a vpn, as I think Ziggo is blocking that stuff in the Netherlands)...

on paper...but the truth is that most relays are already over well before having a true head to head in the final leg... however...I added a possible schedule's scheme in the previous post...