phelps

no way! look...July, 28th is my birthday...so, I already asked as a birthday present Federica (Pellegrini) winning the Gold Medal in that race... so, there is no chance for anybody else to ruin my birthday... do not even try... please!!!

watched the fight earlier today... I thought it was worse than it actually was...but still, imho the 1 st round (basically, the decisive one) should have gone by a very short margin to the Italian... then, round 2 and 3 were pretty clear...the second stint was all for Mouhiidine and the 3rd, after a messy start, was definitely in favour of the Russian... it could have gone either way, but I'm not surprised at all it went to Russia... quite different story the women's -51kg semifinal match between ITA and GBR...luckily it wasn't a qualifier anymore, but there's no way to give GBR that match...actually, to give GBR a single round of that match (even the 3rd messy and useless round)... p.s. no comment on the 1st round judging of the box-off in the women's -60kg class between GRE and ITA...that was a full old AIBA attempt to steal a verdict... fortunately, the Greek was such a disaster in rounds 2 and 3 that even those biased judges couldn't do anything anymore...

my picks... 1) it looks so obvious... 4) only in Swimming, in Buenos Aires we had people like Milak and Kolesnikov and in Boxing, Caroline Dubois...so, I think this is really obvious... 6) Caeleb Dressel alone should be enough to fill this request... 3 & 5 to me are very unlikely, number 2 could well be, but they actually have only 2 real shots to make it through...so, I don't think it's gonna happen... extra poll... for what concerns Italy, all athletics, gymnastics (especially the insignificant silver & bronze medals in rhythmic gymnastics), diving medals are well overestimated, meanwhile all the combat sports medals are way underrated...actually, some of them (shooting, judo and boxing above all) in recent times have been often seen as undesiderable... just look at the last week...a lot of space on the media for Surfing and Skateboarding despite their epic fail and general mediocrity, a few lines for the also epic fail of the men's boxing (first time since 1920 that we don't qualify a single man to the Games in that sport), just a short mention to the 3 (today came the 4th) boxing girls qualifying to Tokyo and not a single word about the rifle and pistol quota places won (just a few words on the men's Trap, but only because of the Rossi vs De Filippis soap opera)... our Country, unfortunately, is a place full of hypocrites...

OK, I thought it was already up on the OC website... in any case, I have a good vpn...

is it already available?

he's the perfect weapon to keep the defense honest and allow Henry to be even more devastating than he has been until now... to me, now the Titans are legitimate SB contenders (if they can keep up with a healthy Mahomes on D)...

c'mon, man! the Joshua scandal in London is second only to Roy Jones' in Seoul 1988 in the history of boxing... and I mean the whole tournament, also the final against Cammarelle, when he should have lost by at least 10 points under the rules of that year... the other bouts were just the prologue of what they did in the last act of the tournament... and I'm not biased at all for what concerns that match, not anymore, at least... it was just the lowest point ever by the "modern" AIBA...

has someone watched the Gadzhimagomedov vs Mouhiidine match? I just read the result and a few lines by the OA sport website, but I don't trust them at all when it comes to boxing...I haven't watched the bout, so I don't know what to think about it...

and thanks to Irma Testa, now we have 3 girls flying to Tokyo (and most likely no men, unless Mouhiidine pulls out a miracle later today against the once favourite of all the judges in the world despite being an absolute farce of a boxer, aka Muslim Gadzhimagomedov )...

Japanese domination among the girls... most likely, a preview of the Olympic debut of this discipline... only 5th, my absolute favourite Leticia Bufoni... https://www.instagram.com/leticiabufoni/ how can't man not fall in love with her?

if all NOP athletes miss out on the Games, then it means that there's still some kind of justice on earth...

If I write what I think of this kind of crazy qualification rules (in many sports, not only Surfing of course), I might well end up in jail (or facing a 9 digit compensation)...

well, I don't foresee the future, so it might well be that Dubois becomes the best female boxer ever in a few years... I was only judging what I saw with my eyes in the few bouts of hers I've had the chance to watch in the last couple of years (I remember her well also in the junior ranks)...

yes, that's why I think the whole meet lost its qualifying status...and most likely it's because of issues with the doping tests (either they've not been performed at all for any reason or just there weren't any selected FINA official on site and therefore they can't be taken into consideration)...

I think the Athens' meet wasn't approved as a qualifying event because of some issues with the doping tests after the races... it's the most probable explaination for that meet not being taken into consideration...

Potkonen is a wrestler trying to practice a different sport...she doesn't even know what "boxing" means... she should have been thrown off the ring well before the end of the match (as often through her career)...

among the Brits, I only watched Dubois (yesterday and today)... surely she deserved to win both matches with unanimous decision (but against Nicoli she wasn't that much better, the 1st round was really, really close -with different rules it should have been judged 10-10- then in the second round she was gifted by the ref of the standing count against Nicoli for a couple of normal jabs), but imho she's way overestimated... Irma Testa yesterday was far more impressive...so far, definitely the best boxing show among the matches I've watched (men included)... of the other few matches I've watched (despite my promise to ignore Olympic boxing for the rest of my life, I just couldn't resist ), most results have gone according to what actually happened on the ring, the only truly undeserved verdict was the Russian Khataev eliminating the Italian Fiori in the men's -81kg... but as I wrote, I only watched a small number of fights (and mainly women's fights)...

-67kg: +67kg: in the women's -49kg I think vs for gold and 2 between for bronze, depending on the draw in the women's -57kg, on top and then a group of girls fighting for the remaining medals, among them

guys! thank you so much for having me among your all time favourites! I really appreciate that... just kidding...

actually, we have some of the best surfing and windsurfing spots in Europe...with wonderful beaches and landscapes, hot sun, strong wind and also good waves... in Italy you can find almost everything in terms of natural environment and climate...from mountains to sea, from lakes to rivers, from hot sunny beaches to cold freezy ski mountaineering routes... we only lack in young people practicing some sports at high level because they're too uncomfortbale or because they're too expensive... and in this case, we just had our guys underperforming, because Fioravanti in the men's division and Bevilacqua in the women's division definitely have the skills to qualify for the Games, but this time they just failed to perform at their best...point.

completely forgot about that... but I wrote it..."if I'm not wrong", which actually I was, of course... nothing new under the sun (which also isn't there here where I live at the moment)...

nowadays a VPN is always needed...

what a shame! if I'm not wrong, Surf is the only individual sport (considering Trampoline as just 1 discipline of Gymnastics) where no Italians have been able to qualify a single representative...

this is the list of TV stations with the broadcasting rights for this tournament: https://www.ijf.org/news/show/judoworlds-where-to-watch

not yet, the (online) draw is Today at 2 p.m. CET