phelps

it all started with this... https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8513525/British-2012-Olympians-guinea-pigs-Special-Forces-wonder-drug.html and despite it might be something not illegal at that time (not even right now, it seems...as many cycling teams -Jumbo Visma on top- openly say that they regularly use ketonics), surely that was an immoral fully state-funded (through the very generous National Lottery fundings) and hidden operation... and you know, when you feel the need to hide your behaviour, there's a lot to think about it... that might be only the top of the iceberg...

no, no chance...unless they get caught with actual positive tests...

OK, now I feel I have to post some of my private photos...

Today's Freestyle Medallists 57kg Gold: Zavur Uguev Silver: Arsen Harutyunyan Bronze: Andrii Yatsenko & Rahman Amouzad 70kg Gold: Magomedmurad Gadzhiev Silver: Haydar Yavuz Bronze: Arman Andreasyan & Islambek Orozbekov 74kg Gold: Razambek Zhamalov Silver: Frank Chamizo Marquez Bronze: Fazli Eryilmaz & Tajmuraz Salkazanov 92kg Gold: Alikhan Zhabrailov Silver: Georgii Rubaev Bronze: Erhan Yaylaci & Samuel Scherrer 125kg Gold: Shamil Sharipov Silver: Robert Baran Bronze: Aiaal Lazarev & Dzianis Khramiankou

OK...I understand your point, but I fear you're wrong... Belorussian athletes will be under neutral Flag in Tokyo if nothing changes from now until the next IOC EB...that's already decided (of course they can and will appeal this sanction and we still have to wait for CAS final decision, but right now the situation stays as explained according to all the news reports I saw last week)...

sure, but you know...some sides are always guilty and some others are always innocent... I'd like to see a bit more fairness in how we look at the usual suspects instead of judging things with so much prejudice (and that's true for all places, it's not a question of East or West, North or South of the World)...

but the real scandal is not the overall time over the 400m distance...it's the last leg (the freestyle one) that's "impossible" for a woman... given the men's record, 4.28 or 4.26 for women is not so impressive (I'm sure those clockings are going to be beaten in reasonable time, too), but that last leg swum faster than Michael Phelps himself...c'mon! that's too much even for most naive people... it's like those weightlifter lifting triple body weight...how could man pretend to believe that's done without any chemical help? there are some sports performances that draw suspects from any side you watch them...and it's not a question of being Chinese, American, Italian or wherever one can come from...

and USA, GBR and Australia, too...

who knows? she's young and strong, however she doesn't look your average 16-year girl...most likely she's going to improve 1 further second in 8 months time, which won't be enough to beat Lilly King... I hope she can at least win a medal...

sure...no doubt about that... we're going to see the signature OAR and the IOC Flag in the top 3 of the medal table, too...

I know that (and I'm absolutely OK with that, since they are not guilty of any sport infraction/cheating)... I was only answering our French friend, who was surprised to hear that the Belorussian athletes are going to compete under IOC's Flag in Tokyo...

well, for them it's a different situation and feeling... they surely feel they're victim of some kind of injustice and they also have a strong patriotic feeling...so, they are always proud of representing their Country and show the world they're the best despite the Western ostracism (and they also have a regime that normally use sports success as a form of marketing)... however, it might well be an option for some of their athletes to switch to other friend Countries, they normally do that to find some space when they feel they don't have chances to make their national team...so, why not doing anything similar in this circumstance? in any case, nothing's going to upset/surprise me anymore...

p.s. looking at this thread, this championship's broadcast should have record share/ratings... but tomorrow we'll surely read that the actual rating is 0.00003%

Bennyyyyyyy! 15-year young sensation Benedetta Pilato just swam 1.06.02 (50m pool) in the women's 100m Breaststroke at the Italian Winter Champs... obviously it's a new National record and also the Olympic pass for her... Martina carraro was second in the same race, but swimming "only" 1.06.58, she didn't get the Olympic pass (it was 1.06.4 in this event)... of course she's gonna have more chances to book her Olympic spot next year...

Belarus was announced by Thomas Bach himself last week... Italy have enormous political problems, with our politicians trying to put their dirty hands on the sports Institutions (and money)... and despite the repeated IOC's warnings, our government is doing absolutely nothing to correct this situation... in 4/6 weeks time, if nothing is done, the IOC is going to punish also Italy...

Tomorrow's Men's Freestyle Finals 61kg: Akhmednabi Gvarzatilov vs Abasgadzhi Magomedov 65kg: Iszmail Muszukajev vs Vazgen Tevanyan 79kg: Muhammet Kotanoglu vs Akhmed Usmanov 86kg: Zbigniew Baranowski vs Dauren Kurugliev 97kg: Aliaksandr Hushtyn vs Abdulrashid Sadulaev

here we go with another farce... those are just non-sanctions... I don't know if they were guilty or not, but if they were named guilty of what they were accused of, they should have been completely thrown out of the sports' world for at least 4 years (and at least 2 Winter and 2 Summer Games)... so, in Tokyo we will have around 10% of the athletes competing under the neutral IOC Flag and Anthem (adding together Russia, Belarus and soon to be punished Italy we go over 1,000 people)...

Today's Men's Freestyle Semifinals 61kg Akhmednabi Gvarzatilov vs Muhamad Ikromov Abasgadzhi Magomedov vs Agustin Destribats 65kg Hor Ohannesian vs Vazgen Tevanyan Iszmail Muszukajev vs Haji Aliyev 79kg Baliyan Gourav vs Akhmed Usmanov Vasyl Mykhailov vs Muhammet Kotanoglu 86kg Zbigniew Baranowski vs Taimuraz Friev Naskidaeva Dauren Kurugliev vs Deepak Punia 97kg Valerii Andriitsev vs Abdulrashid Sadulaev Shamil Zubairov vs Aliaksandr Hushtyn

naaa...writing is definitely not my best skill... by the way, about the word "fascinating" it's highly likely you're right, and I've been a bit misinterpretating it because of the Italian meaning of the correspondent word (which is normally only referred to "captivating in a good way", we have other words when we want to give a negative meaning to the sentence)... p.s. I understand you couldn't go down too hard because of the platform you're writing on... still, I'm heavily infuenced by my absolutely negative opinion on what the IOC is doing in the last 15 years or so...and therefore sometimes I can be very, very harsh with them... as I wrote many times, I feel just like a baby whose favourite toy has been broken/taken away...

that's a premiere for me, too... but I loved it at first sight...

nice and interesting article... but... but, tbh, I think you've been too soft versus the IOC's enormous mistakes and hipocrisy... I'm not going to repeat myself making this post a pamphlet against the IOC's silly moves of the entire Rogge + Bach tenures, but I must say that I don't agree with the last sentence, too...there's nothing fascinating in watching something you've loved so much being deprived, dismantled, distroyed like Tokyo 2020 and even more Paris 2024 are gonna do... I just don't feel any hype for those "new Games", I'm only very, very sad about what's going on...

Today's Women's Wrestling Medallists 57kg Gold: Anastasia Nichita Silver: Anshu Bronze: Veronika Chumikova & Mehlika Ozturk 59kg Gold: Svetlana Lipatova Silver: Mariana Cherdivara Esanu Bronze: Kateryna Zelenykh & Magdalena Urszula Glodek 65kg Gold: Tetiana Rizhko Silver: Irina Ringaci Bronze: Elis Manolova & Mimi Nikolova Hristova 68kg Gold: Meerim Zhumanazarova Silver: Adela Hanzlickova Bronze: Khanum Velieva & Alina Berezhna Stadnik Makhynia 76kg Gold: Aline Rotter Focken Silver: Yasemin Adar Bronze: Vasilisa Marzaliuk & Aiperi Medet Kyzy

easy task for Frank in the semifinal bout... very curious to see tomorrow's final against this new Russian...

Tomorrow's Men's Freestyle Finals 57kg: Arsen Harutyunyan vs Zavur Uguev 70kg: Haydar Yavuz vs Magomedmurad Gadzhiev 74kg: Razambek Zhamalov vs Frank Chamizo Marquez 92kg: Georgii Rubaev vs Alikhan Zhabrailov 125kg: Robert Baran vs Shamil Sharipov

however, I have a good teacher... Frank earlier today really got me scared...