phelps

I'm basically in the same stuation, my dad is 78 and he's the last close relative I still have (and at the same time I'm the only close relative he has)... stay strong and stay safe!

swimming...she's a breastroke specialist, but she's a pure sprinter (last year she won the silver medal at the World Champs when she was 14 years young), not sure she's going to have a successful transition to the 100m in a short while...most likely, she'll never be as good over that distance as she already is over the 50m... by the way, this postponement is pure gold for Alex Schwazer, as this summer the Bolzano Trial Court is expected to publish the definitive pronounciation about the plot FIDAL & IAAF (with Russian cooperation) built against him... if he's finally judged not guilty of the 2016 doping episode he's been charged with, in 1 year he'll be able to make his ban lift (I hope, I wish)... by the way, for Italy there are a lot of athletes on the rise, most likely more than those having their chances fade away in the next 12 months (our current stars risking the most are surely Federica Pellegrini -swimming- and Elisa Di Francisca/Aldo Montano -fencing- maybe also Vincenzo Nibali -cycling...the rest of our team is not that young, but also not so old to be dismissed by a 1-year wait)...

yes, even if unfortunately it's only in SD... yesterday they also started CT3...this one in HD...

surely I'm not gonna miss those 2002 replays...Ziggy, Miro, Peter and many more...what a team that was!

did you think you had an exclusive with that? no way our main public TV channel Rai 1 from tomorrow will broadcast every morning at 7 a.m. the mass celebrated by Pope Francis from the Chapel in "his house", Casa Santa Marta... of course it will be available worldwide thanks to the fact that rai 1 is basically everywhere for free, on the internet and on satellite...

today in Italy: 3612 new positive cases 743 new deaths (402 in Lombardy)... the new recovered people are 894...

here I am! to be precise, today is game #7 of the semifinal series between Neman Grodno and Shakhtar Soligorsk... the finals (Yunost Minsk are already qualified and will have the home field advantage in the decisive series) will be played from this weekend: March 27th, 28th, 31st and April 1st...if needed, then games #7 through #7 are scheduled for April 3rd, 5th and 7th respectively... live streaming of today's match (puck drop at 7.30 p.m. Belarus time, 5.30 p.m. CET) is available through this website https://hockey.by/ but you need a good vpn to watch it... also the Ukranian Tv channel X sport is going to broadcast today's game and the final series... https://xsport.ua/online/ this is easier to unblock on the internet (free VPN Hola works very well) and it's also available on satellite @ 4 degrees west -encrypted in biss, but as many could know, that's not a big deal if you have the right equipment ...

Swimming Olympic champion Cameron Van Der Burgh's experience with coronavirus... https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/52010616

as I wrote in the other thread, last night I watched once again the Muhammad Alì biography written and narrated by the best Italian storyteller, Federico Buffa... simply amazing, almost a mystic experience every time I listen to him...

OK, now it's really over... sports memories from the past are the only chance left... by the way, NFL GamePass and NBA League Pass are currently available for free during this virus emergency period, so people can still re-watch the whole last NFL season e the currently paused NBA season for free... and ESPN Player is filling its lineup with a lot of interesting stuff, from the classic ESPN docs to some of the geatest boxing classics ever (that's a chance for the youngsters to give a look to the glory days of Muhammad Alì, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Sugar Ray Robinson and many others)... last night I watched once again the amazing biography of Muhammad Alì narrated by the absolute best storyteller we have in Italy (Federico Buffa)...it was quite a mystic experience, just like the first time I saw it...the way Buffa is capable of making you live the storytelling is simply unbelievable...it really looks you're living the days, the situation he's talking of...

well, I don't think many of those multi-sport Games would ever be affected by the Olympics being held in the same year... World Games are about non-Olympic disciplines (Sport Climbing and Karate being the only exception, with Karate not always sending their truly best representatives to the World Games because of weird selection system)... the other regional games only feature 2nd/3rd (and lower) tier athletes, who normally are not good enough to make the Olympic cut of the modern days... not to mention Youth Games, which don't involve Olympic athletes in any case (not even in sports like Gymnastics)... so, don't worry...you're gonna have a lot of fun without losing that much... in case the OG move to 2021, the only true big losers would be the European Champs in Swimming, Athletics and some Team Sports, which obviously would see their starting lineup lower both the top and average quality...

if the Olympics go to 2021 and the NBC agrees, it's surely Eugene 2022 (R.I.P. European and other Continental champs)...

sure...I was having my dinner (roast turkey, french fries, one kiwi and some dry fruits...to be precise)... jokes aside, in any case there's not much to say...he only highlighted what we already think it's obvious since quite a while... it's only just another confirmation that the Olympic movement is in the hands of the English-speaking powerhouses' lobby and that they don't care about the rest of the world...it's only about their interests and nothing else...

however, Wierer is the only woman in history to win at least 1 youth, 1 junior and 1 senior world title and a world cup (actually, she won more than 1 in each class)... the only dark side is that it took quite some time to adjust from youth/junior success and translate it into senior success for her (like often happens to the Italian athletes in many other sports)... when looking back at her whole career, I think she eventually deserves even more credit than what she actually gets (which is already above average)... p.s. I totally agree on Sandrine Bailly being underestimated big time when mentioning the all time greats in Biathlon/Winter Sports in general...

we're just discovering day after day new lows of the human stupidity...

sometimes I like to watch old sport events... and even if I already know who's going to win, it doesn't matter...I normally watch them or because I've never seen them before (especially those old hockey games from the 70's and the 80's) or because I want to re-live the emotions I felt the first time or look at them with a different and more relaxed perspective... I mean, if I watch an Olympic final with Italian athletes live, it's normal that I have eyes for my favourite athlete(s) and it's more a fan experience, meanwhile if I rewatch the same event after some time, I can appreciate all the aspects I didn't focus on when I was following live...

yeah, right now I'm watching a couple of episodes of Blue Bloods and Bull (actually, it's also a re-watch, as I've already watched those episodes)... I still have to watch the final episode of Criminal Minds (and a lot of other new series/episodes), but tonight I'm not in the right mood to watch new things that need to be very focused to follow... before going to sleep, after the tv series, i think I'm going to watch a few new episodes of a cooking show (not a reality kind of show like masterchef, though...it's a show with a Japanese cook who lives in Italy and makes dishes mixing Japanese and Italian products and style...I really like him -his name is Hirohiko Shoda, aka simply Hiro- he's a really nice guy and his funny Italian always makes me laugh)... p.s. my absolutely favourite movie with Peter Sellers is this one: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057413/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

no way, I want to have full control of what we buy...especially when it comes to vegetables, meat and fish (packed things like water bottles, sanification products and so on are always availble through the online shop, in case...actually, everything is available through online shops, but, as I wrote, I prefer to choose foods personally -or through my dad, as he knows like me what we like and what we don't like)... we try to protect ourselves and hope that everything goes well (respecting all recommendations should be enough to avoid problems...but the problem is that it's diffcult to think about thios situation only rationally, sometimes your mind goes where you wouldn't like by itself)...

yeah, don't worry for that...I'm full of things to do...from house cleaning to cooking, from reading to watching old sport events, docs and tv series and doing a lot of different things...not mentioning my phone being always busy in these days (the few relatives we still have alive don't live very close to us and are not so young to manage the new technologies)... in the last few days, for instance, I finally revamped my 11 year old laptop (in case I need a backup for my newest one) changing ram memories and storage (from an old hdd to a new flashy SSD) and of course making all the needed configuration and setup... never done anything like that before...it was an entertaining experience...

some Olympic Fencing (Rio 2016 and London 2012) re-watch...

I know that, but even that single hour or so a week we have to go out to buy something to eat always scares me...you never know who you're going to meet at the supermarket (even if you keep the 1.5m distance from every people)...

thanks, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you and your sister (and the rest of your family)...

yeah, me and my dad are probably among the very few people truly respecting the lockdown...one of us only goes out once a week for our weekly visit to the supermarket and stop... after that, our door is always locked...

and here we go... first official coronavirus victim in the same block where I live... however, I think it's not really the first one... and in any case, now I'm getting really worried...more than ever...

no, here supermarkets, pharmacies, newsstands are still allowed to open... actually, they've been asked to keep open even longer than usual, so keep people waiting for their turn to buy things at minimum and avoid them making groups just outside the buildings... also all "strategic" industries will still be open (all those involved in the food or medical supply chain, for instance)...