phelps

also in Italy (for what it may count in Hockey) the season has been called over... and Sweden's SHL is playing the last RS round behind closed doors tonight and then they will stop at least until March 24th, when they should decide if the playoffs can be held with the fans on the stands or if they have to call it a day (they just don't want to play the playoffs behind closed doors)... sorry, the news is in Swedish Language only... https://www.shl.se/artikel/9204ak7on-403dd/sm-slutspelet-i-shl-skjuts-upp-till-foljd-av-regeringens-beslut-kring-publika-evenemang

Italy decided to stay home and not to take part into the upcoming European championships... They also asked to postpone the event, however they won't fly to Baku in any case in the next month (at least), until the Country is closed down for Coronavirus...

FIE closed down all Fencing activity for at least a month... they will ask the IOC to run the OQP longer than originally scheduled...

yes, I read an article about preventive censorship on their main online platforms like weibo and weChat that was performed since November in order to avoid any news about this "new virus" discovered in Wuhan spreading around the Country... and if the central government was already excercising their censorship in November, it means that the virus was know by the authorities well before that date...

do you know that the biggest "Chinatown" and "Koreatown" in the world are located in NY and LA? (not exactly in Europe)... so, if thios virus spreads also in the US, nobody should blame Europe for spreading it more than themselves... even China waited for months before they realized that damned thing was totally out of control and warned the rest of the world about what was coming (after letting million people fly around the world for thei new year's celebrations)... so, once again Trump said only dumb things...the only things you can expect from such irresponsible man...

in Italy all the online shopping sites (especially the main 2: Esselunga Supermarkets and Amazon Prime Now) have gone tilt! if you try to connect to those sites, it may well be impossible for hours during the day...and if you're so lucky you can make your shopping, delivery is scheduled only 10/12 days later! we're told not to move, to use those online service and they're dead and gone...requests are over by 500%+ than usual and they don't even know how to face such increased demand... and if you need some fresh vegetables and fruit and milk (all things you can't store for weeks, you always need to buy only what you really use in a short period, otherwise they go bad before you can even touch them), there's no chance you get them in a reasonable span... I fear it's gonna be a very long month of March...

daily official updates on the Health Ministry website... http://www.salute.gov.it/portale/nuovocoronavirus/dettaglioContenutiNuovoCoronavirus.jsp?lingua=italiano&id=5351&area=nuovoCoronavirus&menu=vuoto

yes and no...yesterday's numbers were incomplete (as I wrote) because the results of many tests from Lombardy Region (the zone with around 60% of all the Italian cases so far, 7200+ out of 12000+) were completed only after the daily bulletin by our health ministry... analyzing yesterday and today's numbers correctly, gives a way more "regular" distribution of new registered cases (they are still too many, the curve is still increasing, so we can't be happy about it, but at least we didn't have a tragic increase like it could look at first sight)... the main problem is that we are an "old" Country, which means that we have a lot of people more exposed to lethal consequences if they get sick (the number of deaths is scary, but as always, not all of them are stricly connected with this virus, which is just an accelerator for already compromised conditions)...

I thought so until a few days ago... but I'm not that "rational" and optimistic anymore...

I strongly believe that will happen for sure! Norwegians are greedy and arrogant enough to do that kind of things...

yes, the National Teams' athletes are still allowed to train and, if already abroad (which is the case of the biathlon world cup team), they can continue their activity as always...

Japanese Sport Minister and 1 of the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee members have started speking openly of the real possibility to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games to 2021 or, more likely, even 2022... however, they admit they haven't talked of it collectively nor with the IOC yet, but that starting from April, they will begin monitoring the situation and then make their conclusions, provided that said interviews were just about a very personal point of view... in any case, the final decision is up to the IOC (even if nobody in Japan expects them to go against the Japanese Government recommendations) and won't be taken before mid- / the end of June... so far I've been strongly optimistic, but now I fear that on July 22nd (when the first events of the 2020 Games are scheduled) I'm gonna be the saddest and most depressed man on earth...

All Judo Olympic Qualification Events (and also the youth acitvity) scheduled until April 30th have been cancelled https://www.ijf.org/news/show/all-olympic-qualification-events-cancelled-until-end-of-april and because of that, the Olympic Qualification Period has been extended until June 30th... https://www.ijf.org/news/show/covid-19-og-qualification-extended

Judo: All Olympic Qualification Events until April, 30th have been cancelled and also the whole youth activity has been stopped until the same date... https://www.ijf.org/news/show/all-olympic-qualification-events-cancelled-until-end-of-april

https://totallympics.com/index.php?/topic/1804-ice-hockey-2019-2020-discussion-thread/&do=findComment&comment=280657

Austrian EBEL and German DEL cancel playoffs over Coronavirus A day after one NHL team saw its schedule affected immensely due to the outbreak of COVID-19, two of Europe’s top pro leagues are shutting down. Austria’s top league, The Erste Bank Eishockey Liga, and Germany’s DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga) both announced they are abruptly ending their respective seasons as the disease continues to ravage parts of Europe. Despite being in the midst of their quarter-final playoff rounds, the EBEL released the following statement on Tuesday: “The Erste Bank Eishockey Liga has to end the current season. With this action, the League is responding to the measures and recommendations of the governments and competent authorities in the participating countries”. In a similar release less than an hour later, the top German league said it will also be axing the rest of its season, including playoffs: Over 100,000 cases of coronavirus have surfaced worldwide, forcing the entire sporting world to prepare and plan measures to contain the outbreak as we approach an obscenely busy time in the global sports calendar. Many major professional leagues across North America have begun announcing measures to limit contact between players and media, fans and non-essential team personnel, including the banning of reporters from NHL dressing rooms until further notice. With international tournament season on the horizon, several IIHF events, most notably the 2020 IIHF Women’s World Championship which was supposed to be held in Nova Scotia in late March, have been cancelled. The San Jose Sharks were the first—but surely not the last—NHL club affected by coronavirus concerns, with the team having to make adjustments to three upcoming March home games after Santa Clara County in California issued a cancellation of mass gatherings over 1,000 people, in light of “significantly increasing rates of COVID-19.” The NHL, and to a lesser extent the Sharks, are reportedly mulling their options over, and playing those home games with no fans in attendance is a very real possibility.

yes, but most of them died because of other kind of disease...the coronavirus only gave them a final push, but it wasn't the true reason of those deaths... however, of the 600+ deceased people in Italy, about 60% was 80 years old or more, 32% is between 70 and 79 years old, 8% is between 60 and 69 years old and 2% is between 50 and 59 years old... only a bunch of men and women below 50 died and all of them were already experiencing other lethal disease, with virus playing only a relatively small role in their death...

it's almost sure that's not true, unfortunately... it looks that at 37 degrees (Celsius) this damned virus can survive 2 days outside human body, which means, if true, that season change won't help much...we will have to wait until we have a worldwide available vaccine to make it a "normal" flu-alike disease and keep it under reasonable control... by the way, today's Italian numbers are: new people officially positive to the virus test: +529 than yesterday (might increase a bit, as there are still a few tests to be completed), total = 10149 cases (deceased and healed included); total number of deceased people: 631 (+168 than yesterday); 280 healed people from yesterday...

2020 World Cup, Stage #1 (Nicosia, CYP) Mixed Team Trap Gold: France 1 (Carole Cormenier & Antonin Desert) Silver: Spain 1 (Fatima Galvez & Alberto Fernandez) Bronze: Turkey (Safiye Sariturk & Yavuz Ilnam)

Updated, as of March 8th 2020

Men's Juniors Team Sabre Final Results Gold: Hungary Silver: Italy Bronze: Russia Semifinals: Hungary b. Russia 45-44 Italy b. Germany 45-35 Bronze Medal Match: Russia b. Germany 45-18 Gold Medal Match: Hungary b. Italy 45-35  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/F4C0BD0F18F4412095934599CC2D5B9A

Women's Juniors Team Foil Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: Germany Semifinals: Russia b. Poland 45-16 Italy b. Germany 45-35 Bronze Medal Match: Germany b. Poland 45-24 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Italy 45-40  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/5B50913149DF4176B2EEC10E27E0D1AD

Women's Juniors Team Epee Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Poland Bronze: Hungary Semifinals: Russia b. Hungary 45-44 Poland b. Italy 45-39 Bronze Medal Match: Hungary b. Italy 45-40 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Poland 45-35  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/6154D83779FB453A9C678D9533AD0197

Women's Juniors Team Sabre Final Results Gold: Hungary Silver: Russia Bronze: Turkey Semifinals: Russia b. Romania 45-26 Hungary b. Turkey 45-26 Bronze Medal Match: Turkey b. Romania 45-41 Gold Medal Match: Hungary b. Russia 45-35  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/ACBFD1A010A646EC94149236E675336C

Men's Juniors Team Foil Final Results Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: Poland Semifinals: Russia b. Poland 45-28 Italy b. Denmark 45-28 Bronze Medal Match: Poland b. Denmark 45-32 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Italy 45-44  Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: https://www.fencingtimelive.com/events/results/196E0782BF84474C948248AA0244E862