phelps

they say they bring bad luck with themselves... but owls are so classy, so beautiful...

and another Gold for CHN...

'cause they like speedskating more than swimming...

as I wrote, after Pellegrini and Paltrinieri's success we have always more and more kids trying to swim for real, quite a good amount of money to invest in infrastructure and development and a new generation of coaches who were humble enough to go abroad (especially in the USA) to study all what you need to know to make your swimmers improve (methodology, strategy, technical things)... however, it's since the Lamberti era that we are at least a decent swimming Nation in Europe...but we've always had troubles on the world's stage... in the last couple of years, things seem to have changed also there, I think more than anything because we have a larger basis of good athletes where to pick from and try and build really good swimmers...

do you remember Kazan 2015? he knocked a Brazilian female swimmer out on the side of the training pool only because she didn't make room for him to walk through... and this was the most dramatic but not the only time he was involved in some rough situations...

because once in our lifetime we've got the right timing in our set-up... but normally it's not the case (see the Rio flop, except for Paltrinieri/Detti)...

the problem is that the opposite (Sun getting someone knocked out) is a lot more probable...

women's team Sabre, 5th-16th Placements 5. Hungary 6. Ukraine 7. United States 8. China 9. Japan 10. Poland 11. Germany 12. Spain 13. Azerbaijan 14. Turkey 15. Canada 16. Hong Kong

too strong Russia...Italy will face Korea for Bronze in the women's team sabre... the gold medal instead is a French / Russian affair...

women's team Sabre, Semifinals France b. South Korea 45-43 Russia b. Italy 45-37

I don't know about GBR, but in Italy there are a lot of people practicing competitive swimming and a new generation of very good coaches (and a lot of money invested by our NOC/federation, which is not the usual stuff at this latitude)... it's one of the few sports where you can find athletes from all around the Country, while most sports are just "regional"...

unfortunately, no European record for Simona...but wonderful, wonderful win...

Kohler and Wang...

men's team Foil, Quarterfinals United States b. China 45-30 Russia b. South Korea 45-28 France b. Germany 45-24 Italy b. Hong Kong 45-28 men's team Foil, Semifinals United States vs Russia Italy vs France

women's team Sabre, Quarterfinals France b. Ukraine 45-34 South Korea b. United States 45-39 Italy b. Hungary 45-38 Russia b. China 45-28 women's team Sabre, Semifinals France vs South Korea Italy vs Russia

1) I forgot Pignatiello, but she still has to swim those times in a global event...it's not the same thing doing a great result in aminor meet and on the main stage... for what concerns Smith, I think she's too important for the US 4*200m free relay to start focusing more on the 800m/1500m double rather than on the shorter distances...not all the women in the world can be medal contenders from 200m to 1500m at the same time...there's only 1 Ledecky, I hope... 2) yeah, it was a typo... probably they're not, but I mean that she's already won a race like that, when she wasn't supposed to win...so, I don't take for granted that all the missing swimmers would beat Federica...I think she will eventually make the podium and that she would do it also with all the missing girls starting... 3) not saying that...I only hope he can at least change his mood, which would be important before taking any decision for the next campaign... taking decisions when you're in a wrong mood, is always the best way to take wrong decisions...

the tournament has started... GBR are thrashing ESP out at the moment... pretty good quality streaming of all matches on Youtube...links can be found on the schedule & results page of the official website, here: https://olympicsoftball.wbsc.org/en/2019/e-2019-europe-africa-softball-olympic-qualifier/schedule-and-results

yeah, Italian tv commentators were very harsh on that decision...and normally they don't talk about the refs, unless they do something really idiotic...

France, Italy and Russia are already through to the semis in the women's team sabre...USA and KOR are fighting for the last spot in a very tight match (37-36 for KOR right now)...

1) the same Li that didn't even make the final over the 400m free and opted for the 200m free instead of the 1500m but swam a modest 1.57.5 in the heats? and that has a PB just below 16 mins? and as I wrote, I don't remember Smith being so strong over the 1500m...she's definitely very good over the 800m, great over 400m, pretty good over the 200m free...but not exactly a medal contender over the longer distance... as I wrote, with Wang, Kesely and Kohler we have the best possible starting field (except for Ledecky, of course)... and now we have also Belmonte, even if she does look totally out of shape (and in fact she was originally eliminated over the distance)... 2) I agree on Ruck, but I think McKeown and Ledecky were in the pool 2 years ago... 3) not good at all for him... hopefully, in the next few days he's going to improve his mood...

1) we didn't do anything...if Ledecky got sick, it's only bad luck (for her)...but the other top 800m free girls are all there (except for Titmus, but she's obviously more 200m/400m oriented...there was no chance she sould start in this race since the schedule was known)...find me someone else better than Belmonte, Wang, Kesely and Kohler in that discipline -maybe Smith could do well over the 800m, but surely she's not a top 1500m specialist, as she's also more a 200m specialist than a long distance's)... 2) I think Titmus and Sjostrom don't agree... but I hope...of course... 3) it can happen...we'll see in the next few days if Wellbrock just wasn't focused enough today or if he dedicated himself too much to open water swimming and he's momentarily "lost the touch" in the pool (after his heat, Paltrinieri this morning said it was really diffcult to get back to competitive swimming in the pool in such a short time after the open water races)...

so, you're mostly for tax havens...

wow! last night's session has been one of the most surprising heats session ever, I guess... between DNSs and poor performances by some of the most expected athletes, there was no time to fall asleep despite the time (European time, of course)... it might sound a bit rough, no intention to denigrate anybody, trust me...but I'm so happy to see Paltrinieri on top of the 800m heats and Wellbrock out of the final with such a poor performance... after the last 2 seasons full of troubles and full of losses against the German (and Romanchuck, who's still there), it was a really needed boost for Greg... p.s. and now I'm really curious to watch the women's 1500m free final without Ledecky...it could be an interesting race...