phelps

I don't know...probably she just lost some motivation or simply she's getting old... suddenly, after 2016 she just had a vertical drop in her achievements... the problem is that nobody in our team will never leave her out because of her past success (and this will hurt badly our team results)...

yeah, those were the "social idiots", but she was angry only with Bruni and the Italians (she also released an interview to the French TV, which then she was forced to apologize for by the French federation)... her rivalry with Bruni dates a long time back...they were both born in 1990 and it's since the youth classes that they're fighting against each other...and in all these years they have developed a harsh mutual contempt...

expected... she's no longer the woman she used to be... but before someone in our team would eventually take notice of that, we must waste at least an entire Olympic qualification...

in the past, they used to rank 5th the fighter defeated in the quarterfinals by the eventual winner, 6th the fighter defeated by the eventual silver medallist, 7th the fighter defeated by the loser to the eventual winner in the semis and 8th the remaining fighter... but nowadays the olympic boxing isn't run by aiba anymore, so I don't know what they're gonna do (I'd rather prefer a 5th-8th place playoff between all the quarterfinals losers...definitely...but with that bunch of cheaters, you never know)...

the Italians ended up 5th and 6th...with or without her, it wouldn't change anything for them... she just loves to play dirty...and when the judges have enough of her and her methods and get her DSQ, she's only capable of shouting at the "Italian mafia" (see Rio 2016...someone must be really brave to call "injustice" her disqualification after what she did that day)...

when chaos and the fight for the front row before the final sprint started, she jumped over her arch-rival Bruni and hit her hard once again, almost making her lose her swim glasses and leaving some signs on her face... and she also used her typical aggressive methods also over other swimmers in the last lap of today's race... at least we already know that the Olympic race won't be that dirty...

just open the main draws (look for the links I posted in the previous days/hours)... and you have the detailed schedule of each assault (and on which piste it's set to happen)... of course you have to follow round by round to know what happens after the first one... p.s. the semifinals & finals session is scheduled for 6 p.m. CET (at least tomorrow)...

so, we lost another piece of the puzzle even before the main draws started...this time it's Sofia Ciaraglia in the women's sabre (this girl is really disappointing...she has big talent, but once she's got to the senior ranks, she's never been able to deliver...)... and the other girls' draw is really awful...they all are in the same half of the draw and all of them will have to face very tough opponents already in the early rounds...it will be very difficult to see one of them in the top 8 (not even dreaming of a podium finish)... on the men's side, our Foil specialists also have a difficult draw, especially the reigning world champion Foconi should face people like Cheremisinov in the round of 16 and Massialas or Le Pechoux in the quarterfinals... moreover, Garozzo and Cassarà are set to face each other in the round of 16 (if they can make it through to that round)...only Avola has a couple of warm-up rounds before facing (on paper) Enzo Lefort as the first "big name" on his route...

main draws for next Saturday... men's individual Foil https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/smf-in/index.php?page=tableau64.htm women's individual Sabre https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/sws-in/index.php?page=tableau64.htm

my absolutely favourite Summer Olympic Sports right now are Fencing and Judo, then Karate, Wrestling and Field Hockey complete my Top 5... then... 2nd tier (very close to the top 5, had much trouble separating them): Sport Climbing, Slalom Canoeing, MTB Cross-Country races, Swimming, Athletics and Handball (especially the women's tournament)... 3rd tier: Archery, Beach Volleyball, Rowing, Shooting (especially shotgun shooting and the rapid fire pistol event), Triathlon, Taekwondo, Track Cycling... 4th tier: everything not mentioned elsewhere... Bottom of the pile: Diving, Gymnastics, Equestrian Sports (even if sometimes I like to watch Jumping and the Cross-Country race of the Eventing discipline), Surf, Skateboarding... special notes: I like Football (I could put it in the 2nd tier), but not the women's side (in general) nor the men's Olympic tournament, which I consider disrespectful of the Games for not being played by the best players of the sport... and the same it's for Baseball (this would surely be among the top 5, if only...), actually it's even more so, as I normally like Baseball more than Football (but not this farce that's gonna be the Tokyo tournament)... moreover, I have the same kind of feeling for Golf (even if in this case the best players in the world could be there, if only they wanted to)...I love it (2nd tier...very close to the top 5), but the Olympic tournament is the least attractive of the entire season to me... p.s. I don't even bother to consider them sports and therefore they are not even in my ranking Artistic Swimming, Rhythmic Gymnastics, Trampoline, BMX Freestyle (and the same is for 3x3 Basketball, even this is a legitimate "sport" to me...just it's not for me)... p.p.s. (Ice) Hockey still remains my favourite sport overall...also in Summer!

Aurelie Muller should be banned from open water swimming... she perfectly describes the concept of "unsportsmanlike conduct"...

WBSC unveils schedule for Softball Americas Qualifier in Surrey The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today unveiled the schedule for the 12-nation WBSC Softball Americas Qualifier, which will be held in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, from 25 August to 1 September. The top two teams in the WBSC Softball Americas tournament in Surrey will qualify for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, joining host Japan and USA as four of the six nations to be qualified for Tokyo 2020. The qualifier will be played over eight days of competition and feature 42 games. “This international competition in Surrey will be one of the most important softball tournaments ever held in the Americas, granting two precious spots to the historic return of softball at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020,” said WBSC Softball Division Chairman, Tommy Velazquez. “Today the road to Tokyo is clear for our softball athletes across the Americas and what they need to accomplish to fulfil their Olympic dreams.” Following a five-day Opening Round, the top three squads from each group will advance to the Super Round. Group A features world No. 3 Canada, No. 4 Puerto Rico, No. 17 Cuba, No. 18 Guatemala, No. 25 Argentina and No. 39 Bahamas Group B includes No. 5 Mexico, No. 14 Brazil, No. 16 Venezuela, No. 19 Dominican Republic, No. 20 Peru and No. 57 British Virgin Islands The two teams with the best overall records following the Super Round will earn qualification into the Olympic Softball tournament at the Tokyo 2020 Games. The full schedule as well as all tournament information, including rosters, stats and standings of the WBSC Softball Americas Qualifier, will be found at the official tournament website. https://olympicsoftball.wbsc.org/en/2019/e-2019-americas-softball-olympic-qualifier

this week it's time for a new Park event awarding useful points for the Olympic qualification... 5 Star International Skateboarding Open of Nanjing (CHN) tomorrow the global Open qualifiers will be contested, meanwhile on Thursday (quarterfinals) and Friday (semifinals and finals) the actual Nanjing Open will be on stage... here the detailed schedule: http://www.worldskate.org/component/phocadownload/category/566-program-crownboard-open-nanjing-2019.html?download=3769:skateboarding-iso-park-nanjing-2019-provisional-program-updated-on-july-11th

main draws for next Friday... women's individual Foil https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/swf-in/index.php?page=tableau64.htm men's individual Epee https://2019budapestfencing.com/files/hunfencing/2019_wfc_bud/sme-in/index.php?page=tableau64.htm

is it working right now? (because this morning it didn't even start -I used my Apple TV app to try and watch the race)...

luckily, not... but in that (in)famous Fuku-town you'll be able to watch the first 2 days of the softball competition, next Summer...

actually, also the definition "open water" swimming is not always correct, as they can use small lakes and/or artificial bassins to host those kind of events (just think about last year's European Champs, held in a small lake near Glasgow...difficult to name that "open water")...

this time it's not gonna be in Setubal...it will happen in Fukuoka (JPN)...

well, actually Paltrinieri's result is very good... in Italy most people thought he could easily miss out on the olympic quota, as he's not in good shape (after the injury he sustained at the US champs -where he dominated the field, but almost broke his elbow while making the final touch- he had to miss quite a few days of training at home and the whole altitude period with the rest of the National team...and just a few weeks ago in Rome at the Settecolli meet swam 15.10 over the 1500, which is his worst time since 2011)... today after the race he said that he was done and gone with 1 lap of the circuit left and it took of his pride and resilience to keep calm and get at least a top 10 placing at the end of the day... for sure, next year he will start in all the world series events over the 10km to gain the experience he does not have yet (he also said that after today's race)... for what concerns the 1500m, I think he will start in any case, but I expect him not even to make the final...for sure this year he can't win (and not even make the podium)... I'd be really surprised if he can do some magic in the pool...but, as they say, never underestimate the heart of a champion... we'll see what's gonna happen next week... p.s. the real upset for our team is Bridi missing the qualification in the women's race...that really hurts...

unfortunately there are some problems with raiplay website (and I fear it will take quite a long time for them to make up for their mistake)... if you try to watch "as live" through the smart tv or pc app, all of today's videos (even the supposed women's waterpolo match on raisport+ HD at 2.45 a.m.) don't start and send you back to the list of videos from the previous days... it's not the 1st time they have such fails...

guys! there's the full schedule of this championship in the first post of the thread...

Italy already lost a girl (Federica Isola) in the women's Epee preliminary stages... she lost against an unknown Czech fencer, who's 2000 places behind her in the world ranking... meanwhile I see that Luca Curatoli has quite a good draw until the quarterfinals of the men's Sabre event... still, a medal would be really surprising, as he should end up facing the local hero Aron Szilagyi in the quarterfinals...

day #1 of the qualification rounds is over... here are the main table draws of men's individual Sabre and women's individual Epee after today's action... men's individual Sabre https://2019budapestfencing.com/app.php?id=932V2 women's individual Epee https://2019budapestfencing.com/app.php?id=932V1

I did it! I sent IOC a couple of very harsh e-mails... but I guess they didn't even bother to read them...

if they are among the programs for which they have the internet rights, once the live broadcast is over, in a few minutes they should become available (but sometimes there are bugs and problems and in this case most likely they will never be available)... meanwhile, if they are among those programs for which they don't have the internet rights (mainly tv series and movies not on tv for the first time, whose rights are already in the bag of service like amazon prime and/or netflix), then there's no chance for them to become available... however, everything related to the swimming worlds should be available as soon as the live broadcast is over (except for unexpected bugs, as written before)...