phelps

here we go again... if the Saeid Mollaei's saga wasn't enough, now we have another "Iranian trouble"...this time in the Chess world!!! @MHSN did you hear about this one? is this news making the headlines in Iran or does it just stay below the radar? "The Iranian chess star and the country's top player Alireza Firouzja is considering changing his nationality after the Iranian chess federation withdrew its players from the upcoming World Rapid & Blitz in Moscow, according to the Iranian chess federation. The federation had objected to Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei playing games against Israeli opponents in a blitz tournament that was part of the recent Sunway Sitges Chess Festival. Subsequently, the federation decided to withdraw participation of all Iranian players from the World Rapid & Blitz, but Firouzja has not gone along with this decision. "Firouzja has made his decision and has told us that he wants to change his nationality," the Iranian Chess Federation's president, Mehrdad Pahlavanzadeh, told the news agency Tasnim. Firouzja is currently listed in the FIDE database as a registered player—but not an Iranian player—after the news was released, and is now recognized as "FIDE licensed" on his official profile." https://www.chess.com/news/view/firouzja-seeks-nationality-change-after-world-rapid-blitz-ban-by-iranian-fed

this is a no brainer... + but also these ones... + and the best day of my life (luckily, I was there)... ops...I just realized that the last 3 events I posted didn't happen in the last decade... actually, they didn't happen even in this Century!!! well, this should give an idea of how old...ancient...jurassic am I... once again, Merry Christmas to you all, my friends!

Merry Christmas to all the forum's users...

I agree... and I add also a special mention for Patrick Pigneter and Evelyn Lanthaler (wintersports/non-olympic sports*) and Vincenzo Nibali (cycling)... *hopefully not for very long time yet...

yeah... not that being a Kings fan since the times of the legendary Marcel Dionne is helping a lot, too... p.s. not to mention that bunch of losers named Dodgers (the biggest money wasters of the US main team sports)...

there are so many athletes and moments that would deserved to be mentioned, that's always almost impossible to come up with a list of this kind and be fully satisfied with it also when reading after some time... however, those are my picks as they came to my mind tonight... 1 - Caeleb Dressel (Swimming) 2 - even if I'd like to name someone else, I just can't ignore what they achieved in 2019: Therese Johaug (Cross-Country Skiing) and Sifan Hassan (Athletics) ex-aequo 3 - St.Louis Blues (NHL Hockey)...as of January 2nd, 31st and dead last in the league...in June, NHL Champions (for the first time ever) 4 - Remco Evanepoel (Cycling) 5 - Ariarne Titmus (Swimming) 6 - the dramatic 50th over and Super over of the 2019 Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand, especially the controversial 3rd last ball of the 50th over (England batting) 7 - not an athlete, not a single person...but the IOC as an Institution...for their relentless effort to destroy the Olympic Games as we always have known, watched and loved in the past 125 years...

personally, I hope to forget this 2019 as quick as possible... "my" L.A. Kings on the bottom of the NHL ranking... the Italian Hockey getting more and more a farce (when I thought it was already down to the ground, here it comes the men's U-20 worlds performance to dig deeper than ever)... "my" L.A. Dodgers ending the season in such a disappointing, depressing way...once again... "my" Oakland Raiders...simply a mess...and another losing season knocking at the door... no medals at the Judo worlds... only 1 bronze medal at the Wrestling worlds... for the first time ever, Italy won't have a full contingent in the Trap shooting events at the Olympic Games... no gold medals at the Fencing worlds after so many years... the Russian farce, the NOP scandal and all the other doping issues here and there making my beloved sports less enjoyable... finally, the worst of them all...overall, the IOC trying to destroy the Olympic Games I've always watched and loved to build...I don't even know what??? and especially...breakdance replacing Karate in Paris 2024 even before Karate makes its official Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, which basically awakened once again my suicidal tendencies... 2019...what a wonderful year of sport! p.s. there have been also a lot of highly enjoyable moments...but right now I'm not in the mood of remember them...it's this depressing Christmas period......you should make this polls in July...

no, it's always been over 12.5km... however, I made a quick search and those are all the women's Mass Start races gone beyond 40 mins* (the only Olympic race is the already mentioned Turin 2006, the first Olympic Mass Start race ever)... World Cup 2017/2018 Antholz/Anterselva D.Domracheva 40:23.9 2015/2016 Ruhpolding G.Koukalova 41:13.2 2014/2015 Oberhof D.Domracheva 42:36.6 2011/2012 Oberhof M.Neuner 40:02.2 2009/2010 Oberhof A.Henkel 40:53.6 / Ruhpolding E.Ekholm 40:58.7 2007/2008 Oberhof M.Neuner 40:46.1 2006/2007 Ruhpolding A.C.Olofsson-Zidek 44:32.0** / Pokljuka O.Khvostenko 41:55.9 2005/2006 Kontiolahti O.Zubrilova 42:38.2 *I didn't check before the 2005/2006 season... ** definitely, the slowest one... World Champs 2005 Hochfilzen G.M.Istad-Kristiansen 41:40.3 1999 Oslo Holmenkollen O.Zubrilova 40:08.2 (the very first World Champ Mass Start race) fun fact, Zubrilova is mentioned as a World champion for Ukraine and as a World Cup stage winner for Belarus...

surely, no... Turin 2006 Mass Start was won by Anna Carin Olofsson in 40:36...just to name one... actually, Turin 2006 was surely the slowest mass start ever in the men's division ( Michael Greis won that in over 47 mins), but I'm not aware if that was the slowest mass start ever in the women's division...

finally, the sun came out in Cervinia... and it was the brightest day for the Italian Snowboardcross specialists... Moioli 1st and Belingheri 3rd among the women, Sommariva 1st and Perathoner 2nd among the men! unfortunately, there was also a nasty fall (just on the finishing straight) for Luca Haemmerle... I hope that the situation is not as bad as it looked at the moment (he was taken to the hospital with all precautionary measures required by this kind of injury)...

well, in the past couple of years those entries were pure fake... when it came down to the actual races, there were just those 3/4 Koreans we saw at the last Olympic Games... so, I'd rather wait for the official results before starting the celebrations...

Men's Downhill in Valgardena/Groden cancelled because of rain and fog... Women's Downhill in Val D'Isere delayed until 12.30 CET (for now) because of last night's heavy snowfall... p.s. Snowboardcross in Cervinia is also seriously at risk of being cancelled... it's definitely looking not a "difficult" day for alpine snow sports fans...

2019 Men's Championship Tour, Final Ranking 1. Italo Ferreira, 59,740 pts 2. Gabriel Medina, 56,475 pts 3. Jordy Smith, 49,985 pts Full Ranking https://www.worldsurfleague.com/athletes/tour/mct?year=2019

Stage #11, Billabong Pipe Masters (Banzai Pipeline, Ohau, Hawai'i, USA) Gold: Italo Ferreira Silver: Gabriel Medina Bronze: Griffin Colapinto & Kelly Slater Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/mct/2927/billabong-pipe-masters/results?resultsType=prizes

by the way, here are my absolutely personal picks for the Italian Sports Awards... Man of the Year: Dominik Paris (Alpine Skiing) & Elia Viviani (Cycling) ex-aequo Woman of the Year: Dorothea Wierer (Biathlon) Team of the Year: "Settebello" (Men's Waterpolo National Team) Coach of the Year: Stefano Morini, Matteo Giunta & Christian Minotti (Swimming); Alessandro Campagna (Waterpolo) ex-aequo Most Promising Athlete: Jannik Sinner (Tennis) Most Improved Athlete of the Year: Matteo Berrettini (Tennis) No mention for Paralympic Sports nor E-Sports as I don't follow them at all...

me too... and frankly I only agree at 100% on the "team of the year" and the "most improved athlete of the year" result... but as we don't have an official sports award, this is still one of the most reliable among all those we can see all around in these days... p.s. of course I also like the special mention for Sinisa Mihajlovic and I wish him and his family all the best (as I know exactly what kind of drama they're going through and I'm particularly sensitive on that issue), but this has not much to do with sports (except for Sinisa being a famous former player and now a successful coach)...

maybe you're right, but except for Football and Athletics, we can say the same for almost every other sport... look at rugby...it's only about France, Argentina and the Commonwealth Nations...but still, the RWC is considered one of the biggest sports events in the world... the same goes for Handball, for instance...who gives it a crap outside north/central/eastern Europe? and I could go on for the rest of the day...

naaa...Cricket is still the biggest English sport (after Football)...even if the rugby team had won the RWC, it wouldn't have changed the rankings that much...

really? so, you missed one of last summer's main events in the world of sports... jokes aside, England won their first ever Cricket World Cup (in the main format, they already won one in the shorter version Twenty-20)...and they did it at home in dramatic fashion... Ben Stokes of course was the hero of that magic day (and not only that day, but the whole world cup)... just for a late recovery... https://www.cricketworldcup.com/

as long as there's no casein (my worst enemy in the kitchen), I'm OK with it... and after your description, I think I'm going to appreciate it...

I don't know why? but I did always suspect that Ben Stokes and the Cricket NT were going to sum up a good number of awards...

nver tried this Ruby Chocolate...but now most likely I'm gonna get mad until I can find it here in Milan... now I really need to try it...

I can easily handle 99% also... however, my favourites are 70% to eat it in purity and 85% for those with aromatic flavour, especially the candied orange peels and the hot pepper chocolate (not together, of course)...

Mikaela Shiffrin will miss this weekend's races in Val D'Isere (FRA)... she didn't announce why she took this decision... https://www.skiracing.com/stories/shiffrin-will-skip-speed-races-in-val-disere

bad news for Italy... Aaron Kostner had a nasty fall during a training jump earlier today in Ramsau (AUT) and most likely he badly injured his left knee... for sure, he's going to miss this weekend's competitions in Austria... more details to follow, after undergoing an MRI in the next hours...