phelps

what a match between Telma Monteiro and Sanne Verhagen in the Judo Mixed Team event... almost 9 minutes into the Golden Score! (plus the 4 regular minutes)... finally, it was Monteiro to take the victory home and so Portugal won the semifinal bout vs the Netherlands by a score of 4 matches to 2... the second semifinal between Russia and Belarus is comin'up shortly...

you're right... still, his equation makes him an idiot...

well, at least from the next championship we're going to have a classic 16 teams format (4 groups of 4 teams, the top 2 of each group advancing to the quarterfinal stage) in the final tournament... it should be better than today's, even if with a group stage kind of a competition you can never completely cancel the risk of a "combination of interests" between 2 teams playing each other in the last day within the same group...

you're just an idiot

the stadium and the entire area are a property of the city of Milan... the 2 soccer teams are only renting (99 years agreement, restarted a few years ago) the right to host their games in that stadium... to change even the smallest thing, it must be officially approved by the city council (and because of the typical Italian burocracy, only asking for some modification requires years...imagine what could happen if they ask for demolition and rebuilding -considered also the fact that also all the people resident in that area are strongly against any work that could affect their lives in terms of annoying sounds, traffic limitations -and that's already a critical area for that)... basically, there's no chance the stadium will be touched until the 2026 Games are over... if the 2 main soccer teams of our city want a new stadium, they have to find another area outside the city limits (because the city council will never give any permission to build a new stadium in town)... any other argument, it's just an attempt to apply some political pressure to get what they want but can't get (at least for now)...

frankly, France don't deserve at all to be among the 4 semifinalists... they've just been lucky (especially vs ENG in their opening game), but they're playing worse than most of the other teams in this championship... on the other side, congrats to Romania, the real positive surprise of the tournament...

all funding for the 2026 Games won't come from the Italian government... it will come part from private investors (most of the biggest Italian companies have asked to become partner of the Organizing Committee -that's where I expect some circus...now all our politicians will try to get a place in it), part from the Regional government of Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-South Tyrol (the 3 richest areas of the Country, which have more money than Countries like Switzerland and Austria, to name a couple)... there won't be any increase of our public debt because of these Games...our debt will still increase day after day for very much different reasons (military expenses first, then many other things..but this is not the place to discuss the problems of the Italian economical politics)...

it will happen after the 2026 Games (if it's ever gonna happen)...

1) why? do you think that artistic swimming and rhythmic gymnastics specialists don't need to train and don't have athletic skills equal or superior to those of many other disciplines' specialists? I consider all those disciplines NON-SPORT activities because the final outcome is entirely determined by the personal opinion of some biased when not fully corrupted socalled "judges", with no place for real man-to-man confrontation... IOC's motto: altius, citius, fortius...those disciplines don't require athletes to be better in any of those objective criteria..it's just politics and personal taste... I perfectly know that all those guys work day after day for hours...but their performance to me it remains a show (like going to the theatre...being their show on ice, on snow, in the water or whatever they play their game) rather than a sport competition... 3) because Torino and the entire region of Piedmont is NOT a Winter Sport cradle (by the way, all figure skating, short track and most of the speedskating and men's ice hockey events in Turin were soldout or close to that) and moreover they chose the wrong places for the mountain competitions (where the major attendance issues were recorded)... the worst mistake of them all was the choice of the sliding sports track location...and they even made a capital mistake in its orientation (it was completely exposed to the sun for most of the day, making almost impossible to use it from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for official competitions and professional training)... all things that won't happen in 2026 (Milan is the cradle of the Italian Ice Hockey and Figure Skating -look at how successful were the Figure Skating world champs hosted in the same arena that will host the 2026 Games just last year, despite coming only 2 months after the Olympics, and there's no need to mention the tradition all the snow sport venues carry with them)...

3 things... 1) yes, all the "artistic" snowboard and freestyle disciplines (not all those sports, just those disciplines) to me are NON-SPORTS (like artistic swimming, rhythmic gymnastics and similar events in the Summer Olympics schedule)... and yes, they've been put in the schedule only because NBC and CBC "ordered" the IOC to do it (to catch the younger audience, but it's not an IOC's policy...it all came from the North American TV Networks, who need to increase their audience to make more money)... and in comparison to all this kind of events, the addition of 1 or 2 more races in the "old" snow sports are really a little thing... 2) about Norway, Germany not hosting the Games...it's not my fault if their people democaratically voted to avoid bidding... meanwhile this (I underline, this) Swedish bid was so poor that it would have been more a problem for the future of Winter Games than a resource if it would have won... maybe next time they would make it better and finally they would get a chance to host the Games... 3) about funding...no way Italy's gonna do anything like the other Countries (Torino 2006 docet)... it will be only a question of finding some occasional talent as always... here it's only about soccer, Ferrari and Valentino Rossi...anything else is just a really "minor thing" that's not worth the interest of the majority of the people (and of the politicians), especially if we talk about Winter Sports,which are dedicated to and followed by only a small (very small) part of the Country... just to make an example...tv rating of the women's soccer world cup (our National team): 30%, average tv rating of any sport not being soccer/Ferrari/Valentino Rossi: between 1% and 3% (the Olympic Games are just an exception, but there's no chance they get even close to the soccer ratings)...

those are the venues, according to the official bid (there's always the chance that something would be changed in 7 years, though)... OPENING – San Siro Stadium, Milan (Lombardy) CLOSING – Arena di Verona (Veneto) ALPINE SKIING (MEN) – Bormio (Sondrio province, Lombardy) ALPINE SKIING (WOMEN) – Cortina d’Ampezzo (Belluno province, Veneto) CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING/NORDIC COMBINED (CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING ONLY) – Val di Fiemme (Trento province, Trentino-South Tyrol) BIATHLON – Antholz/Anterselva (Bozen province, Trentino-South Tyrol) BOBLEIGH/LUGE/SKELETON – Cortina d’Ampezzo (Belluno province, Veneto) ICE HOCKEY (MEN) – Milan (Lombardy)* ICE HOCKEY (WOMEN) – Milan (Lombardy) FIGURE SKATING – Milan (Lombardy) SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING – Milan (Lombardy) SNOWBOARD – Livigno (Sondrio province, Lombardy) FREESTYLE SKIING – Livigno (Sondrio province, Lombardy) SPEEDSKATING – Baselga di Pinè (Trento province, Trentino-South Tyrol) SKI JUMPING/NORDIC COMBINED (JUMPING ONLY) – Val di Fiemme (Trento province, Trentino-South Tyrol) CURLING – Cortina d’Ampezzo (Belluno province, Veneto) *that's the only completely new venue, still to be built women's ice hockey venue in Milan, the Speedskating Ice Rink in Baselga and the Sliding Sports Track in Cortina need major renovations and are the highest figures of spending in the provisional budget (apert from the new multi-purpose arena in Milan,of course)... all the other venues are already existing and normally used for world cup/world championships events...

yes, it's Baselga (still hoping that they will change it and build an indoor oval in Milan, but I think it won't happen)...

yeah, only for the men's Hockey tournament (the first with the NHL players on board) and the speedskating races (Gianni Romme always the best!)... but the snow sports were almost a farce, with 1 billion delays, rescheduling and tracks good for the junior races, to be generous... not to mention the worst sliding track ever...mmmh, maybe the second worst (behind Sochi)...

that's ironic to hear from a Winter Sports powerhouse that's become that way only because in the last 20 years the Olympic schedule has been built only according the specific need and desire of the North American TV Networks with all those NON-SPORT activities like "artistic snowboard", freestyle, more and more absurd figure skating competitions and so on... let's get back to basics...and you all would discover that Italy is way better than USA, Canada and all the other non-European Nations in almost all the real snow sports (alpine skiing, cross-country skiing -maybe not nowadays, but a few years ago it was a different story- biathlon, alpine disciplines snowboard, sliding sports -except for skeleton, which, guess what? it's not a "traditional" Olympic sliding sport like bobsleigh and luge)... and even in the ice sports we're not a powerhouse, but for sure we always have some competitive athletes in all of those disciplines, despite not having venues, decent funding and people practicing them... p.s. and the venues chosen for the 2026 Games in most cases are by far the most iconic used in all the most recent Olympic Games, included those hosted by the supposed powerhouses of the Winter Sports... and being iconic venues already existing and dedicated to the sport, there's no way they're going to have any legacy and sustainability trouble like the "cathedrals in the desert" built for Torino 2006 (and then quickly dismissed and/or abandoned)... so, yes! Milano-Cortina on paper is going to be the most "ideal" setup for the Winter Games since Lillehammer in 1994...

I don't agree at all... sure it wasn't the best edition ever, but what about Albertville, Nagano and Pyeongchang? (not to mention what awaits us in Beijing?)

c'mon, man! you just can name it "a bad day"... actually, today is the best day of the year (and nothing's gonna change that in the near future)...

Some dates to mark on your calendars. The 2026 Winter Olympics will take place from February 6 to 22. The 2026 Winter Paralympics will be held from March 6 to 15.

voting was 47-34 (1 blank sheet) in favour of Milano & Cortina...

and now the usual Italian lack of discipline... p.s. the Swedish prime minister leaving the assembly to fly and see the football game in Paris is the last class act by them...

and now.... it's time to party!!!!

there's still a small bit of justice in the World!

and the winner is... MILANO & CORTINAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I hope so... Cortina has a long tradition as an international sliding track e basically they still have the track there...the problem is that it can't be used with the ice surface (part of it, it's open to tourists in summer...you can skate or go down with a street luge/bob...the top part instead is almost abandoned) and currently it doesn't meet the safety requirements to be used for competitions... but if finally someone put the money on the renewal it needs, then I think it will survive for quite a while...the project of our NOC is quite clear about that...it must be operative also in the years following the games, not only until 2026 and stop...

sì, una coppia senza chance... Resca al primo appuntamento dopo 2 anni ha dimostrato di avere un gran feeling con la Stanco...per me loro sono la coppia numero #1... e poi comunque è una somma di prestazioni individuali, quindi Fabbrizi si accoppierebbe benissimo con la Rossi, senza ricorrere a quella palla al piede di Pellielo, che ormai è un ex tiratore...non smetterò mai di ripeterlo...

sì, penso aspettassero di vedere i risultati di Minsk... io ribadisco...i 2 da mandare a Tokyo (anche tramite switch con altre gare, in primis il secondo posto dello skeet maschile ed eventualmente, se si può fare, sacrificare De Nicolo...ma spero che prima di fine qualificazione almeno una carta nel Trap e quella della Zublasing nel tiro a segno arrivino) sono Fabbrizi e Resca... ed è importante fare in modo che siano 2 anche le coppie miste del Trap... il trio del Trap per Lonato a questo punto spero sia Fabbrizi, Resca, Grazini...