phelps

London 2019 - the first step towards Tokyo With the girls competing in the Global Open in London, we had the official kick off for the street skateboarding Olympic adventure. As the first ever Olympic qualifying event, the World Skate/SLS stop in London is writing the first page in the history of the Olympic Skateboarding. Today and tomorrow, the BAYSIXTY6 skatepark is hosting the Global Open for Women and Men as for the new format introduced in Rio de Janeiro Street Skateboarding 2018 World Championships that makes possible for skaters from all over the world to compete against skateboarding icons such as Leticia Bufoni or Nyjah Huston. Thanks to the Open qualifier formula, skaters from all around the world have the chance to access to the historical Street League tour and to compete at the highest level in street skateboarding. The new format is really contributing to widespread skateboarding all over the world helping to reach undeveloped areas where our sport is now growing faster and faster. 164 athletes of 45 National teams reached London for the first stop of Season #01 and only 12 girls and 10 guys will pass to the following phases of the competition that will take place in the Copper Box Arena on May 25th and 26th. LONDON FORMAT RECAP In the Global Open qualifiers, skaters will compete in maximum 3 skaters, 3 minutes single jam session format. Event phases after the Global Open Qualifier will be run using the Olympic contest format. Each Skater will perform 2 runs and 5 Tricks; the best 4 scores from runs or tricks will be added to give the total round score. Women Top 12 women from Global Open Qualifier will advance into Semi-finals and meet the top 18 skaters from 2018 World Skate SLS World Championship: Top 8 women will advance to Final. Men Top 10 men from Global Open Qualifier will advance into Quarter Finals to meet the skaters ranked from 21st to 38th in 2018 World Championship and the best 4 skaters, not already pre-seeded, from the SLS Ranking prior to the last World Championship. From the Quarter Finals, the top 10 men advance to Semi-finals to meet the top 20 men from the 2018 World Skate SLS World Championship: only top 8 skaters go to Final. Follow Live on World Skate Tv on May 26th (London time) Live Men's Semi Finals 11:00 - 14:30 Live Women's Finals 16.00 - 17.30 Live Men's Finals 19.00 - 20.30

Grand Prix (Hohhot, CHN) Day #1 Recap The Koreans totally dominated the first day of action at the Chinese Grand Prix... in absence of many of the main fighters in each class, the South Korean men won the Gold Medal in both the weight categories contested earlier today... Kim Won Jin won the -60kg class, meanwhile Kim Lim Hwan won the -66kg class... among the women, 3 weight categories were completed on Friday...and in this case it was North Korea to take the major honors with 2 Gold Medals (Jon Yu Sun, -48kg and Kim Jin A, -57kg), while the only Japanese girl at the start, Uta Abe, won the Gold Medal in the remaining class, the -52kg... so, at the end of day #1, North and South Korea share the lead in the medal table with 2 Gold Medals each, followed by Japan with "only" 1 Gold Medal... Full Results, here: https://live.ijf.org/gp_chn2019/results

Sassari Women's Wrestling Champions 50kg: Seema Seema 53kg: Ekaterina Poleshchuk 55kg: Sofia Magdalena Mattson 57kg: Grace Jacob Bullen 59kg: Linda Morais 62kg: Henna Katarina Johansson 65kg: Gabriella Sleisz 68kg: Tamyra Mariama Mensah 72kg: Anna Jenny Eva Maria Fransson 76kg: Erica Elizabeth Wiebe

yes, since last year wrestlers can start in every UWW tournament even if they have not completed the burocratic issues to get the new citizenship...it's enough to be under contract with a club team of the federation you want to represent (I think Pavlo Olynik in HUN is in the same situation...he wrestled for them last year, but this time he could be out of contention as he's not fully compliant with the IOC rules, which you know are a lot stricter than those of most International Federations)... of course, as the Olympics are managed by the IOC, they follow different rules, also for the qualification events... meanwhile I don't know why the European Games are using the same rules of the IOC...I only read that on an Italian sport website... tbh, I think this time the IOC are right and the International Federation should stop this practice of allowing people without the full citizenship to compete for Countries they are not members of, yet... but you know, it looks that nowadays the world is going into another direction...and the sports governing bodies can't ignore that...

IOC releases Evaluation Commission 2026 report Candidate Cities for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2026 have fully embraced the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms One month ahead of the host city election, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) today released the report by the Evaluation Commission 2026. It provides a thorough assessment of the two candidates, Stockholm-Åre and Milan-Cortina*, following the working visits on 12-16 March and 2-6 April respectively, and analyses of the candidature files and additional documentation submitted. It will serve as a guide for the IOC Members before they vote on 24 June at the 134th IOC Session in Lausanne. The Chair of the Evaluation Commission, Octavian Morariu, said: “Both projects prioritise legacy and sustainability by capitalising on winter sports tradition and experience, with first-rate, established World Cup venues, knowledgeable and passionate fans, volunteers and event organisers. They have fully embedded the Olympic Agenda 2020 philosophy, and have athletes at the centre of their plans.” He added: “The two candidates have aligned their concepts with their context and local long-term goals. All of this led to massive cost savings and a more sustainable hosting model that is the new reality for the Games.” The Candidate Cities 2026 plan to use on average over 80 per cent existing or temporary venues, compared to 60 per cent for the 2018 and 2022 Candidates. As a consequence, their proposed Games operating budgets are on average 20 per cent lower than those of the Candidate Cities for the Olympic Winter Games 2018 and 2022. The Candidature Process 2026 has been built on greater partnership, flexibility and sharing of knowledge. Featuring a new one-year non-committal Dialogue Stage, the IOC, supported by the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations, worked hand-in-hand with Interested Cities and National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to help them explore options and develop Games projects. As part of the new process, the IOC provided increased technical services to each Interested City, while lowering the number of Candidate City deliverables and presentations. More than 20 Olympic Games experts supported the Cities in the development of their Games concepts, through the provision of over 30 on-site individual services, including several workshops. The result is a significant cost reduction in the candidature budgets, which are projected to be over 75 per cent lower than the average budgets for the 2018 and 2022 Candidates. The Candidate Cities 2026 have publicly expressed their appreciation for the new reforms, and cited them as a major factor in their decision to apply to host the Games. The Cities have the right of response to the report. Any additional information received by the Evaluation Commission will be shared with the IOC Members ahead of the election. On 24 June, the IOC membership will have the opportunity to hear from the Commission and the Candidate Cities, which will include detailed question-and-answer sessions during a technical briefing in the morning. In the afternoon, the Candidate Cities will make a final presentation during the 134th IOC Session, before the vote and the host city announcement. * Cities are listed in the order of drawing of lots as performed by the IOC Executive Board. FULL REPORT Credits: Olympic.org

yeah...it's a perfect combination... a pair of professional comedians couldn't do better...

the Swiss one is the best of the year...by far...I just can't stop laughing...

Russia (St.Petersburg) in 2023, Czech Republic (Prague & Ostrava) in 2024 and Sweden (with Denmark, cities TBD) in 2025 will host the World Championships in that span... and it looks that in St.Petersburg will be built the biggest Ice Hockey Arena in Europe to host that event... https://www.iihf.com/en/events/2019/wm/news/12726/st-petersburg-gets-2023-worlds

FIE's official website just had a small refurbishing, making it a bit more modern and attractive...

Sassari Greco-Roman Champions 55kg: Hakan Murat Cankaya 60kg: Kim Seung Hak 63kg: Mehmet Ceker 67kg: Azamat Akhmedov 72kg: Adam Kurak 77kg: Kim Hyeon Woo 82kg: Gurpreet Singh 87kg: Viktor Lorincz 97kg: Nikoloz Kakhelashvili 130kg: Osman Yildrim not a great finals session for HUN...they lost all the gold medal matches they entered but one (also TUR lost more matches than they won)... for what concerns Italy, I think the -97kg class spot would go to Timoncini in any case, as Kakhelashvili is in the same situation of Conyedo and Kudiiamagomedov* (they still don't have the Italian passport, so they can't take part in the Olympic Qualification tournaments nor in the upcoming European Games in Minsk)... *and finally I found some (very short) news about Kudiiamagomedov...he suffered a bad knee injury in training last summer and he's still recovering from that (of course he had a very delicate operation to fix the damages)... this is the reason why we haven't seen him at the last world champs nor in the ranking series tournaments this year)... nothing has been said about how long he still has to wait before coming back (and, more bad news, nobody has any idea about how long it would take for him, Conyedo and Kakhelashvili to get our passport...probably it won't happen in the entire 2019 )...

unfortunately, I fear you're right, after all...

maybe...but even allowing Qatar to host such kind of event (and I could add this year's Athletics world champs, too) is a dangerous precedent...

well, I don't think it would be a problem for Countries like UK, Germany or Spain to host a 32-team world cup even tomorrow (I mean, all the stadiums are already there, so you only need to sell tickets...and since the Qatar 2022 campaign has not begun yet, I don't see any trouble in stripping Qatar of that fuc*in' tournament even 3 months only before the start, not 3 years)...

and finally, after 3 rounds full of surprising results, we know the names of the 2 teams playing for the Stanley Cup: it's gonna be a battle between the Boston Bruins and the St.Louis Blues... Boston basically only had 1 very competitive match-up (round #1 vs Toronto) and then destroyed their following opponents (Columbus and Carolina), improving game after game... St.Louis, instead, after a relatively easy 1st round vs Winnipeg, had to fight hard for 7 games against Dallas and finally they had to turn around all the odds against San Josè, which they did in 6 games, helped also (mainly? ) by the injuries to 3 of the SJ star players, who heavily affected the outcome of the entire series (even if in games #5 and #6 SJ looked also mentally already out of contention )... both teams are built more or less with the same philosophy (great believe in their goaltending, quite defensive style of play, solid group strategy rather than superstars-filled lineup -even if Boston have 2/3 guys like Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak, who can't be considered "average players within the group")...so, I don't know what to expect from these Finals...for sure, there's a high risk to watch not exactly the most exciting hockey we could have... fun fact, St.Louis on January 3rd were dead last in the NHL standings, the worst team of the entire league...then, they discovered a phenomenal Jordan Binnington and who knows how? they've been able to turn things completely around... now, they're ready to play the Stanley Cup Finals for the 4th time in their history (they already played 3 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals from 1968 through 1970, but they lost all of them, the first 2 against Montreal and the last one against the same Boston Bruins they're going to face this year)... the Finals (best-of-7 series, of course) are scheduled to start next Monday, May 27th in Boston (all games set to drop the puck @ about 8.20 p.m. ET in North America, 2.20 a.m. of the following day CET) full Stanley Cup Finals schedule: https://www.nhl.com/stanley-cup-playoffs/

well, we already have a debutant Nation even before the qualification rounds start...it's Qatar, the host Nation! and in Europe...don't worry...with Italy missing out once again and maybe a few other "big names", with the help of a fake draw, there are chances to see some new faces in 2022... p.s. however, the best news of the year it's not that we're not going to have a 48-team tournament for the last time, it would have been only if FIFA stripped Qatar of the organization...

typical form to protect the privacy of the patients... that's how it works nowadays, in the age of lawyers and in the age of people who can't make their own affairs even when it would be the best thing to do... in Italy that "privacy statement" is part of the ethic code of any doctor...he/she can't say anything to anybody (not even those of the same family) unless he has "officially recorded" permission of the patient him/herself (provided the patient is over 18 years of age, of course)...

it looks they will rent some of them from the Pro organizations (WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO and so on)... which means that we won't have fair results also this time...AIBA or not AIBA...

some good swimming from Ledecky (1.55 over 200m free, 3.59 over 400m free and above all 8.10 over 800m free -top clocking of 2019 so far) and Dressel (47.86 over 100m free) last weekend in the US Swim Pro Series...

McMooooonaaaaagleeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Italy are still in the Top Division!!!!!! I just can't believe it!!!!!

Bernard National hero! it doesn't matter if we win or not...

for a while I thought it was the the moment...

Rauchenwad... we were so close...

where??? it's Rosaaaaa!!!! 2-1 Italy...

Raffl...

great execution for AUT... but Miceli scores!!!!!!!