phelps

yes, groups A & B are the top tier league, groups C & D the second-tier...just like the women's (Ice) Hockey worlds...

I hope not... I mean, nothing against them, but we already have the men's Japanese team who's going to get massacred most of the times... if we also get Egypt (who probably are going to lose big time every match against the top tier teams), then we're going to have at least 2 games a day just unwatchable... we've seen enough of that in Rio 3 years ago... and I'd like to see a competitive tournament with close games as much as possible...

probably is the structure of the temporary stands for the Games... however, I agree with you...so far, all the outdoor venues of the 2020 Games are really a huge disappointment (even if I'm sure in 12 months they will look a lot different from now)...

you got it right all the way... add to that my (beyond every imagination) laziness...and here you have the whole picture... by the way, this is the lineup for Tomorrow's Finals in the men's Freestyle Wrestling... -57kg: Vitali Arujau vs Toshiya Abe -65kg: Kurban Shiraev vs Amirhossein Maghsoudi -70kg: Erik Arushanian vs Vasile Diacon -79kg: Bagrati Gagnidze vs Amkhad Tashukhadzhiev -97kg: Abbas Foroutan vs Yonger Pauli Bastida Pomares

men's Freestyle Wrestling, day #1 semifinals... -57kg: vs / vs -65kg: vs / vs -70kg: vs / vs -79kg: vs / vs -97kg: vs / vs

Baseball...small chance...NED (or, as they say, the Kingdom of the Netherlands ) are way much better than ITA...still, on a given day, there's always the chance to win a baseball game (and the OQ is gonna go down to just 1 single game)... on the other previews, I agree at 100%... and I can also add that our only regret is the men's football team...in the other disciplines we missed out, we weren't really expected to qualify, meanwhile where we were expected to succeed, we did it (except for women's waterpolo)...

io lo spero...ma se Salvini prende il 51% e si trova a far quel che vuole (e con le ultime pagliacciate grillo-piddine siamo sulla buona strada per stendere il tappeto rosso alla "Bestia"), i guai sono solo all'inizio... comunque, finchè non ci sarà un nuovo governo (con o senza votazioni, politico, istituzionale, tecnico, di scopo...qualunque tipo), il cio dovrà aspettare per trovare un nuovo interlocutore (sperando che nel frattempo non perdano la pazienza)... vedremo (intanto, il vero pericolo di questo buco governativo è l'aumento monstre dell'IVA a gennaio...chissene delle Olimpiadi, a questo punto)...

no... it's just the olympic test event (with the usual ranking points up for grabs)...maybe ITU wanted to create some hype... but if they have to face the same troubles the open water swimming specialists had to face yesterday in their test event (see dedicated thread), it's gonna be an interesting weekend...

in today's men's boulder quali, only Ondra and Chon saved the honor of the rest of the world in front of the mighty Japanese armada, capable of placing all of their 7 contenders in the top 12 of the ranking (5 in the top 7)... for Italy, good result for Piccolruaz (also in preview of the Olympic Combined event), but now he really needs to change to another gear to improve from his quali position...will he be capable of that?

Men's Boulder Climbers qualified to the Semifinal Round 20th, Sergei Skorodumov 19th, Jan Hojer 18th, Michael Piccolruaz 17th, Rudolph Ruana 16th, Nathaniel Coleman 15th, Jernej Kruder 14th, Nathan Phillips 13th, Manuel Cornu 12th, Meichi Narasaki 11th, Sean McColl 10th, Kai Harada 9th, Jakob Schubert 8th, Yannick Flohè 7th, Keita Dohi 6th, Rai Sugimoto 5th, Tomoa Narasaki 4th, Chon Jong Won 3rd, Kokoro Fujii 2nd, Adam Ondra 1st, Yoshiyuki Ogata Full Qualifications Results https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition#!comp=8253&cat=6

more about the Rowing World Junior Champs in Tokyo... Several rowers treated for heatstroke at World Rowing Junior Championships as Germany top medal table next year it's gonna be fun...

Open Water Swimming Test Event before it was held... https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1083283/tokyo-2020-hold-open-water-swimming and after it happened... https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1083337/heat-water-concerns-tokyo-swimming-test once again, environmental conditions will be so uncomfortable that we're going to face another change in the schedule...another race very early in the morning (as early as 5 a.m. )... and here something more about that event... as you can read in the article, no results were recorded...but the truth is that didn't do that on purpose...the problem was that the official timekeeping system got broken and the win was given to the Australian Kei Edwards, who instead actually ended up well behind Gregorio Paltrinieri, who dominated the race...meanwhile Jordan Wilimovsky was lapped and forced to stop halfway through the race and the reigning Olympic Champion Ferry Weertman ended up dead last... finally, listening to the comments made by the Italian delegation, the unhealthy water conditions are really an issue...the current situation is worse than Rio's 1 year before the Games (but as the Games are to be held in the always hyper-efficient Japan, nobody's raising his voice over this worrying situation like they did before the Brazilian Games )...

and here we go! Tokyo here we come!

tbh, after the first 2 games, I'd have never thought Italy could win (and win this way!) against Serbia... and now it's 6 consecutive match points!

-3...22-17 now!

in the meantime, Italy are getting closer to qualify...2-0 and 20-17 ahead...

Venezuela should be the logical choice, but given the current situation in that Country, I wouldn't be surprised if they choke badly and Chile more than Colombia could take advantage of that...

there were peppers, too... it was a sausage with small tomatoes ("Pachino" type), yellow peppers and "Taggiasca" olives... the only difference with that photo, it's the type of pasta (it's called "Cavatappi" -literally, "Corkscrew"- but unfortunately I couldn't find a photo of that type of pasta...it's not that widely popular like others, even if you can find it in all Italian supermarkets)...

@heywoodu the main dish of my dinner about a hour ago... it was delicious... you don't really know what you lose by not appreciating those ingredients...

the short version: Jenny was a young champion, who in 2016 already won it all (including the Rio Olympics), but then her life, instead of going downhill, started to climb... she had to face heavy depression and for quite a while she left cycling and battled her disease... then this year she came back to cycling (initially, with pretty average results) and in a few months she did even get back to full success (it happened earlier today, even if she was already 3rd last week) on the world stage... the longer version: start from here https://cyclingtips.com/2018/02/olympic-mtb-champ-jenny-rissveds-ends-contract-address-mental-health/ and here https://www.pinkbike.com/news/olympic-champion-jenny-rissveds-and-scott-sram-agreed-to-part-ways-2018.html then the renaissance https://www.brujulabike.com/jenny-rissveds-specialized-team-31/ and the happy ending https://www.dirtyheart.co.za/single-post/2019/07/08/Inspired-By-Jenny-Rissveds

Stage #6 (Lenzerheide, SUI) Men's Cross-Country Race Gold: Mathieu Van Der Poel Silver: Nino Schurter Bronze: Mathias Flueckiger

as expected...MVDP just destroyed al of his opponents...mentally even before than physically... the only one who could at least try to save his name was Schurter...all the others, just gave up the fight before it really started...

Rissveds' success is my highlight of the day, especially knowing her recent troubles... @Olympian1010 this could be a really inspiring story to be narrated on Totallympics Media...

Stage #6 (Lenzerheide, SUI) Women's Cross-Country Race Gold: Jenny Rissveds Silver: Anne Terpstra Bronze: Pauline Ferrand-Prevot