phelps

those predictions about Japan... 12 Gold medals in Judo? it's not gonna happen even in their wet dreams... and the same is for the Badminton sweep of golds... then, no Seto medals in swimming nor men's artistic gymnastics success? c'mon, man! and it's also a very random pick to have women's Street Skateboarding gold (which is not to be excluded, but it's not the most common preview) and not the women's Park one, which is almost impossible for them to lose... p.s. not that the British predictions are reliable as well, but some of them will likely become true...

obviously...except for Pellegrini, at the moment we don't have a swimmer capable of going below the 2-min mark (yeah, maybe a couple of non-specialists like Quadarella, Cusinato or Panziera could swim 1.59, but not more than that)... we didn't start the women's 4*100m free relay, too...our women's team is not as deep as the men's...

from swimswam... "American breaststroke star Lilly King was disqualified in the third heat of the 200 breast Thursday morning in Gwangju, and nearly two-and-a-half hours later, we’ve received word that USA Swimming’s protest of the decision will be heard by the Jury of Appeal before the next session begins at 8 p.m. local time Thursday. King won the prelims heat, then turned at the scoreboard and reacted with shock upon seeing the DQ. According to the Italian broadcast, she walked to the officials’ table to protest, and was turned away. King was apparently not given a reason for her DQ when she asked after her race. USA Swimming also did not know what it was for until about 30 minutes after the race, when it was told that King did a “non-simultaneous touch” on her first turn."

meh...I think it's very much a question of points of view... probably (surely) in North America, Japan and a bunch of other Nations it works this way, but in many parts of the world is the other way round... however, I don't think Skateboarding would have any chance to get 11 Nations on the medal table (6 of them winning at least 1 Gold), even with the same number of events that inline speedskating has and despite this discipline is currently dominated by 1 single powerhouse (Colombia) winning 65% of available Gold medals (13 out of 20)*, domination that would immediately decrease should the sport be added to the Olympic program... *results from the last World Roller Games, held in Spain just a few days ago...

all rankings are updated after the end of the 2019 World Championships...

yeah, Peskova is a very good pitcher (the others are not that good...at the ECHs, when she wasn't available in the match vs ITA, they were thrashed out)... but today they were facing Greta Cecchetti, who's one of the top pitchers in the world (she even had a NCAA career at the Texas University a few years ago)... they knew from the start that they were not going to have many hits...

it reminds me the Collinelli story before the Sydney Games...he was caught at the Italian - Swiss border with his car full of drugs (in his case they were PEDs like EPO and HGH, but still)... but in my scale of justice, Ghafoor's crime is a lot worse, as that fuc*in' shit she was carrying kills other people, not just herself...

I think you're a bit optimistic about Quadarella's time over the 800m, I'm happy if she does 8.14 this week and just beat the 8.10 barrier next year... and I expect Seto to swim 1.52 next year at home...so, it's gonna be hard for Burdisso to even take that bronze (but I do not exclude a 1.52 high even for him, so with a bit of luck...who knows?)... p.s. there's always a chance (a very slim one, I fear) that Urlando switches to Italy if he can't get passed the US trials next year (he already has the Italian citizenship and he has never represented the US in a senior global event, so the 3 years rule by the IOC does not apply in his case, he can do whatever he wants until he gets 18)...

can't afford to lose...I'm too poor...

as I wrote, I don't see any chance for Quadarella either...if Ledecky is there and healthy... and yes, I'm serious about the chance of not winning a single gold medal in swimming in Tokyo...it's not that even Paltrinieri's races are closed before the start, he does not have an advantage over the opponents like Peaty's...Wellbrock and Romanchuk showed that they are well capable of beating him (not this year...but in 12 months who knows who's going to be in perfect shape and who's not?)... Pellegrini and Detti are just "chances", but they won't start as the main favourites in any case... also, Burdisso can only hope to improve up to second (unless Milak misses out for any reason), but it's more realistic to think of him not even making the podium... and girls like Carraro or Di Liddo (I put both on the same level, even if Di Liddo was actually only 4th, but just for a fraction) have been wonderful this year to take advantage of the general low level in their respective races, but they're lucky if they can make the final next year... beyond that, I don't see any other medal chance (maybe the men's 4*100m free relay can think about Bronze, if Condorelli and Miressi get back to their best condition in Tokyo)... so, yes...we could still win 2 or 3 gold medals, but also come back home with no gold... we'll see in 12 months... p.s. no real betting for me, thanks...only "predictions" for fun...

because they're just a bunch of miseducated!

and here we go with that fuc*in' clapping...

not sure also the 6m15cm by Sergey Bubka in the men's pole vault is gonna be beaten in quite a long period...

and now it's time for "the Radetzky march"...ops, I mean the Italian National anthem... to all the people in the world...I know it comes quite easily, but please, don't start clapping during our anthem...it's not respectful!

fu*ck the hell of a race Milak pity for Burdisso...great race, new PB/NR and painful 4th place...

Burdisso as always all or nothing...hope he won't die in the last 50...

for sure, if Ledecky is somehow healthy, Quadarella's gold becomes a silver... but I wouldn't bet against Pellegrini closing her career with a Gold medal... Paltrinieri could defend his title (and double it up in the olympic newcomer, the 800m free) and Detti could be a threat in the 400m free (he's just 6/100 behind Horton -and he has not had a full year of training, as this winter and early spring he was still recovering from last year's shoulder injury- and hopefully Sun will be out of contention after CAS sentence next september)... but yeah, we could easily end up without any gold medal...

yes, always... and when they're entitled to do it, they always put also their professional degree, too (I mean, I've seen more than once on their TV things like "dr. XXX -family name) YYY -given name)...

Dressel is Dressel...and he's gonna win an easy gold...but Chierighini...wow!

yeah, but at least Paltrinieri did make up for that... in the 100m free we already lost Condorelli this morning and now we don't have anybody in the final... probably Frigo would have been more effective...

and now the first disappointment of the day has come... Miressi...

contrasting feelings...Quadarella and Pellegrini won the gold medal and just can't stop crying... Carraro won bronze and she was smiling and jumping for joy like anybody in the world...

Sjostrom had to be taken off the pool with oxygen mask after the race... hope it's just a momentarily thing and she gets well soon...