phelps

better Open European Union Championships... Open European Champs would mean that Nations outside the Geographical borders of Europe would be allowed to participate, which isn't the case...

not exactly, since all the participating Countries (some of them being invited even if they're not politically fully part of the EU) can win medals... you have to win also against MDA or any other "guest" Nation to earn your medals...

well, for freestyle and snowboard you don't need to build anything (only the temporary stands and the Tv rooms are needed)...you just have to "model" the snow on the track (which is normally the same for HP, SS and BA + another slope for Moguls and Aerials...and they're already there, otherwise you only have to throw some trees down to build it), there are no sticky concrete/iron structures, so it's obvious that those are cheap venues compared to jumping hills, sliding track (which is by far the most expensive structure for winter sports, also because of very haigh cost of maintenance during the whole year) and skating/hockey arenas... p.s. all the official reports are in English, from the first to the last chapter...

if you give a read at the Official Reports of the previous OG, you can find a lot of financial infos on the Games and on the Venues in particular... for instance, just to make it simpler, you can read the last 15 pages of the Vancouver Report vol.2...that would give you an idea of the costs of those venues... https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8

it's the European Union Championships... so, it's just a half-tournament without the real owners of EUBC (the Russians and their "friends")...

Women's Wrestling tomorrow's Gold Medal matches: -53kg Momoka Kadoya vs Milana Dadasheva already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Andreea Beatrice Ana & Khrystyna Bereza -57kg Akie Hanai vs Alexandria Rebekkah Town already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Zhang Qi & Tserenchimed Sukhee -62kg Yukako Kawai vs Ilona Prokopevniuk already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Kriszta Tunde Incze & Luisa Gerda Helga Niemesch -65kg Ayana Gempei vs Elis Manolova already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Moa Lena Maria Nygren & Iryna Koliadenko -72kg Buse Tosun vs Alexandra Nicoleta Anghel already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Wang Xiaoqian & Zhamila Bakbergenova

Today's Medallists (Women's Wrestling) -50kg Gold: Miho Igarashi Silver: Nadezhda Sokolova Bronze: Namuuntsetseg Tsogt Ochir & Stefania Claudia Priceputu -55kg Gold: Saki Igarashi Silver: Ouyang Junling Bronze: Marina Sedneva & Elena Heike Brugger -59kg Gold: Grace Jacob Bullen Silver: Rong Ningning Bronze: Yuzuru Kumano & Olena Kremzer -68kg Gold: Yudari Sanchez Rodriguez Silver: Miwa Morikawa Bronze: Alexandria Junis Glaude & Khanum Velieva -76kg Gold: Paliha Paliha Silver: Aysegul Ozbege Bronze: Gulmaral Yerkebayeva & Korinahe Jacquia Bullock

yeah...but we still have to wait and see if by next year this government is still in charge... and trust me...from now to the next July (and after, if we really get the chance to host the Games) you'll hear everything and the opposite of that from our politicians... any question is good to feed their propaganda... however, the Olympic news never make the headlines...those are all focused on the fight vs the EU because of the balance law and on our internal political fights (today's one is on the law for the reconstruction's funding of the Genua bridge collapsed a few months ago)... and the sports news are always only about football and F1/Valentino Rossi...

yeah, but you know...judge #1 is from USA...and it's notorious that Trump is angry with Germany because of all those scandals related to the Germand automobile brands... and then we have COL, THA and TPE, who are all very much servants to the USA because of their own political interests... so, basically they are all a bunch of cheaterrrrrsssss!!!!!

world ranking has not been updated yet, but now we know that the 6 women's Inter-Continental Olympic Qualification tournaments will be played on August, 2nd-4th next year... bidding to host those tournaments are open until Dec. 14th (h.17 CET)... sorry, but the only source I could find is in Italian... https://www.oasport.it/2018/11/volley-tornei-qualificazione-olimpiadi-2020-definite-le-date-si-gioca-ad-agosto-italia-a-caccia-del-pass/

world ranking has not been updated yet, but now we know that the 6 men's Inter-Continental Olympic Qualification tournaments will be played on August, 9th-11th next year... bidding to host those tournaments are open until Dec. 14th (h.17 CET)... sorry, but the only source I could find is in Italian... https://www.oasport.it/2018/11/volley-tornei-qualificazione-olimpiadi-2020-definite-le-date-si-gioca-ad-agosto-italia-a-caccia-del-pass/

I'm pretty sure there's and there will be no need for plan B... but if that's gonna happen, my 2 cents are on 2 consecutive Games in Beijing (even if I don't exclude at all a trip in Astana as a payback for the 2022 Games' robbery)...

they look tasty... I hope she did appreciate the effort, at least...

as I wrote before, that was not the "pesto alla Siciliana", which is this one: https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pesto-alla-siciliana.html

naaa... this is the kind of "pesto" @wumo26 was referring to: https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pesto-di-pomodori-secchi.html meanwhile this is the typical kind of "pesto" you're mentioning (with tomato sauce added to the classic basil leaves): https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pesto-alla-trapanese.html

Women's Wrestling tomorrow's Gold Medal matches: -50kg Miho Igarashi vs Nadezhda Sokolova already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Stefania Claudia Priceputu & Namuuntsetseg Tsogt Ochir -55kg Saki Igarashi vs Ouyang Junling already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Elena Heike Brugger & Marina Sedneva -59kg Rong Ningning vs Grace Jacob Bullen Bronze Medal match #1: Alejandra Romero Bonilla vs Olena Kremzer Bronze Medal match #2: Yuzuru Kumano vs TBD -68kg Miwa Morikawa vs Yudari Sanchez Rodriguez already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Tang Chuying & Khishigmaa Munkhbat -76kg Aysegul Ozbege vs Paliha Paliha Bronze Medal match #1: Korinahe Jacquia Bullock vs Gracelynn Doogan Bronze Medal match #2: Gulmaral Yerkebayeva vs TBD

Today's Medallists (Greco-Roman) -60kg Gold: Kenichiro Fumita Silver: Murad Mammadov Bronze: Mehdi Mohsen & Kerem Kemal -67kg Gold: Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed Silver: Karim Jafarov Bronze: Alen Mirzoian & Otto Losonczi -72kg Gold: Cengiz Arslan Silver: Ramaz Zoidze Bronze: Tamas Levai & Kaharman Kissymetov -82kg Gold: Gela Bolkvadze Silver: Nicu Samuel Ojog Bronze: Mahdi Ebrahimi & Mikita Klimovich -97kg Gold: Aleksandr Golovin Silver: Zsolt Toeroek Bronze: Giorgi Melia & Alì Akbar Heidari

sure... we have so many different kind of "pesto" (which literally means "mashed", so with that word you can basically mean almost any sort of sausage made with non-cooked ingredients -mainly herbs + oil, garlic, sometimes cheese and/or fruits like almonds or walnuts and so on- mashed and mixed together)... here are some examples (there's also a red version, made with dried up tomato kept in extra virgin olive oil + almonds, pine nuts and basil)... https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pesto-alla-trapanese.html/related/ p.s. here in the North-West of Italy the absolutely most popular version is the "classic" one, with basil, pine nuts, cheese (parmesan rather than pecorino...there's always a dispute about it), garlic and extra virgin olive oil... all the other versions are not so used/known...

you're right...probably that's a characteristic Italian beverage... but I'm not so sure they can be considered best sellers... frankly, I don't think there are many people drinking that...especially in the Central and Southern Italy...

by the way, earlier today my lunch consisted in a dish of Orecchiette con i Broccoli (and an apple)...

non-alchoolic...definitely Mineral Water...Italy is at the top of any ranking about mineral water drinking...we have I don't know how many different brands of that... alchoolic...surely wine (especially among the not so young people)...but also beer drinking is growing day after day (especially among the yougsters)... among the other drinks, I think Coca-cola and Fanta are the best sellers... we don't have a unique product different from any other Country that's so popular in our entire territory (maybe there are some local traditional products in some places -like the coffe ice-drink in Calabria and on a lesser scale the rest of Southern Italy- but they can't be considered a national beverage)...

what a wonderful awake! no, seriously...I have a real conflict within myself...I'd like to be proud of the increased chances of Milan, but I'm so scared of the possible outcome and consequences of that happening (waste of public money -as if we were not already famous for that...we call it "magna magna", to be pronounced as if the "gn" was a Spanish "ñ"- political fights beyond every imagination -as if we haven't had enough of them in the last 157 years- and also all of our NOC and winter sports federations funding and attention going lost from the youth activity and development of our sport causing years of miserable results after the "big event", as it happened with Torino 2006) that I just don't know what to think of all this... however, now it's clear that the Italian option is the last chance for the IOC...now they only have to put a red carpet between Milan and Lausanne, if they still realy care about the futrure of Winter Olympic Games...

Men's Greco-Roman wrestling tomorrow's Gold Medal matches: -60kg Kenichiro Fumita vs Murad Mammadov already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Mehdi Mohsen & Kerem Kemal -67kg Mohamed Ibrahim Elsayed vs Karim Jafarov already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Alen Mirzoian & Otto Losonczi -72kg Cengiz Arslan vs Ramaz Zoidze already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Artur Politaiev & Kaharman Kissymetovz -82kg Gela Bolkvadze vs Nicu Samuel Ojog already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Ahmed Hassan Ahmed & Takahiro Tsuruda -97kg Zsolt Toeroek vs Aleksandr Golovin already qualified to the Bronze Medal matches #1 & #2 (semifinals' losers): Giorgi Melia & Alì Akbar Heidari

Today's Medallists -55kg Gold: Nugzari Tsurtsumia Silver: Vitalii Kabaloev Bronze: Amangali Bekbolatov & Balbai Dordokov -63kg Gold: Katsuaki Endo Silver: Alexandru Biciu Bronze: Oleksandr Hrushyn & Mihai Radu Mihut -77kg Gold: Daniel Cataraga Silver: Rajbek Bisultanov Bronze: Ismail Saidkhasanov & Fatih Cengiz -87kg Gold: Semen Novikov Silver: Daniel Hechevarria Bronze: Islam Abbasov & Anton Kurs -130kg Gold: Zviadi Pataridze Silver: Osman Yildirim Bronze: Aliakbar Yousofi & Abdellatif Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed

The Americans imho is a masterpiece...one of my favourite shows ever... it's so sad that it's already over... something lighter? always on the (classic) crime kind of shows...NCIS Los Angeles... once again a crime show, but with some romance in it...Castle... a lot of action and suspance, but with a lot of sensuality too (well, better to say it's just sex and beautiful girls )...Strike Back... sit com? My Wife and Kids...the only show of this genre that makes me laugh even when I watch it for the 100th time... but if you want to go on with entertaining but somehow dull and complicated plots, then the French spy drama Le Bureau Des Agents is one of the best tv shows ever of this genre, definitely the most realistic one... personally, at the moment I'm following (among others) the Australian crime drama Harrow...and I like it (I still have to watch the last 2 episodes)... https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7242816/?ref_=nv_sr_1