phelps

Alvear is no longer the "monster" she used to be...she's stil very good, of course, but imho Van Dijke has some chances... both Van't End and Trippel are to be considered outsiders...so, the winner can say he's got a good day...

obviously...but I was speaking of those people who want to take advantage of their Italian heritage for some reason (here we talk about sport, but there are also different motivations)... if someone (the majority of people, I guess) doesn't care about this thing (or, even worse, are ashamed/annoyed by their origin), there's not even need to talk about that... p.s. here in Italy this theme is considered quite important by the majority of people and there's harsh and everlasting debate about giving up our citizenship by "iure solis" (which is not the case at the moment) and/or by "iure sanguinis" (which is the current working rule -and apart from the other rules like marriage or long terms residence or "special merits", which are not part of the debate)...

Bodegas I think established himself in Italy well before getting our citizenship... Molina is surely "one of those cases" (but you can't say we bought him like Gulf Countries usually do...we never made him an offer that involved money, other benefits nor social status in exchage of his participation to our NT) Volarevic...well, I don't know his personal history, so I just can't say anything about him... and yes, it's fair to say that in some circumstance our foreign-born players have made their choices based on their sport and/or economical convenience (and I don't see anything wrong with that until it's a man's choice and not a Country's policy of searching, convincing and enrolling people who don't have anything to do with that same Nation...there's a big difference in those 2 situations)...

I just found out that Croatia hosted the Junior Worlds in 2014 and they didn't win any medal (but they got a 5th place in Greco-Roman Wrestling...so they got closer than SVK this time round)...

I just tried to guess...and of course I was wrong... Thanks for the right versions...I'm gonna fix it immediately...

Freestyle Final Medal Table RUS, 5 / 1 / 1 USA, 1 / 2 / 2 AZE, 1 / 1 / 2 IRI, 1 / 1 / 1 TUR, 1 / 0 / 1 JPN, 1 / 0 / 0 IND, 0 / 2 / 0 KAZ, 0 / 1 / 2 GEO, 0 / 1 / 1 CAN, 0 / 1 / 0 MDA, 0 / 0 / 3 ARM, 0 / 0 / 2 UKR, 0 / 0 / 2 HUN, 0 / 0 / 1 MGL, 0 / 0 / 1 UZB, 0 / 0 / 1 Greco-Roman Final Medal Table IRI, 4 / 0 / 2 RUS, 2 / 0 / 5 ARM, 1 / 2 / 0 TUR, 1 / 0 / 2 KGZ, 1 / 0 / 1 FIN, 1 / 0 / 0 IND, 0 / 2 / 1 USA, 0 / 1 / 1 AUT, 0 / 1 / 0 EGY, 0 / 1 / 0 GEO, 0 / 1 / 0 SUI, 0 / 1 / 0 UZB, 0 / 1 / 0 HUN, 0 / 0 / 3 AZE, 0 / 0 / 1 GER, 0 / 0 / 1 JPN, 0 / 0 / 1 NOR, 0 / 0 / 1 UKR, 0 / 0 / 1 Women's Wrestling Final Medal Table JPN, 6 / 1 / 3 RUS, 1 / 2 / 5 CHN, 1 / 1 / 2 FRA, 1 / 0 / 0 MDA, 1 / 0 / 0 MGL, 0 / 2 / 1 UZB, 0 / 2 / 0 GER, 0 / 1 / 0 USA, 0 / 1 / 0 UKR, 0 / 0 / 3 IND, 0 / 0 / 2 SWE, 0 / 0 / 2 ITA, 0 / 0 / 1 KAZ, 0 / 0 / 1

Final Overall Medal Table RUS, 8 / 3 / 11 JPN, 7 / 1 / 4 IRI, 5 / 1 / 3 TUR, 2 / 0 / 3 USA, 1 / 4 / 3 ARM, 1 / 2 / 2 AZE, 1 / 1 / 3 MDA, 1 / 0 / 3 CHN, 1 / 1 / 2 KGZ, 1 / 0 / 1 FIN, 1 / 0 / 0 FRA, 1 / 0 / 0 IND, 0 / 4 / 3 UZB, 0 / 3 / 1 MGL, 0 / 2 / 2 GEO, 0 / 2 / 1 KAZ, 0 / 1 / 3 GER, 0 / 1 / 1 AUT, 0 / 1 / 0 CAN, 0 / 1 / 0 EGY, 0 / 1 / 0 SUI, 0 / 1 / 0 UKR, 0 / 0 / 6 HUN, 0 / 0 / 4 SWE, 0 / 0 / 2 NOR, 0 / 0 / 1 ITA, 0 / 0 / 1

yeah, actually I didn't even think about them... in any case, you're explained what the situation is...North and South Americans have Italian blood, so to me they are entitled to be named "Italians" a lot more than those 2nd/3rd generation immigrants, who often don't have anything to share with our culture and traditions (I know this opinion is not well considered here, but that's the pure truth...and most Italian people think the same, even if many don't want to say it publicly because of this plague of "politically correct")...

Day #7 (Freestyle) Medallists -61kg Gold: Abasgadzhi Magomedov Silver: Ramaz Turmanidze Bronze: Syrbaz Talgaz & Vazgen Tevanyan -74kg Gold: Maekhi Kevin Lewis Silver: Abubakr Abakarov Bronze: Devid Betanov & Bat-Erdene Byambasuren -86kg Gold: Arif Ozen Silver: Deepak Punia Bronze: Abolfazi Hashemi & Patrik Szurovszki -92kg Gold: Abbas Foroutan Silver: Alisher Yergali Bronze: Askhab Hamzatov & Erhan Yaylaci -125kg Gold: Soslan Kinchagov Silver: Alì Medhat Abde Barghout Bronze: Khasanboy Rakhimov & Saman Jabrailov

home advantage = a lot more pressure, which is one of the causes that always stop them from achieving more at the Games... I'm still convinced that they will underperform in their top sports (apart from those with biased/corrupted judges involved), meanwhile they're gonna win a lot more than expected in sports which usually are not their strenght...

I don't think so... the only atheltes we're trying to "buy" (meaning that we would like to naturalize them despite their connection to Italy is not that strong...because we don't buy anybody literally, as they do in some other Countries) are some wrestlers (since this sport is basically dead here in Italy)... and actually, even Chamizo decided to compete for Italy with full permission of Cuban authorities after coming to live in Italy following his marriage... all those not purely Italian names nowadays you can see in our teams are just second/third generation guys grown up, raised and trained (often also already born) in our Nation just because their parents/grandparents decided to come to live here...

women's -63kg Gold: Clarisse Agbegnenou Silver: Miku Tashiro Bronze: Tina Trstenjak & Juul Franssen men's -81kg Gold: Saeid Mollaei Silver: Sotaro Fujiwara Bronze: Vedat Albayrak & Alexander Wieczerzak

but the Olympic Games are a different beast... first, they only have one competitor per weight class, which makes their selection more complicated... then, they often spend most of their mental energy to make the squad, which is generally more difficult than actually win a medal once you're in the team... add to that the enormous pressure they have to face each and every time they go to the Olympics... and you have results like those of the last few Olympic editions, where they won very few Gold medals if compared to the world champs (and their expectations)...

actually Albayrak is not even Greek, since he was born in Georgia with the original name of Vano Revazishvili, then changed in Roman Moustopoulos when he moved to Greece... so, we can say he's a journeyman, to say the least...

better "Banana Republic" named Italy...

and here we go...game rained out... so, the Netherlands win the tournament based on Round Robin results, Italy are 2nd and Spain 3rd... I'm really disappointed...I'd really have liked to watch another chapter of the "neverending story" between NED and ITA...

but since Beijing 2008 GBR have been one of the top Nations at the Olympics...way better than Italy, for instance (and if we go back not later than 1996, we all know how British sport was...in that year, if it weren't for the great Steven Redgrave, it would have been a glorious 0 Gold at the Games for the British team)... so, I wouldn't mind to have a discipline or two where we don't even bother to participate if then the overall result is that...

yes, and he used some very exciting (and in 1 case also unusual) techniques...he's been the top guy of today's event so far...I really hope he can win Gold...it would be the most deserved one (with all respect for the other 3 semifinalists)...

so...today we're already done with the morning program... then, let's just give a look at our usual quick recap... women's -63kg semifinals Clarisse Agbgnenou vs Martyna Trajdos Miku Tashiro vs Tina Trstenjak repechage Katharina Haecker vs Maylin Del Toro Carvajal (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Tashiro / Trstenjak) Kathrin Unterwurzacher vs Juul Franssen (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Agbgnenou / Trajdos) men's -81kg semifinals Saeid Mollaei vs Vedat Albayrak Sotaro Fujiwara vs Dominic Ressel repechage Matthias Casse vs Alexander Wieczerzak (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Fujiwara / Ressel) Damian Szwarnowiecki vs Khasan Khalmurzaev (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Mollaei / Albayrak)

and when it looked a great day for Germany (and it still is, with 2 athletes in the semifinals), Vedat Albayrak beat the 2017 world champion Alexander Wieczerzak and wins the pool B in the men's -81kg, meanwhile Saeid Mollaei is just unstoppable and he's also through to the semifinals (he's gonna face Albayrak) after beating the Belgian Matthias Casse

in the meantime, Miku Tashiro wins the women's -63kg pool D (she's gonna face Trstenjak in the semifinals)... and Clarisse Agbegnenou (winner of pool A) will face Martyna Trajdos (winner of pool B) in the semifinal match of the top half of the draw...

men's -81kg, pool D: Dominic Ressel is through to the semifinals after a great fight against the Russia Khalmurzaev (ended after more than 2 mins in the GS)... he's going to face Fujiwara in the next match...

Sotaro Fujiwara wins men's -81kg pool C and he's the first to make it through to the semifinals, menwhile Tina Trstenjak wins women's -63kg pool C and she's also through to the semifinals...

men's -81kg pool finals A: vs , B: vs , C: vs , D: vs Mollaei looks absolutely on fire, he's put on a show so far...but the Belgian Casse is also very "hot"...at the moment, they have been by far the best 2 athletes from today's action...it's a real shame they have to face each other already in the pool final (quarterfinal round, if you prefer)...

women's -63kg pool finals A: vs B: vs , C: vs , D: vs