phelps

highlights from that historical game... http://video.khl.ru/quotes/363091

yes, of course I immediately thought about her... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prapawadee_Jaroenrattanatarakoon about Italy...well, it's already quite a while that we don't use many North American born Italians...after our championships' decline, we simply can't afford them anymore (to be honest, it's also a political decision by the new officials of our federation, but I'm sure that if we could still call up a few of the best NHL/AHL player with Italian descent, we would do it despite all the the announces in the opposite direction)... so, the only thing we could do, it was to start sending our best youngsters in a better youth system (junior Swiss league or junior EBEL) so to give them a chance to play at a higher level day in and day out and be useful to our National team one day... now these politics start to pay their prize and we have a good bunch of youngsters playing in Bozen (EBEL) and/or around good European leagues, like SUI/GER and also some Finnish and KHL teams (even Slovan Bratislava have 1 of our former Canadian born Italian from the last generation, Nick Plastino...I saw him last night against Sochi spending quite a few minutes on the penalty bench...his real strenght...), where we can call them up from... by the way, we still have 4 players not raised in Italy in our team (Cloutier, who's naturlized because of wedding, Trivellato, who's a German-born Italian and Di Casimirro and Scandella, who are North American born Italians)... all the others (including Thomas Larkin, who was born in London and raised here in Italy, despite his name could suggest a different story) are Italian born and raised players (even Zanatta and Gellert, whose fathers were "outside Italy born" Italians playing in our championships in the 80's and 90's)... that's the full genesis of our current team...

naaa...that's not so difficult...Thai weighlifters have a lot more complicated names...by far... by the way, wow! what a day 1 of Olympic quali we're having! I'm happy for Anze and his Slovenia...I hope they can do it... and, despite the bitter loss, I'm also happy that Italy weren't blown out by the French... meanwhile I guess that my former girlfriend (who's from Innsbruck, AUT) is not that happy...

and yesterday we also had another amazing game between SKA and AK Bars... in 2 days I just watched 2 matches that have been better than all of last season's... highlights from SKA-AK Bars http://video.khl.ru/events/464943

From Today until next Sunday, Wrestling Junior World Championships 2016 in Macon (FRA)... Infos, Results and Live Streaming here: https://unitedworldwrestling.org/event/world-championship-8 p.s. the picture quality of the Live Streaming is quite good, absolutely better than our usual UWW broadcasts...

yeah, I also watched a few minutes of that game (I was alternating the Football Champions League matches Rostov-Ajax, Salzburg-Dinamo Zagreb and the Hockey match)... not bad for an August warm up... and yes, I also remember the 2014 qualis (there was the Italian team, too)...but I think this time GER won't waste the chance (even if they have to take care not only of the arch-rivals from AUT, but also of the hosts from LAT, who are always boosted when they are at home in front of their very hot fans)...

Slovenia (if Kopi is there and in decent shape), otherwise Denmark + Germany + Norway are my picks...

since the IOC will never take our opinions in consideration, I take it as a game/joke and nothing more than that... so this is just my "dream version" of the Olympics without making any serious count of quotas to keep the limit of 10500 athletes (and actually one of my goals would be going over those numbers in any case) nor trying to be politically correct or particularly "realistic" in compiling my program... My key points: Get rid of those sports where the rankings are determined only ed exclusively by a bunch of corrupted judges (and of those judges themselves) as much as possible... Back to tradition in those "old" sports almost destroyed by the recent changes... Go over the current limit of 10500 competitors...more athletes (and les judges and officials) and no more events with 6/7/8 starters only... Get rid of the stupid idea that men and women must have the same number of events in each sports...there are a lot less women having access to sports activity in the World (and sports where women have always been marginal)...there's no need to have all of them exactly equal... Sport by Sport notes: Archery: nothing to be changed (though personally I used to like more the old format for the single matches - and not this new tennis-alike system)...but the Ranking Round event should have live tv coverage, too... Athletics: With all the love I have for it, get rid of Race Walking, since it's no longer a serious thing...real doping cheaters who win medals, innocents excluded with conspiracies and corrupted judges allowing runners to to run, instead of "walking"... and get rid of the 10000m on the track in favor of a Cross-Country event over 10 or 12 kms...same Countries dominating, but at least a different landscape and possibly a different time slot (maybe in the first day of the Games...I like the idea of having an Athletics event as the first medal awarded and also one - the men's Marathon - being the last big moment)... Badminton: no more doubles...only a 64 athletes singles' table draw for men and one for women (so to make space also for another racket sport like squash)...and absolutely no groups...only direct elimination rounds... Basketball: as for all team sports, since there are only 12 places available, get rid of continental protection for those associations with very few teams or for those without a really competitive team (so, no Oceania, Asia, Africa, North and South America as different entities, but just 3 main zones: Europe, Pan-America and "rest of the World" getting 1 team each...then the Hosts - only if they can reach good results in previous international events - and finally, the best 8 teams of the world overall)... I'm tired of having just 3 or 4 even matches per edition because of geo-politics... Beach volleyball: Expand to 32 teams per gender... Boxing: With my heart bleeding, remove the sport in its entirety, because right now, it's just a farce... Canoeing: Sprint canoeing needs more competitive boats in each event, it's really depressing watching heats and semis with 4 or 5 boats, 1 or 2 of them coming to the finish line with 10+ seconds deficit...and all the program must be reviewed...they have to choose only 1 representative distance - my choice, 1000m - and have all the races over this "Olympic distance"...at the moment, I'd take only 10 events - K1, K2, K4 for men and women; C1, C2, C4 for men and C1 for women - but of course in the next years, following a natural development, I'd add the C2 and C4 for women, too, so to have 12 events - all with a reasonable number of boats - in this sport)... Slalom: just too expensive. Once again, with my heart bleeding (I love this sport), remove slalom events from the Games... Cycling: a few more riders in the Road Race and no more Time Trial events... BMX is spectacular...but it's just like Slalom Canoeing...building such a specific venue for 2 (4 doesn't changes anything) titles is way too expensive...so, remove this discipline from the Games... to replace BMX, just put in the Elimination race in the MTB section (the Cross-Country event is fine as it is)... Track: the key word is "restoration": get rid of those insignificant new events and bring back the old exciting ones...the program should include: individual sprint, keirin (for sprint specialists), individual and team pursuit (for middle distance/time trial specialists) and Points Race and Elimination Race (for longer distance/road specialists) for both genders plus the Madison Race (men's only) because that's the symbol, the queen and king race of all the track cycling sport... Diving: get rid of the Synchro events...individual springboard and platform for both men and women are enough, since this sport is basically a 1-Country show and stop... Equestrian: get rid of Dressage and Eventing, at least...but I'd remove it completely because of costs and logistic troubles (mainly) and health issues for the horses (not to be underestimated)... Fencing: this sport is one of the 5 most ancient of the Games (and now it's become one of the most global, one of the very few able to give medals to all continents)...it needs a lot more respect...so, no more rotation between team events...all 12 events must be part of the program and the table draws must be taken to 64 athletes in the individual events and at least 12 - but 16 would be better - in the team events, where the stupid rule of the reserve athlete not getting the medal if he doesn't play at least a bout - but if he does he can't be replaced anymore by one of the starters - must be cancelled immediately)... Field hockey: great sport, OK as it is... Football: get rid of it...there's no place for a youth tournament a t the Games...it should be replaced by Futsal (but only when the women's game gets more developed than today), which is also less expensive (it can be hosted in 1 single arena) and it doesn't require sites far away from the actual Olympic city... Golf: it's a great sport...now we only have to get the best male players in... Gymnastics: Get rid of rhythmic and trampoline (it's good in a circus, not at the Games for sure)...bring in the Aerobics (men's and women's singles, mixed pair and mixed gorups - 3 men + 3 women) to replace them... Handball: see basketball (and volleyball)... Judo: OK as it is (The leg rule needs to go)... Modern pentathlon: if they keep it, frankly there's no need at all for the fencing bonus round...but I'd remove it completely, since horses are involved in it... Rowing: more competitive boats in each discipline, especially the long boats... Rugby sevens: get rid of this farce...this is not the sport of Rugby nor it does give any idea of what it is... Sailing: No changes needed... Shooting: I'd like to replace the prone rifle for men with the Running Targets event, which in my opinion is a lot more exciting...and qualifications should have live tv coverage, too... Swimming: women's 800m free out, women's 1500m free (+ 50m breast, back and fly for both genders) in...the Swimming Marathon should be taken to 15kms...now the 1500m Pool specialists still have too many chances to win in both disciplines... Synchronized Swimming: get rid of that non-sport activity (and its corrupted judges)... Table tennis: see Badminton...get rid of team events (which is just a gift to China) and set up only men's and women's singles with a 64-athlete direct elimination table draw... Taekwondo: expand it to 10 weight classes (5 men + 5 women, clearly) and enlarge the starting field to 32-player table draws (or at least 24, but it's not recommended)... Tennis: see Badminton and Table Tennis...get rid of the doubles and set up only men's and women's singles with a 64-athlete direct elimination table draw (and allow just a 3-player contingent for each Country)... Triathlon: no changes... Volleyball: see Basketball and Handball... Water polo: again, see Basketball, Handball and Volleyball (and take the women's tournament to 12 teams)... Weightlifting: with my heart bleeding, get rid of it (no results are reliable, despite all the efforts by IWF)... Wrestling: events are good as they are...but I want more athletes in each event (32-man draw sheets would be ideal, but 24 would be acceptable, too...any different number of participants make the competition unfair because of the odd recovery time between athletes facing each other in the same session)... and among the new (or returning) Sports: Baseball/Softball: same teams and principles of the other team sports...12 teams, 2 groups of 6 then quartrfinals, semis and medal matches and really reduced geo-political considerations to make up the starting field... Karate: the full kumite program must be in place...5 weight classes for both men and women (1 player per Country in each class allowed) with 32-athlete table draws...technically, women's bouts should be expanded from first round to gold medal fight to at least 3 minutes and men's bouts to 4 minutes (but 4 and 5 minutes respectively would be even better)... Squash: dropping doubles and team events in Badminton, Tennis and Table Tennis makes place also for this exciting sport (also here, men's and women's singles 64-athlete table draws with max 3 players per Country)... Sport Climbing: the traditional Lead and the new fast & furious Speed events (for both genders, of course) should be included, and not that farce of the combined event they want to add for the Tokyo Games... Futsal: see Football (format and quotas would be the same as the other team sports, of course)... Roller Speedskating: finally, instead of those judgment craps of surfing and skateboarding, I'd like to get back to the original idea of having this wondewrful and exciting sport at the Games...my ideal program would include track races (300m sprint individual time trial, 500m mass sprint, 5000m elimination race, 10000m points race, 5000m Madison - 3-man teams - race...to be held on ice speedskating-alike - or athletics-alike - 400m tracks) and the Marathon races (the classic 42.195kms) on the streets...

actually it's an inquiry by the Italian newspaper "la Repubblica", which can be seen also here (there are both the Italian and the English version)... http://video.repubblica.it/sport/operation-schwazer-the-plot-of-the-dukes-of-doping/248471/248603?ref=HRESS-27 but the main problem is that all the Italian Institutions are part of this conspiracy and they will do all they can to deny any attempt of defence by Schwazer and humiliate him... you should watch yesterday's Italian broadcast of the 50km Race Walk competition...it was simply disgusting, totally unacceptable... by the way, all the documents taken by the Italian police at the Italian federation headquarter, now are being used by the Italian trial court...and when it all ends up, all the world will have the proof that IAAF had already been knowing the Russian illegal blood values since 3 years (at least), as it appears from data stored in dr. Giuseppe Fischetto's hard drives... p.s. dr. Fischetto is responsible for IAAF's anti-doping commission since many years and he's also the former doctor of the Italian federation when they used to co-operate with dr. Conconi and dr. Ferrari at the University Hospital in Ferrara in the early Ninety's (and later)...

che giornata, ieri! ho rischiato più volte l'infarto, ma ne è valsa la pena... peccato solo per il suicidio della Sartori nella semifinale dell'Arco...altrimenti sarebbe arrivato un gran bell'argento anche lì (e invece è arrivata anche la beffa del quarto posto)... oggi purtroppo abbiamo solo 2 possibilità con Campriani nella Carabina e con il duo Pellielo/Fabbrizi nel Trap...speriamo però di farle fruttare bene entrambe... personalmente, dopo i primi 2 giorni di "full immersion" sono già abbastanza cotto...chissà se riuscirò ad arrivare vivo al termine, continuando così...

better not to make any comment about the Italian performance from yesterday... I never so such a bad attitude in an OLympic quarterfinal match... what the fu*k they were thinking?

most of those who swam both heats and final were quicker in the morning (early afternoon, I should say)...including Cate Campbell, Ledecky and Pellegrini (actually she swam very slowly in the final, but Italy was already out of any battle and in the waves of the best teams)... the only one who repeated herself (among the main candidates to the medals in the individual races) is Sjostrom (and Bronte Campbell, who just joked in the heats and obviously improved a lot in the final)... for Italy, good result by Detti (we've been waiting for that medal for 16 years, since Rosolino's Silver in Sydney) in terms of final placing, but he was much slower than expected... meanwhile, all the other swimmers (and not only the youngsters at their first Olympic experience) were just a disaster, as always happens at the Olympics...they were well outside the target and the times they swam all year long (at the Italian Nationals, at the Europeans and even at Settecolli meet in June)...shame on them...

as expected, Epee always ends with a lot of surprises... not that Szasz and Fiamingo are generally considered underdogs, but at least in this season they haven't been in their best shape... but when it really mattered, experience and class made the difference... Rembi and the third Chinese (on paper), instead, were really the surprising package of the day... pity also for my Nathalie Moellhausen...she's been just a fraction away from giving Brazil one of the most unexpected joy of the Games... but, mainly, congrats to Szasz and her great career...and also to Rossella, because it was really difficult to deliver in these conditions, but she still managed to bring home a precious medal... today I don't have great feelings about the men's individual foil, but who knows? mayb Cassarà's class will finally come out as well...

BBC website, all the way (but you need a VPN, better if a "serious" paid one...but it works also with Hola, which is free but not advisable for your privacy and security)...

www.rai.it/rio2016 go to the "calendario" item and choose the evnt you want to watch (for on-demand events there are 3 audio options: Italian - not always - English and Environmental Sound only - those 2 are always available, Live events only have Italian audio - when available - and stadium sound only and they are sligthly worse than recorded files for what concerns the picture quality)... p.s. the football games are recorded as full sessions, so you have the 2 games played in the same stadium in the same video file... p.p.s. there's also an APP for Android phones with the same features...

very unlucky draws for the Italian fencers... and no all-Italian gold medal bout in Women's Foil, since Errigo and Di Francisca are in the same half of the table draw (and the 2 Russians are in the other one)...

in fact, it is...but with a sort of continental protection (even if only among those super 12 teams)... somewhere in the Olympic Charter there's a rule that states that team sports must have at least 3 continents qualified to be part of the games...

100%...at least one between the Netherlands and Italy (and probably both of them) will be for sure among the 12 super Teams in 2019... next year's World Baseball Classic will tell a lot...it's the tournament that gives away the most points in the ranking and both Italy and the Netherlands will have big squads full of MLB pros...so there's a chance that they're going to do very well like in 2013 (NED was on the podium and ITA was 7th, but losing only by 1 run against DOM - the eventual champion - USA and PUR)... @Near yes, they are...but in Baseball they all play for "the Kingdom of the Netherlands" (that's the official status for WBSC)... and 98% of the Italians are North-American born, by the way (our biggest star at the moment is Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs)...

well, they're no longer the powerhouse they used to be...and if the MLB stars will enter the qualifying tournament (which is highly unlikey, however), probably they won't even qualify for the Games...

well, this is one of the things that have already been decided... it will be JPN + the best from each Continent among those ones who will make it to Super 12 tournament 2019 (and that tournament will only feature the top 12 nations in the world ranking, with no geographical protection)... if less than 5 continental zones wll make it to super 12 2012, then they will take into account the best team from that tournament, even if they come from an already qualified continent)...

if 2020 was tomorrow... FRA, JPN, EGY and TUR in Karate... AUT, CZE, SLO, CAN and KOR in Sport Climbing (but many things could change from now until 2020)... USA, AUS and BRA in Surf USA in Skateboard USA and JPN in Baseball/Softball just my personal opinion, of course...

Sport climbing (the classic Lead discipline and the newcomer Bouldering) has a very good fan base in many Countries around the Alps (France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, but also in the Czech Rep. and in Germany)... there are also very good atletes from Belgium, GBR, Canada, US and even some Asian Countries (KOR above all, but also CHN, JPN and IRI)... the Speed discipline, on the other hand, it's almost entirely dominated by RUS, UKR and POL, with very few exceptions... as someone suggested, the international federation has a very good website, where you can find info, stats and videos of their main events throughout the year)... http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/ the only problem is that they won't have the 3 disciplines at the Olympic Games in 2020, but a senseless "combined event", which doesn't even exist in sport climbing until now... so, not the best way to promote this sport, I guess...

just look at page 2 of this same thread... they aim at 3+3 classes with just 10 athletes per class for Kumite and the same amount of players for Kata (which only has 1 male and 1 female class, at least)... with so few competitions, all medals would go to the sport powerhouses (FRA and JPN above all) and the smaller Nation (which could have a shot if there would be enough chances) will be left without any possibility event to qualify...

I think they will say YES to all 5... personally, as I wrote in the past, I'd say YES only to sport climbing (but not under those rules...only if they put the Lead and Speed special disciplines as Olympic events), Baseball/Softball (but only if they have a 12-team tournament with all the MLB, KOR and JPN leagues' stars) and Karate (but only with the full 5+5 weight classes of Kumite and with a decent - definitely not less than 16 per weight - number of competitors, without that boring farce named Kata)...

no, if I remeber well they have to vote YES to at least 2 of those 5...