phelps

well, tonight's jumps say that the Norwegians (who missed the first session) are well in the hunt, too... Forfang and Johansson seem to like this hill a lot... and also Hayboeck is having a good session... p.s. Freitag's improving too...

wow! the Austrians seem to have found the magic touch on this track... right now, they look well in front of the rivals, but I don't trust the Germans too much...I want to see all the training sessions before leaving them outside the medal candidates group... however, Kindl is scaring me a lot... Sochowski also is a very pleasant surprise...I hope he can deliver in the actual race, too (training sessions are not the same thing)... I can't wait for the Group 2 results (take notice that those timings shouldn't be compared with Group 1, since the time difference between the the 2 groups is way too long and the track and weather conditions would change too much between them)... p.s. the track looks way faster than last year...in both the first training sessions the best time is 7/8 tenth of a second quicker than the official track record (held by D-Fisch)...

no, not at all... it's 3 per NOC in all individual events except for the women's 5000m/men's 10000m and the Mass Start Races, where only 2 athletes per NOC are allowed to start... and of course there's only 1 team per NOC in the team pursuit (but this is quite obvious)...

it looks like it's gonna be a Stoch vs Wellinger affair for the Gold medal, with Kubacki just ahead of a bunch of serious contenders for Bronze... but it's still early...

unfortunately no training events are covered by live streaming/TV pictures...

no, this time I'm not going for the night watch... I hope, as I wrote before, to be able to manage the time difference through the on-demand features of the Eurosport Player for the European night events... and I rely on my sat dish for the European day activity, which I'm gonna follow live, of course...

being in Italy, of course I can't have access to the British Apps features...I can watch only the sat channels (I did enjoy so much the 8 BBC HD channels during the Rio Games...they were my primary source for watching the Olympic events normally ignored by the Italian TV)... p.s. I don't recommend the Italian colour buttons' features to anybody... I hope the Eurosport Player would do most of the job this time (but frankly I don't like its not so good picture quality...it's just a 720p stream with relatively low bitrate for my taste...I'm used to HDTV and/or Amazon/Netflix/US Sports Services' standard..so, you can imagine what's my opinion on this kind of things)...

Finally, after 3 years of Swedish domination (especially with Frolunda Indians, losing finalists in 2015 and winners in the last 2 seasons), we have a new Nation on top of the European Club Hockey! I think this can only be a good thing for Hockey in general and especially for the future of the Champions Hockey league, which still suffers from significative lack of interest in most part of the Continent throughout the season and does show some sign of life only in the final stages... however, it was nice to see a full house yeasterday night in Växjö, one of those places where normally the arena is almost empty in the early stages of the CHL... and it was even better to watch JYP conquer the ice of the Swedes...

JYP Jyväskylä Champions of Europe! Finals in the Champions Hockey League are always tight, and this year was no exception as JYP Jyväskylä won the game 2-0 to be crowned Champions of Europe! A scoreless opening period saw the home side have the better of the chances and possession. JYP were strong on the penalty kill as Växjö failed to convert on opportunities in the first and middle periods - something that they would later regret. With the Finns this time playing with a man advantage, Joonas Nattinen found himself wide open in the Lakers' zone to put Jyväskylä one up as his shot slipped through Andren. That lead stayed until 51 minutes to go - or so the Lakers though. Eric Martinsson's shot form the point found the net, but was washed out for goalie interference, the officials consulting the video and sticking to the on-ice call. A late minor penalty on the visitors gave the Lakers the perfect chance to tie the game in dramatic fashion. A half-empty net was missed by Andrew Calof as the Lakers pressed hard for the equaliser. Then it was over - empty net, and Janne Kolehmainen shot into the open goal in front of jubilant JYP fans to take the trophy to Finland! Match Highlights

naaa, Colloredo won't have any problem to make the top 50 (actually he could even make the top 30) on the small hill and also Alex Insam most likely will be in Saturday's "real" competition... not so sure about Bresadola, though (and Cecon, if he starts in this individual event)... and on the large hill things should be even easier for our guys (always only if we talk about making the top 50 and not more than that, of course)...

Road to the Final: Växjö Lakers Check out how JYP made it through their group, as runners up, all the way to the final!

Road to the Final: JYP Jyväskylä Check out how JYP made it through their group, as runners up, all the way to the final!

All set for Champions Hockey League Final JYP Jyväskylä arrived in Sweden last night ahead of the final, as the coaches and captains took part in a special pre-game press conference in the VIDA Area. The Finnish side have had a busy schedule leading up to this game, but go into the final with a win under their belts - and a big one at that, blanking KalPa 3-0 in the big regional derby over the weekend. They're fourth in the Liiga going into the international break, but with a game in hand and only three points behind Tappara above them. "We have had a lot of games recently, but that's all in the past. This is a final. They're a very skilled team, but we are aware of that and will of course be playing to win this trophy." said Head Coach Marko Virtanen. Captain Juha-Pekka Hytönen added: "We're all excited to play in this final. We know they're a good team, we're going to have to skate a lot, battle hard, and find that little bit extra." Växjö have come comforts for the final, as they had the best overall record in the competition from the the two finalists. Sam Hallam's men have won three straight in the SHL, including road wins in both of their previous outings. To be 17 points clear at this stage of the season is some feat. "We're in good shape at the moment within th squad, and of course it's nice to play at home. But we got here from hard work in the previous games, and will need one more big effort again tonight" said Head Coach Sam Hallam. "We know it's hard to get to this stage, to a final, and everyone is really excited to play in it," added Captain Liam Reddox.

Champions Hockey League 2017/2018 The Final Tonight, h.18.45 CET, Växjö (SWE), Vida Arena Växjö Lakers vs JYP Jyväskylä

unfortunately the weather forecast aren't that good for the Olympic fortnight...temperatures are expected to raise quite a bit from Saturday... https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/south-korea/pyeongchang so, don't worry about cancellations (in Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing there's a rule about not competing with -20° Celsius and/or below)... thinking about luge, for us (I mean, the Italian team) it would be nice if we get very low temperatures and almost no humidity...meanwhile if we go on the positive side with high humidity, well...we couldn't even start the races...Germany would easily sweep all the podium places (and it would happen in Skeleton and Bobsleigh, too)... however, Lillehammer is always on my mind...the best Winter Olympics ever (and I'm not speaking of the organization)... no comment on the OBS trailers...they're so disappointing that they look like the half-time show of yesterday's superbowl ('na ciofeca, for those who know a bit of Italian slang)...

my birthday is on July, 28th... I love cats...small and big ones, no matter the size...

that's Gangneung for sure, since the post is from Arianna Fontana (short track speedskating, our flagbearer)...

in Torino 2006 and Vancouver 2010 there were 4 athletes per heat, in Sochi there were 6... so, I guess there will be 6 also in Pyeongchang... EDIT: I did find the competition format and rules...in the Olympic SBX events there will be 6 guys per heat, it's official... https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/en/game-time/results/OWG2018/en/snowboard/reports.htm

some details... as expected, the last women's team foil competition with the Italian girls not jumping on the podium happened 10 seasons ago, 9 years and 8.5 months to be precise... the fatal date was May 18th, 2008 in Jeju Island (KOR), when Italy ended up the local World Cup event only in 4th place... in the same season, there was also the last major championship with Italy outside the medal ranks: it happened in Kiev (July 4th, 2008) at the European Championships, when our Dream Team was just 5th... moreover, the last time Italy lost a team assault against someone different from Russia happened in the 2014/2015 season, when the USA beat Italy in the semifinal of the Gdansk World Cup stage (in the same season, earlier also the French girls won against Italy once, in the semifinal of the Cancun World Cup stage)... from that day (January 18th, 2015) on, only the Russian girls have been able to defeat our wonderful girls (6 times in total in 3 years)... in this span (from the beginning of the 2007/2008 season), Italy has won 36 World Cup events (out of possible 53, today's event included), 6 Gold and 2 Silver medals at the World Champs (in 8 participations), 8 Gold and 1 Silver medal at the European Champs (in 10 participations, the only without medals being the infamous Kiev 2008 tournament) and 1 Gold and 1 Bronze medal at the Olympic Games (in 2 participations)... 3 times (2008/2009, 2013/2014 and 2016/2017) Italy also had the socalled "perfect season", meaning that they won each and every tournament they entered (all WC stages, European Champs and World Champs)... from tonight, that's just history... p.s. this is the full recap of the Italian placings in the Women's Team Foil major events of the Fencing seasons from 2007/2008 through today... 2007/2008 World Cup -Gdansk 5 St.Petersburg 3 Tokyo 1 -Jeju 4 La Havana 2 Olympic Games 3 -European Champs 5 2008/2009 World Cup Gdansk 1 Marseille 1 Seoul 1 St.Petersburg 1 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2009/2010 World Cup Gdansk 1 Turin 1 Marseille 1 Seoul 1 St.Petersburg 2 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2010/2011 World Cup Tauberbischofsheim 2 Turin 1 Budapest 1 Shanghai 1 St.Petersburg 1 World Champs 2 European Champs 1 2011/2012 World Cup Tauberbischofsheim 1 Turin 1 Budapest 1 Shanghai 2 St.Petersburg 1 Olympic Games 1 European Champs 1 2012/2013 World Cup Budapest 1 St.Petersburg 1 Tauberbischofsheim 1 Turin 1 Shanghai 3 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2013/2014 World Cup Budapest 1 St.Petersburg 1 Tauberbischofsheim 1 Turin 1 Shanghai 1 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2014/2015 World Cup Cancun 3 St.Maur 2 Gdansk 3 Algiers 1 Tauberbischofsheim 2 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2015/2016 World Cup Cancun 1 St.Maur 1 Gdansk 1 Algiers 2 Tauberbischofsheim 2 World Champs 2 European Champs 2 2016/2017 World Cup Cancun 1 St.Maur 1 Algiers 1 Gdansk 1 Tauberbischofsheim 1 World Champs 1 European Champs 1 2017/2018 World Cup Cancun 2 St.Maur 1 Katowice 2 -Algiers 4

I just can't believe it!!! For the first time in more than 10 years (actually it's a lot more...but I can't remember the last time it happened), Italy is not on the podium of a women's team foil event in either World Cup, World Championships and/or Olympic Games!!!!! This is the end of one of the longest streaks of success in the entire sports history... This is the end of a legend, the real "back Sunday" of the Italian sport... p.s. and the worst part of it, it's the fact that this news is not even going to be mentioned by any Italian media (apart from a couple of heavily specialized websites)...

Men's Team Sabre (Padua, ITA) Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Italy Bronze: Hungary Semifinals: Italy b. Hungary 45-40 South Korea b. USA 45-33 Bronze Medal Match: Hungary b. USA 45-34 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Italy 45-33 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/758/results/rank

Women's Team Foil (Algiers, ALG) Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: France Bronze: United States Semifinals: Russia b. USA 45-44 France b. Italy 45-38 Bronze Medal Match: USA b. Italy 45-44 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. France 42-32 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/563/results/rank

I'm pretty sure that someone did let her know something about it... however, hopefully this is the first of many good results for her (but still, just based on her previous results, imho she doesn't deserve the Olympic spot in a team like Italy)...

Junior World Championships (Altenberg, GER) Men's Singles: 1.Max Langenhan, GER 1:43.662 2.David Noessler, GER 1:44.247 3.Paul-Lukas Heider, GER 1:44.349 Women's Singles: 1.Jessica Tiebel, GER 1:23.951 2.Tatiana Tcvetova, RUS 1:24.373 3.Jessica Degenhardt, GER 1:24.385 Men's Doubles: 1.Nagler/Malleier, ITA 1:21.285 2.Orlamunder/Gubitz, GER 1:21.500 3.Kashkin/Korshunov, RUS 1:21.679 Team Relay: 1.Germany, 2:15.921 2.Russia, 2:16.874 3.Italy, 2:16.972

encouraging success for our youngsters in the men's doubles... they will slide in Pyeongchang as the new junior world champions, as they won that title earlier today in Altenberg...