phelps

yes, if they don't close both eyes on the rules and reschedule all of the alpine skiing events through the remaining 8/9 days, which is improbable, to say the least... however, if we can't have at least 2 of the 3 men's speed events by Friday, it's almost certain that the full program won't be completed...

once again, today couldn't feel the emotion of the Olympics... day 3 was just another day at the office, with no particular highlight... the biathlon races were just among the less exciting of the season, the women's slopestyle was almost a farce (the only consolation is the fact that the best in the field still managed to win the Gold medal), Luge, after that men's race, can't match the excitement anymore... no comment on ski jumping (I just don't like it enough) and Ice Hockey (I like it too much to stand games like today's)... so, my highlights of the day were speedskating (actually, quite a decent race, but not so spectacular...and pity for my favourite, Marrit Leenstra, who "only" got the bronze medal) and men's Moguls, with some outstanding runs (Kingsbury ) and some spectacular falls, too (Choi and Endo's in particular)... and tomorrow it's going to be a nightmare, with many interesting medal events scheduled at the same time...and this won't help me and my feelings about these Games...

last news are about a team meeting at 2.30 CET (10.30 am local time), where all decision will be taken... the most consistent hypothesis is to start the downhill from the lower (super-G) gate at 2 p.m. local time and delay the slalom at 6 p.m. local (starting from the women's gate)... by rule, they have to end all men's speed events by Friday, so, if there won't be any combined event tomorrow, there won't be any at all (and it would be the first time in the Olympic history that an alpine skiing event on the Games program wouldn't be held)... p.s. however, it happened at the World Ski championships in Japan (Morioka 1993)... that time the men's super-G was not contested because of the persisting bad weather during those champs...

I agree...tomorrow's gonna be a nightmare... and it's gonna be a problem also to watch all those events one at a time, avoiding the spoilers...

you're right...I had to write sliding sports + biathlon = the most medals for GER... in any case, the point was about those disciplines being scheduled around noon CET mainly because of the German Tv (and for Biathlon also NOR, FRA and many others) desires...

fu*k...the Italian day is already over... however, in the first shooting session we've had a lot of "0"... so, wind shouldn't be that disturbing as feared...

I agree...especially on the race being a mess...

Chloe Kim, the highlight of the Games so far... but I expect a few other girls to give her a good battle in the final runs... today's women's slopestyle...well, the best finally won it...but you can't make an Olympic event such a ***...

Swiss Tv has just said that there are no delays...they tried to see if wind is too strong, but it was confirmed that's still manageable... so, we're going to have our pursuit race...and given this weather, it could be a funny one...

good effort by the Japanese girls... but SUI is clearly superior in almost any aspect of the game...skating well and fast doesn't mean that much in this sport (though sometimes it helps)...

it was forced by German TV (and for Biathlon also many other)... Sliding sports give Germany most of their medals...and Biathlon (other than the sports results, also very good for GER) has tv ratings second only to football (soccer, for the American-speaking guys)... so, it's quite obvious that the European Tv networks wanted those disciplines in the most favourable time as possible (noon CET is a perfect lunch-break time in most Countries)...

oh, yes...I can't wait for the pair no.4... I don't know if the Italian public TV will show it to the "average audience", who don't even know what speedskating is...but, should it happen, I'm sure that our stupid social media baby-trolls would have a full day to show "their value"... actually it's gonna be quite dangerous* also for some "journalists", I guess... *for those who don't speak Italian...let's say that the name "Mia Manganello" is a living double meaning (especially for a woman)... I must confess...I'd rather pay to watch the "behind the scenes" of our TV stations...

after the end of the Olympic day, now I'm going with some Hockey (the real one, the NHL)... in the intervals, maybe some Golf (US PGA Tour), too...

and the Final will have only 2 runs instead of the "normal" 3...

Men's Team Foil (Bonn, GER) Final Results: Gold: United States Silver: South Korea Bronze: France Semifinals: USA b. Russia 45-37 South Korea b. France 45-36 Bronze Medal Match: France b. Russia 44-43 Gold Medal Match: USA b. South Korea 45-32 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/761/results/rank

Women's Team Epee (Barcelona, ESP) Final Results: Gold: Russia Silver: Italy Bronze: United States Semifinals: Russia b. USA 32*-32 (Priority) Italy b. Romania 39-29 Bronze Medal Match: USA b. Romania 28-20 Gold Medal Match: Russia b. Italy 35-25 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/750/results/rank

another day that could have been more enjoyable... no alpine skiing men's downhill...and this was the first disappointing fact of the day... then it came the slopestyle final...and frankly I expected a bit more from it...there were too few great runs to match my (high) expectations... speedskating...Kramer's gold was never in doubt...so, the most exciting moments came from Bloemen vs Pedersen fight for the other medals... and also Peter Michael did show some exciting last laps, raising the atmosphere...unfortunately, he missed out on the medals for a relatively small margin... from an Italian perspective, the race was just a disaster...only Tumulero had a decent performance, but still he didn't get even close to the podium places... having said of the painful (but exciting) end of the luge event, at least I can be happy for Dominik Windisch and our Biathlon movement... he finally got a quite unexpected bronze medal, that has almost the flavour of gold...well done, man... and this is the highlight of my day #2, of course... no joy came from on the men's CC skiing either...it wasn't such an entertaining race as the women's...moreover, watching a Norwegian sweep was quite depressing..and thinking of Sundby making the podium was even worse (at least he didn't win the Gold medal)... I haven't seen the women's Moguls final, yet... but probably I'm gonna watch it later today...so...no comment for now... that's it for day #2...and to be honest, I don't expect tomorrow to be more exciting than today or yesterday... the scheduling is so bad that I just can't feel that Olympic emotion flowing constantly through the whole day... every day so far looks just a normal winter day with some highlight at a certain hour of the day...and stop... I've never felt so "down" during the Olympics since I have memory of the Games (once again, I'm referring to Sarajevo 1984, my first Olympics...when I was 10 years young...a long, long time ago)...

also Cortina is no longer operational right now (however, it was no longer a "natural track" like St.Moritz in the last years it has been used, it was already renovated once with concrete walls, but still it wasn't safe enough to be used for skeleton and luge...it was only hosting bobsleigh competitions for just 2 months a year)... now there is a project to completely rebuild the track according to the most modern standards, but of course nobody wants to put money into it...so, it will only remain on paper, I guess... and we'll continue to send our kids beyond the border, in Igls, if they want to start a luge career (on the artificial tracks, since many of those kids still practice the natural track luge at home in South Tyrol, in any case)... and yes, Pragelato complex is done and gone since long time ago (actually, all the people in Italy knew that it would have been a one-hit wonder and it would have been dismissed after the 2006 Games)...

good question... I guess I can say, after having watched the races, that both chances are unbelievable... frankly, I never thought that Loch was going to lose after he was in the lead after 3 runs...but, to be honest, Pfeiffer's gold is definitely the bigger surprise...for me, at least... by the way, from my Italian point of view, I can only say that Dominik's 4th place hurts...it hurts very, very badly... congrats to the medallists...but D-Fisch's result hurts...man, how it hurts... p.s. I've been following Luge since the glorious days of Paul Hildgartner's triumph in Sarajevo (1984, for those who might have forgotten)...and I can't remember a major race as crazy as this one... we can say anything about it, but not that it wasn't full of unxpected turnarounds...

I don't expect anything different at the moment... I hope sooner or later Marzani, De Marchi and Clerici would become regular medallists, but they still have to earn their experience, which is so important in Epee (more than in the other weapons)... right now, we can only rely on Fiamingo's special feeling for the big events...

I was referring to the Sky vs Eurosport controversy... rai doesn't even exist for me...I'd rather watch Swiss, French, German, British, Czech and Slovak TV (and any other I can find on the Clarke belt)... and I also use the Eurosport Player, if I can't find a TV network showing what I want to watch...

normally is the top 25 only making the 4th run at the Olympics... but also the top 20 is OK to me...it doesn't change that much...

not yet...they are both still open (number 12 probably will have the answer -YES- tomorrow, after the speedskating race (the men's 5000m)...

Women's Individual Epee (Barcelona, ESP) Final Results: Gold: Zhu Mingye (CHN) Silver: Tatyana Andryushina (RUS) Bronze: Kang Young Mi (KOR) & Olena Kryvytska (UKR) Semifinals: Zhu b. Kang 15-11 Andryushina b. Kryvytska 15-5 Gold Medal Match: Zhu b. Andryushina 15-7 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/92/results/rank