phelps

actually, Fiorella and Fischetto were the doctors of the Italian Athletics team at the time of Alex's 1st positive test in 2012, before the London Games... so, they've been convicted because, according to the judge's decision, they knew he was taking drugs well before he tested positive and tried to hide that... moreover, Fischetto was also the man in charge for the IAAF to investigate on the Russian race-walkers... and when Schwazer did testimony against him at the first auditions of these procedings, he was the mastermind (with help from the Russians) behind all the farce of Alex's second positive test (at the beginning of 2016)...but this last art has not been stated in this trial, because, among other things, IAAF and Koelner lab didn't release the samples of that test yet despite the orders from both Italian and German judges... but this is just another story... p.s. however, non of those criminals would spend a day in jail, since Fiorella and Fischetto have been sentenced to 2 years only and Rita Bottiglieri (she was -is?- one of the Italian Federation board members) just to 9 months, which means in our Country that the sentence is suspended and replaced by a strong fine (only sentences of 36 months and more are executive and could lead people to jail)... here's an article about yesterday's sentence (in Italian)... http://www.repubblica.it/sport/vari/2018/01/25/news/doping_caso_schwazer_condannati_tre_medici_fidal-187262121/?ref=RHRS-BH-I0-C6-P14-S1.6-T1

all week long, Wintersports, Handball Europeans and Hockey (NHL, KHL, SHL and Czech Extraliga) on satellite TV... in the weekend also Fencing World Cup events online... some Football here and there...just to fill the blanks...

gotta bet some €...quickly, before they realize the risk and sink the odds brutally...

OMG!!!! but are we gonna watch the Olympic tournament or an all-star game? basically it's a 2-team shuffle with only 2 "foreigners"... p.s. and I still have some friends who think that SKA and CSKA aren't good enough to be Stanley Cup contenders if they were at the start in the NHL... moreover, just take note that those 2 teams can't even be the 2 KHL finalists, since they play in the same Conference... p.p.s. by the way, if they don't come home with Gold this time, they won't get it anymore for the remaining days in the history of the game of hockey...

yes, they only have 3 guys starting in Pyeongchang: Semen Elistratov, Pavel Sitnikov and Alexander Shulginov meanwhile the girls are 4: Ekaterina Efremenkova, Ekaterina Konstantinova, Emina Malagich and Sofya Prosvirnova

I don't have problems with these sports either (apart from skateboarding, I must admit...), but I think I like to watch them at the X-Games and not at the Olympics (where I prefer a strict respect of tradition and of the "old definition" of sport)... diversity? definitely, yes... to much of a "modern touch"? no, thanks there are many other chances for those (in any case often really entertaining) activities...

naaa...they only care about the X-Games stuff... and in fact they're trying every possible move to make the Olympics the "B" X-Games, with all this bullshit like halfpipe, slopestyle, big air, surf, skateboarding and so on...and next time round maybe they'll try to put also the street luge and parkour in...

yes, unfortunately there's no tv production at all for the 15/20km individual races... but don't ask me why? really, I have no idea...

OK...but as I wrote, it's still the official decision by our tech panel...yesterday there was the official CONI press conference and all those infos were publicly released, so there's no way they're gonna change anything... probably the final confirmation on FIS website will come only after all the 20 names have been determined, so to be sure that we have 4 starters in each race for both men and women (because this is still unsure in a couple of disciplines...we might select more specialists rather than worrying to fill all the 4 combined event's spots, for instance)...

why did you put Italy in that list? I posted yesterday the final decisions of our NOC...

here they come... Short Track -Will KOR sweep (=winning all 3 medals) at least 2 different Individual events? -Will KOR win all 8 Gold medals? -Will Nations from at least 4 different Continents make the medal table? -Will Europe (all Nations combined) win more medals than North America (USA and Canada together)? -Will at least 3 (4) different European Countries get at least 2 medals? -Will an athlete (no matter the Country nor the gender) win medals in all his/her 3 Individual events (500m+1000m+1500m)? -Will the Men and Women's Relay World Record time be beaten in the Gold Medal Final? -Will an athlete (no matter if a man or a woman) skating in the B-Final win a medal in his/her respective 500m event? -Will there be at least 3 different athletes disqualified in all the Individual A-Finals (all 6 together)? Freestyle Skiing -Will Devin Logan (USA) win both Women's Halfpipe and Slopestyle events? -Will Canada win both Men and Women's Moguls Gold medals? -Will athletes from Nations of 3 different Continents be on the podium of the Men's Aerials? -Will any Sierra Nevada 2017 World Champion win the Gold Medal in the same event also in Pyeongchang? -Will the USA sweep the podium in both Men and Women's Halfpipe events? -Will South Korea win at least a medal in Freestyle sport? -Will China sweep the Women's Aerials event? -Will Australia win medals in at least 3 different events? -Will at least a skier fall down in the Gold Medal Race in both the Men and Women's Ski Cross Finals?

Italy will have 15 CC skiers between women and men in Pyeongchang... at the moment only 3 male skiers have been already named: Francesco De Fabiani, Dietmar Noeckler, Federico Pellegrino the remaining 12 spots are still up for grabs...

Italian NOC (CONI) will send 121 athletes to Pyeongchang... many of them have already been named, some spots have not been filled yet, since a few internal qualifications are still underway... this is the list by sport: CURLING (5): Men: Daniele Ferrazza, Simone Gonin, Amos Mosaner, Andrea Pilzer, Joel Retornaz FIGURE SKATING (11): Men: Marco Fabbri, Matteo Guarise, Ondrej Hotarek, Luca Lanotte, Matteo Rizzo Women: Anna Cappellini, Nicole Della Monica, Charlene Guignard, Carolina Kostner, Valentina Marchei, Giada Russo SPEED SKATING (9): Men: Riccardo Bugari, Davide Ghiotto, Andrea Giovannini, Michele Malfatti, Mirko Nenzi, Nicola Tumolero Women: Francesca Bettrone, Yvonne Daldossi, Francesca Lollobrigida SHORT TRACK (7): Men: Yuri Confortola, Tommaso Dotti. Women: Arianna Fontana, Cecilia Maffei, Cynthia Mascitto, Lucia Peretti, Martina Valcepina BIATHLON (10): Men: Thomas Bormolini, Thierry Chenal, Lukas Hofer, Giuseppe Montello, Dominik Windisch Women: Nicole Gontier, Alexia Runggaldier, Federica Sanfilippo, Lisa Vittozzi, Dorothea Wierer BOBSLEIGH (5): Men: Simone Bertazzo, Lorenzo Bilotti, Francesco Costa, Simone Fontana, Mattia Variola NORDIC COMBINED (5): Alessandro Pittin Spots remaining (athletes yet to be named): 4 FREESTYLE (4): All the athletes have yet to be named SKI JUMPING (6): All the athletes have yet to be named ALPINE SKIING (20): Men: Luca De Aliprandini, Peter Fill, Stefano Gross, Christof Innerhofer, Manfred Moelgg, Dominik Paris, Riccardo Tonetti Women: Marta Bassino, Federica Brignone, Chiara Costazza, Irene Curtoni, Nadia Fanchini, Sofia Goggia, Manuela Moelgg, Johanna Schnarf Spots remaining (athletes yet to be named): 5 CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING (15): Men: Francesco De Fabiani, Dietmar Noeckler, Federico Pellegrino Spots remaining (athletes yet to be named): 12 SKELETON (1): Man: Joseph Luke Cecchini LUGE (9): Men: Dominik Fischnaller, Kevin Fischnaller, Emanuel Rider, Fabian Malleier, Ivan Nagler, Patrick Rastner, Ludwig Rieder Women: Sandra Robatscher, Andrea Voetter SNOWBOARD (14): Men: Michele Godino, Lorenzo Sommariva, Emanuel Perathoner, Omar Visintin Women: Sofia Belingheri, Raffaella Brutto, Francesca Gallina, Michela Moioli Spots remaining (athletes yet to be named): 6

it's official (today there was the final meeting of our NOC to determine how many athletes fly to Korea)...Italy will use "only" 20 Alpine Skiing spots... the already selected skiers are: Men Luca De Aliprandini, Peter Fill, Stefano Gross, Christof Innerhofer, Manfred Moelgg, Dominik Paris, Riccardo Tonetti Women Marta Bassino, Federica Brignone, Chiara Costazza, Irene Curtoni, Nadia Fanchini, Sofia Goggia, Manuela Moelgg, Johanna Schnarf the remaining 5 spots will be decided after the last world cup races before the Games start...

Italian press talks about 111 athletes who have been rejected by the IOC... not all the names have already been released yet, but they will be in the next few hours... It's also mentioned a first reaction from Kremlin already shouting for a full boycott of the Olympics from the Russian side...

if I remember well, her name was in the McLaren report, too...but I could easily be wrong (I don't remember all those names one by one)... in this case, just forget my post...

one is surely Sergey Ustyugov, who's ban is already confirmed by Russian Minister of Sports Stanislav Pozdnyakov's words to official news agancies (even if he's claiming that Ustyugov's absence in Korea is not due to doping troubles)... 2 more should be Denis Yuskov and Pavel Khulizhnikov (speedskating)...

naaa...it's gonna be the Ducks vs the Lightning for the Cup (I expected a lot more from Edmonton, but it's quite clear that they aren't ready, yet...and of course I still fear the usual Pens, but I definitely hope that Tampa this year's gonna beat them)...

by the way, very interesting team, the Finnish one... I'm not sure they're as good as the Russians and the Swedes, but surely they're gonna be among the medal contenders...as always, most of their fortune will be on their goalies' shoulders... the Swiss...well, the Swiss are almost always the same team...no surporise from them... they're gonna play a very entertaining and technical style of hockey, they will probably make some upsets to the top 6 "big name" Countries, but they still lack some size and some offensive power (meaning also one or two true "natural born goal scorers") to have a real shot against the powehouses of the game...

since I always watch hockey from every part of the world, it's not the absence of the NHL players that's gonna stop me from watching almost every game of the Olympic tournament, but I can tell you that I'm still furious with those NHL idiots who just ruined the best 15 days of my life once every 4 years... by the way, let's not name the Kings right now...they're getting me crazy with their losing streaks...I still hope we can at least make the playoffs at the end of the season, but I'm not so optimistic anymore...

to make it fair, however, IOC should ban from the Games also the former doping-cheaters from other Countries (Johnsrud Sundby the first name coming to my mind), not only the (well deserved) Russians...

hopefully they will also ban Yurlova... however, for what concerns the Italian team, it's almost sure that we're going to send these 5 women to Korea: Wierer, Vittozzi, Runggaldier, Sanfilippo and Gontier... the guys should be (actually they are, since we don't have any other candidate) Hofer, Windisch, Bormolini, Montello and Chenal...

look at coni's website (the dedicated microsite for Pyeongchang)... just click on the "Azzurri" list and you have the names for all the disciplines...some of them are already official, some others need confirmation in the next few days... but you can see from now that we're going to send at best 21 alpine skiers (to be chosen among those in that list)... in Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined at the moment there are still the full teams, but I don't think they will send all of them to Korea...actually, I hope they won't waste so much money)... imho, they should give the green light only to those athletes that can at least make the top 15 (and have actually made at least twice the top 8 in this season)... the remaining money should be saved for developing the skills and experience of the most successful youngsters, already looking ahead to Beijing 2022, rather than making some gifts of a paid holiday to a bunch of "capre, capre, capre" (cit. Vittorio Sgarbi )...

Women's Team Epee (La Havana, CUB) Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: Russia Bronze: China Semifinals: South Korea b. China 45-36 Russia b. Italy 28-23 Bronze Medal Match: China b. Italy 38-30 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. Russia 45-34 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/822/results/rank

but you can't buy experience (and especially the Olympic experience) at the supermarket...I'm pretty sure he'd be at his best when it really matters (even the lights of the Zoeggelers, Hackls, Procks often weren't that dominant in the Olympic seasons, when they eventually got their medals in the most important race of the 4-year span)...