phelps

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...

leg fractures were quite visible during the slo-mo replays on tv...it was very impressive... I wish her all the best and a quick recovery...

Men's Individual Sabre (Padua, ITA) Final Results: Gold: Eli Dershwitz (USA) Silver: Aron Szilagyi (HUN) Bronze: Luca Curatoli (RUS) & Andras Szatmari (HUN) Semifinals: Dershwitz b. Curatoli 15-13 Szilagyi b. Szatmari 15-11 Gold Medal Match: Dershwitz b. Szilagyi 15-12 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/156/results/rank

Women's Individual Foil (Algiers, ALG) Final Results: Gold: Alice Volpi (ITA) Silver: Erica Cipressa (ITA) Bronze: Inna Deriglazova (RUS) & Hanna Lyczbinska (POL) Semifinals: Cipressa b. Deriglazova 15-10 Volpi b. Lyczbinska 15-14 Gold Medal Match: Volpi b. Cipressa 15-6 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/129/results/rank

don't remind me of those wonderful Vancouver days...when I was so happy...and the Games were so well scheduled and covered by our TV... however, with my faithful satellite dish and my Eurosport Player subscription I hope not to miss anything... time's not a problem, since as always during the Olympic, I'm gonna be in my own world with a "do not disturb" (maybe also a "beware of the hungry and angry beast") warning on my tech room's door...

and Michela Moioli does it again! she definitely is our best chance of Gold in Pyeongchang... if only SBX wasn't such a high risk discipline...probably I wouldn't like (and care of) it that much...

my dark horse for the women's downhill (and the alpine skiing prediction contest) has gone... at least I hope her injury isn't as bad as it looks at first sight... I'm watching the race on the Swiss TV...and when the accident happened they were interviewing Sofia Goggia...she literally refused to turn her back and watch the pictures on the big screen at the stands' side... and also Vonn's reaction on the leader's seat was explicative of what happened... p.s. I'm still here asking myself why Nicol Delago is on our Olympic team?

as the detailed schedule of events might suggest, it's now official that the PGS knock-out phase will be contested over the single-run format... it's also reported that the qualification stage and the final phase would be played on the same course design if it will be made possible by the weather conditions, otherwise the knock-out stage would have a new and different course design than the qualifiers (which are scheduled in the previous days and not in the same day as it normally happens in the world cup events)... this is just something stupid and unfair...and goes together with the speedskating's 500m race contested over the single run... actually, in this case the unfairness would be even bigger, due to the outdoor nature of this discipline... ah, the IOC...

I think it's impossible to chenge the viewing mode in that page... the only way I successfully tried to have the daily list of events ordered by time is to go to the tickets page... there you can find what you're looking for, even if the page layout is not as attractive and good looking as in the main schedule page... https://tickets.pyeongchang2018.com/PriceInfo

for now "I still haven't found" (cit. ) the way...

the official website of the Games has been updated... from Today we have a full schedule and results section very well built and organized, with more viewing options (compact, daily, by sport etc.)... p.s. and also all the training sessions for the various disciplines (not only the "prestigious" alpine skiing downhill's) are included (this is the first time as far as I can remember)... https://www.pyeongchang2018.com/en/game-time/results/OWG2018/en/general/competition-schedule.htm

do you know if BBC Red Button Channel on satellite would be upgraded to High Definition for the Games? it would be a shame if in 2018 they still keep an Olympic Channel in the poor SD it normally has...