phelps

home advantage = a lot more pressure, which is one of the causes that always stop them from achieving more at the Games... I'm still convinced that they will underperform in their top sports (apart from those with biased/corrupted judges involved), meanwhile they're gonna win a lot more than expected in sports which usually are not their strenght...

I don't think so... the only atheltes we're trying to "buy" (meaning that we would like to naturalize them despite their connection to Italy is not that strong...because we don't buy anybody literally, as they do in some other Countries) are some wrestlers (since this sport is basically dead here in Italy)... and actually, even Chamizo decided to compete for Italy with full permission of Cuban authorities after coming to live in Italy following his marriage... all those not purely Italian names nowadays you can see in our teams are just second/third generation guys grown up, raised and trained (often also already born) in our Nation just because their parents/grandparents decided to come to live here...

women's -63kg Gold: Clarisse Agbegnenou Silver: Miku Tashiro Bronze: Tina Trstenjak & Juul Franssen men's -81kg Gold: Saeid Mollaei Silver: Sotaro Fujiwara Bronze: Vedat Albayrak & Alexander Wieczerzak

but the Olympic Games are a different beast... first, they only have one competitor per weight class, which makes their selection more complicated... then, they often spend most of their mental energy to make the squad, which is generally more difficult than actually win a medal once you're in the team... add to that the enormous pressure they have to face each and every time they go to the Olympics... and you have results like those of the last few Olympic editions, where they won very few Gold medals if compared to the world champs (and their expectations)...

actually Albayrak is not even Greek, since he was born in Georgia with the original name of Vano Revazishvili, then changed in Roman Moustopoulos when he moved to Greece... so, we can say he's a journeyman, to say the least...

better "Banana Republic" named Italy...

and here we go...game rained out... so, the Netherlands win the tournament based on Round Robin results, Italy are 2nd and Spain 3rd... I'm really disappointed...I'd really have liked to watch another chapter of the "neverending story" between NED and ITA...

but since Beijing 2008 GBR have been one of the top Nations at the Olympics...way better than Italy, for instance (and if we go back not later than 1996, we all know how British sport was...in that year, if it weren't for the great Steven Redgrave, it would have been a glorious 0 Gold at the Games for the British team)... so, I wouldn't mind to have a discipline or two where we don't even bother to participate if then the overall result is that...

yes, and he used some very exciting (and in 1 case also unusual) techniques...he's been the top guy of today's event so far...I really hope he can win Gold...it would be the most deserved one (with all respect for the other 3 semifinalists)...

so...today we're already done with the morning program... then, let's just give a look at our usual quick recap... women's -63kg semifinals Clarisse Agbgnenou vs Martyna Trajdos Miku Tashiro vs Tina Trstenjak repechage Katharina Haecker vs Maylin Del Toro Carvajal (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Tashiro / Trstenjak) Kathrin Unterwurzacher vs Juul Franssen (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Agbgnenou / Trajdos) men's -81kg semifinals Saeid Mollaei vs Vedat Albayrak Sotaro Fujiwara vs Dominic Ressel repechage Matthias Casse vs Alexander Wieczerzak (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Fujiwara / Ressel) Damian Szwarnowiecki vs Khasan Khalmurzaev (winner to the Bronze Medal match vs loser of Mollaei / Albayrak)

and when it looked a great day for Germany (and it still is, with 2 athletes in the semifinals), Vedat Albayrak beat the 2017 world champion Alexander Wieczerzak and wins the pool B in the men's -81kg, meanwhile Saeid Mollaei is just unstoppable and he's also through to the semifinals (he's gonna face Albayrak) after beating the Belgian Matthias Casse

in the meantime, Miku Tashiro wins the women's -63kg pool D (she's gonna face Trstenjak in the semifinals)... and Clarisse Agbegnenou (winner of pool A) will face Martyna Trajdos (winner of pool B) in the semifinal match of the top half of the draw...

men's -81kg, pool D: Dominic Ressel is through to the semifinals after a great fight against the Russia Khalmurzaev (ended after more than 2 mins in the GS)... he's going to face Fujiwara in the next match...

Sotaro Fujiwara wins men's -81kg pool C and he's the first to make it through to the semifinals, menwhile Tina Trstenjak wins women's -63kg pool C and she's also through to the semifinals...

men's -81kg pool finals A: vs , B: vs , C: vs , D: vs Mollaei looks absolutely on fire, he's put on a show so far...but the Belgian Casse is also very "hot"...at the moment, they have been by far the best 2 athletes from today's action...it's a real shame they have to face each other already in the pool final (quarterfinal round, if you prefer)...

women's -63kg pool finals A: vs B: vs , C: vs , D: vs

finally, a great round for Tiger...he finished with -5 for the day and he's leading the tournament with a 3-stroke margin at -12 total... McIlroy and Rose are tied for second...and this means that he could win the overall tour ranking if De Chambeau doesn't improve by much in the last round (yesterday he had a good 66 and showed some sign of life, but it's not enough yet)... unfortunately, Molinari's not having a good playoff run at all...I hope he's gonna have a better weekend next week at the Ryder Cup (I just can't wait for those 3 magical days)...

I know, I've always seen Iran excelling in Freestyle rather than Greco for years and years... but then suddenly you also started to win a lot of medals also in Greco and Freestyle results have been getting worse and worse in the last few seasons... and if even you don't know why it happened...

yeah, I understand your feelings...

yeah, if there's just a light rain the game could be played, but I'm not sure that any of the 2 teams want to take any risk at the end of the season in a game and in a tournament that does not add anything to their palmares (and the point difference between 1st and 2nd in the world ranking are not gonna change anything for both Nations)...

and this disgusting performance by the Italian squad continues... once again, all of our specialists out by the 3rd round...just 5 matches won in 4 days, nobody able to get passed the 3rd round... but when you don't take part in most of the international tournaments and you don't build a "crowded" team with all the possible variations, it's obvious that you can't get anything out of that... once again...fire Murakami (and all the judo officials of our National Federations)!!!!!

bad weather played a strong role in these last 2 days of the Super Six tournament... earlier Today, infact, Netherlands b. Spain 12-10 after the game was called a day after only 8 innings and, since it became useless for the aim of finding the 2 finalists, NED vs BEL (scheduled for Tonight) has been cancelled... if the weather conditions will allow the game to be played, Tomorrow (scheduled start @ 1.30 p.m. CET) Italy and Netherlands will play the Gold Medal game, otherwise I think the Netherlands will be declared winner of the tournament based on the Round Robin standings...

by the way, the bad weather conditions forced the organizers to cancel the Gold Medal match between ITA and CZE, therefore I think the Trophy goes to the Czech girls thanks to their win in the Round Robin section of the tournament... in the consolation matches (played well before the scheduled final), GRE beat RUS 5-4 for the 5th place and GBR beat NED 3-2 for the Bronze Medal...

well, Italy and the Netherlands wasted most of their energy at the world championships and in their own domestic season (which ended just before the beginning of this tournament)... however, the Czech girls are very good...it's not so surprising anymore when they beat ITA and/or NED...

I understand your point of view and your expectations, but let me tell you, my friend... you can't even imagine how much I'd like Italy being as "bad" as Iran in Wrestling...