phelps

as @Gianlu33 wrote, 99.9% of our lugers are from South Tyrol and so they are very close to Innsbruck (and the Igls track)... moreover, in our mountains (not only in South Tyrol) we have a great tradition in Natural Track Luge...so, many kids start with that discipline (which is also propedeutical to Artificial Track Luge, since it develops the driving skills very effectively) and, once they grow up, some of them just make the transition to the Artificial Track Luge, mainly because it gives them the chance to pursuit the Olympic dream... should NTL become an Olympic discipline, I fear that our ATL is gonna die sooner or later, since there will be no more Olympic "excuses" to jump from the early pastime to a new discipline to have a shot at the Games' participation...

Men's Alpine Skiing Olympic races course setters have been announced... Downhill and Super-Combined Event Downhill will be set, as always also in the World Cup races, by Hannes Trinkl (AUT) Super-G will be set by Alberto Ghidoni (ITA) Giant Slalom: 1st Run by Helmut Krug (SUI); 2nd Run by Frederic Perrin (FRA) Slalom: 1st Run by Michael Pircher (AUT); 2nd Run by Stefano Costazza (ITA) Super-Combined Event Slalom Run will be set by Jani Hladnik (RUS) *It's not reported the actual Nationality of these coaches, but the team they represent...

that's obvious... but I don't think this is the only question...I mean, we've always had a lot less money than Germany, Austria, Soviet Union/Russia or the US... but we've won a lot among the men and a few times also among the women in the recent and not so recent past... and we also won almost all of our medals without having a track where to raise our youngsters... so, I think that there's also something else, something strictly "personal" regarding all those junior world medallist we've had in the past years that hadn't become the competitive senior sliders they were supposed to... having well clear in mind that a new Armin Zoeggeler doesn't come out regularly every X years, I wouldn't stop the analisys to the lower budget (provided that's a big issue) of our federation, otherwise I don't think we're gonna find the way to change this situation and getting back to the competitive level we used to have in some periods of our luge sports history...

it's just Walter Plaikner...he's really a magician...probably even better than Georg Hackl (since he doesn't have his budget)... however, as you wrote, keep calm and remember that Lillehammer and Sigulda are not your average track (the fuc*in' Oberhof/Winterberg-alike sh**holes)... p.s. a few years ago, Voetter and Robatscher were the best juniors of the world, going also 1-2 at the JWCHs well ahead of the Germans... so, to me it's not a real surprise if they improve up to being world cup races' winners... the problem, instead, is the opposite: why are they still so far from the top of the rankings?

Men's Team Epee (Heidenheim, GER) Final Results: Gold: South Korea Silver: France Bronze: Switzerland Semifinals: South Korea b. Switzerland 45-33 France b. Russia 45-35 Bronze Medal Match: Switzerland b. Russia 45-35 Gold Medal Match: South Korea b. France 45-41 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/454/results/rank

yes, very good result for him, who's not so young anymore and he's still "only" no.90 in the World Ranking... meanwhile, not such a good day for our top guys, who also didn't have their best performance today in the team event...

Men's Individual Epee (Heidenheim, GER) Final Results: Gold: Kazuyasu Minobe (JPN) Silver: Bogdan Nikishin (UKR) Bronze: Gabriele Cimini (ITA) & Vadim Anokhin (RUS) Semifinals: Nikishin b. Cimini 15-8 Minobe b. Anokhin 15-9 Gold Medal Match: Minobe b. Nikishin 15-13 Here is the Full Final Ranking (and Results) from Today's competition: http://fie.org/competitions/2018/98/results/rank

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)...