phelps

most of those who swam both heats and final were quicker in the morning (early afternoon, I should say)...including Cate Campbell, Ledecky and Pellegrini (actually she swam very slowly in the final, but Italy was already out of any battle and in the waves of the best teams)... the only one who repeated herself (among the main candidates to the medals in the individual races) is Sjostrom (and Bronte Campbell, who just joked in the heats and obviously improved a lot in the final)... for Italy, good result by Detti (we've been waiting for that medal for 16 years, since Rosolino's Silver in Sydney) in terms of final placing, but he was much slower than expected... meanwhile, all the other swimmers (and not only the youngsters at their first Olympic experience) were just a disaster, as always happens at the Olympics...they were well outside the target and the times they swam all year long (at the Italian Nationals, at the Europeans and even at Settecolli meet in June)...shame on them...

as expected, Epee always ends with a lot of surprises... not that Szasz and Fiamingo are generally considered underdogs, but at least in this season they haven't been in their best shape... but when it really mattered, experience and class made the difference... Rembi and the third Chinese (on paper), instead, were really the surprising package of the day... pity also for my Nathalie Moellhausen...she's been just a fraction away from giving Brazil one of the most unexpected joy of the Games... but, mainly, congrats to Szasz and her great career...and also to Rossella, because it was really difficult to deliver in these conditions, but she still managed to bring home a precious medal... today I don't have great feelings about the men's individual foil, but who knows? mayb Cassarà's class will finally come out as well...

BBC website, all the way (but you need a VPN, better if a "serious" paid one...but it works also with Hola, which is free but not advisable for your privacy and security)...

www.rai.it/rio2016 go to the "calendario" item and choose the evnt you want to watch (for on-demand events there are 3 audio options: Italian - not always - English and Environmental Sound only - those 2 are always available, Live events only have Italian audio - when available - and stadium sound only and they are sligthly worse than recorded files for what concerns the picture quality)... p.s. the football games are recorded as full sessions, so you have the 2 games played in the same stadium in the same video file... p.p.s. there's also an APP for Android phones with the same features...

very unlucky draws for the Italian fencers... and no all-Italian gold medal bout in Women's Foil, since Errigo and Di Francisca are in the same half of the table draw (and the 2 Russians are in the other one)...

in fact, it is...but with a sort of continental protection (even if only among those super 12 teams)... somewhere in the Olympic Charter there's a rule that states that team sports must have at least 3 continents qualified to be part of the games...

100%...at least one between the Netherlands and Italy (and probably both of them) will be for sure among the 12 super Teams in 2019... next year's World Baseball Classic will tell a lot...it's the tournament that gives away the most points in the ranking and both Italy and the Netherlands will have big squads full of MLB pros...so there's a chance that they're going to do very well like in 2013 (NED was on the podium and ITA was 7th, but losing only by 1 run against DOM - the eventual champion - USA and PUR)... @Near yes, they are...but in Baseball they all play for "the Kingdom of the Netherlands" (that's the official status for WBSC)... and 98% of the Italians are North-American born, by the way (our biggest star at the moment is Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs)...

well, they're no longer the powerhouse they used to be...and if the MLB stars will enter the qualifying tournament (which is highly unlikey, however), probably they won't even qualify for the Games...

well, this is one of the things that have already been decided... it will be JPN + the best from each Continent among those ones who will make it to Super 12 tournament 2019 (and that tournament will only feature the top 12 nations in the world ranking, with no geographical protection)... if less than 5 continental zones wll make it to super 12 2012, then they will take into account the best team from that tournament, even if they come from an already qualified continent)...

if 2020 was tomorrow... FRA, JPN, EGY and TUR in Karate... AUT, CZE, SLO, CAN and KOR in Sport Climbing (but many things could change from now until 2020)... USA, AUS and BRA in Surf USA in Skateboard USA and JPN in Baseball/Softball just my personal opinion, of course...

Sport climbing (the classic Lead discipline and the newcomer Bouldering) has a very good fan base in many Countries around the Alps (France, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, but also in the Czech Rep. and in Germany)... there are also very good atletes from Belgium, GBR, Canada, US and even some Asian Countries (KOR above all, but also CHN, JPN and IRI)... the Speed discipline, on the other hand, it's almost entirely dominated by RUS, UKR and POL, with very few exceptions... as someone suggested, the international federation has a very good website, where you can find info, stats and videos of their main events throughout the year)... http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/ the only problem is that they won't have the 3 disciplines at the Olympic Games in 2020, but a senseless "combined event", which doesn't even exist in sport climbing until now... so, not the best way to promote this sport, I guess...

just look at page 2 of this same thread... they aim at 3+3 classes with just 10 athletes per class for Kumite and the same amount of players for Kata (which only has 1 male and 1 female class, at least)... with so few competitions, all medals would go to the sport powerhouses (FRA and JPN above all) and the smaller Nation (which could have a shot if there would be enough chances) will be left without any possibility event to qualify...

I think they will say YES to all 5... personally, as I wrote in the past, I'd say YES only to sport climbing (but not under those rules...only if they put the Lead and Speed special disciplines as Olympic events), Baseball/Softball (but only if they have a 12-team tournament with all the MLB, KOR and JPN leagues' stars) and Karate (but only with the full 5+5 weight classes of Kumite and with a decent - definitely not less than 16 per weight - number of competitors, without that boring farce named Kata)...

no, if I remeber well they have to vote YES to at least 2 of those 5...

I really hope it's like you wrote...I wish these Games all the best and I really hope they're going to be a great success... I keep my fingers crossed...

today is just about YES or NO for those sports...all details will be decided later... but we already discussed about the numbers they're targeting... here... http://totallympics.com/index.php?/topic/185-summer-olympic-games-2020-news/&do=findComment&comment=18195 to me, something like that doesn't make any sense...even for the other disciplines, not only Baseball and Softball

today I'm going for some action from SWE-RSA, CAN-AUS and BRA-CHN (but mixin' it up with some male European Champions League qualifiers as well)... and probably tomorrow morning i give a look at USA-NZL and FRA-COL's highlights (or maybe I'm gonna watch at least one of those 2 games in full on demand)... tomorrow night, instead, I'm planning a full immersion in the boys' tournament, trying to watch as much as I can (but once again I'm not gonna stay up all night...late games are on my Friday's schedule only)...

hope you're just jokin'...

very, very disappointed with the attendance at the first game...it reminds me the Athens 2004 experience, where only basketball and athletics had full stadiums... now I see that in Sao Paulo it's better...but we're still far away from what it should look in an event like the OG... I hope that tomorrow the boys would get more attention... meanwhile, I like the graphics...they're definitely better than London and Sochi's (despite using more or less the same font)...

no, in the past they didn't...their Olympic teams were always just university or 2nd tier league teams... of course Japanese pro leagues probably will support the 2020 Games, but just because they could give them a new boost in tv ratings and stadium attendance (which are nowadays suffering a bit of decline because of the many stars going to play in the USA - in fact MLB number of games shown on tv and their ratings are increasing lately in both JPN and KOR, especially in JPN)...

officially confirmed... Viktoria Orsi-Toth (Italy, Beach Volley) tested positive for Clostebol (steroids)... she's been already replaced by the American born Italian Rebecca "Becky" Perry, to make pair with Marta Menegatti... not a bad choice, I guess... http://www.gazzetta.it/Olimpiadi/2016/03-08-2016/ecco-becky-perry-arrivo-rio-160578232294.shtml

htere's not officialconfirmation, but it's almost sure that Viktoria Orsi-Toth (ITA, Beach Volley) was tested positive for Clostebol (steroids, the same substance of sailor Roberta Caputo)... so, even if she could be replaced by another Italian specialist, we don't have a competitive team anymore...maybe it would be better to pull out of the competition...

however, it's not that the paid commercial VPNs are a lot different...maybe they're not just as extreme in their "dark" side as hola, but don't trust them when they promise you that they're "transparent" to their users... by the way, when I need a good VPN, I use "Hyde My Ass" (but in the last year or so, after getting my motorized sat dish, basically I stopped using internet streams, apart for those 2 or 3 events I couldn't watch otherwise on tv - and in any case, I still use a Chromecast to send streams to my tv, when I need it)...

individual events in fencing and judo will also be on aug, 4th...