Cobi

¡Amigos para siempre! This version played by Los Manolos during the closing ceremony is still part of the playlist of many summer parties (verbenas) in Spain:

Congratulations @dcro! I am sure you will be a great host.

I think Madrid is ugly too, at least compared with the rest of Spain, but it would be a good city to host the Olympics as it would be possible to have all the venues in a relatively small space. Furthermore, it has a lot of hotel rooms for tourists and the weather is not usually very extreme (with exceptions).

I hope so too. I would prefer hosting the Summer Olympics in 2036 or 2040, as we have the venues already built and we would not need to spend such huge amount of money nor ask other coutries to host events. I don't care if the host city is Madrid or Barcelona.

Yes. Skeleton, bobsleigh and luge would be held in Sarajevo. Ski jumping in Switzerland, Austria or France. Apparently they contacted with Bosnia because Barcelona and Sarajevo are twin towns.

The idea is having those sports outside the country. The main option right now is Bosnia and the second Switzerland. I do not like the candidature of Barcelona to be honest, as I think we are not as good prepared as other cities like Sapporo.

I'm not the biggest fan of Winter sports, but I will pick short track, snowboarding and alpine skiing.

Yes, but until now the project has been directed by Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya (in Spain, each region has his own institution to organize the sport within the region. They perform a similar work to NOCs but at a lower level), without the support of the Spanish government (they didn't ask for it). According to IOC, without Spanish government support, it is impossible that they give us the Olympics against Sapporo, so COE (Spanish NOC) has been trying to negotiate with both parts so they can finally reach an agreement to cooperate. Finally, this week both presidents had a meeting and one of the proposals of the Spanish president to improve the relationship between both parts is to bid for the Olympics and work together as they already did for Barcelona 1992, where all the institutions coordinated very well. However, in order to increase the chances of victory, COE has to direct the project instead of Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya, which would still cooperate on the organization but not leading the bidding.

That's the story they want "to sell" to the IOC: the Olympics as a way of improving the comunication between the central and the regional government. For that reason, they will include venues both in Catalonia and Aragon (probably Jaca, host city of a Winter Universiade a long time ago).

It is not official yet, but it seems that Madrid will NOT bid for the 2032 Olympics, as many politicians and the Spanish NOC president think that it isn't the right moment due to the existence of very strong competition. However, Madrid's major said today that he is not giving up, but the citizens do not want to lose again, so probably the candidature will be postponed. Right now Spain is studying now bidding for the 2030 Winter Olympics in Barcelona. The Spanish government has made an offer to the Catalan government to work together on the project.

If you can't see the differences beween Germany, England and France, maybe you should study more... It seems some people on this forum (like you and the Indian guy) have some problems with Western countries, because that argument is the same that saying that we should not have swimmers from Angola at the Olympics because we already have good swimmers from South Africa, and all the Africans are the same.

SPANISH ENTRY Aitana, Cali y El Dandee - + Lyrics:

I would prefer easier quizzes and more focused on sport (almost nobody remembers who wrote a poem for an opening ceremony). I'm glad I had 8/10 last week, but I have to admit that I was lucky in a couple of questions. PS. Good job! I'm looking forward to the next quiz!

I am in favour of eliminating eights (and lightweight boats) to save a few quotas and introduce coastal rowing for example. In Spain, our federation created an eight in 2014 with the best rowers we had at that moment (sacrificing a four that could have tried to qualify to Rio) and the distance with the rowing powerhouses was insane. Obviously, this boat was eliminated in 2016. I think it is impossible for the rest of the world to reduce the distance with bigger countries.

I could understand why you want to get rid of field hockey and golf (even though I think both sports deserve to be at the Olympics). But, why do you want to kick diving and rowing? You are the first person I know that complains about Olympic rowing.

The development of India is undeniable. The country is progressing a lot and I'm sure you are going to succeed in Tokyo with more than 10 medals, which is usually a good indicator of social and economic development. I have never been to India, even though I plan to travel there in 2 or 3 years so I have been reading about the country, and it seems that cities are now "more organized" (I don't know how to express exactly this idea in English). However, as was mentioned before, India is enormous, so an important part of the population lives in small cities or towns, and these places have not followed the same growth that the rest of the country. So I think the country is on the right path, but the government stills have a lot to do.

Well, according to some sources, this problem is not being solved. In 1972, the sex ratio at birth in India was 106 male births per 100 female births, while in 2017 (last year I found data), it was 111 male births per 100 female births, which is a huge difference compared to Western countries (105-106 in average).

It is a shame not having 2 top teams at the Olympics instead of 1 because South Africa wants to send a team that it is not competitive at all... I know that Spain and Russia might be the 2 most benefited teams, but it is unfair that only 2 of the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary and Greece are going to participate in Tokyo. In my opinion, Africa should not have a regional spot in women waterpolo, at least with only 10 teams. Good luck to these 4 teams at the OQT! I will enjoy a lot that tournament as a neutral spectator.

According to our national federation, you have to reach the finals to qualify.

The Spanish song, Universo, has just been released.

Congrats Hungary for the gold! We have been very close this time, so hopefully we can reach the final again in Tokyo. It seems that our men have the same problem that Hungarian women have with Spain.

Is it interesting for you cheering for a boat that you know beforehand that it is going to finish last? I find fun to cheer for those small countries when they have some options to compete and at least beat some other nations (for example Andorra in canoeing slalom), but when the only achievement has been to participate in a World Championship... If they show a minimum level I don't have a problem on having these nations at the Olympics, but I feel a little bit unfair that some sailors have to qualify through a very hard process, while for others is just enough to fill a document. For this reason I really like the minimum requirements of sports like equestrian, shooting or team events in fencing. Anyway, I respect your point and I don't think that having these small nations is an important problem, but if I had to take the decission, I would reduce these free quotas.

I understand the reasons behind free quotas for small nations in Oceania, but I think they should add some requirements to give the quotas, like finishing top50 in at least one World Championship of the cycle or something similar, to assure that all the participants have a decent level to be at the Olympics. I think that having a boat finishing always in the last place, 20 minutes behind the winner, is not going to help to the development of the sport, and this person from is preventing someone better from an European nation to be there. Probably the European sailor who has not quaified yet is not going to win a medal anyway, but at least he will compete.

Hello Tokyo! Spain is back after Rio 2016 fiasco

GOLD MEDAL FOR SPAIN!!!