De_Gambassi

You... have a great memory. The 4th day was ineed great with five medals, including the two equestrian ones. We only had one before that day.

The early Rio days were a disaster (something like one medal after four days), so at the end of the day, it was ok/satisfactory (considering the early days, it could have been soooooooo much worse). IIRC, 42 medals was the objective which would have been a record in modern days (which now have been beaten again by... Beijing 08 thanks to doping cases ) Golds were lacking a bit indeed, but the overall 7th spot in the medals table was judged fine.. Track cycling was indeed a disaster (only one bronze medal). It's the one sport (whith perhaps swimming) where we should gain a lot in Tokyo (if anything, Mathilde Gros should make sure of it). Boxing (6 medals) will certainly take a hit, but the introcution of Karate will hopefully compensate it.

New sports/events should help to bring us to ~45 medals. If Paris 2024 brings its first fruits we may look at ~50 medals.

I don't believe these polls are very meaningfull as a lot people are not really interested in sport and will simply answer what sounds cool/successfull. Rugby is supposely to be more popular than Football In France thanks to these polls, but it's not really the case. Edit: sepaking of which, do you have any stats about the proportion of the general population who is interested in waching sport on TV. Here, it's only 50% (63% with men, and 38% with women). A number I believed would be quite lower than in other countries, but I'd like to know.

Oh, a marketing coup. Fantastic

Gatlin too... What's the franco-finish thing "When tears turn into smiles" ?

Freedom for northen Kosovo. Oh wait... it's the Serbs, it doesn't count then. Nevermind.

Nice try, Sadly, some people will believe them Some peiople even did believe "My mum spillt her cancer pills on my pasta" Seara Errani. The power of self delusion is immense.

It's not a matter of opinion, but one of rules. Look at @Agger post. And yes, the rule is idiotic. and yes, the referees have ben atrocious during the game, and yes, it feels terribly unfair, and yes, if it was the other way around, the call might have been different... ...But, still, the call was justified and there is no ground for an appeal.

There is no ground for it... Edit: there is no denying of the über bias Germany get from handball officials on and off the field ( 2007 world Championship Australia Köln fucking every year, etc.), but this shit is getting ridiculous. Everything was made according to the rules as it been aknowleged by many.

Well, it's proportionnal to the gold medal chances you had in the first place. I'd argue losing Koukalova is a bigger blow for the Czech (their only gold medal chance, right ?) The Olympics can be a ruthless machinery sometimes. All these athlete who lost 4 years for nothing and be forgotten for ever. Oh well...

No, I didn't. I brought a nuance. Please don't think I'm idiot enough to contractid myself in the same post. "I don't see a clear patern for global integration even it has became an arguement to save one sport's ass recently" is a sentence that makes perfect sense. An nuance that may not be that strong anyway (see wrestling exclusion for instance). It's not a critisicim neither, more a matter of fact. No one is denying that the winter olympics are much less global than the summer olympics (I've said so a couple of pages ago), but I'd argue that it doesn't have much to do with willingness, but very much with opportunism.Which is not the same thing. @vinipereira No one is denying that the climate has a great influence on winter olympics results neither. But that it can be bypassed to and extent and that the winter sports culture can be cultivated out of nothing (see Monaco and bobseilg as some kind of an extreme exemple). Do it, don't do it., it's really up to you guys. I personnaly don't care one way or the other. I guess you love your windmills in Brazil.

I said "come" (as in orginate from), nothing about the popularity of these sports. But, yes, I forgot about the three asian martial arts. There is a nice pattern about them as there were all included to make the home nation shine (Japan x2 and Korea x1), not so much to reach global integration per se (even, if is as became an arguement to save TWD's ass recently). I don't see a clear patern for global integration here, but a reward for both nations to have became credible business partners.

It's called PR. I'm not sure why you take it for more that it actually is. Besides, it's not only the Winter Olympics, a good chunk of the summer disiciplines are also a western club + friends (rowing, track cyling, sailing, etc.). Every olympic sports come from the west. A few have taken off globally, most didn't (often for la ack of infrastucture). You may find it sad, unfortunate, but that's not going to change anytime soon and I don't think the IOC is delusional about that. Then, you have PR... If they were really looking for global integration, they would include Kabbadi, not skateboarding.

We never really have one to start with. Only one roller guy that is left alone with his... roller coach. At his point, I believe it would be better it the roller sport federation was handling it...

I could also drop some chances here and there too. The point is to give a kind of realistic bracket for each sport/discipline.The FFS probably annonuced its objective too soon (before the season started actually). 18 is the number I'm personnaly looking for (allreay 3 more than our record in Sochi). Then, the more, the merrier

18-20 Cross Country : 0-2 Nordic Combined : 0-1 Ski Jumping: 0 Alpine Skiing: 2-3 Freestyle skiing: 4-5 Snowboarding: 2-3 Biathlon: 7 Figure skating: 1 (that's the easy one) Speed Skating/Short Track : 0-1 Sliding sports: 0 The skiing federation (FIS + IBU disiciplines) is aiming at 20 medals for its disciplines. It's doable, but it sounds like the very upper limit.

Because the IOC runs it... The IOC don't owe you (or your country(ies)) anything. If you don't like it, don't watch it. That's really that simple. Regarding what top ranks IOC members might or might not say about global integration. You should take them for what they are: politician talks. And who is listening to politicians ? Besides, if they were doing doing what you're suggesting, then we'd have the World Games, a collection of random B sport thant didn't make the - "real" - Olympics. Not something the IOC is looking for. And yes, the Olympics is a westerner thing. Borrn and breed here. No need for fake outragism.

About the same in France also. If it was not for the North Korea affair, I think the general medias would still to have to aknowledge that Pyongchang 2018 is a thing.The sports medias have yet to give a fuck too. The difference with Rop 2016 is baffling tbh.

I think preserving the integrity and identity of the Winter Olympics is important. Besides, I don't see how expanding the Winter Games will help with the allready very critical lack of bidding cities, If moving around some summer sports is an option, I'd very much favor the introduction of a third season; the Fall Indoor Games or something. We would have 16 months between each Olympics then (Summer -> Winter -> Fall).

Of course, they were. Curling, for exemple, would never have been considered if it was a summer sport. The gap in depth between summer and winter sports is monstruous. That's hardly up for debate. I think everyone is aware of that. It doesn't make them more ridiculous than some other summer sports though, just smaller sports (and thus alien to more people)

You probably have no idea how alien curling looks to anyone not born in Canada

Fair enough.

Yes, besides World Rugby is more than happy with Sevens at the Olympics. It's a great point of entry for the sport and a great communication tool..