heywoodu

I'm guessing RUS, ITA and NED all would not exactly have been ideal opponents It's a shame that Spain just destroyed Canada in two segments of a few minutes (from 3-5 to 7-5 and later when moving up to 10-6)...there was more possible for the Canadians

Canada gives away a 5-3 HT lead against Spain and loses 6-10. Meaning we will very likely play Spain in a direct match for an Olympic ticket... (unless some weird stuff happens with RUS and ITA ending up with a draw)

Haase's coach is now officially suspected of murdering a businessman some weeks ago The guy (Mark de Jong) was arrested when he and Haase came back from their trip to the Americas, but Haase only found out a little later because he was flying business class and his coach was flying economy class.

2004 was as Serbia and Montenegro...I'm surprised Serbia wasn't there in 2008 and 2012

WC is something different than the World Championships which had a shitload of positives already?

The whole "angry Serbs" thing aside, since Kosovo is a nation, recognized by a majority of countries and - the most important - by the IOC, we will obviously count them as nation (although not for this list, given that they will debut) But let's stop this right here before the thread goes in the completely wrong direction Will Serbia debut in some sport in Rio?

As for The Netherlands, we have 1 new sport thanks to our handball ladies

I'm doubting about rugby, because it has been at 4 Olympics, but not in the rugby sevens format... Golf was in the 1900 and 1904 Olympics so technically every country there would be new, but maybe it'd be more interesting if we don't look at rugby and golf indeed.

True, although I wouldn't say that's a nation

Another idea for a list which I thought could be interesting, which got in my mind thanks to a post in the table tennis thread. Apparently, Fiji will be represented in table tennis for the first time in Olympic history, which got me thinking, which other nations will have these kind of "firsts" in the different sports? - Kosovo doesn't count, as it'll be their first Olympics (same thing for South Sudan?) Nation List Algeria - Sailing Angola - Rowing Aruba - Taekwondo Azerbaijan - Canoeing (Slalom) Benin - Fencing Brazil - Badminton, Field hockey, Gymnastics (Trampoline) Cameroon - Volleyball Cape Verde - Taekwondo Chinese Taipei - Equestrian Colombia - Synchronized swimming Cyprus - Gymnastics (Artistic) Dominican Republic - Cycling (Road), Equestrian, Fencing DR Congo - Taekwondo Egypt - Beach volleyball Fiji - Football, Table tennis Ireland - Field hockey Jamaica - Gymnastics (Artistic) Mauritius - Cycling (Mountain bike) Mongolia - Taekwondo Mozambique - Canoeing (Sprint) Netherlands - Handball New Zealand - Gymnastics (Trampoline) Palestine - Equestrian Peru - Gymnastics (Artistic) Philippines - Table tennis Puerto Rico - Table tennis Qatar - Equestrian, Handball Senegal - Canoeing (Slalom) Tonga - Taekwondo Trinidad and Tobago - Rowing, Gymnastics (Artistic) Zimbabwe - Equestrian, Football

No rumours anymore, it's official: one of the greatest football players in history (and without any doubt the best Dutch player ever) has died.

Rumours (but unfortunately they seem to be true) in Dutch media that Johan Cruijff has died at age 68.

Robin Haase's coach has been arrested for involvement in the murder of a Dutch bussinessman To elaborate a little: This bussinessman was abused by Badr Hari (famous K1-fighter/criminal), resulting eventually in a time in prison for Hari if I'm not mistaken. Couple of weeks ago this bussinessman was found stabbed to dead at his home.

Zaripova also loses her 2011 world title

They showed part of Cali 2013? If only I had Totallympics at that time I would have known..

Also, they should have played better, obviously. But there's also the option (which looks more realistic) that 1. they didn't finish their chances and 2. Italy got some "help" (again, just like at the world championships). 1 doesn't exclude 2, but of course 2 also doesn't exclude 1

Wonderful, thanks to Italy getting a draw for free by the referees, we probably have to play Spain in a fight for 1 Olympic ticket...our luck

Thank you referees for helping out Italy (as always...) Obviously our girls should have simply played better, no doubt about that, but come on...FINA can't make it more clear that they really want Italy at the Olympics..

I mostly hope there will be good live streaming available

Well done in giving away a very good lead in a matter of minutes

I hope you could at least download it or something. God, that's horrible. I hope I never have to live through the terror of missing my show because of a terrorist attack

Wow, are you alright?

Tomorrow in the EuroCup, Varese would play the Antwerp Giants. The match will be postponed to Thursday, because Sebastien Bellin (former player and current staff member) was injured in the Brussels terrorist attacks. The team had barely left the area where the bombs exploded... This was one of the first photos that appeared this morning and it turned out to be Bellin: I remember seeing the full photo earlier this morning and there was quite a lot of blood around his lower legs.

You were gone?

Because there was no news anymore, just repeats of things that were news 1-2 hours ago. It's just waiting for some press conferences and things like that, but apart from comments, nothing "real" is happening at the moment.