heywoodu

One of the best songs I've ever heard and I'm already in love with this song since his first performance in the semi's of Eurovision in 2014.

Wow, epic stage win for Roger Kluge

He knows, I guess it was a poor choice of words The point is that obviously it's absolutely stupid that the Belgian quota now goes to a nation that already has 5 qualified boats. This isn't helping diversity in the smallest bit, which in the end was the goal of these rules wasn't it? One big "meh" for this situation.

Thanks. Poor Belgium and indeed so incredibly unfair that it goes to a country that'll now have 6 boats I hope more athletes like Drysdale stand behind Belgium in this case.

Apparently there's a row going on in rowing, with Belgium winning one of the events but not being allowed to compete? This is what Mahe Drysdale says about it:

The Dutch outfits have been presented. Nothing fancy, just orange top and blue bottom and that's exactly how I like it (blue could be black but both are good)

How do you see Pletikovic' chances? That would make for such an awesome story, winning a medal for the Unified Team and then competing again (and have a realistic medal chance) 24 years later

Trouble in the Netherlands. Our only serious world-class player, Jean-Julien Rojer,won't go to the Olympics if our NOC doesn't allow him to take part in the opening ceremony. So far they still haven't told him he can be in the ceremony. "He's really clear about this, but if he or the NOC don't change their mind, it's also over for me", is what Robin Haase said (no way he'll go in singles, so it's his only chance). "Eight years ago I missed the Olympics and in London it was a shithole in terms of organization for the players, so I'm really hoping for Rio...not saying it's my last chance though."

And about this: I'm guessing the athletes who got stolen of medals by proven cheaters would obviously have preferred to have their moment of glory in the moment itself, but it's still better to get a deserved gold medal now than never get it. Imagine being beaten by Alex Schwazer or some other proven cheat. I'd definitely be angry that I didn't have my moment on top of the podium with my national anthem, but getting the gold medal years later is still better than never getting it and knowing the proven cheat has it. Besides the whole thing that really not every drug can be found at any moment and so the "Why didn't you do it then?" isn't really a matter of "You should have done it then", because it simply wasn't always possible.

When was that? Because that sure was gone back in the 1890's already.

So if someone does not win a medal, it's absolutely sure that they didn't use doping? That's not very logical...how about the dozens of positive tests from both Western and non-Western athletes who didn't win a medal?

1. It's quite normal that performances improve with huge margins when technology, training, equipment, dieting, professionalism, available money, being able to train full time etc all gets way, way better. 2. Not every kind of doping that is being used can be caught by labs. An athlete could be using a substance in such a way that it's nearly impossible for labs to find it (yet). Which is why retesting is important. We see that now, with a whole bunch of cheaters of 2008 being caught. 3. You mean non-Western labs are cheaters too right? Because they suddenly make athletes negative, like the Algerian decathlete. 4. I agree (unfortunately) that I think most medalists are not clean. Which is sad, but probably won't ever change.

Absolutely, but even then there will always be people saying "yeah but they're political and ruled by the Western world". Whereas if you let the Russian side of the world dominate it, people will say the exact same thing. It's nearly impossible to get something that everybody would actually agree is fair. WADA should be a good mix of Western and non-Western people and labs. Get some Americans, some Spaniards, some Chinese, some Russians and bestmen in there and it should be better.

Then which labs should we believe? I mean, apparently in Russian labs they were throwing away urine with doping in it and replace it with clean urine and they're certainly not a Western country. In Jamaica urine with doping was 'accidentally' not closed correctly so the medal-winning athlete couldn't be banned. Which labs should we believe then?

How do you know they are wrong?

I've asked on a Facebook group in Dutch where apparently Laurence Rase is also active, let's see if there'll be an answer there (ex world class taekwondo athlete for Belgium and now a main official in their federation). But still my point stands: it's not like Laachraoui has qualified because he won gold at Euro champs, as Dutch media suggested

But the Belgians are mostly talking about Bensaleh as the first choice for replacing Ketbi, in case Ketbi doesn't make his weight.

Not only Russians, there are 12 countries involved in this case but so far the Russians are the only ones who have come out Samples of any athlete should never be tested in their own country by the way if you ask me. An Algerian lab testing Bourada's sample is bad, a Dutch lab testing Schippers sample would be bad as well (I'm sure it happens though).

Personally I'm laughing more about the weird reactions of some people/fans in the Dutch speed skating world: "Look, those Russians were all doping and we destroyed them in Sochi, imagine how good we were!!" I would say "Imagine how effective our 'extra help' was"

I can't wait for Isinbayeva's next comments about human rights and stuff.

I just saw that she's ready, "Selfie before leaving for the relay!"

That would absolutely be unfair, but if him doing MTB wouldn't take a spot away from someone else, I have no problem with it In fact, it'd be great for MTB which usually isn't exactly a sport that gets a whole lot of attention, but with Sagan joining that will certainly change that, at least for Rio.

"Erdogan is a goat fucker"

Jaqueline Mourão will carry the torch in Salvador today

Awesome! Trying to mess with her head didn't work for Kerber