heywoodu

Well that was a wonderful day and finally I can say I've seen the Giro in real life I was surprised to see it wasn't that full near the finish, because I was standing all in front at 251 meters from the finish line. Of course it was really cool that Dumoulin won, but damn it, as a ski jumping fan (and especially of the Slovenians) I would have absolutely loved it too much to describe in words if Roglic would've won the stage

Didn't she lose 0-4 in the qualifier for Rio last month?

Semenya, dear lord Jogging around like a little warm-up for 500 meters, accerating a little for 100 meters and finishing on 90% for 200 meters resulting in a huge and very clear win

Even so, there are different situations for different athletes. I'm not a fan of switching back and forth neither, but it's hard to compare that with an athlete who, say, came to a country in 2005, trained and lived there for years and eventually decided to compete for that country. Just taking a Dutch athlete as example: Ghana-born long jumper Ignisious Gaisah has been living and training in the Netherlands for the greater part of the year for many, many years now (I believe at the athletics club in Rotterdam). Without Ghana his career wouldn't have started, but without his move to the Netherlands long ago it might be possible to say his career would never have gotten so far. I don't see anything wrong in moves like this and also no reason to see them as any different. It of course would get different if we're talking about an athlete who is already quite old (25+ or something), goes to a country like the Netherlands to compete for that country and barely ever resides or even trains there.

It happens quite often these days..

For my totally untrained eye the only big difference is the doggy style start

Welcome in Turkey! Unless you're a Polish wrestler with an Armenian name (and maybe/probably born in Armenia?), then we'll boo you out of the stadium.

Indeed, I think there is a pretty big difference between an athlete having moved to, let's say, Switzerland, living there for years and then competing for them or an athlete getting a ton of money to play volleyball in Azerbaijan instead of Cuba, followed by the authorities setting them up with some Azeri husbands (!) to marry and gain the Azeri nationality quicker.

If I'm not mistaken you'll probably have two "Dutch" brothers in your field hockey team, right?

I don't think it's just the thing with Vettel, because it would be too much to replace a rider for one mistake. It's probably more because of Kvyat being pretty "up and down" ever since he came in F1 --> Good races, but also (too) many bad races and mistakes. Now we know Ricciardo is better than Kvyat and Verstappen is slightly better than Sainz. The next thing is Ricciardo vs Verstappen (next year, because of course Verstappen first has to get used to a new car) and Kvyat vs Sainz. If Sainz loses, his F1-career is probably not going well because then he lost against someone who was rejected by RBR. If Kvyat loses, his career is probably over, because then he lost against an "inexperienced" driver. The only one who is comfortable now is Verstappen, because if he loses against Ricciardo this season it's normal, but if Ricciardo loses against Verstappen, Ricciardo has a problem

Wounded Well if they don't care about their sport and they don't give a damn about their career, that's their choice

That's incredibly stupid, federations and athletes who actively refuse to compete for b*llshit political reasons are destroying sports and should be banned until they solve their problem Anyway, it's possible that Algeria plays against Brazil, Japan and USA and only "misses" the match against Israel right?

Do you think there is any chance that Algeria will keep their team at the Paralympics..? If they take them away, I really hope those poor athletes can find a better country for them

Algeria also refuses to compete against Israel? Dear lord that's so stupid But is this official and something that always happens when Israeli athletes draw against Algeria, or is it just a possibility?

Because of what?

Thanks again for the inside view If it does happen that they "meet", I hope you could show me some of the actual headlines But mostly I hope they won't have to meet.

Interesting (not in a good way). I heard about countries not accepting Israeli athletes, but not about other countries not allowing their athletes to compete against them. I know you've said something about it before somewhere, but I can't find it (I think on the old forum), so I'll ask it again: What happens if Sourian says "fuck you" and competes against the Israeli guy anyway? And if both reach the semi's and Sourian withdraws, how does the Iranian media react to that? Do they headline something like "Politics cost our champion a chance to defend his gold"?

No words... I hope either the Israeli or Sourian loses before the semi's then, because the Iranian authorities who decide this f*ck with sports too much Obviously I'm hoping it'll be the Israeli who loses..

It's not our fault his parents decided to come here

Wait what, you're saying Sourian would quit his last chance to defend his Olympic gold if he has to fight the Israeli to get to the Olympics?

It all depends on situations. There's a big difference between a "relatively big" country saying "here is money, compete for us please" and a relatively big country naturalizing someone who's been actually living there for years, training there for years and competed at local teams for years.

Well of course not every case of naturalized athletes is cheating But yeah, countries like Bahrain or Azerbaijan who practically get their entire teams together like this...no thanks.

Correct, every single one of them.. By the way, is your plan to create a list here? Because then I'll start Athletics, women's 1500m: Sifan Hassan - Born in Ethopia, representing the Netherlands Athletics, men's triple jump: Fabian Florant - Born in Dominica, representing the Netherlands Table tennis, women's singles: Li Jie - Born in China, representing the Netherlands Table tennis, women's singles: Li Jiao - Born in China, representing the Netherlands

I'm starting to hope Sourian makes it...4th time's the charm right?

Mostly citing fears of his wife contracting Zika after getting a life threatening infection last year, right? That's a little different than just "I think I might get Zika, so I won't go"..