heywoodu

With Ahn and Wild not being typical "bought" athletes, by the way, but more like athletes that were left hanging by their own countries and then picked up by smart Russians Anyway, I'm curious if there will be names in the interview. If not, meh. If there will be, at least one or two wouldn't be surprising at all..

Luckily we don't have enough way too complicated situations in the qualification for all sports yet

[hide] Preliminary Round May 6th-March 17th, 2016 16 Nations, 2 Groups, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Nation from each Group will qualify for Quarterfinals, 8th Nations from each groups will be relegated to IIHF Men´s Division I Group A World Championships 2017. Group A Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 6th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Sweden x x Latvia May 6th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Czech Republic x x Russia May 7h 2016, h. 12:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Switzerland x x Kazakhstan May 7th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Norway 1 Denmark May 7th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Latvia 3 Czech Republic May 8th 2016, h. 12:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Kazakhstan 6 Russia May 8th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Norway 1 Switzerland May 8th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Sweden 3 Denmark May 9th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Latvia 5 Russia May 9th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Sweden 1 Czech Republic May 10th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Switzerland 2 Denmark May 10th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Kazakhstan 2 Norway May 11th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Switzerland 2 Latvia May 11th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Sweden 5 Kazakhstan May 12th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Czech Republic 3 Norway May 12th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Russia 5 Denmark May 13th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Czech Republic 5 Kazakhstan May 13th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Denmark 2 Latvia May 14th 2016, h. 12:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Norway 3 Sweden May 14th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Russia 4 Switzerland May 14th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Kazakhstan 3 Latvia May 15th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Denmark 3 Czech Republic May 15th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Switzerland 2 Sweden May 16th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Russia 4 Norway May 16th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Denmark 2 Kazakhstan May 17th 2016, h. 12:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Czech Republic 3 Switzerland May 17th 2016, h. 16:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Latvia 1 Norway May 17th 2016, h. 20:15, VTB Ice Palace, Moscow Russia 2 Sweden Group B Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 May 6th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg United States x x Canada May 6th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Finland x x Belarus May 7th 2016, h. 12:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Slovakia x x Hungary May 7th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg France 1 Germany May 7th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Belarus 2 United States May 8th 2016, h. 12:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Hungary 6 Canada May 8th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Finland 3 Germany May 8th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg France 2 Slovakia May 9th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Belarus 5 Canada May 9th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Finland 2 United States May 10th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Slovakia 2 Germany May 10th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Hungary 2 France May 11th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Slovakia 1 Belarus May 11th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Finland 2 Hungary May 12th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg United States 3 France May 12th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Canada 4 Germany May 13th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg United States 2 Hungary May 13th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Germany 2 Belarus May 14th 2016, h. 12:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg France 4 Finland May 14th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Hungary 2 Belarus May 14th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Canada 3 Slovakia May 15th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Germany 2 United States May 15th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Slovakia 3 Finland May 16th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Canada 5 France May 16th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Germany 2 Hungary May 17th 2016, h. 12:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg United States 2 Slovakia May 17th 2016, h. 16:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Belarus 1 France May 17th 2016, h. 20:15, Arena Yubileyni, Saint Petersburg Canada 3 Finland [/hide]

Gracias, I just came to this thread right now to post her name

Patrick Ekeng (CAM) died aged 26 today after collapsing during a match of his Dinamo Bucharest team..

I realize I even mentioned Paulo Duncker, the field hockey player who was even born in Brazil - but mostly grew up in the Netherlands - and now competes for Brazil. Completely forgot that of course he shouldn't even be in this thread...you know, born in Brazil, competing for Brazil

Did Brazil buy these field hockey players? You mean the two brothers who have a Brazilian mother and the player who was actually even born in Brazil and therefore already had a Brazilian passport?

Thanks, that's 2 points instead of 1 though (and not her last chance because she still had a full day of a chance in the 2nd stage ) Just kidding with you of course, not trying to mess with the story because it's still absolutely awesome that she now qualifies as the very last ranking qualifier

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"?