heywoodu

That depends on how you define being embarrassed. I honestly don't think an athlete of let's say Tuvalu will feel embarrassed, since the goal is to be at the Olympics, not to win a medal and post blistering times. Of course I know the opinions on it are very different, but for me one of the big charms of the Olympics (and world championships in athletics/swimming) is the extremely rare chance to see athletes from all those nations you don't normally see Especially when you give them a search on Google, they often have a way more interesting backstory than the superstars that everyone knows and who think they are even more awesome than they actually are.

I absolutely agree, but since they are mostly in the 100m, those series are by far my favourite series/heats of any event at the Olympics I mean, the Bolt's and Gatlin's and Merritt's and Van Niekerk's, we see them in the regular season plenty of times (well with the exception of Bolt I guess, but you know what I mean). The fun stuff is seeing athletes of all kinds of tiny nations struggle to post a time that would give them a chance to reach the women's quarter-finals

Heats and preliminary rounds of the 100m (and in swimming the 50/100 freestyle) are some of my favourite events, since it's often the only chance you get to see the athletes from the tiny nations compete

Tremendous job indeed, I prefer 2377 athletes than 1725

Croatia and Greece + Kazakhstan and Egypt sharing buildings as well?

Let's by all means not forget that the athletes (and fans) are not those being stupid, but are being robbed and are victims of the situation.. I feel sad for this judoka, he gets robbed of a magnificent experience and there's nothing he can do about it.

I think Seppelt has some very good points and he did a fantastic job unearthing a ton of information about the state-sponsored Russian doping...at least now nobody believes the gold medals of cheats like Zaripova and Savinova anymore (let's not even mention Chegin's dirty group of walkers). However, it looks like he is trying too much to stay in the focus of attention...with these kind of things now.

WDR requested Rossija1 not to broadcast the interview and then it's a scandal if they do it anyway? Sorry, but I gotta take the side of Rossija1 here. Seppelt has shown plenty of stuff that I'm sure other people wouldn't want broadcasted.

Personally I think it's between Miyake and Tanasan, I would take both of them at odds of 6, but they're not offering Tanasan and I think at those odds Miyake is a good bet too

Not very happy anymore with my bet on Hou to win neither..I've now gone for Miyake at odds of 6, which I guess is too high without a Chinese girl in her class.

Sitting here with my money on North Korean Kim "because without Kashirina, odds of 9 are completely crazy".

In terms of excitement and atmosphere, there is never anything better than the moment of the men's 100m final. Everyone has their favourite events, but that one wins every time in terms of atmosphere and "feel"

If there is sports going on, my TV is not going off. I don't give a damn if it's the completely random 400m hurdles, the men's 100m final or the Olympic final in watching grass grow...my TV stays on.

Czech Petr Vakoc (?) had a bit of training with the Dutch guys today

There are always the sports hipsters who say that it's just overrated (including me), but there is simply no denying that in terms of mass enthousiasm and interest, the men's 100m final is the showcase event of the Olympics. It's cool if a Simone Biles wins 3 gold medals, but outside of Americans, gymnastics lovers and people like us, nobody cares. A ton of people will change channels to watch the men's 100m though, worldwide

By the way, tickets for the marathon? You'll be in the stadium?

Men's 100m final, cool, you'll be at THE event of the Olympics

True, but who on earth are a bunch of officials to decide what motivates you? Besides, if a good financial reward motivates you 1% more, I don't think that's a reason to say you're an athlete who doesn't deserve to go to the Olympics There's a difference between money as the sole motivation or money as a bit of an extra motivation.

Well fantastic that the chiefs can decide how the athletes actually feel about that It's like me telling you: "No, you don't want to watch the Olympics, you don't like it, so instead, you can cook dinner."

And possibly Iraq or Syria in the bottom?

It would be cool though, and very much in the Olympic spirit

Netherlands Gold - €30.000 Silver - €22.500 Bronze - €15.000 Kazakhstan apparently pays €183.000 for a gold medal

Can't we make a list of which nations share a building? It'd be fun to see, and a bit easier than scrolling through 50 photos of flags on a building

[hide] Men's Tournament - Preliminary Round August 6th - August 14th, 2016 12 Nations, 2 Groups, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Nations from each Group will qualify for Quarterfinals Men's Tournament - Group A Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 August 6th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Serbia 2 Hungary August 6th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Greece 7 Japan August 6th 2016, h. 20:50, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 2 Australia August 8th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Serbia 3 Greece August 8th 2016, h. 19:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Japan 4 Brazil August 8th 2016, h. 20:50, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Hungary 2 Australia August 10th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Australia 4 Japan August 10th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Greece 1 Hungary August 10th 2016, h. 19:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 5 Serbia August 12th 2016, h. 19:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Greece 3 Brazil August 12th 2016, h. 20:50, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Hungary 4 Japan August 12th 2016, h. 22:10, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Serbia 3 Australia August 14th 2016, h. 17:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Australia 2 Greece August 14th 2016, h. 18:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Serbia 8 Japan August 14th 2016, h. 20:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Brazil 3 Hungary Men's Tournament - Group B Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 August 6th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro United States 2 Croatia August 6th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro France 7 Montenegro August 6th 2016, h. 19:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Spain 1 Italy August 8th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Croatia 2 Montenegro August 8th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Italy 2 France August 8th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro United States 2 Spain August 10th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro France 5 United States August 10th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Montenegro 3 Italy August 10th 2016, h. 20:50, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Spain 3 Croatia August 12th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Croatia 3 Italy August 12th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Spain 5 France August 12th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro United States 2 Montenegro August 14th 2016, h. 15:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro United States 2 Italy August 14th 2016, h. 16:50, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro France 8 Croatia August 14th 2016, h. 19:30, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Montenegro 2 Spain Women's Tournament - Preliminary Round August 9th - August 13th, 2016 8 Nations, 2 Groups, All Nations will qualify for Quarterfinals Women's Tournament - Group A Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 August 9th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Italy 4 Brazil August 9th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Russia 3 Australia August 11th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Russia 4 Brazil August 11th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Italy 3 Australia August 13th 2016, h. 10:20, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Russia 1 Italy August 13th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Australia 8 Brazil Women's Tournament - Group B Date and Venue Team 1 T1 T2 Team 2 August 9th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro China 2 Hungary August 9th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Spain 4 United States August 11th 2016, h. 11:40, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro China 4 United States August 11th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Spain 1 Hungary August 13th 2016, h. 09:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro China 2 Spain August 13th 2016, h. 13:00, Maria Lenk Aquatic Center, Rio de Janeiro Hungary 4 United States [/hide]

It's Monday, but the official website with the schedule is still not ready.. https://www.rio2016.com/en/schedule-and-results Come on Rio, the Olympics start in 2 days, I think it's time to get a full schedule up and running