heywoodu

Maybe they saw that it's not a very big and popular sport worldwide, so they saw it as a likely sport where financial investments would lead to domination? I don't know, it's merely a suggestion, but not one that sounds totally unreasonable I guess?

As you know I'm a big fan of Sagan like almost everyone else, but I really hope this points system gets changed in some way. Not "to fight against Sagan", but because certain things are just weird. If a stage is a mountaineous stage, you get much less points for winning the stage (logical), but it's unbelievably strange that the number of points for the intermediate sprints stay the same... For example in a flat stage you get 50 points for winning the stage and 20 for winning the intermediate sprint. In a mountain stage you get 20 points for winning the stage...but still 20 for winning the intermediate sprint..that makes no sense and I hope that gets changed as soon as possible. If they want to make differences between the stages in terms of points, that's great I think, but then they should just cancel the intermediate sprints in mountain stages

I even literally wrote "15-20%" but edited my post to only 15% Yeah, that he is talented is very clear to anyone. To win a medal in Rio he will have to improve even more, but especially for a young guy that's definitely not impossible (unless his nerves are a problem), and then have some luck with other guys not throwing as far as they can. Which will probably happen because I doubt everyone will throw PB-distances, so that's where I think he has a decent chance

This is quite a good letter from Sergey Litvinov about all that (from earlier this month):

Yeah when posting that I completely forgot that of course it's in Poland, so it's logical that he's here I think he has a chance at the Olympics. I don't think he is one of the main favourites, but if one of the big guys fails (which is always an option) he definitely is one of the guys that could step in and grab a surprise medal. Realistically I'd say he has like 15% medal chance if he is in top shape in Rio.

Then what, Russia should investigate it? I don't think that's gonna help, then you get a situation like in FIFA where Blatter was investigating whether or not Blatter was doing a good job. Let's be honest, even if they put every possible bit of proof on the table and throw out any regards for privacy and such, there will still be people saying "yeah, but...that's not true!". I can't blame Russian sports fans for being angry by the way. Of course, their Ministry of Sports royally f*cked them over and now they're entire country might be banned from the Olympics. That's not cool.

Who says your level 51 Raichu isn't doped?

How did you get the idea to look on Azerbaijan's 2016 Olympic page, in the Azeri language? Sometimes I really wonder how on earth you people find these kind of things

As expected I guess.

Though in this case, you're putting the criminal in jail, together with innocent family members. It's simply an incredibly complicated situation. Personally I would be in favour of federations/officials (including from the Ministry) being completely banned, there is absolutely no reasoning to allow someone like Mutko to have any affair in sports whatsoever anymore. He should be done, forever. However, there are good reasons to let a decent number of athletes compete under the Olympic flag. Not the Russian flag, because thanks to people like Mutko, waving the Russian flag around in Rio is an insult to 200 other nations, but there are definitely Russians who should compete in Rio I think.

I'll do my best to help out with that, because numbers say more than feelings And don't get me wrong, I'm definitely a fan of the smaller teams usually. Now that I'm talking to you about smaller teams anyway: how's Zografski doing? He used to be someone who might have a good break through in the World Cup, but he's nearly invisible lately..

That sucks.

I have watched almost every competition in the last 2-3 years and the only problems I saw were those that would not have been solved with literally anyone else there. Yeah, that happens when there is wind. There is only one thing that would change anything about that: never have ski jumping competitions outdoor anymore. I'm quite confident that someone else than Hofer/Tepes being in charge would not have made it a damn bit better But of course I understand people blame them when the wind causes unfair conditions, it's easier than actually blaming the natural circumstances, so it's understandable indeed.

Criminal?

After what feels like a gazillion years, Miran Tepes will quit his job "at the traffic lights" in men's competitions He will go to the women, and be replaced by Czech ex-jumper Borek Sedlak. http://www.skispringen.com/news,id4823,neuer-mann-ampel-miran-tepes-hoert.html

The "mission" from USADA: That's what this is about. Protecting the rights of their athletes doesn't mean it should be limited to their borders, since their athletes don't only compete within their borders. Just took a random NADO in English by the way, because it's easier, but I guess most NADO's have something like this on their website.

If the Danish football team would have been screwed by the Italian Calciopoli scandal, then they would most definitely be entitled to do so, since their job is to protect the interests of their sports.

Their duty stops with protecting their own athletes I think...and that means raising a voice against a nation with proven state-sponsored doping. Just to make that clear again: state-sponsored doping. Not athletes doping on themselves.

They don't have a say in the sense that they can decide something, but of course they can stand up and say that "enough is enough". They are definitely allowed to voice their opinion, just like Russian officials are allowed to say it's all one big superbad Western conspiracy.

I wonder if it's smart for a world class shot putter/potential medalist to come down to the junior weight less than a month before the Olympics

I'm guessing it's the same as last year.. http://www3.biathlonworld.com/media/files/rules_2014/IBU_Rules_2014_e_cap3.pdf Article 15.4 With also the rule that an athlete has to have a result of 125 or less IBU points before being allowed to start, but for most WC nations that shouldn't be a problem.

No. Their job was not to name athletes, their job was to thoroughly investigate state sponsored doping and the involvement of the Russian state at covering up dozens of positive doping tests before and during the 2014 Olympics.

I don't think there is state sponsored doping in the USA/Netherlands/etc. On the other hand, I think the "private doping" (athletes/groups of athletes doping themselves) is way bigger than in countries like China or Russia. But, that's just a feeling and not based on any research

There are sports that don't have their act together at all and have been in the Olympics for decades now (boxing, weightlifting, to name just two). I think it would be quite unfair to not give golf a real chance. And no, a real chance is not judging after one time and saying it should be kicked out.

But well, of course I'm serious that it's clearly too early to judge already They should give it 2-3 Olympic cycles and then evaluate how it's going. Tennis started like crap and nowadays Murray withdraws from an ATP tournament to prepare the Olympics.