heywoodu

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"..

I strongly doubt Dumoulin has even 1% of his mind set on the GC to be honest. The time trials are his big goals and 2016 as a whole only has one real, big goal for him: the Olympic time trial. Besides all that, I don't think he even really is a GC-contender and I doubt we'll ever see him in the top-10 again

It'll start tomorrow! I can't wait, as far as I know I've never seen the Giro d'Italia in real life yet and seeing as I'm absolutely going to tomorrow's stage 1 (I live 30 minutes away by car) I will complete my set of Grand Tours I saw the first stage of the Vuelta when it was at the TT Circuit in Assen (a team time trial), and I saw the prologue's/first stage of the Tour de France in Utrecht last year and Rotterdam some years ago

Max Verstappen will replace Daniil Kvyat at Red Bull with immediate effect Obviously huge news here in the Netherlands, but personally I'm not just happy with it. The time of being incredibly excited with a 4th or 5th place is already over now...every time he doesn't finish on the podium, it's like "well it could have been better...".

No offense, but has the guy on the left accidentally been told he is going to the Winter Olympics?

I'd choose the Russian uniform over the American "look at us spending millions of dollars on some over-the-top fashion designer"-uniforms any day of the week to be honest I don't know, but the American uniforms give me itches

Who is this guy that's standing there like "meh "?

Am I seeing that right on the second photo on the left? A men's basketball uniform? I actually kinda like the colours It's something different than those "modern" fails like the Americans...I think it's pretty cool

I think here in the Netherlands it will be a matter of posting 2-3 photos online and that's it

I hope these women are just there to present the ceremony where the clothes were shown? Or do they actually have to use these extremely tight "gymnastics pants" as daily life clothes? To be fair, it looks good, but I can't imagine competition clothes like that feel comfortable

I knew Gibraltar had one very dominant team, but I always thought it was a bit more close in Croatia Here the championship will be decided Sunday, the last day of the competition (apart from play-offs for the European spots and stuff). Ajax and PSV apparently are both equal in points

Have some patience