heywoodu

For many years during every Olympics we have a special thread on the main Dutch forum. In this thread, people choose one small or exotic nation and introduce them to the rest, support them during the Olympics and keep people updated on how they're doing. This way the small nations don't go through the Olympics without any kind of attention and we learn more about the lesser-known nations and athletes It's a bit hard to give exact criteria of which nations are eligible, obviously powerhouses like the USA, China, Russia etc are not. For starters, let's make these criteria: - Countries with more than 50 athletes in Rio are not eligible - Countries that reached the top-30 of the 2008 or 2012 Olympics are not eligible - Countries with a big medal favourite are "reserves", when all or most other countries are taken (for example Grenada with Kirani James or Fiji with their rugby team, if they even stay under 50 athletes which doesn't seem likely anyway) Many nations that have a bit more than 50 athletes or that have one or two medal candidates are up for debate of course. Imagine a user from Grenada here, he or she would be more than welcome to take Grenada even though they have a big medal favourite. Same thing goes if you have specific personal reasons for a certain country (apart from the obvious countries, those are just off-limits for this). Feel free to share your opinion on this or, in case you already like it, simply choose a nation Nation List Andorra - Jur (1st choice) Angola - JoshMartini007 (1st choice) Bahamas - tuniscof (2nd choice) Bangladesh - Benolympique (1st choice) Belize - mrv86 (1st choice) Bhutan - heywoodu Burundi - KhanBeaver Comores - bestmen (1st choice) Cook Islands - Wanderer (1st choice) Costa Rica - Agger Cote d'Ivoire - OlympicIRL (1st choice) DR Congo - amen09 (2nd choice) Ecuador - hckosice (1st choice) Eritrea - rybak (2nd choice) Gabon - IoNuTzZ (3rd choice) Guam - Jur (2nd choice) Guatemala - amen09 (3rd choice) Guinea-Bissau - vinipereira Honduras - Henry_Leon (2nd choice) Iceland - OIympicIRL (3rd choice) Kiribati - africaboy (2nd choice) Kosovo - tuniscof (1st choice) Laos - Griff88 (1st choice) Lebanon - carivan Liechtenstein - dcro (3rd choice) Luxembourg - IoNuTzZ (1st choice) Maldives - bestmen (2nd choice) Mauritania - Gianlu33 Mauritius - OlympicIRL (2nd choice) Micronesia - ahjfcshfghb Nauru - Crolympic Nepal - Wanderer (3rd choice) Nicaragua - hckosice (2nd choice) Oman - mrv86 (3rd choice) Palau - dcro (1st choice) Palestine - Malik (1st choice) Panama - Henry_Leon (1st choice) Papoa New Guinea - tuniscof (3rd choice) Paraguay - Pabloffo Rwanda - uk12points Saint Kitts and Nevis - IoNuTzZ (2nd choice) Saint Lucia - ofan Samoa - africaboy (1st choice) San Marino - Pavlo (1st choice) Sao Tome and Principe - mrv86 (2nd choice) Senegal - amen09 (1st choice) Seychelles - Wanderer (2nd choice) Somalia - rybak (3rd choice) Timor-Leste - Griff88 (2nd choice) Tonga - Jur (3rd choice) Turkmenistan - LDOG Tuvalu - rybak (1st choice) Zimbabwe - dcro (2nd choice) - Countries that have "1st choice" behind the username are not available anymore, just like countries that only have the username without "xx choice". Countries with "2nd choice" or "3rd choice" are still available to pick up as your first choice.

I think for many players the Olympics is a good chance to take a rest, just like in golf..

Now hold on a minute, I still think Felix has a more than decent chance to beat Schippers The bookmakers say Schippers has around 60-65% chance to win the gold, but honestly I don't agree with that. Mostly because the track in Beijing was so insanely fast, that crazy time there doesn't mean that much (of course it means something though) and because Felix has always shown to be at her absolute best when it matters most, basically for the past 10 years or so. It's nice that Schippers showed her best at World Champs, but the Olympics is a whole different level of pressure and where Felix has shown to not give a damn about that, Schippers first will have to prove that. Of course I agree that if nothing weird happens, Schippers, Felix and probably Thompson should win the three medals, but I don't think Schippers is such a huge favorite as people think she is. Bookmakers have odds of 4.50 for Schippers not winning a gold medal and personally I would bet some money on that if they would let me bet more than a crappy 5 euro. And about the 400m: I might see Semenya improve to 50.0 or something within the next few months, but getting to sub-49.5 doesn't seem like something I expect her to do (and I do expect Felix to do so).

Those times for one athlete are already crazy in itself, but to make things crazier: did you notice that she ran those three times back-to-back-to-back in only 4 hours at the S-A Championships? I really don't see her win 400m gold by the way if she keeps going like this (there's still a huge difference between a 50.half and a 49.half which will probably be the very least to win gold or even silver). Her 1500m would worry me a lot more than her 400m to be honest, as the Olympic 1500m final probably isn't gonna be a "speed race".

During the Youth Olympics in 2014 I had predicted Santana would go for a medal in the 100 free this year. Unfortunately it seems his development came to a bit of a halt since then (despite the semi-final in Beijing last year) so that's not gonna happen, but it's really good to see he will represent Brazil in the 4x100

Only 16 spots available in the entire Olympic competition yet there can be 3 per nation? Edit: Right, I guess not everyone competing at the test event is there to secure Olympic qualification, but a handful is there just to check out Rio or something.

Jacques Riparelli might easily be the sensation of the Olympics (On a serious note, it looks great!)

Thanks No, rugby and golf aren't counted (just like Kosovo and South Sudan aren't counted).

I sort of like Ducati, but Lorenzo is so damn boring... I'm afraid Viñales will go to Yamaha in his place, but I really, really hope he stays at Suzuki and keeps improving himself and the team..

You forgot the Netherlands and handball by the way

True, so in that case World League should stay. I like that one because it has different levels of competition and as far as I know, countries can be promoted and relegated or at least move to higher divisions (correct me if I'm wrong). But having World Cup, Olympics, Champions Trophy and World League (apart from continental stuff) just takes away the value of a major win. Nice, winning the Champions Trophy, but if you lose...meh, you'll get another chance for a major win next time.

Myanmar with athletes from 1999 and 2000, as always in every sport

I don't quite get what you're meaning with that last part They're the field hockey organization, so I suppose it's logical that they want to make their sport more popular as any sports federation would want? Personally I don't even see the need for a Global League or World League or Champions Trophy or whatever. We have the Olympics and we have the World Cup and that's enough.

Sneaky little tailwhip in that second video

That is such bullshit

The Egyptians qualified in beach volleyball which apparently is their first time ever

Fabio Felline fell before the start of the Amstel Gold yesterday and now it seems it's way worse than anticipated. Rumours that he has to stop for at least 6 months or that it can maybe even the end of his career

First ever win for Kenya by the way

Yohan Blake is back and posted a 9,95 100m in Kingston last weekend

"Morning honey, that was great last night. Ooooh waaaait a minute..... "

The live scoring is suddenly showing this: Results will be displayed here on April 17 at 09:30 local time! Apparently it's not 09.30 local time yet, did they move the test event to Niue suddenly?

I'm pretty sure they already qualified at the World Championships

Sounds like a plan

How did you have that in mind? I'm horrible at making something like that