heywoodu

Well, yeah, I agree, but I wonder how it would have been if the 8th place (and now 9th) was, say, USA, Australia, Japan, something like that, instead of a 'neutral athlete'.

12-year old in the final

Yu is definitely the fastest Chinese in this semi.

It also helps that the swimmer who is now suddenly out again is from Belarus, not likely that they'll really be heard in case of a protest or something

When I was 12, I was spending my time watching sports, collecting stamps and Pokémon cards and possibly watching Dragon Ball Z. Others swim the world championship semi's (no doubt after being drilled for it since like 4 years old, it is China after all)

Kinda known for breaking the rules under water, but usually he gets away with it for whatever reason

And good luck seeing someone do a 400m in athletics, all-out, and then set a 200m PB an hour later Of course I know swimming is basically a (almost) no-impact sport, that helps a lot for sure.

On a serious note: it is always miraculous to see how low-impact swimming actually is. Not many sports where it's apparently totally fine to perform at your best in two different events barely half an hour apart

We're supposed to be positive about that, because then also the specialists in the 50m have a chance! Much to the chagrin of the ever-ignored specialists in the 426 meters breaststroke and the 165 meters butterfly.

Sean Niewold in the semi's, nice. He got his 'swimming diploma' (something children usually get in their early childhood) a few weeks ago Kind of like Max Verstappen, who was racing Formula 1 before he had a driving license

I hope so! It'd be awesome, absolutely, although with these massive PB's I always think it's more likely that the next race will be a bit slower, considering they already went entirely all-out now But I'd love to be proven wrong of course, don't see Belgian medals that often so that'd be cool

Ponti with the third 22.74 of today

With the minor sidenote that Walsh probably did so on 90% and Vanotterdijk had the race of her life But impressive, absolutely!

Wow, that was an awesome final to start the world championships off

Largest graphics overlay ever by the way, holy moly.

Not by a long shot I believe I saw a 9-year old compete when I was in Barcelona in 2013, but I'm not entirely sure. Definitely younger than 12..

Difference is that in things like muay thai, the Thai are actually far and away the best. But I guess it is common for combat sports, especially in things like the World Games, to mostly feature athletes you would never really see anywhere near the top No idea if that's also the case in jiu-jitsu, but for sure in kickboxing and muay thai.

Is muay thai, like kickboxing, also done with amateurs only? Just checked the qualifying list and in a sport where Thai athletes absolutely dominate, there is a rather large lack of....well, Thai athletes As in, 6 events and a grand total of 1 Thai man and 1 Thai woman.

Yeah, that's how you're supposed to do it in this day and age. By the way, if that's the Universiade: that's also entirely on HBO, where live streams are also immediately available on-demand, as they should

At least you are in the list I genuinely don't think the World Games get any attention at all, in any form, in the Netherlands. Sports news won't mention it, it won't be in the newspapers, certainly won't be shown anywhere, it is way too obscure for that I fear. Good thing there seems to be a platform that will have everything both live and on demand.

Martinez got away with it, only 8 points deducted as 'punishment'. Luckily both Pogacar and Vingegaard are likely to finish ahead of him in points anyway.

USA apparently sending only 16 players per team, against 18 for all other countries, is to take away the home advantage?

I doubt it, since it kind of feels like ice hockey's qualification is usually like 90% decided by the time the previous Winter Olympics is getting ready for the closing ceremony

Rare finish on La Plagne today, where Michael Boogerd had arguably the most iconic Dutch cycling win of the last 25 years in 2002, and Mark Padun started his insane 2-day form peak in 2021, before fading away again into nothing and leaving Bahrain because of a reason 'he did not wish to discuss'. Let's see what shenanigans we get today It is a shortened stage: 30km and a climb taken out because of, and this is quite rare, cows getting sick and having to be slaughtered yesterday, so to keep the peace in the area, they decided to avoid that part.

I wouldn't say forget, more than it not being a similarly sized potential issue.