heywoodu

Cross-country running is just the same athletes but with different shoes, come on. And obviously only the mixed relay World Athletics hasn't made a fool of itself enough yet? If you so desperately want to add another running event, make it trail running or something (through forests and with steep climbs and rocks and so on), at least that is definitely much different.

Eythora Thorsdottir has reacted disappointed at the suspension of the Dutch women's team: "We are being punished for something coaches did in years before." In which she does have a point, it's no use to keep the athletes themselves away from chances and competitions they very much want to appear in.

The Giro has announced the profile for the opening time trial, but apparently they've done it the wrong way

Like I said before about this coaching thing: there is a difference between pushing athletes (physically and mentally) and going way over the line. Humiliating, beating and just downright abusing teenagers is not 'pushing them to get better', that's abuse. If you can't balance on the extremely thin line in between those things, you're just not cut out to be a coach. Just like the best teachers aren't those that keep telling everyone they are 'fucking stupid' if they make a mistake, and also not those who only focus on making everyone happy.

I'm not sure suspending an entire team (where the athletes themselves say right now the situation is ok) is the solution, but downplaying the whole thing is just not the way to go at all. There absolutely is a huge problem, saying there isn't is like denying weightlifting has ever had a doping problem.

That's a rather big misrepresentation of the situation. Drilling army recruits is not really comparable with abusing teenage (mostly) girls, by not one rogue coach, but coaches all over the world.

The Dutch federation today announced the provisional full suspension of the women's national team, the entire program is being halted pending an investigation and participation at the European Championships is far from certain (if they happen of course). Meanwhile, every single athlete in the women's team came out yesterday with a statement saying that they're not familiar with the things in the accusations and that at least right now those things aren't happening. Lieke and Sanne Wevers won't have anyone coaching them now, since their dad is provisionally suspended for all activities. Some of the others can still do some training with their club coaches.

UAE has taken three Colombians out of the race because they had been in contact with someone who tested positive. Meanwhile Movistar wanted the entire Israel team out after Roy Goldstein tested positive. Goldstein wasn't at the race and the only other Israel rider he has been in contact with was taken out of the race, so Movistar's reasoning would mean every cyclist - including their own - should be taken out of the race

Hey Phil, your Twitter account might need a better password...

Yeah, although that's not really RCS's fault as much as it is a matter of circumstances. Changing the entire format of the peloton so short before the race is just idiotic

RCS has made itself a little ridiculous, by this week announcing that teams in Milan - San Remo will consist of only 6 instead of 7 riders...not even two weeks before the race Of course this results in two more teams getting a wildcard.

Felix Großschartner soloed to the win in Burgos.

Ivan the Terrible vs Remco Evenemerckx, let's go. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/vuelta-a-burgos/2020/startlist

Mr Luc Eymael, obviously. How dare you not know him! Isn't he in a terrible enough situation? I mean, he doesn't even have WiFi!

I mean, there's a rather low bar nowadays in terms of making one mistake and you're immediately kicked out into the dirt....but Mr Eymael really didn't want to stop digging the hole for himself It just gets worse by the second.

Going to the airport tomorrow morning for an obvious reason I've just set my alarm at 04:20 and that immediately made me want to share that with @Olympian1010

Which is sad. 'Some mental abuse' is too much mental abuse, by definition. I definitely get that it is extremely hard for a coach to find the right balance. You can't always be nice, because athletes - let's say those who are willing to go far - do need to be pushed to both their physical and mental limits, it's what makes athletes better than the average person in their sport. But go a tiny bit too far, and you cross the line into outright abuse and pure negativity. That being said, if you're not someone who can keep those things balanced and get the maximum out of an athlete without going deep into negative territory, you're really not cut out to being a coach at all.

Yep. It's sad to hear when it happens somewhere, but it's in nearly every freaking country. What makes artistic gymnastic so much more toxic than other sports, at least by the looks of it? I know there are plenty of coaches in plenty of sports who are very much treating their young athletes as human guinea pigs, but I really can't think of any sport where it's so incredibly widespread - both in terms of sheer numbers and the wide variety of nations involved - as gymnastics.

That sounds way too sensitive to say anything about

Here's actually a whole lot of other examples, Belgian gymnasts are posting a lot to social media these days because of this, some in English. https://sporza.be/nl/2020/07/27/turnster-getuigt-turnbond-deed-beloftes-maar-niks-veranderde~1595825965650/

And now it's on to Belgium, where the aforementioned Gerrit Beltman was the head coach in the most part of the 2000's, mostly in the 'era' of Aagje Vanwalleghem. Dorien Motten has said she has experienced similar things. About her time in the national team: "I was humiliated, intimidated and bullied. Every day I was told I was useless, lazy and fat and I would never get anywhere. When I cried, that was filmed and then showed around to show that I was a crybaby who wasn't strong enough to be an elite gymnast. Hearing this every day made me believe it myself. I got to a point where I truly believed I was worthless and I should be grateful these coaches even still wanted to work with me." According to Motten, the national federation was told about all these things going on and did nothing. After retiring, she decided to come back to the sport (away from the national team of course), and started training in Germany. There she realized what had happened to her wasn't normal: "In Germany, the gymnasts were coached in a positive manner, without mental games."

And a whole host of disadvantages. It's basically like replacing track cycling with cyclo-cross. I mean, it's both done on two wheels and you wouldn't need a cycling track anymore, so what's the problem? Every country can get some mud together. Seriously thinking about replacing artificial track with natural track luge makes one wonder if people in favor of that actually ever watch said sports, because in that case one would realize it's just two totally different sports.

I knew there'd be street parties watching speed skating in the back alleys of Accra and Nairobi. Also, Namibia is clearly not letting go of it's German heritage

Yes. If we've learned one thing by now, it's that events don't need to have a decent level of competition and a proven regular series of top-level events before being included in the Olympics. Sadly. Like women's Nordic combined it should eventually be added, but not yet.

@thiago_simoes (hoping you're still here, although this isn't good) Here we go again, this time coming from the Netherlands. Former gymnast Joy Goedkoop was on the main Dutch sports program last night, where she accused Vincent Wevers (yes, Lieke and Sanne's father and high-level coach) of kicking and hitting her. "Not daily, although the ignoring, getting angry and humiliating did happen on a daily basis." For reference: Goedkoop trained with Wevers between the ages of 7 and 12. Goedkoop then moved to training with another coach, Gerben Wiersma. "There the physical violence was over, but there as well it was not humane. There was no space at all for injuries, tiredness or any other sort of feelings." This all came a few days after yet another coach, Gerrit Beltman (Renske Endel's coach among others), came out sort of by himself about what he had done in the past: humiliating and abusing (not in that way, but you get the point) young gymnast during trainings. According to him, he wasn't the only one doing so. Several gymnasts spoke anonymously in the same interview/article, including one who now turns out to be Goedkoop. Lastly, Goedkoop about Wevers and the Dutch federation (KNGU): "I know they know things about him, but nothing has ever been done." So there we go.