rafalgorka

There is quite an interesting (at least to me) discussion on our Polish National Forum going on (not many users involved though) on who may become a totally "new kid on the block" in Paris - I mean some athlete(s), we don't focus now much on them now, but they will 1. qualify for Paris and then 2. make a "really good" result there, not necessarily a medal, maybe a final, a SF, a huge PB or just a very interesting performance which will be remembered for years. I don't think about athletics only and i don't think about the youngest athletes. I just wonder who are your very very very dark horses for Paris?

Day 2 Sun 28.07 - updated predictions Event #26 - SWIMMING - W 100m Fly 1. Yufei Zhang CHN +1 2. Margaret Macneil CAN +1 3. Torri Huske USA -2 All the other day 2 events left as they were before Changes in medal table: CHN 43-28-23---94 G +1, S -1 CAN 5-12-2---19 S +1, B -1 USA 44-43-36---123 G -1, B +1

When you look at the schedule, which day in Paris looks the most interesting for you? I would say Saturday Day 8 Tennis - W singles final (even more interesting if Iga is in) Athletics and Swimming finals (W 100m SF and F - will Ewa Swoboda gets into the final or not? M 100 free swimming final) Cycling M Road Race. M Road Race in Paris!!! Gymnastics ind apparatus finals Rowing Singles and Eights finals And moving day in M golf Nice combo...

I am double-checking my predictions on day 2 and i am seriously thinking about changing my W 100 fly (swimming) guesses. I thought 1. Torri Huske USA 2. Zhang Yufei CHN. But now i would say 1. Zhang Yufei CHN and i am not sure i would say Huske gets a medal at all now. But look - if i change that - overall medal table changes very significantly: now it is 1. USA with 45 golds and 2. CHN with 42 golds. After W 100 fly change it's 1. USA with 44 golds 2. China with 43 golds. Very close battle here. Then imagine one more gold for CHN in diving (instead of UKR) and we have a tie 44-44 And then one more gold for CHN in weightlifting (because i predicted one of CHN athletes will DNF ) and China is on the top 45-44 Well, well, well - i won't say nothing new here - but this overall medal table battle in Paris will be so close that the outcome is simply unpredictable And my first impression is that BLRUS absence works better for China - there are more events where Chinese chances for gold are bigger due to Russian staying at home than such events where US will get adavantage (e.g. artistic swimming, men's artistic gymnastics...) ofc, i can't say for sure that i didn't make any mistakes in my maths, and my medal table may be wrong, i would have to count it again but honestly i don't want to do it now, maybe after double-checking all 16 days

Bad news: got some flu or sth and i am on a sick leave until next Friday. Even worse news: i will have more free time so i will probably produce some more spam here in the coming days. Here's a sample of this: One very amateurish question on eventing. Why the start lists for cross-country part are not a reversed order after dressage (individual ranking). I don't watch equestrian often but i think such a start list would be much more interesting. During olympics i always want to watch cross-country live but i never can do it because it takes too long and all the most important riders are put all over the start list. This way i could watch only the last part or sth and i would see all the most important moments live. I just don't get it what's the purpose of it - such a strange start list in cross-country. Even figure skating changed their rules about starting order in free programmes eventually so i don't lose hope that the same happens to eventing. The same could happen in ind apparatus finals in gymnastics (reversed order with the quali results - like it is in the last event of AA)

Karolina Muchova out of AUS Open 24. Wrist injury

NEWS Update Marco Schwarz❗️ Der Kärntner muss die Saison leider vorzeitig beenden 🙁 Er erleidet bei dem Sturz in Bormio 🇮🇹 einen Kreuzband- & Innenmeniskusriss sowie einen Knorpelschaden im rechten Knie! 🫣

Schwarz suffers season-ending injury Source: Ski Austria Alpin FB page

How it's gonna be (these will be counted for my pts): 1. Denmark 2. Johannes Thingnes Boe NOR 3. Kaori Sakamoto JPN 4. Scottie Scheffler USA 5. Czechia 6. England 7. USA 8. USA 9. Aryna Sabalenka 10. Arizona 11. Novak Djokovic SRB 12. Max Verstappen NED How i'd like it to be: 1. France 2. Sebastian Samuelsson SWE 3. Kaori Sakamoto JPN 4. Jon Rahm ESP 5. Czechia 6. Spain 7. USA 8. USA 9. Iga Świątek POL (but if she wins singles event at Paris olympics, she can even skip rest of the 2024 season, I don't mind it...) 10. Baltimore 11. Carlos Alcaraz ESP 12. Charles Leclerc MON

Yes, i was probably biased here. I wished Sochan well. And i hoped Wemba will not only play well individually but the whole team will improve. Maybe next season...

A small question to the speed skating fans (US fans maybe): Conor McDermott-Mostowy - he may have some Polish family? Mostowy may be a Polish surname. Andrzej Gut-Mostowy is a Polish politician from Zakopane, he opted for the winter olympics here if i remember correctly. He's doing (or he used to do, I don't know, whatever) bussinesses in hotel, tourism and skiing facilities sector obviously.

And the leading role actor - Bartłomiej Topa - is one of the best Polish actors these days imo. You can watch another Polish series with him - "Wataha" on HBO, sth totally different, not a comedy at all but it is even much better than 1670.

If you use Netflix, you can check if a new Polish comedy series called "1670" is available in your country. I must say i generally like this kind of absurd humour and this series is a proof than Poles can laugh at themselves, harder than anyone. Not everyone likes this series here in Poland, opinions are divided but i do recommend it. It is so hard to find a good comedy these days.

1. JANUARY - Who will win the 2024 European Men's Handball Championship? 2. FEBRUARY - Who will win Men's Pursuit event at the 2024 Biathlon World Championships? 3. MARCH - Who will win Ladies event in 2024 Figure Skating World Championships? 4. APRIL - Who will win Golf Masters Tournament in 2024? 5. MAY - Who will 2024 Ice Hockey IIHF World Championship? 6. JUNE* - Who will win UEFA EURO 2024? 7. JULY* - Which NOC will win the most medals in total in Paris 2024 olympics? 8. AUGUST* - Which NOC will win the most gold medals in Paris 2024 olympics? 9. SEPTEMBER - Who will win Tennis Ladies Singles event in 2024 US Open?3 10. OCTOBER - Who will win 2024 World Series (Baseball)? 11. NOVEMBER - Who will win ATP Finals in Singles event? 12. DECEMBER - Who will win World Drivers' Championships in F1 2024 season?

A new contest: answer 12 questions, deadline is 06/01/2024, 20:00 CET One point for each correct answer We'll see the results in next December

Small updates here

Next stop: Biathlon WCH in Feb 2024, stay tuned.

Men at work And in the middle of all of this: Marek Rożej - Natalia Kaczmarek coach - a coach of the year here in POL imho, but I may be biased here.

Ewa Swoboda has made it to the final eventually...

Anyway, this whole week in Budapest was fun. On the left, Piotr Lisek, our pole vaulter, one of my fav POL athletes these days. On the right - you may know this guy, a terrible spammer here on TO.

These are hammer throwers! That's the way they like it!

One of my fav sports moments of the year 2023 heh. This photo was taken in Budapest just a few hours after Hammer Throw WCH final. A guy on the right has just won the whole thing and is celebrating it with a well-deserved glass of beer. Dude on the left didn't make it through the national prelims...

My predicted medal table so far, with a small update to the original one (due to a change in Cycling Road - M Ind Time Trial Results) Silver: SLO -1 (Pogacar) ITA +1 (Ganna) Bronze: ITA -1 (Ganna) GBR +1 (Tarling)