rafalgorka

I think it is very unlikely. This is really tough course, a few serious climbs on the way. So I don't think we will see any "classic" sprinters like Demare, Ackermann or Bennett (they will have to wait for Paris 2024), but riders like Kristoff could be there. https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/olympics/olympic-cycling-race-route-357988

Klemens Muranka had a positive test for covid in Oberstdorf. I hope the rest of Polish team will be allowed to participate. His test will be repeated today.

Tokyo 2021 - day 1 simulation - ctd. Cycling - M Road Race - possible start list - early draft JPN 2 BEL 5 - Wout van Aert, Remco Evenepoel (???), Greg van Avermaet ITA 5 - Vincenzo Nibali, Filippo Ganna NED 5 - Wilco Kelderman FRA 5 - Julian Alaphilippe, Guillaume Martin COL 5 - Daniel Felipe Martinez Poveda, Miguel Angel Lopez Moreno ESP 5 - Mikel Landa Meana, Enric Mas Nicolau, Alejandro Valverde SLO 4 - Primoz Roglic, Tadej Pogacar GER 4 - Maximilian Schachmann, Lennard Kamna AUS 4 - Richie Porte, Jai Hindley, Michael Matthews DEN 4 - Jakob Fuglsang, Mads Pedersen, Soren Kragh Andersen GBR 4 - Tao Geoghegan Hart, Simon Philip Yates, Adam Yates, Geraint Thomas NOR 4 - Alexander Kristoff SUI 4 - Marc Hirschi, Stefan Kung AUT 3 - Patrick Konrad POL 3 - Michał Kwiatkowski, Rafał Majka IRL 3 - Daniel Martin RUS 3 RSA 3 - Daryl Impey KAZ 3 CAN 3 - Michael Woods CZE 3 ECU 2 - Richard Carapaz POR 2 - Joao Almeida SVK 2 ERI 2 USA 2 NZL 2 - George Bennett EST 2 ALG 2 LUX 2 LAT 2 TUR 2 BLR 1 UKR 1 CRC 1 GRE 1 ROU 1 IRI 1 SWE 1 HUN 1 VEN 1 MAR 1 AZE 1 LTU 1 RWA 1 MEX 1 GUA 1 ARG 1 CHN 1 NAM 1 BUR 1 TPE 1 UZB 1 PER 1 PAN 1 HKG 1

I hope Maryna Gąsienica-Daniel will be in Top 10 tomorrow in GS!!!

What do you think? Who will win 4 hills tournament? Who will be the surprise contender (there is always one ;-) )? And I wonder how Stefan Kraft performs.

I My March/April 2020 choice for men's cycling road race in Tokyo was: 1. Primoz Roglic SLO 2. Mads Pedersen DEN 3. Matteo Trentin ITA My today choice would be different (no Pedersen and no Trentin) but still thinking who should be chosen. So firstly, maybe we should discuss what the start list will look like? Who will race for Team Belgium and who will race for France or Netherlands, for example?

#207 - Rio 2016 - Swimming - W 200m Backstroke Final - Katinka denied another gold medal in last stroke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY8SVFr13m0&t=1s #206 - London 2012 - Athletics - W 100m Hurdles Final - Sally Pearson asking around - WAS IT ME? WAS IT ME? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFqL-lAud0k&t=407s

#208 - Sydney 2000 - Athletics - M 800m Final Kipketer on the stadium and me in front of tv were both shaking heads with disbelief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8q3QNQ8J3s

Hey, olympic freaks. For many years I have been collecting my own small olympic library. I wish I could show it to you but I don't know how to post a photo here. Nevermind. I would like to ask you what olympic and sports books you recommend. Maybe I could add them to my collections. My favourite English language olympic book is - by far - Rome 1960 by David Maraniss. My favourite Polish one would be Swoje wiem i piszę by the great Zdzisław Ambroziak, but I don't know if it was translated in other languages. Merry Christmas, everyone. Stay healthy!!!

https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3115252/what-does-latest-sun-yang-ruling-mean-chinese-stars-tokyo-olympic-hopes Here they say that he is eligible to swim until next CAS ruling. It is very possible that - sadly, but i hope i am wrong here - we will not have this ruling before end of July 2021, so he may swim in Tokyo.

I wouldn't say that e.g. not having respect for a Chinese ruling party and its policies makes you a racist. But - as a lawyer - i agree that he should not be a judge on that particular case. This is quite obvious.

https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3115294/sun-yang-swiss-court-confirms-lifting-ban-chinese-star-decision-based

Predictions for a day by day would be difficult. One day is not enough for a serious research for me these days. But maybe one day for Every week??? Starting Every Monday? We will see.

On day 1 I would obviously focus on men's cycling road race. Previously I wrote here that Primoz Roglic will win that one. Now thinking whether I should correct that opinion or not. I will try to write sth on that topic soon. Because I remember there were strong recommendations for Alaphilippe and Evenepoel here as well. I hope they both will be healthy next summer, wish them all the best. After cycling - I would focus on first swimming heats and men's volleyball POL vs IRI and FRA vs USA. And - last but not least - I will try to predict in which events Poland will have a chance for a decent result on day 1. Anyway, I must admit that sometimes making such analysis is even better than the real thing for me. ?

#209 - Athens 2004 - Swimming - W 400m Freestyle - Laure Manaudou vs Otylia https://youtu.be/de3NmpNg4ag

https://swimswam.com/xinhua-swiss-tribunal-overturns-sun-yang-ban-matter-will-return-to-cas/

https://www.wada-ama.org/en/media/news/2020-12/wada-statement-following-swiss-federal-tribunal-decision-to-uphold-sun-yangs

#210 - Athens 2004 - Athletics - M 4x100m Relay Final - Team GB vs Team USA. This race is maybe maybe even more emotional than Bolt for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATSz4mjqtw&t=5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKBMwTfU4po https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2012/feb/22/olympic-moments-great-britain-relay

#211 - Athens 2004 - Swimming - M 200 m Free Final My favourite Dutch olympic moment. VDH 2nd in THE RACE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X0ih5iMJoc&t=7s

As an olympic freak I must admit that hosting olympics in Poland would be my big dream coming true. I will try to dicuss here whether it has any chance to happen. How would it look like. I know many contrary arguments against it but I will try to look on the bright side of life here :-)))))) To begin with I will say that I always thought that withdrawing our Kraków / Zakopane (and with a liitle help from our Slovak friends from Poprad) 2022 Winter Olympics Candidacy was not a good idea. Although I know we would probably lose to Beijing on this matter. At least I hope we will host FIS Nordic Skiing World Championships in Zakopane and ISU Figure Skating World Championships in Kraków in near (post-covid) future. I remember when @OlympicsFan said that only certain countries should be allowed to host the olympics. Others are too small or too poor. It may be true. Well, we may not be rich enough now. But we are talking about 2036 here. I wish all the best to this country and I hope things will get better until then. And are we really too small ? Well - AUS, BEL, SWE, GRE, NED, FIN have smaller populations than us and they hosted the summer games before. Yes, I know some of them did it 100 years ago, but still... So I think it is worth trying. Let AUS have its Queensland 2032 games and then come to Poland. :-)))) The bad thing to start with is that our National Stadium in Warsaw was built before EURO 2012 and it is simply a football stadium, without an athletics track. So it would have to be rebuilt to begin with. And EURO 2012 was a very successfull event, I really liked it, and I think PL showed that it was able to host big events. I remember how Warsaw looked like in the semifinal ITA vs GER day and I want to see something like that again. And by the way, watching Mario Balotelli goals from the stands was real fun, I liked this game very much. But back to business - I really hope you will see the games in my country one day.

#212 - Vancouver 2010 - Cross-Country Skiing - W 30 km Mass Start Classic - Justyna Kowalczyk vs Marit Bjoergen. This is an obvious choice for me. Last km - I can watch it all the time again and again. Never gets boring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf9YKm2l_iU

I know it is not fair. We should be choosing among our olympians now. But what can we do? I hope we will be able to do that next December. But honestly - I am more and more sceptical about it. I am not sure Tokyo 2021 will happen. Sadly.

Yes!!!! I can find official awards in Google. I want to know your own choices!!!

Who do you think should be a sportsman/sportswoman of the year 2020 in your country??? Man or woman. No two different categories. I say - Poland - 1. Iga Świątek ?? 2. Robert Lewandowski ?? Both achived a lot this year But Iga at Roland Garros means more to me.

I remember Mecir, he was a great player