rafalgorka

Have heard the ISU is looking to propose team sprint into the program

Aww that's really sad to hear.
 
Estavana Polman did an hour long interview with NOS for the Olympic Podcast that was released just this week. Definitely recommend listening! (In Dutch ofc)
 
As for the Olympics 'today', swimming and athletics are once again the main events. I hope Nadine Visser and Femke Bol reach the finals for 100m and 400m hurdles. And also the RS:X medal races, archery and potentially some preliminaries in team sports.

That's quite harsh opinion, don't you think? I would understand if you would name like that boxing for judges problems or weightlifting because of doping but luge? C'mon.
 
It's only your opinion, unless you have some proof to confirm it  I also have opinion and I think that many lugers wouldn't do it, especially older ones. Naturals and artificials aren't very similar disciplines. I think many lugers rather change to bobsleigh or even skeleton than natural luge. Some of them probably end their carriers.

Yeah, luge is like canoeing for example. Olympics are the only item on their portfolio. 
 

Nevertheless, ICF is on the brink of bankrupcy (following the Tokyo postponement) and their events are literally disappearing as soon as they get removed from the Olympic program. Clearly a sign that they are way to dependent on the Olympics...

Nope. They even had ceremonial discontinuation of men's C2 slalom after it got removed.

It is funny to see luge in Spain consdering that we do not have a single athlete . The only Winter sport slightly popular in Spain is figure skating, specially since the appearance of Javi Fernández. A few years ago, alpine skiing was also popular, with some World Cup events being shown in public TV, as well as ski jumping with the Four Trampolines, but nowadays nobody cares about Winter sports.

You  just gave to wait 6 years.  

Super Saturday!
 
Not many Dutch athletes today, but still a lot of nice sports to choose from. The swimming finals, including the 4x100 mixed relay. I know many people here hate this part of the competition, but I like this mixedevent. First sailing medals, hopefully one for Kiran Badloe in the RSX men. 
 
Day 8 highlights the series of the 400m hurdles with our young talent Femke Bol, hopefully she can join the strong American competition in this event. 
 
And last but not least I join @rafalgorka watching the archery finals 

On day 8 I would be watching men’s archery finals, athletics, badminton finals, the debut of BMX freestyle & Mixed team judo, women’s rugby finals, sailing medal races, swimming finals, shooting mixed trap, tennis finals, triathlon mixed relay & trampoline.

Ukraine government are considering a Lviv's bid for the 2030 Winter Olympics

Very definitely a different sport here in Europe, much rougher, steeper tracks for hill running.  Really a hardcore sport for amateurs or part-timers.

Those are very commonly used for cross country in the US. 
 
I will say that the terms “cross country” and “hill running” are pretty much interchangeable in California. Most of the big high school invitationals have decent sized hills on the course. My favorite courses had climbs with 12% grades.
 
The building an alternate trail for cross country into the Eventing course would be more realistic than using the MTB course. The problem with MTB is that the course is mostly single track, and that wouldn’t work well for cross country.

Wow, you call that a very broad preview, nice to read. Altogether quite a lot of opportunities for the Polish athletes. 
 
Netherlands also has some opportunities, but not as much as Poland. We 'only' have Dafne Schippers at the 100m and 200m (silver in Rio), but honestly: she's not going to make it this time. A lot of sprinters are meanwhile a lot better: Dina Asher, Shaune Miller-Uibo, Elaine Thompson and many others. And Sifan Hassan at the 10.000 meters. But there will be a lot of competition from Kenia and Ethiopia. 
 
Maybe there are a few other slight chances: Femke Bol (400 hurdles), 4x100 women and Nadine Visser (100 hurdles). But not very realistic.
 
You're right: most important is having exciting competitions, but ... still nice when your own country wins some medals :-). 
 
And to finish: a nice weekend for you as well!

Well, this is a tough question.
 
Probably the best chances are in hammer throw.
 
In men's hammer Paweł Fajdek is our best chance for medal, even gold I would say, but - despite he won a few gold medals in world championships - he imploded awfully both in 2012 and in 2016 in the qualifications. So I hope he will hold his nerves this time. And secondly, he needs to be careful about Bence Halasz, this is a very serious contender, improving fast. So Fajdek is our biggest chance for gold - but it will not be easy at all. Wojciech Nowicki may get a medal, too.
 
In women's hammer Anita Włodarczyk will have a difficult task to win another medal. US throwers are getting better and better and she had some health and coaching problems, so I don't expect her to win again. Papers say that it is quite possible that she will not take part in Tokyo olympics at all. But I hope she will.
 
There is a chance for a medal in men's pole vault. But only Bronze, I'm afraid. Piotr Lisek was 3rd in Doha and 4th in Rio. But two medals are for Armand Duplantis and Sam Kendricks, I think, so there will be very tense fight for 3rd spot on the podium.
 
Women's 4 x 400m is another chance. US team are much better, but Polish quartet should be able to perform well if you compare them with the rest.
 
This new mixed relay is a minor chance, too. But it is hard to find two fast 400m male runners in Poland these days, unfortunately.
 
So these are our chances. If there will be 3-4 medals and 1 gold I would say it would be a decent result.
 
And now some wishful thinking - I would be superhappy if we get a medal in individual track event. The last time we got one was a long long ago. Much too long. I would be superhappy if it was men's 800 or 1500 but both Adam Kszczot (800) and Marcin Lewandowski (1500) will have a difficult task to do it. I know they have their non-olympic medals already around their necks, but in Tokyo it will be a different game, much more difficult. I'm afraid they are faster runners than them nowadays, and these faster people will not repeat the mistake many did in men's 1500 final in Rio. In a slower pace, Kszczot's and Lewandowski's chances are getting higher but I expect both 800 and 1500 finals will be superfast this time.
 
If Caster Semenya and a few others and some new Rusians (never heard of before) will not participate - there will be a chance for Joanna Jóźwik for a good run in 800m final if she qualifies. But she had some health problems, too and - I'm not an expert - but I think she will need to think more on her tactics if she wants to win an olympic medal.
 
Sofia Ennaoui in 1500 is another chance - I like her very very much, I don't know her in person obviously, but she appears to be a very warm and funny person, really dedicated to her training. So I'm a big fan of hers. But her problem is she is competing in a time when the level of women's 1500 is really high. There are so many contenders here. But if she gets into the final, and the pace will be slow - she has an extremely good finish. Good enough for a medal? We will see.
 
It's also hard not to like Maria Andrejczyk in women's javelin - she was 4th in Rio, great in qualifications (if i'm not mistaken here, her throw in the qualis would give her a gold in the final, but I need to check it). Unfortunately she also had problems with health, so it is hard to say if she can repeat her Rio performance at least.
 
There are some youngsters shining already - Klaudia Siciarz in 100 hurdles for example, but it is a chance for a medal in Paris, I would say. I will look out how her career will unfold. She has a talent and potential for sure.
 
And finally, I would be supersuperhappy if we get a medal in men's high jump. This is by far my favourite event. As somebody told here before speaking about fencing - this is because of my good personal memories. But we don't have a good male high jumper in Poland now. Good enough to have a real chance for a medal.
In women's high jump there is Kamila Lićwinko. I wish her all the best but it will be very difficult for her to get on the podium. And from my personal point of view I wouldn't wish her e.g. a bronze medal after two Ukrainian jumpers which would be achieved only because Maria Lasitskene wasn't there. If you want to get a well-deserved olympic medal, win it in a strongest possible field ever. Otherwise, it will not taste the same. And I understand what Russians did was outrageous (maybe there should be a better word for that but my English is not so good). But I don't think that people like Lasitskene or Sidorova - who didn't fault with doping rules personally, should not be able to compete in the olympics. If it would happen under Russian flag or not - well, maybe without this flag but - as Barrack Obama said - this question is above my pay grade.
 
Anyway, I am a kind of multi-kulti person and I must admit that I watch olympics primarily to enjoy good, tense competitions - whether Poles are getting 3 gold medals in one day or not.
 
All the best for you, enjoy your weekend.
 
 

Day 6
 
Rowing finals, swimming finals, Women's C1 slalom and women 's artistic gymnastics individual all-around 
 
Besides that Basketball, tennis and beach volleyball 
 
No medals for Poland today I' m afraid 
 
And already waiting for athletics starting next day, checking out start lists, reading the news who' s in form and who's not

Yes, still possible he qualifies. But living legend Uchimura will be there as well. So Epke will definitely not the favourite on high bar. But we still have another participant: Bart Deurloo. He is fully committed to high bar and focuses on a medal.

https://www.sports.ru/tribuna/blogs/allsport_agency/2809858.html
A Russian website is also doing a day-by-day forecast of Tokyo 2020
 
There are links to each individual day so far on the right of the page

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  

Today the 200m freestyle swimming; likely no Dutch entry, but still one of the highlights for me! 
 
Time trial women: Chloe Dygert will destroy the rest of the field, but maybe a silver for Annemiek van Vleuten (the one with the horrible crash in Rio)? At the men's side I'm hoping for Tom Dumoulin. Hopefully he'll somewhere finds his form back.
 
Biggest chance for gold for The Netherlands is the Women's Four (rowing). Will be close with Australia and China, but they can do it!

The start of the 2021 Tour de France has been brought forward to 26 June to allow cyclists to take part in the Tokyo Olympics with its Mount Fuji road race.

Well, in the Women's Quadrupple Sculls Poland has a great chance to win. Germany and Netherlands aren't that good anymore. Biggest threat for Poland: China and Ukraïne. 

I would start with women's triathlon if I don't oversleep.
 
Then rowing finals - it looks like we are all going to watch quadruple finals - Poland has its chances for medals here, too. Both in men's and women's races.
And I wonder how the views at rowing and canoeing venue will look like - it will be hard to find something more spectaculiar than Rio, with Christ the Redimeer and all the mountains around, but who knows ;-)
 
Then swimming finals obviously - men's 200 free above all - Sun Yang launched an appeal but I do hope that it won't be successful and we will not see him in Tokyo next year. Anyway, it should be another open race, like 400
 
Then women's K1 slalom and MTB finals, but they are on the same time - some bad schedulling here
 
Then some fencing - Polish women's epee team has some chances for medal - there will be only 8 teams, so with some luck... who knows...
 
And finally women's artistic gymnastics team - it's a pity Romania is not as good as before, I was usually supporting them.
 
In a spare time - rugby and maybe some tennis or beach volleyball
 
I hope after day 4 Poland will have its first medal at least - if not in judo, then in rowing.
But still no gold I'm afraid.
 
PS. I do like this discussion, but writing this makes me sad somehow ;-) what if...
 
 
 

I would start with women's triathlon if I don't oversleep.
 
Then rowing finals - it looks like we are all going to watch quadruple finals - Poland has its chances for medals here, too. Both in men's and women's races.
And I wonder how the views at rowing and canoeing venue will look like - it will be hard to find something more spectaculiar than Rio, with Christ the Redimeer and all the mountains around, but who knows ;-)
 
Then swimming finals obviously - men's 200 free above all - Sun Yang launched an appeal but I do hope that it won't be successful and we will not see him in Tokyo next year. Anyway, it should be another open race, like 400
 
Then women's K1 slalom and MTB finals, but they are on the same time - some bad schedulling here
 
Then some fencing - Polish women's epee team has some chances for medal - there will be only 8 teams, so with some luck... who knows...
 
And finally women's artistic gymnastics team - it's a pity Romania is not as good as before, I was usually supporting them.
 
In a spare time - rugby and maybe some tennis or beach volleyball
 
I hope after day 4 Poland will have its first medal at least - if not in judo, then in rowing.
But still no gold I'm afraid.
 
PS. I do like this discussion, but writing this makes me sad somehow ;-) what if...