rafalgorka

- for the SF in the next round!

btw, I forgot. Adam Žampa also knee injury and end of season...
 
yep a nice home race day to remember
 

Damaged knee ligaments. End of the season for Petra Vlhová

Always sad when years of injuries force athletes to retire, but still it was a nice goodbye to Thomas Dressen at the finish area  

Well, even under the shadow of sadness and disappointing nightmare, it must be said that the atmosphere in Jasná is still amazing, and this country despite all the problems it have and despite being run by terrible, terrible... but really terrible politicians deserve to host sport events more regularly than each 3-4 years
 

 

 
 
 
Imagine all this people now have to watch and cheer the rest of the race despite broken hearts. Thumbs up !

Well never mind, what the hell
 
Sarrazin you monster  
 
As the commentator said: "Odermatt doesn't understand the world anymore right now"  

2nd on the piste Rebeka Jančová finished ahead of the likes of Liensberger and Bassino

Yesterday it rained all day on the already strongly watered track day before. and then last night was extremely cold here around -20, it was still terribly freezing in the morning.
So the first skiers went on an literally absolute ice, Even the forerunners were crashing like potatoes, Nicole Hosp working for ORF crashed as well which resulted the start being postponed 10 minutes, also Adam Žampa is in hospital (was the forerunner as well and crashed as well...just being confirmed by his brother)...
..Brignone with Bib 1 DNF after like 4 gates, Lara Gut was skiing with bib 3 extremely slowly and carefully, Petra with BIB 4 crashed after 9 gates (sadly her skis did not come off and the next crash to the barriers was the tragic problem ), Grenier with bib 5 was quite unsure during her race and Bassino with Bib 6 was literally braking the whole piste and ended 8 seconds back... the latter bibs had the track a bit better with some snow covering the ice later

Terrible. This is almost national tragedy Life is sometimes so unfair. Petra really did not deserve this, right at home when she was so happy, so excited and smiling all around the whole last week This is so heartbreaking and devastating.
 
Hope she will be back soon though. Force to you Petra !
 

 

Svitolina's path is cleaning up very nicely. I don't trust Zheng to make the final at all. But would be amazing story though. If Sabalenka survives Anisimova, she mustn't let this title slip into anyone's hands. 

Some more pics
 
 

 

 

 

 

Top seeded Renata Jamrichova begins her junior tournament this morning. Just so @hckošicedoesn't think it's all over just yet
 
14 year old Ksenia Efremova (representing France these days) beat #5 seed Tereza Valentova in the first round. If you think Andreeva, Korneeva or the Fruhvirtovas will enjoy some teenage hype then you have to make room for Efremova before too long as well.

Seems we are entering "EEVA" era with Andreeva, Korneeva and Timofeeva coming up  

Draw ceremony for tomorrow GS just ended.
 
Brignone picked the #1, Gut-B. #2 Petra #4 Shiffrin #7
 
Thousands of people attended the ceremony. Around 12k are expected tomorrow, god only know how many will come Sunday for the Slalom
 

 

Anna Blinkova needed 10 match points to see off Elena Rybakina in three sets. She also saved 6 MP in the Super Tiebreak. 22-20 is the longest tie-break in women's Grand Slam match ever.

Nagal vs Shang in Rd 2
 
India vs China CLASH!
 
if Nagal wins, there will be huge celebration I’m sure, well-deserved 
 
ps. I had to check back all I wrote cause my phone kept changing Nagal into Nadal heh. Maybe a good sign 

Maria Timofeeva with an impressive 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 R64 win over former AO champion  Caroline Wozniacki. First set was much closer than what the scoreline suggested. Wozniacki played at high level throughout 1 1/2 sets of the match, just ran out of gas at the end. Great match overall though.

16 year old Mirra Andreeva with an emphatic 6-0 6-2 win over Ons Jabeur. Oh yes, those 16 year old Russians are coming and Andreeva has the mighty IMG agency backing so she's here to stay

Happy for Raducanu important win after months of absence 

Nagal vs Shang in Rd 2
 
India vs China CLASH!
 
if Nagal wins, there will be huge celebration I’m sure, well-deserved 
 
ps. I had to check back all I wrote cause my phone kept changing Nagal into Nadal heh. Maybe a good sign 

WOW! Big big result for Indian Tennis!!
Sumit Nagal  ( WR 137) took out WR 27 & seeded player  Alexander Bublik  in the first round proper in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 , 7-6
 
In grand slam tennis this is a first win by an Indian Tennis player over a Seeded player since 1989 

I would prefer Olympic gold.
 
you can win this one once in 4 years, you can win GS 4 times in one year
 
i think here in Poland more people would cherish her winning Olympic singles gold in Paris than winning another GS title
 
winning Roland Garros GS title this season may be easier for her because the pressure will be less even if you remember that Sabalenka and Russians may not be there at the olympics

Update:
 
Boxing:
 
Thanks to ogreman's wonderful work in this post, we now have a better boxing rankings. I made a few changes though.
Kept the universality places unchanged from my previous work.  Decided not to include the refugee athlete from the simulation because in 2020, refugee athletes weren't apart of the official quota Still decided to include Russian athletes in the rankings because we have no idea whether or not they'll be excluded from the OQT's  
+6
 +5
 +3
 +2
 +1
 -1
 -2
 -3
 -6

I think in handball Germany will finish 5th or 6th at the european championships and (if they qualify) it will be roughly the same in Paris. France, Denmark and Norway all have more quality, so normally Germany should beat them maybe 2-3 times out of 10. Spain and Sweden also have more quality in my opinion, but Germany might be able to beat them 3-4 times out of 10.
 
Men's basketball: The goal should be to win a medal. I think the US, Canada and maybe also France/Serbia should be favored over Germany.
Women's basketball: Not qualifying would be a disappointment and if they should qualify, then they should aim at making it ouf of the group.
Men's volleyball: The goal should be to make it out of the group.
Women's volleyball: Don't see any chance that they will qualify.
Men's football: Won't compete in Paris.
Women's football: I think it is pretty unlikely that they will qualify.
Men's hockey: The goal should be to win a minor medal (if they qualify).
Women's hockey: The goal should be to win a minor medal (if they qualify).
Men's/Women's water polo/rugby: Won't compete in Paris
Women's handball: The goal should be to qualify and then to make it out of the group.
Overall: The goal should be to win 2-3 medals in team sports.

Belinda Benčičová you ignorant !