Olympian1010

There’s been some lively press conferences this edition

Gotta say, I’m very pleased with MTVSport’s streaming coverage of the Games. The results system leaves a lot to desired, but at least I can watch most of the events on replay after getting back from the venues.

In case y’all want a link to my stories

I’m not sure the two are correlated, but there does seem to be an interesting trend

I’m pretty bummed about the quality of the athletics program for this edition. Quite a few events dropped (likely not enough entries), and some top talent missing. Women’s high jump should be one of the best events this week, instead it’s not even being contested

I’ve always been fascinated by the European micro-states, and my interest is peaked the minute any multi-sport competition arises. These tend to have a pretty good following on Totallympics, but I don’t tend to see much excitement for them elsewhere.

The schedule makes it seem like there will be a double award of bronze medals in singles squash. If so, are both guaranteed at least a bronze medal.

I’m really sad I couldn’t get my hands on a ticket to the opening ceremony. I think the local organizers did a pretty good job with this.

Okay, this ceremony is already much better than the last few for the GSSE. I can definitely tell where the budget for this event went

Basketball 3x3 has been dropped from the sports program over issues securing a venue according to ITG.

For those interested, I put together a list of the Olympians competing in Malta (along with their results). Athletics Pol Moya - 800m [2020]: 37th {R1}, 800m [2016]: 37th {R1} Charles Grethen - 1500m [2020]: 12th {Final}, 800m [2016]: 38th {R1} Bob Bertemes - Shot Put [2020]: 21st {Qualification} Luke Bezzina - 100m [2016]: Did Not Advance {Prelims} Danijel Furtula - Discus [2020]: 24th {Qualification}, Discus [2016]: No Mark {Qualification}, Discus [2012]: 38th {Qualification} Women Charline Mathias - 800m [2016]: 58th {R1} Carla Scicluna - 100m [2020]: 54th {QF} Charlotte Wingfield - 100m [2016]: 57th {QF} Charlotte Afriat - 100m [2020]: Did Not Advance {Prelims} Judo Men Raphael Schwendinger -90kg [2020]: 17th {Round of 32} Cédric Bessi -73kg [2020]: 9th {Round of 16} Paolo Persoglia -90kg [2020]: 17th {Round of 32} Sailing Men Milivoj Dukić - Laser [2020]: 17th, Laser [2016]: 29th, Laser [2012]: 30th Women Marilena Makri - Laser Radial [2020]: 33rd Shooting Men Andreas Makri - Trap [2020]: 28th William Chetcuti - Double Trap [2016]: 17th, Double Trap [2012]: 9th, Double Trap [2008]: 8th, Double Trap [2004]: 9th Gian Marco Berti - Trap [2020]: 18th, Mixed Team Trap [2020]: 2nd Women Eleanor Bezzina - 10m Air Pistol [2020]: 26th, 10m Air Pistol [2016]: 22nd, 25m Pistol [2020]: 41st, 25m Pistol [2016]: 36th Alessandra Perilli - Trap [2020]: 3rd, Trap [2016]: 16th, Trap [2012]: 4th, Mixed Team Trap [2020]: 2nd Swimming Men Nikolas Antoniou - 50m Freestyle [2020]: 45th, 100m Freestyle [2020]: 40th Anton McKee - 100m Breaststroke [2016]: 35th, 200m Breaststroke [2020]: 24th, 200m Breaststroke [2016]: 18th, 1500m Freestyle [2012]: 25th, 400m Individual Medley: 31st Théo Druenne - 1500m Freestyle [2020]: 28th Women Kalia Antoniou - 50m Freestyle [2020]: 27th, 100m Freestyle [2020]: 29th Snæfríður Jórunnardóttir - 100m Freestyle [2020]: 34th, 200m Freestyle [2020]: 22nd Sasha Gatt - 400m Freestyle [2020]: 22nd, 1500m Freestyle [2020]: 33rd Claudia Verdino - 100m Breaststroke [2020]: DSQ Arianna Valloni - 800m Freestyle [2020]: 29th, 1500m Freestyle [2020]: 32nd Table Tennis Women Xiaoxin Yang - Singles: Eliminated {Round 3}

I tried to get a ticket (because there’s apparently no reserved seating for media), but it seems I was too late. Will you be attending in any sports over the next few days? I’ve found it hard to gauge local interest in the event.

did, in fact, take a national holiday today

I didn’t get a definitive answer @Gianlu33. In the past, I believe that events with four or less entries have played a bronze, while events with higher entires have done double awards. The focus here is very much on winning though. The atmosphere is pretty laid back, but it’s clear this event means a lot to the athletes.

I’m not sure, but I can try a check.

The schedules this morning didn’t match what was taking place at the venue either. Although, the squash calendar does look accurate now.

Maltese National Broadcaster will have a selection of live feeds available on YouTube. Link: https://youtube.com/@tvmsportmt First action starts in 10 minutes

I spent much of my day catching up on sleep and rest from the long trip to Malta, but I did go check out the National Swimming Centre this afternoon. It looks very nice and certainly ready for use during the Games. There isn’t too much branding around the island (at least that I’ve seen) advertising the event, so hard to gauge local population’s interest in it. A little bit of preliminary action in basketball (5x5), squash, and tennis tomorrow before the opening ceremony. It’s been more than a decade since squash was last contested at the GSSE, but the entry list is pretty solid in terms of participation.

Anna Hall moves to 5th on the all-time performance list. Just needs to find a little extra somewhere and she could break the 7000 barrier this year. I saw another track personality comment on it, but worth pointing out that Jana Koščak registered the best mark for a U18 athlete in senior competition @dcro

As per usual, I didn’t want jinx anything ahead of time, but… I just arrived in Malta to cover my ever second multi-sport games. I will be writing content for Discover the Games this time. I met the guy who runs the website in Birmingham last summer, and we got to scheming this spring. We just launched the new site last week. We’ve got a couple stories about the USA Teqball Tour and European Beach Handball Championships on there, along with some older stories by my colleague. I’m definitely looking forward to experiencing the GSSE in person. If you’ve got any questions about what the event is like in-person, I’d be happy to try and answer them.

We don’t seem to have a GC favorite at the moment, but we have a good handful of very talented riders at the moment. I haven’t felt this educated by US riders in a while. Tokyo was probably the first time I had optimism watching Olympic cycling from an American perspective.

I believe there will be globally available livestreams as well, but I’ve yet to see much info about that. Maltese Public Television will be showing a lot of competition though based on their upcoming broadcast schedule.

Results system link: https://results.european-games.org/GSSE2023/eng/zz/engzz_general-general-schedule.htm