Olympian1010

Artistic Swimming is safe for that reason. I do think we’ll see Mixed Duet added over Duet soon though.

It’s truly blissful isn’t it. They have to be one of the best governed sports bodies worldwide. My general rule is that people who grew up on the bottom, generally know how to better govern than those who grew up on top. Many of the people in the Paralympic movement grew up in the face discrimination, hardship, etc., so they want to make things as free, as fair, and as equal as possible. If you read the article I posted a few days ago, you can see that the IPC is always looking for ways to improve the sports they govern. It’s so refreshing, and it’s one of the reasons I like Para-Sports so much. I can’t wait for the Paralympics this summer (with or without Wheelchair Basketball )

The obvious suggestion is to bring men’s football down to 12 teams. This isn’t a dream world, that won’t happen. Luckily, the sports added won’t take up that many quotas (somewhere around 200). I don’t fear huge quota quota cuts, but probably a few here and there.

Currently unaffected, add 474 athletes.

Originally I reas that on ITG, but was a long time ago, and I can’t find the article. However this IOC press release from the time they were added helps my argument: “The additional sports in Tokyo will not impact the athlete or event quotas of existing Olympic sports or be binding on future host cities. The current athlete and event quotas are unaffected. The IOC considered a variety of factors when assessing the proposal, including the impact on gender equality, the youth appeal of the sports and the legacy value of adding them to the Tokyo Games. The inclusion of the new sports will add 18 events and 474 athletes.”

At this point is a convoluted race between boxing, weightlifting, water polo (maybe a few others, sailing/golf) as to who will lose their core sport status in the program review after 2020. Who ever loses will most likely be replaced with Squash, Breaking, Sport Climbing, Skateboard, or Karate.

Actually we won’t. The IOC has capped the Summer Olympics at 11,500 quotas. However, they allowed Tokyo 2020 to add a few more quotas to add the new sports, that won’t be the case in Paris. The quotas for Breaking, Climbing, Skateboard, and Surfing will be coming from somewhere else...

Fun little video:

If I had to kick a team sport from the Olympics, Water Polo is first up. Apart from being one of the “harder” sports to understand (though I’ve heard that’s changed recently), there’s such a huge lack of diversity.

Not a taco. Next! (Though those do look damn good)

That would be an awesome schedule. Unfortunately, it’s just feasible or economically wise to host a multi-sports games in an (Summer) Olympic year. The Asian Beach Games get away with it because the majority of those athletes won’t compete at the Olympics. On the bright side, 2021 is looking like an epic year for multi-sports games.

Bombshell announcement by the IPC today: https://games24.totallympics.com/?p=1690 I’m rather shocked by this. It’s the most played paralympic sport worldwide. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Most of these teams will also have 4 chances to qualify. It would be ridiculous from them to complain about a lack of opportunity to qualify. You can gripe about South Africa being bad, but you may want to take a look inward first... Again though, I do think South Africa’s participation isn’t the greatest thing for the sport. However, FINA hasn’t developed the sport in Africa, and that’s on them.

Kelly was in Santa Monica today, I missed my chance to meet her

I hate that South Africa qualified . How the hell are and supposed to qualify now!

Right, but that’s on FINA. They haven’t exactly pushed to develop the sport in Africa. They’ve known the IOC requirements for a long, long time.

Africa has to have a chance to participate though. So, as unfortunate as it is, South Africa is within their right to participate. The big issue is that FINA have largely ignored Africa. They are very lucky that Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, and Algeria exist. Those are pretty much the only nations competing anywhere near world standards in various disciplines. I think we’ve seen some improvement in Africa, but Aquatics is by far one of the most underdeveloped sports in Africa. It may have a high amount of competitors, but those swimmers aren’t as competitive as the canoeists, rowers, sailors, fencers, runners, weightlifters, judokas, rugby athletes, and taekwondo athletes we’ve seen emerge from the continent recently.

Yep, which of course really pisses me off, since Fiji is one of the nations I support (I cheer for most of the Oceanic nations, but I generally chose Fiji, Vanuatu, or the Cook Islands over all the others)

Fiji’s biggest sporting mistake will always be chasing her off the national team: https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1089908/cikamatana-wins-again-at-roma-world-cup I can’t believe they let her slip through they’re grasps. They “Kobe”ed a medal away right there.

I’m sorry, what? Every nation should be withdrawing, or they face steep punishment from the African Union. Morocco should be punished by FIFA.

Sad days for the auto racing world too

If you set photos to a max size, the downsizing could be causing pixelation.

1) True 2) Most likely 3) depends. You can have a child whenever. You only get a few chances at a gold medal. I think in a non-Olympic year, most female athletes would have the kid, but in an Olympic year...

Gymnasiade will feature artistic, aerobic, and rhythmic. Aerobic competition was pretty good last time around. That competition is in China though, so... Don’t forget about the Paralympics of course. I love the Paralympics The only games that “matter” this year are: Winter YOG, Olympics, Paralympics, Gymnasiade, and Asian Beach Games (most storied and original beach games).

The best thing to do would to require a tournament. At least then they can tell the IOC, “hey look, Africa didn’t want to compete this time” It would extremely hard to develop water polo in Africa. While we’ve seen quite a bit of development in Canoe, Rowing, and Sailing lately, the other water sports have lagged behind.