After we covered the male swimmers’ Rio exploits (well, not all of them. Lochte’s deserve a blog of their own) it is time to turn our attention to the female swimmers. Same format, I’ll cover the swimmers who, in my opinion were in the top 10. Continue reading
Was I the only one that couldn’t eat and sleep, eagerly waiting for the second part to come out? Well, probably yes. I was just so anxious to see how Kazan 2015 affected the women’s all-time single most successful Championships ever lists! But now the wait is over, let us dive into the wonderful world of medals rankings… Continue reading
So, the Championship is over and it’s now time to make some summaries. If we are looking at the medal standings, we see that USA won the most gold medals – 8, but this was nevertheless a disappointing World Championship for the Americans – they won 13 golds in the previous one. Another nation who was a major disappointment is of course the host nation – Russia. Only uno gold and 4 medals in total – what a terrible haul. The Russians had several huge fuck ups here, and even their one swimmer who was truly excellent – Yuliya Yefimova, is not free of criticism (remember her 200m breaststroke?). Continue reading
The Championships is over. As always, I ask “already?!”. And as always I feel sad when it’s done, knowing that it’ll be a full year until I will see again the likes of Ledecky, Sjostrom, Sun Yang, etc… Luckily, it’s only a year. When the 2013 edition ended we had to wait two fucking years! Anyway, The morning heats had the usual amount of Russian incompetence. The women’s quartet missed the medley relay final, paying the price for going out with not their strongest quartet, and the men as well! Well, no, actually the men’s relay team made it, but only because the Hungarians were DQ’d (and rightfully so). But still – had they not been disqualified, no Russian team would have been present in the medleys final! What an embarrassment. Anyway, let’s see what the final afternoon session of the Championships had to offer… Continue reading
The morning sessions today had a couple of surprises in them, the main one being Sun Yang in his 1500m heat, where he finished only 3rd, well behind Paltrinieri and even behind Connor Jaeger. Could it be that he was simply saving his efforts for the final? I really hope so. Because it was really unnatural seeing him like this. After winning both the 400m and the 800m, I can’t imagine him losing the 1500m… but who knows. The second surprise was a personal one, when Israeli swimmer Guy Barnea failed to qualify for the 50m backstroke semifinals, after featuring in the final two years ago. Anyway, evening sessions – the stage is yours. Continue reading
Five days already behind us. Today was another good day. Well, for us the spectators, not so much for the host nation. The heats this morning were really disastrous for Russia, as first Efimova, the 100m breaststroke champion, failed to advance to the semifinals in the 200m, and then the women’s 4x200m team failed to make the final. A personal disappointment for me was Yakov Toumarkin, who, after performing so well in his previous two events and advancing to the semis in both, failed to make the semis in his main event – the 200m backstroke… A real disappointment. Well, enough about disappointments, there were also some good things, right? Right. So, as my good friend Eminem says – let’s get down to business. Continue reading
Ok, day 2! Before we dive into the afternoon action of the finals and semifinals – I know I said I won’t write about the morning sessions, but I just can’t ignore what Katie Ledecky did. This girl is phenomenal and this morning she broke her own WR in the 1,500m (15:27.71). I guess she was really upset that she missed the WR in the 400m yesterday, and decided to take it out on the morning heats. Boy was that extraordinary! Her time at the 800m mark – 8:15.29, is merely 4 seconds off the WR in the 800m!!! @#%#$%@#%#$% And it’s a time that probably can win the 800m here, if Katie of the 800m won’t participate. WOW. This is just too much of a mind-fuck. Katie Ledecky – you da real MVP! Continue reading
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