Fox334

Well, the first day of the Canadian Swimming Trials are over, and five events are now completed. Here are those that qualified for Beijing: Men's 400m Freestyle: Ryan Cochrane Men's 100m Breaststroke: Mathieu Bois, Mike Brown Women's 100m Butterfly: Audrey Lacroix Men's 400m Individual Medley: Keith Beavers, Brian Johns Women's 400m Individual Medley: Alexa Komarnycky, Tanya Hunks

They have softer criterias for "rising stars".

I can't say for any other sports, but I do know that Athletic Canada is using higher standards (its explained on there website).

Well, qualification for women's Handball is over (well, nearly, France still have to win against Congo, but they lead by 17 goals whit under 20 minutes to go, so its all but over). Here is the final line-up (OQR = Olympic Qualification Tournament): Host Nation: China World Champion: Russia European Champion: Norway African Champion: Angola Asian Champion: Kazakhstan Pan-American Champion: Brazil OQT 1 Champion: Germany OQT 1 Runner-up: Sweden OQT 2 Champion: Roumania OQT 2 Runner-up: Hungary OQT 3 Champion: France OQT 3 Runner-up: Korea Republic

Germany and Roumania both qualified for women's Handball by respectively beating Croatia and Hungary. The winner of both the Sweden-Croatia and the Hungary-Japan games will qualify. Also the winner of the South Korea-France game will directly qualify for Beijing, while the loser will have to win its last game against either Congo or Côte d'Ivoire.

The USSR and the US of A fighting alongside... Oh, how ironic it would have been! Honestly, thought, this topic is going nowhere, and fast.

Interesting facts: Igor Tikhomirov and Luan Jujie both won Olympic medals in the 80's, before they became Canadians. Igor Tikhomirov won bronze whit the USSR men's épée team at the 1988 games, and won a bronze medal for Canada at the individual épée competition at the 2006 world championships. Luan Jujie won gold in the women's foil at the 1984 games and is apparently a bit of an icon in China. She will be 50 (!!!) during the Beijing games. She already competed at one Olympics for Canada, at the Sydney games.

I haven't seen them, but I did hear about them, and yes, apparently they where quite horrid. But my question is "what drove them to that"? Bloody riots usually don't happen without reason.

Just a small precision, all the Equestrian events are open, and I doubt the exact team composition have been determined yet, so we can't say the gender of the athletes yet. Anyway, here are the spots we are likely to get or that we may get (I will exclude Athletic and Swimming). Archery: possibly to qualify one female athlete at a last-chance qualifier (5 spots available). Chances: average. Badminton: Canada is all but assured a place in both men's and women's single. Men's double is unlikely, we are in a Über-tight race against the USA for the America's spot in Women's doubles and, unless something amazing happens, we can forget about mixed doubles. Basketball: Men's team can still qualify. Likehood: medium-low. Boxing:The outlook is bleak. Very bleak (both literally and figuratively). Canoeing:Likely a couple of spots in both flatwater (women's K1-500m, men's C1-1000m are out best bet) and slalom (both men's C2 and women's K1 are within our gasp). Cycling:We will have at least 2 athletes in the women's mass start, and, if we are lucky, that number could climb to three and we might be able to get a time-trial berth. In BMX, we should have no more that one men's and one women's berth. Fencing: Probably 4-8 athletes, including our women's sabre team (that one is thanks to the Americans). Football:Baring a disaster (a.k.a. losing to Mexico, which is what happened four years ago), our women's team is in. Field Hockey:A slim chance for the women's to qualify. If they somehow do it, it will be thanks to home-field advantage. Judo: I would think that Canada's team will sit between 6 and 9 athletes. Anyway, we will know for sure by the end of May. Modern Pentathlon: Kara Grant could very well get Canada a second berth in the women's event (via the world ranking). Rowing: Only one event left to qualify Canadian athletes. The boat that is the most likely to get in should be the women's eight. Sailing: The only class that still hasn't finished qualification is the Star class, and only 4 more athletes will qualify, so I guess the chances aren't that great for Canada. But still, Canada already has pretty good Sailing team for Beijing. Synchronized Swimming: We should qualify a team and a duet, but we will have no room for mistake, whit only 3 berth left for the team event and Spain and Japan yet to have qualified. Table Tennis: Could be anywhere from two to six. Whit a bit of luck, we could be North America's representative in the team event. Tennis: I would say our best bets are the men's single and double event. Triathlon: Should be between four and six. Volleyball: Probably one or two Beach Volleyball team. Wrestling: I think most of the Canadian wrestling team is defined, but we might qualify a couple more athletes.

But she did lose in the first round of her individual event against an opponent that she usually had no trouble defeating. Oh, and she apparently blamed herself for the team's semi-final loss. It aparently took her quite a while to emotionally recover from Athens. Anyway, on a other front, it appears that Canada qualified two mens for Olympic weightlifting, adding to the three womens we already qualified. So that would make five weightlifters going to Beijing, compared to two in Athens... Just to let you guys know, tough, those results aren't 100% official yet. Pan-Am Weightlifting Championships. Men's ranking (excluding previously qualified Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela) Two athletes qualified 1. United States of America 2. Canada One athlete qualified 3. Brazil 4. Ecuador 5. Argentina Women's ranking (excluding previously qualified Colombia, United States of America, Venezuela, Canada and Mexico) One athlete qualified 1. Dominican Republic 2. Ecuador 3. Puerto Rico 4. Chile Again, these results are unconfirmed.

I know. Good news (I guess ) is that it will be in London. Anyway, I hope that Sherraine Schalm (formerly MacKay) will have better Olympics that in 2004... I have a friend that is a fencer and she would be absolutely ecstatic if Canada was to win a fencing medal in Beijing.

Well, the IOC could have avoided all of this if they would have went whit Toronto, Paris,l Istanbul or Osaka... But no, old Samaranch had to go whit Beijing...

I know, but Sweden still lost a 99% possibility of getting a gold medal in the women's heptathlon. And thats a far cry from a "decent shot at medaling". But anyway, I wish her the best of luck in her event.

Yup, Carolina Klüft will not compete in Beijing's Heptathlons, as she now wants to concentrate on the long and triple jump. This is a pretty bad news for Sweden as she was all but a guaranteed gold medal. Apparently doing Heptathlons for Klüft just wasn't fun anymore and now she wants to concentrate on only two events. http://www.iaaf.org/OLY08/news/kind=100/newsid=44091.html

Why doesn't this surprise me?

Yesterday was the last day of activity at the final Olympic Baseball qualifier. Results: Spain 1 - 2 Mexico South Africa 11 - 13 Australia Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) 3 - 4 Korea Republic Canada 2 - 1 Germany (10 Innings) Final Standing: 1. Canada 6-1 (Tiebreaker: 1-0) 2. Korea Republic 6-1 (Tiebreaker: 0-1) 3. Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) 5-2 4. Mexico 4-3 (Tiebreaker: 1-0) 5. Australia 4-3 (Tiebreaker: 0-1) 6. Germany 2-5 7. Spain 1-6 8. South Africa 0-7

The number went up to seven. Cuba actually had to play there game against Honduras whit 10 players due to defections and suspensions...

There wasen't any Cuban boxers at the 2007 AIBF World Championships.

Well, its a done deal: Canada, South Korea and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) all qualified for Olympic baseball. They join the previously qualified China PR (host), the United States of America (champion of the America's Olympic qualifier), Cuba (runner-up of the America's Olympic qualifier), the Netherlands (champion of the European Olympic qualifier) and Japan (champion of Asia's Olympic qualifier). So we have four Asian teams, three American teams and one European team.

By the way, if Canada wins its game against Germany we will finish first in the final Baseball Olympic Qualifier (not that it really matters, just a bit of extra pride). Oh, and the CONCACAF men's Olympic Qualifier is just underway. Canada drew its first game 1-1 versus Mexico, so its quite a decent start (we still have to play against Haiti and Guatemala).

I think we will do it, Australia haven't been impressive so far.

Day two results at the Baseball qualification tournament: Canada 10 - 0 South Africa (7 Innings) Mexico 1 - 6 Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) Korea Republic 16 - 2 Australia (7 Innings) Spain 0 - 1 Germany Current rankings: Korea Republic: 2-0 Chinese Taipei (Taiwan): 2-0 Canada: 2-0 Australia: 1-1 Germany: 1-1 Spain: 0-2 South Africa: 0-2 Mexico: 0-2

OMG Canada 9 Romania 8 I can't believe it.

Indeed, winning against Mexico was critical. Now tomorrow we play South Africa, while we play Australia Sunday. If we beat Australia, we will have a very good chance to make it to Beijing.

Here are the scores from day one: Korea 5 - 0 South Africa Canada 15 - Mexico 10 Australia 4 - Germany 1 Chinese Taipai (Taiwan) 13 - 3 Spain