Dragon

Due to its suspension, NPC Russia loses all IPC membership rights subject to its right to appeal. Should any appeal not be upheld, only the General Assembly can lift the suspension. Next General Assembly likely Q4 of 2023.

Updates on GBR in skeleton and bobsleigh In bobsleigh, Brad Hall has got off to a decent start to the season by finishing 2nd in the 2 man event then winning the 4 man race North American Cup races in Whistler . Small fields but the US, Canadians and Swiss were represented by strong crews. In skeleton Jacob Salisbury and Craig Thompson have both had a 3rd and a 6th in the 2 Inter-Continental Cup (2nd tier) races in Norway. Amelia Coltman had 2 6ths in the women's races

https://resources.fina.org/fina/document/2022/11/01/4b3598b6-18cd-411e-ac09-16e49965df3a/00-AS-Rules-2022-2025-Confirmed.pdf AS 6.2 Team, Free Combination and Acrobatic Routines: AS 6.2.1 "For Olympic Games, team routines shall consist of eight (8) competitors. The total number of competitors entered by each Federation (unless otherwise specified) may not exceed nine (9) competitors one as reserve. The total number of competitors may include a maximum of two (2) male competitors."

There's also the strong rumour that up to 2 men will be allowed per team in Paris. The FINA rules have been changed to allow this but not yet the Olympic qualification rules. But that could still change

OK, these are the most difficult selections so far Athletics - Women's 200m I won't vote for the GDR runners or Flo-Jo because of the doubts everybody has about their integrity. So that leaves the four earliest winners, the three most recent champions and Szewińska of Poland. I was tempted to vote for Szewińska but in the end I went for Wilma Rudolph who dominated the Rome Olympics. Athletics - Women's 3000m Steeplechase Chemutai because the event was much stronger in 2021 than previous Olympics Swimming - Men's 200m Breaststroke I might be biased here. Usually I go for repeat champions like Kitajima but in this case David Wilkie's performance was so damn good in 1976 I can't ignore it. The Americans dominated men's swimming in Montreal, winning all but one gold medal, and reigning champ John Hencken broke the world record by nearly a second. Unfortunately for him, Wilkie broke the world record by three seconds. It's one of the greatest performances in Olympic swimming. Judo - Women's Half Middleweight Judo - Women's Middleweight And I go back to favouring repeat champions again.

Semi-finals will be versus versus

In that case I should have nominated this...

So I've just spent all morning in the one of the few places in the UK with no phone signal. What's been going on?

When the Olympics was in Atlanta didn't Georgia get the most applause from the spectators after the USA?

Obviously not a member of the IOC, but the Welsh Football Association will ask FIFA that they be known as Cymru and not Wales after the World Cup https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-11373017/Wales-consider-changing-Cymru-World-Cup.html

Because the festival is more relaxed than official contests can I offer contributions from and ?

Former world triathlon champion Non Stamford retired today after the final round of the Super League Triathlon Series

Any predictions as to which teams will win medals?

You beat me by 2 minutes...

The attacker is reported to be a Canadian drug addict who gets "messages from God"

Will vote tomorrow

Very nice of Russia to disqualify their athlete so that the USA wins gold. Just when I was thinking they didn't really get along together very well

https://www.athleticsintegrity.org/disciplinary-process/first-instance-decisions 21/10/2022 Natalia Antyukh RUS Use of a Prohibited Substance/Method (Article 2.2) LIMS evidence DQ results from 15 July 2012 until 29 June 2013 Note: Athlete already serving the maximum 4 year sanction for a 1st violation under the rules and her results from 30 June 2013 until 31 December 2015 are already disqualified. National decision appealable

Rishi Sunak will become Britain's latest Prime Minister tomorrow. Who it'll be the day after that, I can't say...