mpjmcevoy

As a remote fan, I was grateful it happened at all - it seemed all too likely at one stage it wouldn't, and I'm amazed how quickly the world has all but forgotten the mayhem of that 18 months more generally - I had major health incident just prior to the first lockdown so it was quite surreal to watch it happen in real time from my own convalescent bed.

The Kenny gold was great fun, and also a powerful lesson that sometimes wit can beat power and speed. If you watch closely you notice that Glaetzer on second wheel is clearly as nervous as hell, no doubt worrying about Harrie. He's super twitchy. But its all very good us noticing it - what's important is that Kenny noticed it, in race, and there comes a point, about a lap before the derny leaves where Kenny starts throwing looks back at Glaetzer quite rhythmically - and EVERY time he does, Glaetzer reflexively looks back at Harrie et al. now he has the fish on the line, Kenny keeps baiting poor Matthew, and literally when the derny pulls off, throws a final long look back at the precise second he puts down a smidge of power (Kenny is known for being able to speed up while looking back)- and Glaetzer can't help himself, and looks back just at the point Kenny jumps - it's a millisecond, but its enough for Kenny to get a maybe 10 metres - at that point for a brief second the whole group is looking at Glaetzer as second wheel, and he's kind of looking at them, and they all just too slowly realise "F*** me, Kenny's off!!" - meanwhile Kenny is absolutely all over the track banks trying to get speed before they realise. They never get near him again. It as a thing of beauty.

🍁🍁🍁

And FWIW, my honest personal favourite 5 Global moments Mattheus Steiner 2012 - lifting the weight of the world from his shoulders for one night. Anna Kiesenhofer 2024 - the Greatest Trick the cyclist ever pulled was convincing the peloton she didn't exist. Kohei Uchimura - Because sometimes it's just perfect. Michael Phelps 8 in Beijing - Greatness in real time Kathy Freeman - Dreamtime to Dreamland.

I suspect the 4 x 100 guys will be a secret fave of more than you'd think - the story was just so good, Had a mini "miracle on ice"/Hogan's Heroes vibe to it . It should have been impossible. It was impossible. They did it anyway. THAT'S the Olympics!

Several of these teams are good enough at their best they should already have qualified. They are here specifically because they are flakey. (The Irish, to be fair, are not flakey, hence they aren't here). The one that manages to contain its own flakiness best will probably win.

That 'gold every games' record is impressive, but it's on the shoogliest of pegs re: 1904. The single gold, won by a man who refused British money and a British uniform, insisted he represented only Ireland, and tried to tear down the Union Flag! Still, adds to the gaiety of Olympic history. my own fives change daily but: Ireland: Katie Taylor 2012 Michael Carruth+Wayne McCullough O'Donavons' silver (I know the gold was four years later, and better, but that first rowing medal said we'd arrived) Pat O'Callaghan's hammer, the first Ronnie Delaney A certain ginger swimmer who rattled when shook has been expunged from memory. Great Britain (entirely personal) Redgrave's 5th Murray 2012 Super Saturday Coe v Ovett Men's 4 x 100 gold - a team of 'failures' who became champions honourable mention for Whitlock 2 gold in 2 hours, Kelly Holmes, Men's Hockey, Women's Hockey and Brad Wiggins TT

I also hope they give the likes of Hawkins and Scott the chance run the half in Rome.

I think Cairess just had to 'prove form'. A fantastic set of runs from the British men, even all the way back to Callum Hawkins in 16th getting through a decent marathon for the first time in donkeys - he won't be in Paris, but at least he's back. Cairess and Mohamad both look like men who could mix it up, Hawkins style, come the summer. I do wish the commentators made more of the fact that this is also the British Championships, much like night of 10k PBS, and there is a significant race within a race...

To be honest, so long as the switch isn't purely mercenary (eg Bahrain collecting kenyans, turkey collecting jamaicans) these switches should be straightforward.

Hmmm. There's no doubt that there are going to be issues in China, It's too big, and the state is too authoritarian not to suspect, but they seem to have a strange attitude - once they get called/warned/suspected on it, they seem to back off in a way that Russia, to put it gently, do not. For that reason I sometimes think these sort of stories are like a 'shot across the bows', warning China to knock it back if it is felt they are ramping up the dodgy - the mind goes back to Ma's army, Sun Yang (who, despite the warnings, f***ed around and found out), Ye Shewin etc. For the past 12 months, Chinese swimmers have been absolutely pulling up trees in the pool. One entirely hopes its on the up and up, but this does seem, possibly, like a pre-Paris warning, right around trials. Time, I suppose will tell.

That's why the Olympics is only every four years. Any more often than that and the stress might kill a m**********r.

He did a little, but thankfully the swiss bottled it more. Great left field quota there for GBR, with the guys still well placed in Skeet going forward

He's done pretty amazing to get this far.

I think Alice Schlesinger went through from Israel to GBR quite quickly back in the day.