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.

GBR with a 2 in 3 chance of a quota - and presumably, with that, a spot in the mixed team event with Macintosh? Did NOT see that coming.

Gracenote produce via an algorithim, not by analysis, and they routinely and repeatedly have significantly underestimated GBRs gold numbers, almost worse than any other team, Their system is fun, but clearly does not account for some idiosyncrasies of GBR's Olympic targeting. On top of that, they routinely seem to give medals to GB in events they aren't technically in, or athletes who've already withdrawn or are likely to.

Seems a bit bonkers in some ways that Broadhurst will become 'British' quicker than Ngamba, multiple British champion...

To those of us of a certain vintage, British gymnast (or Irish for that matter) was an oxymoron on the level of a Samoan luger. Sure, it was technically possible, but they weren't gonna win much. Neil Thomas was legendary for his seemingly lone bid to make British gymnastics actually mean something, until the arrival of Beth Tweddle, who probably ought to have ben the first Olympic gold. But for Max to be sitting on 3 Olympic golds, 6 medals including an AA medal, and be in the conversation for the greatest pommel worker of all time... He will be missed.

The best teams tend to have a machine and a sprinter - think Brad and Cav, on that basis I'd say Tarling-Vernon might hit the spot, leave Hayter for the Omnium, the me don't really have one dominant rider the way the women's sprint (finucane) and pursuit (Archibald) teams do....Personally, I can see the argument for Bigham doing the TT with Tarling too, though I don't think that will happen.

Angharad won the trial - she's the number one on her stroke. Peters came third. He may be GB #1 but he screed it up - badly. And since Litchfield automatically gets a spot under the rules, there's not the urgency that there is to give Angharad a spot - without Litchfield, there's still a team, using guy. without Angharad, there is no team.

You have to factor in the insane decisions on timetabling that will particularly affect Richards and Scott

TEAM GB ANNOUNCED FOR SWIMMING and MARATHON SWIMMING Big take aways IN : Bird, Whittle, McMillan, Okara, Anderson (probably means Women's 4 x 100 relay in) OUT : Cox, Hanlon (may means no women's medley relay, although Evans selection suggests otherwise, possibly.) Freya Colbert, Loughborough Performance Centre Kathleen Dawson, University of Stirling Anna Hopkin, Loughborough Performance Centre Daniel Jervis, Swim Wales High Performance Centre Max Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre Keanna MacInnes, University of Stirling Oliver Morgan, Birmingham University Honey Osrin, Loughborough University Adam Peaty, Loughborough Performance Centre Ben Proud, Bath University Matthew Richards, Millfield Duncan Scott, University of Stirling Abbie Wood, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection after winning an individual event and going inside the relevant event's nomination standard at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, as per clause 5.1 of the selection policy Alex Cohoon, Loughborough University Tom Dean, Bath Performance Centre James Guy, Millfield Medi Harris, Loughborough Performance Centre Lucy Hope, University of Stirling The athletes above gained selection by virtue of the collective times of the first four finishers in the respective 100m and 200m Freestyle events at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, in relation to the 4x100m and 4x200m Freestyle Relays, as per clause 5.2 of the selection policy . Joe Litchfield, Loughborough Performance Centre The athlete above gained selection by virtue of the collective times of the winner of the open final of the Men's 100m Backstroke, 100m Breaststroke, 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships, in relation to the 4x100m Medley Relay, as per clause 5.3 of the selection policy . Freya Anderson, Bath Performance Centre Kieran Bird, Bath Performance Centre Angharad Evans, University of Stirling Jack McMillan, University of Stirling Eva Okaro, Repton Jacob Whittle, Bath Performance Centre James Wilby, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection at the discretion of the GB Head Coach and Performance Director, as per clause 5.4 of the selection policy. Considerations included potential relay medallists, relay cover for athletes with heavy schedules, performances at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and medical mitigations. Luke Greenbank, Loughborough Performance Centre Jonathon Marshall, Carnegie Katie Shanahan, University of Stirling Laura Stephens, Loughborough Performance Centre The athletes above gained selection after placing second in a final at the 2024 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and going inside the relevant event's nomination time, as per clause 5.5 of the selection policy. Perdue, Robinson and Crisp all selected for Marathon

He does seem to pull up if he feels a twinge, and given his history, that's maybe a good thing. Dina has a habit of pulling up too.

In the Velo, GB's women side are beginning to look scary, front to back. The men's team pursuit also look the business, but the men's sprinters look some way off, although Carlin nabbed a medal in Milton. On the BMX, things look pretty good, though matching the G.S,G,B from 4 events last time will be a stretch. On MTB I have big hopes for Pidcock, but it's a crapshoot in some ways. finally, on the Road, Tarling is the main chance, Georgi has a punchers chance of a medal, after that its just hit and hope.