[POLL] Are you satisfied with your Olympic Contingent for Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024?

[TeamGB 207]

I don't think the qualification has been that disappointing, but I feel like a few things could/ should have gone better.

 

Sports which Exceeded Expectations:

Marathon Swimming, Water Polo, Archery, Road Cycling, Skateboarding, Sport climbing,

 

Sports which performed poorer than expected:

Badminton, Boxing, Canoe Sprint, BMX racing, Fencing, Football,  Judo, Shooting, Table Tennis, 

 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

4 hours ago, Fly_like_a_don said:

Sub Poll 

1. What were the top 3 close qualification misses (team/individual) which you regret ?

 

2. Given an opportunity to add sports (not exceeding 5 sports and/or 20 events) with an athlete cap of 280 in total, what all would you chose?

 

3. If you had the opportunity to make 3 changes(3 events/3 sports) to schedule at Paris '24 what would you do?

1.) I think the women's football team will be biggest disappointment but worth bearing in mind that their performances - continental champions and world cup runners up - would have been enough to qualify in any other continent and would have qualified them across the last 3 Olympic cycles. Just our luck the UEFA moved the goalposts - no pun intended - for Paris. Second qualification miss would be women's basketball team - they threw away a great chance to get to the OQT. Last up would be men's BMX Racing - across the majority of the qualification window, GB were on track for 2 spots but they couldn't string the results together in the final run up so we end up with just a single spot.

 

2.) It has always surprised me that squash hasn't had their chance at Olympic exposure but I'm not a huge fan of the idea that we have to keep adding more and more sports to the Olympics - history suggests that adding more events only dilutes the quality of the fields existing sports.

 

3.) Not changes for Paris but for future I'd like to see taekwondo get rid of their limitation to team sizes - if you're good enough to earn a quota through a qualifying tournament you should be able to go the games. I'd also like to see the continental quotas reformed - the notion that we need to have every continent represented in every event is for the birds. All it does is give free quotas to big countries and does nothing to develop the sport in the smaller countries on the continent. Last up I'd say if the event has less than 30 competitors in it, then each NOC should be limited to 2 spots.

[LDOG 2,464]

It was a disastrous qualification cycle. Lowest number of athletes since 1992. But totally expected due to economic circumstances. It's not just that sport is a non priority for the government right now, they're acting that it doesn't exist basically.

 

 

-Failed to qualify in Basketball for the 1st time since 2000.

-Failed in beach Volleyball for the 1st time since 2008.

-Failed to qualify in Boxing for the 1st time since 1908 (!).

 

[vinipereira 3,460]

Brazil qualified the smallest number of teams (5) since the 80s, and the only realistic chance of medals with them is in Volleyball. Team sports usually dominate brazilian TV programming, so perhaps they'll focus more on other sports this time (although I wouldn't be surprised if they show men's football even without Brazil). Overall, I'm satisfied with individual sports, but I think we did very poorly with teams qualification.

[Olympicsnell 332]

With italy, spain, argentina, brazil, and i would include GB underperforming with team qualification compared to usual, 

 

Who are the countries that have overperformed in their place?

[intoronto 6,387]

Canada had a record in 8 teams in Tokyo

 

In Paris only 6 qualified:

 

- M/W Basketball

- M Volleyball

- W Soccer

- W Water polo

- W Rugby sevens

[MatiReimundo 456]

2 hours ago, LDOG said:

It was a disastrous qualification cycle. Lowest number of athletes since 1992. But totally expected due to economic circumstances. It's not just that sport is a non priority for the government right now, they're acting that it doesn't exist basically.

 

 

-Failed to qualify in Basketball for the 1st time since 2000.

-Failed in beach Volleyball for the 1st time since 2008.

-Failed to qualify in Boxing for the 1st time since 1908 (!).

 

How it was disastrous? We qualify between 140 athletes, which at least to me were my expectations in May 2022 before the qualification period started. We lost some usual quotas but we won others that we didnt had before.

 

Better and growing athletes in Athletics and Swimming, first time since a long time in Archery, Canoeing meh but between expectations, Cycling, Equestrian and Fencing normal (probably one or two more could have qualified). Good perfomances in Golf, no Gymnastics not the best but expected (we were very close with 2 athletes anyways). Judo meh as usual, Pentathlon and Rowing normal, Shooting and Sailing are the same as Tokyo, probably with better hopes with this delegation. Direct quota in Table Tennis was a good news, same as Taekwondo and Triathlon. Tennis with such a great delegation with big hopes in each of every one except for the girls. 

 

In terms of the "new" sports, qualifying 2 in Skate is very big, knowing that they were in the Top 10 for the start of the cycle and they didnt fall. Also, a quota in BMX Freestyle is good too, with an athlete that is going t be fighting in the top 8 probably. Aside from that, the girls in Skate Street did a good cycle, they were in quota places until they eventually fall, but at least they fought. In Climbing, a girl competed in the OQS which is a good step for our country federation, while in Santiago the speed guy did a very good job.

 

In terms of dissapointment, probably Boxing is the big one, but i dont see it that serious really, none of our athletes were favorites to qualify anyways. No qualifiers in Surfing and Wrestling is also sad, knowing we had a former world champions in our squad. Apart from that, there were no other failures. Also, beach volleyball is not out yet.

 

The team sports is probably better than expected. Both genders of Hockey qualified easily and are having a good Pro League run so i think they are in a good shape. Two medal favorites in Mens Football and Rugby 7 (and two strong ones) was something that we didnt had in Tokyo. In the case of Womens, a 0-1 loss against home team Colombia leaved the Football without a quota, which i dont think its a bad result, same as Rugby, an Argentina team that was the third or fourth of Sudamerica two years ago and now is the second by difference, with good results in the Challenger series. Not as close favorites but normal cycle for the Handball and Volleyball, having a good qualification cycle, specially the Handball with that excellent win against Brasil. For the girls in this two sports, the Handball team ended up reaching the final of the Continental quota (as expected) and having more competitives matches in the Pre-Olympic comparing to the Tokyo cycle. The Volleyball girls were impossible to qualify because of the new process but they won the PanAmerican Cup last year and defeated Colombia in the world cup, surpassing them in the rankings and playing the Challenger Cup in two weeks, so, a improvement compared to last cycle taking in consideration the new process and the impossibility of qualifying.

 

Basketball is probably the biggest dissapointment of the cycle, not reaching at least the Pre-Olympic or the World Cup is too much, but in the other hand we dont have a competitive team and we knew that after Tokyo so its not like a shocking thing. Also, we qualified this month our two young squads for each gender World Cup next year so its not that bad.

 

To resume, saying this was a disastrous cycle its literally A JOKE. I dont know if you were expecting 189 like in Tokyo or 213 like Rio but this cycle was exactly as the expectations were before the start, not more and not less.

[konig 1,553]

35 minutes ago, MatiReimundo said:

How it was disastrous? We qualify between 140 athletes, which at least to me were my expectations in May 2022 before the qualification period started. We lost some usual quotas but we won others that we didnt had before.

 

Better and growing athletes in Athletics and Swimming, first time since a long time in Archery, Canoeing meh but between expectations, Cycling, Equestrian and Fencing normal (probably one or two more could have qualified). Good perfomances in Golf, no Gymnastics not the best but expected (we were very close with 2 athletes anyways). Judo meh as usual, Pentathlon and Rowing normal, Shooting and Sailing are the same as Tokyo, probably with better hopes with this delegation. Direct quota in Table Tennis was a good news, same as Taekwondo and Triathlon. Tennis with such a great delegation with big hopes in each of every one except for the girls. 

 

In terms of the "new" sports, qualifying 2 in Skate is very big, knowing that they were in the Top 10 for the start of the cycle and they didnt fall. Also, a quota in BMX Freestyle is good too, with an athlete that is going t be fighting in the top 8 probably. Aside from that, the girls in Skate Street did a good cycle, they were in quota places until they eventually fall, but at least they fought. In Climbing, a girl competed in the OQS which is a good step for our country federation, while in Santiago the speed guy did a very good job.

 

In terms of dissapointment, probably Boxing is the big one, but i dont see it that serious really, none of our athletes were favorites to qualify anyways. No qualifiers in Surfing and Wrestling is also sad, knowing we had a former world champions in our squad. Apart from that, there were no other failures. Also, beach volleyball is not out yet.

 

The team sports is probably better than expected. Both genders of Hockey qualified easily and are having a good Pro League run so i think they are in a good shape. Two medal favorites in Mens Football and Rugby 7 (and two strong ones) was something that we didnt had in Tokyo. In the case of Womens, a 0-1 loss against home team Colombia leaved the Football without a quota, which i dont think its a bad result, same as Rugby, an Argentina team that was the third or fourth of Sudamerica two years ago and now is the second by difference, with good results in the Challenger series. Not as close favorites but normal cycle for the Handball and Volleyball, having a good qualification cycle, specially the Handball with that excellent win against Brasil. For the girls in this two sports, the Handball team ended up reaching the final of the Continental quota (as expected) and having more competitives matches in the Pre-Olympic comparing to the Tokyo cycle. The Volleyball girls were impossible to qualify because of the new process but they won the PanAmerican Cup last year and defeated Colombia in the world cup, surpassing them in the rankings and playing the Challenger Cup in two weeks, so, a improvement compared to last cycle taking in consideration the new process and the impossibility of qualifying.

 

Basketball is probably the biggest dissapointment of the cycle, not reaching at least the Pre-Olympic or the World Cup is too much, but in the other hand we dont have a competitive team and we knew that after Tokyo so its not like a shocking thing. Also, we qualified this month our two young squads for each gender World Cup next year so its not that bad.

 

To resume, saying this was a disastrous cycle its literally A JOKE. I dont know if you were expecting 189 like in Tokyo or 213 like Rio but this cycle was exactly as the expectations were before the start, not more and not less.

I mainly agree with you, for our economic situation we cant expect more than this, even i see more medals chances than in Tokyo.

[LDOG 2,464]

32 minutes ago, konig said:

I mainly agree with you, for our economic situation we cant expect more than this, even i see more medals chances than in Tokyo.

We don't have more medal chances, mutatis mutandis it's the same chances. And only because we're assuming the football team will be better, which is to be seen.

 

 

0 boxers and 1 swimmer yet most things are going well apparently. Ok guys. 

[Cinnamon Bun 911]

Given how this qualification period started for us, the outcome has been somewhat of a disappointment as we let a lot of quotas slip. Some of this was down to some of the appalling qualification systems. 

 

The GB women's football team were desperately unlucky to miss out. Yes they should've beaten the Netherlands but the fact that neither the world champion or the runner up were guaranteed quotas and had to go through a gruelling qualification path not long after is unacceptable and should be changed for LA. Similarly we should've had a full set of quotas in BMX Freestyle, but the qualification document (which was wrongly changed in the middle of the qualification period) prioritised more nations instead of quality of competition. Taekwondo's stupid continental participation rules potentially cost us 2-3 quotas, and fencing prioritising teams instead of individuals for the individual event cost Stutchbury a quota in women's foil and potentially some others too. However, there were some quotas we lost which were our own doing. 

 

GB men's rugby sevens team missing out after 4th in Tokyo is as absolute embarrassment for reasons I've already mentioned in the final qualifier thread, and it should be romped home about in the media instead of being portrayed as a disappointment as well as "well we tried". GB boxing's indecisive decisions and poor selections led to only 6 boxers qualifying instead of reaching double figures. Once again (barring reallocation) it looks like Ben Llewellin has retained his title of biggest bottle job in qualifying as he once again ranks highly but fails to qualify in men's skeet. Poor results by the men as well as a couple from Beth Shriver caused us to only earn 2 quotas in BMX racing as opposed to 4. Our men's judo team had an absolute shocker, as we may only earn 1 quota and that's dependent on AIN rejections. Lauren Williams was a disappointment in Taekwondo, although that's mainly down to injury which caused her to miss the European Games and sealed her fate. No quotas in Fencing and Canoe Sprint for the first time ever isn't a good luck, although AIN rejections and continental and universality quota returns in the latter could give our K4 team a combined reallocation quota. Should've done better in both men's and women's basketball by at least reaching the OQT. Our men's table tennis team should've qualified, and 2 singles quotas is not good enough based off past cycles. GB badminton seems to have fallen apart, as only Gilmour and Vendy and Lane qualified which isn't good enough. It looks like we're gonna send our smallest athletics team in years which is mainly down to the poor decisions made by British Athletics, mainly adopting the swimming selection system which doesn't work for us as we don't have the strength in depth in most events (particularly the field ones). Not qualifying Smith, Davies or any male athlete in weightlifting was slightly dissapointing but not too unexpected. And finally not so much a disappointment but it was a shame the Bello brothers didn't qualify in Beach Volleyball, it would've been the boost the sport needed in this country. 

 

There were some good moments though during this period though. We qualified more athletes than Tokyo in skateboarding, sport climbing and shooting, and still boast really strong teams in swimming, diving and cycling. And even though we didn't qualify, our surfers, women's water polo team and the Bello brothers in beach volleyball put up a good showing and set us up for qualification in those events for LA. I'd also say qualifying a full team in archery was a surprising success given the form of the men's team up until last month's Euros. Overall, even though this qualification cycle has been a bit disappointing it gives us a lot to build on for LA where we can hopefully impress and reach the 400 athlete mark (especially considering all the new sports are favourable to us).