Team GB Debrief

[mpjmcevoy 362]

1 minute ago, Nickyc707 said:

I agree eight teams are warranted in the cricket competitions. Assuming, pretty reasonably I think, that flag football and lacrosse won't survive beyond LA hopefully that'll be the case in Brisbane. 

I have a hunch India may bid to host in 2036, so of course cricket would be nailed on again there - if they have three Games in succession like that, you may well not get the sport out. Flag football looks good fun, but it's a real "America, you're not the world" thing - one wonders if Brisbane might be tempted to add a version of AFL or rugby League nines by analogy. More likely Nines in Queensland, I 'd suspect. Lacross is odd -  a bit like netball its a quietish international sport, but is played rather more widely than you'd assume from its roots.

[Nickyc707 382]

5 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I have a hunch India may bid to host in 2036, so of course cricket would be nailed on again there - if they have three Games in succession like that, you may well not get the sport out. Flag football looks good fun, but it's a real "America, you're not the world" thing - one wonders if Brisbane might be tempted to add a version of AFL or rugby League nines by analogy. More likely Nines in Queensland, I 'd suspect. Lacross is odd -  a bit like netball its a quietish international sport, but is played rather more widely than you'd assume from its roots.

Baseball/softball is safe for Brisbane but outside of Australia, Japan and North America most hosts don't seem interested in including it in the Olympic programme so that will potentially be vulnerable in 2036. If the best players turn up cricket may have the chance to embed itself if you're correct about India. Mind you my own hunch is that Istanbul will finally succeed with its atrempts to host the Games. We shall see!

 

Ultimately squash may have the best chance of survival of the new sports as it is relatively cheap to put on with portable courts available to locate on any site the host chooses. Sorry Egypt but watch out for the coming Chinese domination of the sport. 

[G-ann 113]

For flag football, I’ve got a hen do in October. The maid of honour is one of the fringe players for the GB squad - will see what insights I can gain for the greater good of the forum. 

[cjsavory 44]

Ahmedabad would be brutally hot in July/August, as would a couple of the other cities rumoured to be bidding (Seoul, Cairo, Doha). To be honest, Istanbul wouldn't be all that pleasant either. Going to be interesting to see how much they start to take things like that into account when selecting host cities - don't really want another 2022 World Cup situation, where you end up having to move the Games much later in the year. 

 

Of course with my British hat on, I'm looking at 2036 host selection through the lens of which option would best facilitate another London (or Manchester/Birmingham) bid in the 2040s! London 2048 obviously makes the most sense, but if they take the Games back to Asia in 2036, then maybe South America in 2040, it could happen in 2044...

[Jon 43]

2 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

I've been trying to work out which big hitters we (GBR we) may (or may not) be about to lose to a well earned retirement before LA 28. Thoughts, additions, welcome..

 

Bryony Page - intends to join the circus (And I am here for that, friends!)

Tom Daley - announced retirement, some vague mutterings he might be persuaded to one more go for LA (I kinda hope not)

Jack Laugher - hinted at retirement on health grounds

Andy Murray - rode into the sunset on a horse with no hip. Several of the tennis team will probably not be around

Jimmy Guy - adamant he's gonna keep going, excellent

Ben Proud - hinted he may have one more Games in him, which was a pleasant surprise

Joe Choong - wasn’t keen on the possible format change to obstacle course in anyway and had floated switching to full time fencing. Blamed poor performance on his girlfriend not being selected by Team GB for the women’s pentathlon, so fear there is really some bad blood there. 
 

Kate French - ‘isn’t the ending I imagined’ sounds like she is finished with competing. 
 

Toby Roberts - said he looked forward to battling against Anaraku and Jakob in years to come so sounds like LA28 is in his sights. 
 

Emma Wilson - announced retirement due to competition format. Door left ajar if the format for windsurfing changes. 
 

Harry Hepworth - says he’ll be a medal contender next time and wants to specialise in rings. 

[Olympicsnell 300]

6 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

 

 

Cricket speaks for itself, obviously, and the only issue is how small the field is (6 teams). Clearly the host will want in, India and Australia are certain, that only leaves three spots on men's side. I'm imagining short regional tournaments for the last three places - possibly West (Americas, Africa, Europe) and East (Asia-Pacific), with one winner from each qualifying, and possibly next two in each going to a final IOC qualifier - So England, South Africa, Jamaica, Guyana, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and possibly two 'qualifiers' in West, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Afghanistan, New Zealand + 2 in the East. You might end up with South Africa and Pakistan Qualifying, and a final Qualifier tournament of England, Jamaica, New Zealand and Afghanistan...

 

6 teams is REALLY too small for cricket, eight would have worked better

 

 

Been having a think about this, IF, boxing was to be dropped from the games COULD this lead to an increase in cricket teams? 2 each men's and women's? does anyone know if there is wiggle room in this scenario or is the 6 set in stone. 

The way T20 is anyone can beat anyone on the day and if they did a normal qualification tournament then it isn't lock that India would get in, but my feeling is the IOC will be absolutely desperate to have India involved for viewing figures alone. Maybe they might go for qualification via international rankings?

T20 world cup will probably offer a place or two? Maybe they go "top finishing european nation, top finishing african nation" etc. I just don't want it to come down to a one off game against ireland or netherlands haha

[mpjmcevoy 362]

2 hours ago, Olympicsnell said:

Been having a think about this, IF, boxing was to be dropped from the games COULD this lead to an increase in cricket teams? 2 each men's and women's? does anyone know if there is wiggle room in this scenario or is the 6 set in stone. 

The way T20 is anyone can beat anyone on the day and if they did a normal qualification tournament then it isn't lock that India would get in, but my feeling is the IOC will be absolutely desperate to have India involved for viewing figures alone. Maybe they might go for qualification via international rankings?

T20 world cup will probably offer a place or two? Maybe they go "top finishing european nation, top finishing african nation" etc. I just don't want it to come down to a one off game against ireland or netherlands haha

The fairest way is probably a handful of places by rankings (which will miraculously protect India, Australia and Eng) followed by a decent and interesting final qualification tournament.

 

The thought occurs that in both Aus and if they get it in 36 India, the crowds you get for cricket would be similar to those you historically get for football eslewhere, so one could imagine a much larger tournament sent around the country the way football is, as a ticket seller. I wouldn't even rule out a twelve team comp in those circumstances which would allow all the continents 1 'ranked' team (or 2 in Asia), plus host, and still have four-five slots for qualifiers. Cricket, like hockey, doesn't need a huge number of 'sus' the way football does and baseball seems to - you could very easily restrict teams to 14 or even 13, much more in line with sevens and basketball sized squads

[mpjmcevoy 362]

2 hours ago, Olympicsnell said:

Been having a think about this, IF, boxing was to be dropped from the games COULD this lead to an increase in cricket teams? 2 each men's and women's? does anyone know if there is wiggle room in this scenario or is the 6 set in stone. 

The way T20 is anyone can beat anyone on the day and if they did a normal qualification tournament then it isn't lock that India would get in, but my feeling is the IOC will be absolutely desperate to have India involved for viewing figures alone. Maybe they might go for qualification via international rankings?

T20 world cup will probably offer a place or two? Maybe they go "top finishing european nation, top finishing african nation" etc. I just don't want it to come down to a one off game against ireland or netherlands haha

I think the entire purpose of getting cricket back into the fold is the Subcontinent - it's the one remaining 'black hole' for Olympic sport; all the other continents are very on board with Olympics, but the subcontinent still has a hit or miss relationship with any sport that isn't cricket.

[Mkbw50 438]

14 hours ago, mpjmcevoy said:

England (for which read GB, obviously) are ranked 6th in the world in Men's Lacross and 3rd in the world in Women's. They are the top European side in both, and their closest European rivals are, Italy aside, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The 6th place ranking also includes the Haudenosaunee who I hope are included as USA 2, but not convinced.

 

Which is a long winded way of saying I'm pretty confident GBR can qualify for both men's and women's across, and will be at least competitive for a medal.

 

Cricket speaks for itself, obviously, and the only issue is how small the field is (6 teams). Clearly the host will want in, India and Australia are certain, that only leaves three spots on men's side. I'm imagining short regional tournaments for the last three places - possibly West (Americas, Africa, Europe) and East (Asia-Pacific), with one winner from each qualifying, and possibly next two in each going to a final IOC qualifier - So England, South Africa, Jamaica, Guyana, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and possibly two 'qualifiers' in West, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Afghanistan, New Zealand + 2 in the East. You might end up with South Africa and Pakistan Qualifying, and a final Qualifier tournament of England, Jamaica, New Zealand and Afghanistan...

 

6 teams is REALLY too small for cricket, eight would have worked better

 

In flag football (dear sweet jesus) GB are the number 4 ranked women's team, and top European behind three North American teams. That looks a good bet.

In the men's however, they only lie 15th.

 

Finally in baseball/softball, both GB sides are actually pretty decent, but might struggle to qualify in a small field.

 

And in squash, obviously, while not the dominant power, British players are well represented in the rankings of both men's and women's

 

 

I am managing my grief on an hour-to-hour basis about breaking. I may have watched the clips of 'B-Girl Raygun' attempting to clean the floor with her head  while crying with laughter more often than is entirely healthy.

There is talk of counting the Natives as its own thing, even Joe Biden said they should be allowed to. They were at the World Games in Birmingham, AL in 2022 (yes there were two Birmingham 2022s), and Ireland had to give up their spot for them

 

I actually have played with some women's baseball players. I kinda think that women's baseball and women's softball would have been better because I doubt the MLB will allow its players to be released (in fact I'm not even sure NBP/KBO will)

[Jon 43]

Some other Olympians we may lose prior to LA28:

 

Lewis Richardson - quite open about his ambitions to go professional at some point

 

Caden Cunningham - piece in the Guardian where he says he’s hungry for Gold if he stays in taekwondo, but he’s also interested in UFC and modelling so not committed to sticking around

 

Also a bit of a post mortem about British Cycling’s performance here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/12/team-gbs-olympic-cycling-campaign-never-caught-fire-despite-bright-start

Edited August 14 by Jon