Nickyc707

For perhaps Toby Roberts in sport climbing. He's currently no.2 in the boulder and lead world rankings and gained a quota at the recent European qualifier by a comfortable margin. He's still only eighteen and improving rapidlly. It's a bit of a cop out given it's only the sport's second appearance at the OG. Anyway it definitely won't be in artistic swimming, basketball, breaking, rhythmic gymnastics, handball, surfing, table tennis or volleyball which are the other sports in which they've never won a medal.

Didn't even known that wheelchair volleyball is a sport. Do you mean sitting volleyball (they sit on the court)?

Is that individual or team dressage, Josh?

You're right Josh. Too used to the old medieval English spelling of the name I guess. 😊

Plus Afghanistan's strong performance.

I wouldn't completely dismiss the chances of Ireland or South Korea qualifying but the three you mention will start as favourites.

Why not? They should qualify.

I apologise if this was reported at the time but 2023 saw the death of Félix Sienra of who passed away in January two weeks after becoming the longest lived Olympian at the age 107 years and 9 days. He competed in sailing at the 1948 OG. As an aside he also attended - and was almost certainly the last survivor of ‐ the first football World Cup final in 1930 when Uruguay lifted the inaugural trophy after defeating Argentina 4–2 in Montevideo. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/olympian-felix-sienra-uruguay-dies-1948-summer-olympics-b1057223.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Sienra https://acsweb.ucsd.edu/~ptchir/centenarians.html

I'm not sure how many more qualifying events there are before the Olympic ranking list closes on 3rd December but the final event is the World Grand Prix final where most of the remaining points are at stake. "All athletes will get ranking points. The points will be reflected on WT World Ranking and WT Olympic Ranking. The ranking points per winners of the competition shall be allocated as follows." 1st – 100.00 pts 2nd – 60.00 3rd – 36.00 4th – 21.60 5th – 15.12 9th – 10.58 Opportunities still exist for athletes to get themselves into a qualifying spot, particularly as there are some really close battles for qualification in some of the weight classes. http://m.worldtaekwondo.org/competition/view.html?nid=140620&mcd=D32&sc=in

I think there are potentially much stronger csndidates than Radacanu. However, as a two time Olympic champion as well as a multiple Grand Slam winner, I think Murray has a good insurance policy if he doesn't orherwise qualify and fancies playing on clay again. Norrie needs to perform well in the first half of next year and take advantage of his much higher ATP ranking in the two remaining GS tournies before the rankings close.

Just out of interest as he's 15th in these rankings why wouldn't Tommy Fleetwood qualify for the Games given that his NOC only has two other golfers in the top 15?

I'm sure there's someone out there who can answer that Ben. I believe there are 16 spots available in total in each event. WC – 5 (could have been 4–8) Host – 1 Tripartite – 1 Continental (Africa & Oceania) – 2 Rankings – 7? If only three from the rankings then how are the other other four places determined? As I understand it the five NOCs in each event that gained spots at the WC are the only ones that can secure a second quota.

You think they'll go with Fenton ahead of Achampong in the AA final because of the fall even though the latter finished ahead of her?

Yep, I have a feeling that Hepwortn may push Tulloch out as he is pretty useful on rings and offers more on other apparatus where he is a potential finalist in two of them. And if you have Fraser and Jarman as your candidates for AA it may make it harder for Hall to get in. Subject to fitness my best guess at this stage would be Fraser, Hepworth, Jarman, Regini-Moran and Whitlock with Hall unfortunately only there as the reserve. Of course someone is bound to get injured and the national Championships will probably shake it up in some way or other.

Good point. Brownlee - like his brother - is an excellent cycling captain so, if willing, he could still assist Yee makeup any reasonable deficit. Of course, that makes no allowance for the tactics of the very strong group of French challengers. In some ways the two races may be a mirror image of each other. Yee up against a strong group of Frenchmen and Beaugrand facing a similar group of Brits. That's not to say there aren't a lot of other talented triathletes capable of upsetting the French and British apple carts.

Beaugrand seems to struggle on hillier courses as we saw at the weekend and at the European Championships/Games in Berlin last year where Non Stanford beat her. I imagine the course in Paris will be pretty flat for that reason (I didn't see the test event). A fit GTB alongside Potter would present a formidable threat to her in those circumstances. Duffy too if she's fit and in form.

In someways Brownlee, unintentionally perhaps, might be that man. He appears to remain strong in the shorter distance relay legs but his problem seems to be in the running element of the Olympic distance races. However, with his swimming and cycling legs still very strong he could help get Yee into a position to exploit his formidable running skills.

I don't think Jess has competed in a long time due to injury last year and pregnancy this year. I believe she was due to give birth this month. Another you haven't mentioned is Georgia Taylor-Brown who has suffered terribly from injury this year. Is she completely out of the running if fit and in form? She has the advantage of being six years younger than Jess who will be 36 by the time of the Games.

Tugger and Afghan of course! Evelyn and Auberon. Seems to be a concensus. Probably just the commentator not doing his homework.

Shooting is certainly niche and basically shotgun related. We've never really been competitive in pistol shooting. Not certain but I don't think we've ever won a medal in that discipline. As for rifle shooting you have to go back to the days of Alistair Allan and double Olympic champion Malcolm Cooper for the last time we medalled. The Swiss also used to have a niche in triathlon although that has faded and suddenly France has become a - maybe the - major power in the sport.

Kate Waugh. War or Woff? I always thought the name was pronounced War as in Aubron but the commentator kept calling her Woff.

I'll concede that although performances varies from event to event. In the men's K-1 they won seven individual world titles in the 23 years before 2000 and only one in the 23 years since.

In gymnastics certainly and probably in cycling but canoe slalom? GB has produced world champions in this sport for a long time. Liz Sharnan, Lynn Simpson, Paul Farrant, Albert Kerr, Shaun Pearce and most notably Richard Fox - father of Jessica and Naomi - won world titles and multiple medals prior to 2000.

It was made by an Aussie which is ironic considering that they too rely heavily on those sports at the OG together with one in which they are horizontal most of the time!😊

I think my biggest problem with it is the amount of luck as well as skill that is often involved. Your choice of gate can effect not only your own fate but that of others in both positive and negative ways. Still it's entertaining and as you say it's definitely preferable to breaking! It's a sport for starters! 😎 If nothing else I won't forget Stephanie Horn's decision to swim rather than paddle down the course today! 🏊‍♀️