The victory of the hosts brought the team event of dressage at the FEI Wrold Championship in Herning to a conclusion. Denmark shared the podium with Great Britain and Germany. Alltogether seven teams secured a place for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Grand Prix have been held for two days with two athletes achieving a result above 80% - Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour on Vamos Amigos (81,864%) and Charlotte Fry on Glamourdale (80,838%). They were the leaders of the teams battling for the gold. The success was on the hosts' side with Nanna Merrald Rasmussen on Blue Hors Zack (76,724%) and Carina Cassøe Krüth on Heiline's Danciera (76,863%) beating the Brits, where Fry was joined by Charlotte Dujardin on Imhotep (77,407%) and Gareth Hughes on Classic Briolinca (75,978%). The podium was completed by the title defending Germans with Ingrid Klimke on Franzikus having their result dropped as the worst in the team (75,683%) the result of 230,791% was achieved by Isabell Werth on DSP Quantaz (77,127%), Bejamin Werndl on Famoso OLD (77,003%) and Frederic Wandres on Duke of Britain FRH (76,661%).
Beside the medallists, the three next teams also secured a place in the Paris 2024 Olympic team event (as well as team members starting in the individual competition). These are Sweden, Netherlands (including Dinja van Liere on Hermes - third pair of the Grand Prix with 78,835%) and USA. Another quota went to team of Australia, placed eighth, being the best from the Group G of South East Asia and Oceania with Japan in 15th and New Zealand eliminated as Gaylene Lennard's Jax Johnson haven't passed the inspection and the team had no reserve of their three-pair team.
The next medal events are to be held on Monday with dressage Grand Prix Special (individual only) and the non-Olympic vaulting Squad and Individual medals to be given. The next Olympic quotas will be distributed during the jumping team final on Friday the 12th.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has today revealed four more qualifying procedures, meaning more than half of the qualifying procedures for Paris 2024 are now known. Fencing, Golf, Judo and Taekwondo have all released their qualifying systems.
Fencing
Fencing has twelve events, six per gender: Individual Foil, Epée and Sabre events, and team equivalents. Just like 2020, there are a total of 106 athletes per gender. For each event, if an NOC qualifies a team, then the three team members also take part in the corresponding individual event. Otherwise, only one athlete can participate per NOC in the individual event (this is similar to Archery).
For each team event, eight teams will qualify. The team members will take up 24 places in the individual events, with ten individuals qualifying for a maximum of 34. When universality and host places are added, an individual event can have at most 37 places. There is one male and one female universality place in total, and the hosts have six places, in addition to any places they qualify.
All team places will be earned from the FIE official Senior Team Ranking List of 1 April 2024, with all four zones guaranteed at least one place if they have a team in the top 16. The ten individual places will be qualified as follows: six from the FIE Individual Senior Adjusted Official Ranking List of April 2024, discriminated by zone, with two for Europe and Asia-Oceania and one for America and Africa, and the winners of four FIE Zonal Qualifying Events in April 2024 (exact dates and locations tbc). The only change to the 2020 system is two host places have gone to the universality section.
Golf
Golf has a men's and women's event, and just like 2020, sixty golfers of each gender will participate at the Olympics. And the qualification system is unchanged too. There is one host spot, and 59 qualification spots. The Olympic Golf Ranking (17 June for men and 24 June for women) is the only qualification pathway. There are at most four athletes per NOC, but only if they are in the top fifteen: otherwise there is at most two. Also, there is a guaranteed place for all five continents. Finally, if the host spot is unused (as is likely) it will be a universality place instead.
Judo
Judo's programme is unchanged from 2020, with seven men's weight classes (60, 66, 73, 81, 90, 100, and +100kg), seven women's weight classes (48, 52, 57, 63, 70, 78, and +78kg) and a mixed team event. However, they have had their quotas reduced, with 186 men and 186 women, down from 193 of each in 2016 (so one less athlete per individual event).
There is no direct qualification for the mixed team event: instead, if you have six eligible athletes (one man and one women from the three lightest classes, the three middle classes, and three heaviest classes) you automatically enter. Each individual event has at most one athlete per NOC. For each event, France will qualify a place.
The top seventeen highest ranked athletes on the IJF World Ranking List (published 25 June 2024) for each event will qualify a place. Then, 100 additional places in total (50 per gender) will be qualified through Continental Rankings, listing all athletes in all events, separated per continent. The top 12 Africans in both genders, the top 13 European men and 12 European women, the top ten Asians in both genders, the top five Oceanians in both genders, and the top 10 Pan American men and 11 Pan American women will qualify. However, out of these 100 places, there is at most one per NOC.
Finally, there are five Team invitation places: one NOC per continent that has five out of the six athletes necessary to qualify for the Mixed Team event will have the extra judoka qualified, so they can participate. There are also fifteen universality places. This system is similar to 2020's system.
Taekwondo
Taekwondo is another sport to be unchanged from 2020, with four men's weight classes (58, 68, 80, and +80kg) and four women's weight classes (49, 57, 67 and 67kg). Each event has sixteen places, although athletes from the Refugee Olympic Team might be added as a seventeenth. There is one athlete per NOC per event. There are fifteen qualification spots per event, with either one of the two host spots per gender or one of the two universality places per gender to make up the sixteenth place. Five athletes per event qualify from the WT Olympic Ranking published on 6 January 2024. The winner of the WT Grand Slam Champions Series (Wuxi, CHN, 16-17 Dec 2023) in each event qualifies one spot, with the remaining nine spots earned at the Continental Qualification Tournaments, two for every continent apart from Oceania, which just gets one.
These four systems are all very similar to 2020, and are all mostly rankings based. Fifteen sports (Aquatics, Athletics, Badminton, Canoe, Cycling, Equestrian, Football, Rowing, Sailing, Skateboarding, Sport Climbing, Surfing, Tennis, Table Tennis and Weightlifting) are yet to publish their system.
The first qualifying procedures have been released for Paris 2024. With thirty-two sports split into forty-seven "disciplines" in Paris 2024, the first eighteen disciplines in thirteen sports have been released. They are: Archery, Basketball (Basketball and Basketball 3x3), Boxing, Breaking, Gymnastics (Artistic, Rhythmic, and Trampoline), Handball, Hockey, Modern Pentathlon, Rugby Sevens, Shooting, Triathlon, Volleyball (Beach Volleyball and Volleyball), and Wrestling. Totallympics News will provide coverage on each qualification system as and when it is released. In this post, we will have a look at the ten qualification procedures already released.
Archery
Archery retains five events, with a men's and women's individual team, and a mixed team. Twelve nations per gender, including hosts France, will qualify a team, with the three members of the team also participating in the individual events. The remaining 28 spots, including two universality places, will be earned on an individual basis, with at most one per NOC. There is no separate qualifying for the mixed team, with entry automatic for every NOC with at least one athlete per gender.
The team section has been changed, with a ranking and a continental system added. The 2023 World Archery Championship (Berlin, GER, 28 Jul-6 Aug 2023) will earn just three spots, down from eight. Three of those spots will go to the winners of Continental Championships (exactly which events are yet to be announced) for Europe, Asia, and the Americas. There will still be a Final World Team Qualification Tournament (date and location to be announced) for three places. Finally, two places will be earned for a Team World Ranking List, the date which will count will be announced at a later date.
The winners of the mixed team competition at five Continental Games will qualify one individual spot for both genders. These are the 2022 Asian Games (Huangzhou, CHN, 10-25 Sep 2022), the 2023 European Games (Krakow, POL, 21 Jun-2 Jul 2023), the 2023 Pan-American Games (Santiago, CHI, 20 Oct-5 Nov 2023), and the 2023 Pacific Games (Honiara, SOL, Nov 19-1 Dec 2023). The 2023 African Games (Accra, GHA, Dates to be announced) are also meant to be part of this, but as of right now, archery is not on the programme. If this remains the case, one extra place per gender will be available for the Individual Qualifying Tournament.
The remaining twenty-one places per gender are earned individually. Three will be earned at the 2023 World Archery Championship, two each will be earned at three Continental Games (the Asian Games, European Games, and Pan-American Games), and ten will be earned at five Continental Qualification Tournaments (which tournaments exactly will be announced by 31 December 2022): three for Europe, two each for Asia, the Americas, and Africa, and one for Oceania. Finally two (plus the potential reallocated African Games spot) will be earned at the Final World Individual Qualification Tournament (date and location to be announced). This system is similar to the one used for 2020, although more priority is given to Continental Games than Continental Qualification Tournaments. All-in-all, a new system for 2020.
Artistic Gymnastics
Artistic Gymnastics retains its fourteen events from Tokyo 2020, with eight men's events (Team, All-Around, Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bars) and six women's events (Team, All-Around, Vault, Uneven Bars, Balance Beam, Floor Exercise). The total amount of athletes has been reduced however, with 96 spots per gender, down from 98. One spot per gender will be guaranteed to the host nation, France, although the team is considered strong enough to get at least one place for each gender anyway.
A team of five athletes can qualify for an NOC: these five can then choose which individual events they want to take place in. An NOC without a team qualified can bring at most three athletes. This is a big change from 2020, where there were teams made up of four.
Twelve teams will qualify per gender, with a similar format to 2016: The top three teams qualifying in the 2022 World Championships (Liverpool, GBR, 29 Oct-6 Nov 2022) and the remaining nine in the 2023 World Championships (Antwerp, BEL, 1-8 Oct 2023).
However, the individual qualification places (34 per gender) have a new format in 2024: remember, these can only be earned by athletes not in a team. The top 3 teams at the 2023 World Championships not to qualify will gain one individual athlete per gender. The top eight male and top fourteen female All-Around athletes at the 2023 World Championships will gain a quota as well: only one place per NOC can be gained here. The winner of the six male and four female Apparatus finals at the 2023 World Championships will also gain a quota. The top two in each apparatus at the 2024 FIG World Cup (Athens, GRE, 15-17 Mar 2024; Pesaro, ITA, 22-24 Mar 2024; Sofia, BUL, 12-14 Apr 2024; Baku, AZE, 19-21 Apr 2024; Tashkent, UZB, 26-28 Apr 2024) will gain a spot: so twelve men and eight women. Finally, the winner (or highest-placed eligible athlete) of All-Around competitions in 2024 Continental Championships (a total of five for each gender) will take the final spots. It is yet to be announced which events will count, but the FIG prefers them to take place from April to May 2024.
If, as expected, the hosts reallocate their place, it will be an extra place earned at the 2023 World Championships for the All-Around category, effectively boosting that to having nine male and fifteen female athletes qualifying.
Basketball
Basketball retains two twelve-team tournaments, just like Tokyo 2020. The qualification system for eleven teams each (as one spot goes to hosts France) is the same, differing however between men and women. For men, seven teams qualify from the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup (Various cities, IDN, JPN, PHI, Aug 25-Sep 10 2023): the top two teams from America and Europe and the top team from Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Qualification is in progress for that event. The remaining four spots will be earned in 2024 at FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournaments (Date and location tbc), which will include nineteen teams from the World Cup and five from Olympic pre-qualifying tournaments: the winners of each of the four tournaments, with six teams each, will earn the final spot.
For women, only the champion of the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup (Sydney, AUS, 22 Sep-1 Oct 2022) will qualify: the qualification procedure for that is finished. The remaining ten places will be earned at FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournaments (Date and location tbc): there will be four groups of four, with the top three qualifying, although France and the Women's World Cup champions will be included: in the groups with those two, only two places will be earned. This is no change from the Tokyo 2020 system.
Basketball 3x3
Basketball 3x3 retains its two 8-team tournaments from 2020. There is a change to the system (which is the same for men and women). Now, only the top three teams (down from four) qualify a spot on the 3x3 Federation Ranking List of 1 November 2023. There are now two 2024 Universality-driven Qualification Tournaments (locations and dates for both TBC), with eight teams in both and one winner, and finally, a 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament that is still worth three places. Also, if France don't qualify a place, then whichever genders team is ranked higher takes a ranking place off the lowest-qualified team.
Beach Volleyball
Beach Volleyball retains a men and a women's 24-team tournament (max 2 teams per NOC) from 2020. With one spot to the hosts, there are 23 teams qualifying per NOC. However, they have removed a qualification tournament that gained two spots, with two more teams earned by world ranking. Firstly, the winner of the 2023 FIVB Beach Volleyball Senior World Championships (date and location TBC) gets a place. Then, the top seventeen (or eighteen should the host spot get reallocated) teams of the Olympic Ranking List of 10 June 2024 will get a spot. Finally, the winners of five Beach Volleyball Continental Qualification Events will earn spots. These dates will be confirmed by 31 May 2022. The final phase of these will be hosted in June 2024, after the publication of the ranking. A simple system to follow.
Boxing
Boxing has had a switch from 2020. That year, there were eight male weight classes, and five female ones, but now there are seven male weight classes (51, 57, 63.5, 71, 80, 92 and +92kg weight limits) and six female ones (50, 54, 57, 60, 66, and 75kg weight limits). There will be 124 athletes in each gender (compared to 206 men and 80 women in Tokyo), a total of 248, which is down from 286 in 2020. Each event will still have at most one athlete per NOC. To breakdown by event:
Women's 54 and 66kg: 24 places
Women's 50kg: 22 places
Men's 63.5 and 71kg, Women's 57kg: 20 places
Men's 57 and 80kg, Women's 75kg: 18 places
Men's 51, 92, and +92kg, and Women's 60kg: 16 places
The first event in the calendar are the 2023 IBA World Boxing Championships (Tashkent, UZB, dates TBC) and 2023 IBA Women's World Championships (dates and locations TBC). The finalist of each event will earn a spot: as there are thirteen men's and ten women's categories, this means most events will actually get four spots: the Men's +92kg and Women's 57 and 60kg will get two spots. Then, the Olympic Ranking Lists of 31 December 2023 will earn six spots per event. France are guaranteed at least four men and at least three women, and there are also four male and five universality spots: the confirmation of these will affect the exact amount of quotas up for grabs in the Olympic Ranking Lists of 31 March 2024. Finally, in May 2024, a World Qualification Tournament (locations and dates TBC) will earn two spots for each event. A new-look system for the new-look IBA.
Breaking
The new sport of Breaking has sixteen participants per gender (at most two per NOC). One spot goes to hosts France, and two will be earned by way of "universality", meaning there are thirteen qualification spots. The winner of the WDSF World Championship (Leuven, BEL, 22-24 Sep 2023) will earn a spot as will the winner of five Continental Games/Championships (although exactly which Games or Championships are still to be confirmed). Finally seven athletes in each gender (or eight if the French spot is reallocated) will earn a spot at the Olympic Qualifier Series.
Handball
Handball retains a 12-team tournament for both genders from 2020. The system has not changed for 2020, with eleven qualification spots each once the host spot is allocated to France.
The first spot goes to the winner of the IHF Men's World Championship 2023 (POL and SWE, 11-29 Jan 2023) and the winner of the IHF Women's World Championship 2023 (DEN, NOR, and SWE, exact dates TBC). The winners of four Continental Qualification Events: for men the Pan-American Games, an Asian event pencilled in for autumn 2023, the 2024 European Championship (GER, 10-28 Jan 2024) and the January 2024 African Championship (location and exact dates tbc); and for women the Pan-American Games, an Asian event also in autumn 2023, the 2022 European Women's Handball Championship (MNE, MKD, SLO, 4-20 Nov 2022), and an African event currently meant to take place in 2023. The final six places will be earned at three Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (dates and locations TBC) that will be held in March 2024 for men and the next month for women. A familiar qualifier for a familiar Olympic sport.
Hockey
Another team sport returning from 2020, there is a 12-team tournament for both genders. Once France get their spot, eleven places are earned in qualifiers for each gender. Unlike 2020, the system is the same for men and women. Five spots are earned by winning Continental Qualifications: these being the 2022 Asian Games, 2023 Pan-American Games, the 2023 African Hockey "Road to Paris" Championships (dates and locations TBC), the 2023 EuroHockey Championships (Monchengladbach, GER, exact dates TBC), and the 2023 Oceania Cup (dates and locations TBC). The top three teams in two FIH Olympic Qualification Tournaments (dates and locations to be announced on 6 November 2023) will win the final spots, a change from 2020 when play-offs were used.
Modern Pentathlon
Modern Pentathlon retains 36 athletes in each gender: at most two per NOC. With one host spot and two invitational spots, there are 33 qualifying spots per gender, and the system is the same for both, being mostly similar to the 2020 system. The winner of the 2023 UIPM World Cup Final (date and locations TBC) will earn a spot, but twenty (at most one per NOC) will be from various Continental Championships (date and locations TBC): eight for Europe, five for Asia and for Pan America (with one spot for first place, one for the next two North Americans (which includes Central America and the Caribbean) and one for the next two South Americans), and one for Africa and Oceania. Three spots will be earned at the 2023 UIPM Pentathlon World Championships (Bath, GBR, dates TBC), and finally, six will be earned through the UIPM Olympic Pentathlon World Ranking List of 17 June 2024.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Rhythmic Gymnastics is a female-only sport, and there are now only 94 athletes, instead of 96. There are still fourteen group (of five, so 70 athletes), but now just 24 individuals, down from 26. There are fourteen teams, including France, with thirteen qualification spots. The top three teams at the 2022 World Championships (Sofia, BUL, 14-18 Sep 2022) will get a spot, as will the top five teams (or six should the French spot be reallocated) at the 2023 World Championships (Valencia, ESP, 21-27 Aug 2023). The final five spots will go to the winners of the 2024 Continental Championships, dates and locations of which are to be confirmed.
Unlike artistic gymnastics, the group competition is not integrated in qualifying with the individual one. With 26 places available (at most two per NOC), including one host spot and one universality place, there are 24 qualification spots to fight for. The top three individuals at the 2022 World Championships, the top fourteen (or fifteen should the French spot be reallocated) at the 2023 World Championships, and the winners of the five 2024 Continental Championships get a spot.
A relatively simple system to follow, then.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby Sevens retains its 12-team tournaments from 2020: that includes a host spot each. The eleven qualification spots are the same as in 2020. The top four teams in the 2022-3 World Rugby Sevens World Series, the details of which will be announced by 30 June 2022 corresponding to each gender will gain a spot, as will the winners of six Regional Association Olympic Qualification Tournaments in 2023 and a Final Olympic Repechage Tournament which should happen in 2024. Details and locations for all events are to be confirmed.
Shooting
Shooting retains thirteen events from 2020, although now there are only 170 athletes per gender, instead of 180. The programme is slightly changed. The men's and women's events are the same (10m Air Rifle, 50m 3 Positions, 10m Air Pistol, 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Men)/25m Pistol (Women), Trap, and Skeet) while the Mixed Team in 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol also remain, although the Mixed Team Trap is replaced for a mixed Team Skeet event.
There is no mixed team qualification: instead those with one man and one woman in each event can enter a corresponding mixed team: at most two teams per NOC. At most twelve men and at most twelve women per NOC can qualify, and at most two athletes per individual event per NOC can qualify. There are 25 qualification spots per event, with a host country spot, one universality spot (two in the air rifle and air pistol events) and one earned at the Olympic Qualification Ranking of 9 June 2024.
In the Air Rifle and Air Pistol events, four spots are earned at the 2022 World Rifle and Pistol Championship (Cairo, EGY, 12-25 Oct 2022). One spot will be earned at the 2022 CAT Championship (Lima, PER, 9-16 Nov 2022). Two spots are earned at the 2023 European 10m Championship (Tallinn, EST, 5-15 Mar 2023). One spot is earned at the 2023 European Games, one at the 2023 Pan-American Games, and another two at the 2023 Asia Championship (Changwon, KOR, exact dates tbc), four at the 2023 World Championship (14-31 Aug 2023, location TBC), two at the 2023 Africa Championship (Cairo, EGY, exact dates 1-10 Oct 2023), two at the 2024 European 10m Championship (Gyor, HUN, exact dates TBC), one at the 2024 CAT Championship, two at the 2024 Asia Rifle and Pistol Championship (date and location tbc), two from a 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship (date and location TBC) and one from an Oceania Championship (date and location TBC).
For the 25m and 50m events, two spots are earned at the 2022 European 25m/50m Championship (Wroclaw, POL, 5-18 Sep 2022). Four spots are earned at the 2022 World Rifle and Pistol Championship, one at the 2022 CAT Championship, one at the 2023 European Games, one (two for 25m events) at the 2023 Pan-American Games, two at the 2023 Asia Championship, four at the 2023 World Championship, one at the 2023 Africa Championship, two at the 2024 European 25m/50m Qualification Event (dates and locations tbc), one at the 2024 CAT Championship, two at the 2024 Asia Rifle and Pistol Championship, two from a 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship and two (one for 25m events) from the mysterious Oceania Championship.
The trap and skeet events will be the first event to get underway, with the 2022 European Shotgun Championships (Larnaca, CYP, 24 Aug-12 Sep 2022) earning two spots. Four spots will be earned at the 2022 World Shotgun Championship (Osijek, CRO, 22 Sep-11 Oct 2022), one at the 2022 CAT Championship, one at the 2023 European Shotgun Championship (Leobersdorf, AUT, 25 Jul-6 Aug 2023), two at the 2023 Pan-American Games, two at the 2023 Asia Championship, four at the 2023 World Championship, one at the 2023 Africa Championship, one at the 2024 European Shotgun Championship (Dates and locations TBC), one at the 2024 CAT Championship, two at the 2024 Asia Shotgun Championship (Date and locations TBC), two at the 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship and one from the Oceania Championship.
The main headline is the removal of World Cup events, and remember that quotas earned in one event can be used in a second as long as the athlete is eligible in both (i.e. gets the minimum entry standard). The headline is the removal of the World Cup events, which is sure to split opinion.
Trampoline
The only form of gymnastics not to have its quotas cut, it retains sixteen men and sixteen women in 2024. There can be at most two places per NOC, but only three NOCs per gender can earn two places. The highest eight ranked athletes per gender in the 2023 World Championships (Birmingham, GBR, 9-12 Nov 2023). The remaining eight spaces will be won at the 2023-4 Trampoline Individual World Cup Series, dates and locations of which are to be confirmed. However, if a continent doesn't have a place then a spot will be allocated to a relevant 2024 Continental Championship. A host spot and a universality spot may also be taken away from the World Cup series.
Triathlon
Triathlon avoids any cuts from 2020 to 2024, with 55 athletes from each gender: at most three per NOC. There is a men's, women's, and mixed team event. There are no qualification spots for mixed teams, instead, any NOC with at least two in each gender can enter a mixed team. However, there are some mixed team events that do qualify two places per gender, thus guaranteeing a place in the mixed relay. This includes an automatic spot for the host nation, a spot for the winner of the 2022 World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships (Montreal, CAN, 26 Jun 2022), a spot for the winner of the 2023 World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships (Hamburg, GER, date TBC), six spots on offer from the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Ranking of 25 March 2024, and two spaces on offer at the 2024 Mixed Relay Olympic Qualification Event (dates and location TBC). All 31 individual spots (earned separately for each gender) are earned for the World Triathlon Olympic Qualification Ranking of 27 May 2024: the top 26, and then the highest next athlete per continent. Finally, there are two universality places. Just like 2020, there is a mostly ranking-based system for Olympic qualifying.
Volleyball
Volleyball retains two twelve-team tournaments from 2020 to 2024: so eleven qualification spots once France are taken out. Two spots each are earned in three 2023 Olympic Qualification Tournaments (in each gender, locations tbc: 16-24 Sep 2023 for women, 30 Sep-8 Oct 2023 for men), but in a major shake-up, the remaining five will be earned based on World Rankings (17 June 2024 for women and 24 June 2024 for men). This will be a massively controversial shakeup: with supporters and detractors.
Wrestling
Finally, we come to Wrestling, a sport for which both disciplines (Greco-Roman and Freestyle) have had their system released together. Greco-Roman is a men-only event, with 96 men participating in six weight classes (60, 67, 77, 87, 97, and 130kg), and 96 of each gender in Freestyle: six weight classes for both men (57, 65, 74, 86, 97, and 125kg) and women (50, 53, 57, 62, 68, and 76kg). There are sixteen spots per event.
The top five athletes for each event at the 2023 Senior World Championships (Krasnoyarsk, RUS, 16-24 Sep 2023, obviously take that with a pinch of salt) gain a place. Then, the top two athletes at four 2024 Continental Qualification Tournaments (African & Oceania Tournament, 22-24 Mar 2024, European Tournament, 4-7 Apr 2024, Asian Tournament, 12-14 Apr 2024, Pan-American Tournament, 19-21 Apr 2024, locations all TBC) gain a place. Finally, the top three athletes for each event at the 2024 World Qualification Tournament (9-12 May 2024, location TBC) will earn a place.
Plenty of things to debate: it seems in general, there is a move towards rankings-oriented systems, although there is a lot of variation. Let's see if this trend continues for other sports.
Last week we looked at the event changes between the 2020 and the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. The other notable change ahead of those games will be the number of athletes competing. Totallympics takes a closer look.
Using the qualification documents, the 2020 Olympics had an expected athlete quota of 11,114 (the final number was higher due to some sports having more athletes than expected qualify and the IOC allowing more athletes to compete at the games due to COVID-19, court appeals and via the refugee team). The 2024 Olympics is set to have a total of 10,500 athletes, a decrease of 614 quotas.
As baseball/softball and karate were not selected as host selected sports, the athlete quotas were completely removed. This saw a reduction of 234 and 80 quotas respectively. However, with the other host selected sports seeing an increase in athlete quotas, this reduction had a net effect of -242.
The remaining 72 quotas were split between the four sports with breaking getting the most quotas (32 athletes) as the sport is set to make its Olympic debut. Sport climbing, the only returning sport to get an increase in its total events sees a notable increase of 28 athletes while skateboarding and surfing will see increases of 8 and 4 respectively.
Of the 28 core sports, all of them either saw them maintaining their 2020 quotas or saw an overall decrease. Cycling is a bit unique as while the overall sport saw a decrease of quotas (-14 athletes), the BMX freestyle (+6) and track cycling (+1) disciplines saw an increase of athletes, but were offset by a decrease in mountain biking (-4) and road cycling (-17).
Among the core sports, athletics will experience the largest decrease with 90 fewer athletes expected to attend the 2024 games. Due to the removal of four events, weightlifting also has a significant decrease with 76 fewer athletes while aquatics rounds out the top 3 with 62 fewer athletes (-8 in artistic swimming, -6 in open water swimming, -26 in swimming and -22 in water polo). A summary of the quota changes can be seen in the table below.
Of the sports which lost athlete quotas most of them only saw losses of less than 6% of their total quotas from 2020. The two exceptions were boxing and weightlifting. Both sports have recently lost favour in the eyes of the IOC. Even after adjusting weightlifting having fewer events, both sports will experience a decrease of over 10% of their 2020 total.
While these athlete quota cuts were made by the IOC as a cost saving measure, they remain quite controversial. Detractors argue that it is not in the spirit of the Olympics and that it would make nations with smaller teams even smaller. What do you think, is the cost saving measures a necessary evil or are there other ways the IOC could cut costs?
With the conclusion of the 2020 Summer Olympics, curious eyes have turned to Paris and how those games will defer from Tokyo. What changes will we see? The most eye-catching stat is that Paris 2024 will have fewer events with 329 total, 10 fewer than Tokyo 2020. This is the first time since Rome 1960 that the next Olympics will have fewer events than the previous one. Totallympics takes a closer look.
This decrease is largely due to the changes of host selected sports as Tokyo selected sports baseball/softball (2 events) and karate (8 events) have been removed. Additionally, four weightlifting events will be removed and not replaced (the 10 remaining weight classes will be confirmed at a later date). The other three Tokyo selected sports; skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing will make their return with sport climbing gaining an additional two events (men’s and women’s speed). The fourth and final host selected sport will be breaking, set to make its Olympic debut with B-boys and B-girls events.
Additionally, other sports will have changes to their program, but will keep the same number of overall events. The biggest changes will be seen in canoeing and sailing. For canoeing the men’s and women’s K1 200m events were dropped while the slalom discipline gained two events with men’s and women’s extreme canoe. Additionally, the men’s K2 1000m and C2 1000m will consist of 500m events.
Sailing sees the complete removal of the men’s Finn class while the men’s and women’s 470 will now become a mixed event. These changes will make room for the men’s and women’s kiteboarding. While the windsurfing events remain, they will change equipment from the RS:X to iQFoil.
In order to decrease the difference between men’s and women’s medalling events, boxing will have a men’s event transferred to the women for a total of 7 men and 6 women events. The weight classes will be confirmed at a later date. Overall, there will be 157 men’s, 152 women’s and 20 mixed or open events.
Other sports to have changes include athletics where the men’s 50km race walk will make way for the mixed team race walk, shooting where a rotation from mixed team trap to mixed team skeet will occur and sport climbing where the men’s and women’s combined will only include the bouldering and lead portions as speed is now a separate medalling event.
Next week Totallympics will take a closer look as to the changes to the athlete quotas as the 2024 Olympics will have to adhere to the IOC’s 10,500 limit after having more than 11,000 athletes in Tokyo.
The UIPM has recently announced the introduction of the New Olympic Pentathlon, which aims to shorten the time of the competition and make it more attractive to the audience. The approval of the format by the Executive Board caused a mostly negative reaction, from the athletes, whom the changes will affect the most. The following is an interview with Shiny Fang, UIPM Secretary General, in which she tries to explain the biggest doubts about the changes.
The first question is, what is on the mind of the Pentathlon community – what is the reason for those changes?
To aim for the future, to embrace the youth, and to widen the sport’s audience with a more compact and understandable sport product for media, also to demonstrate our most complete athletes in a shorter time without losing audience in between parts of the longer competition.
Modern pentathlon’s place in the Olympic programme is a crucial thing for the sport, which is also a legacy of being founded by Baron Pierre de Coubertin himself. Was the proposal consulted with the IOC representatives as they should be the ones to know better, in which direction the changes should go?
Certainly UIPM as the world governing body of the sport knows better how we can improve the sport and its product/format. However, if we are talking about Pentathlon in the Olympic Games, we first need to understand what is the IOC’s vision for future Games, and what would be the most valuable things to evaluate the sport’s impact in the Games. Therefore, it is a collective effort by all involved or responsible parties in the Games, including valuable advice from OBS, Olympic Channel and Paris 2024.
Modern pentathlon has been changing for some time, but this is a true revolution. Doesn’t it bring confusion to new pentathlon fans to learn the sport from the beginning?
Well, what we are changing or innovating is about our sports product, to smoothly shape it to a fan-friendly and media-friendly format so that audience can see a compact and complete sport within a shorter time. As you might know well, the sport has come from 5 days, to 1 day, to 5 hours, and now to 90min. However, what we haven’t changed is the core essence of the sport created by Coubertin – that is, the historical elements/disciplines are still the same since the sport was born.
The proposed changes apply for only the Olympic Games (and the Olympic qualifiers, as far as I understand). Would it not be harder for fans to learn one format for the Olympics and another for all other competitions?
We do have EB approved Olympic format and qualification events format, and those Olympic qualification events will be major UIPM competitions. Therefore, in terms of the format for UIPM major competitions, we will keep the same direction as the Olympic format, but with certain flexibility, such as number of athletes in final group, length of the breaks between each disciplines, etc.
For UIPM competitions, we will have relatively more time to test and to fix more details, since the qualification events will only start from 2023. But for the Olympic format, we must be in line with the timeline of the IOC and Paris 2024, to give organisers enough time. By the way, it is quite normal that some other sports also have an Olympic format and a different IF format, so nothing unusual.
The athletes are openly against it, and primarily because of the increased injury risks caused by a shortened warm-up time. Was the new format consulted with them?
Actually the athletes are not against innovations, they are open-minded and intelligent, also sometimes they give us a lot of good ideas. For the new format, due to a series of processes which we also want to keep low profile with mainly athletes representatives in each working group and committees, it is normal that a lot of athletes who haven’t joined in athletes meetings at earlier stage, haven’t been well informed.
Clearly, the communication with athletes is the key, and during the athletes call on November 11, a lot of their questions and doubts were addressed. But it is not enough, we will certainly engage more with them during the rest of the process.
There were also very few test events with the new format – just the two in Budapest and Cairo, where the participation of athletes from all around the world was limited due to Covid-19 pandemic. Has the UIPM tried to conduct more test events, for example during the national competitions that were held in different countries, for example Russia, Belarus or Poland?
Actually, we felt fortunate that we were able to manage two decent tests during this pandemic time with full support of our organizers, and yes, we will have more tests in 2021 before and/or after the Tokyo Olympics. More details will be fixed early in 2021.
The changes were to be introduced this year, but because of the pandemic the Congress will be held in 2021. Were there ideas to postpone it to the 2024-2028 Olympic cycle, as the pre-Paris one is a shortened one after?
No we won’t postpone, innovation has been a continuous process for decades in UIPM, Paris is a milestone that we cannot miss, and it will demonstrate more possibilities for LA 2028 as well.
In Polish
По-русски (Трансляция: Себастьян Стасяк)
Who's Online
42 Members, 0 Anonymous, 217 Guests(See full list)
Wumo reacted to Vojthas for an article, Denmark is the World Team Dressage Champion, six other quotas for Paris 2024 given