Jon

WOW

Final day of the U23 part of the world championship and that was a pretty impressive show

Women’s Four Final GOLD!
Men’s Four Final GOLD!
Men’s Quad Final 6th
Men’s Eight Final GOLD
Women’s Eight Final GOLD!
 
We had 10 GB crews, 7 Made Finals, 5 of which won gold. Both eight crews and four's dominated. The final U23 Medal table looks like

  5    0    1
  4    1     3
  2    1     1
  2    1     0
   2    0    0
   1     3    0
   1    2    1
 
 

I believe His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will perhaps suggest mercy to His Majesty the King of Australia. His Mjaesty the King of Canada may wish to intercede at some point, I wonder if he has the other Kings' numbers...

Matthew Richardson 🇦🇺 is going to be representing Team GB going forwards. Game changer! 

Just following on from this do people have any views or thoughts on calendars of events with Team GB involvement? 
 
I think it makes sense to start Road to Milano Cortina 26 and to LA28 threads to track Team GB qualifications to those Games. For Milano Cortina the Ice Hockey Men are in action for Olympic qualifiers later this month, so sooner than you might think! 
 
Should we include results or tournaments of the junior squads in the relevant sports thread? e.g Team GB U18s are currently competing in the European Championship. Should that go in a GB Handball thread, in a generic ‘team sports’ thread, in a generic ‘Junior Squads’ thread, or alternatively just nowhere at all!  

So I know we're all still basking in the glow of Paris but it's never too early to start thinking about the next games. 
 
We probably wont have the qualification pathways for LA until late 2025 or early 2026 but in the intervening period, I am going to be using live events to model the quotas.

I am currently away on holiday so I missed the last few days of action.
 
Obviously I want to congratulate the club on being the most active community on Totallympics, and I think its really nice we all have different areas of expertise that we can bring forward. 
 
Just briefly on GB’s performance it was very strong in terms of medals, but a bit frustrating on the gold count. But thats just the nature of sport and I’m sure those tight margins will swing the other way in LA. Not really sure that any of the sports need to do any soul searching in the way that Rowing did after Tokyo. 
 
Looking forward to LA, I’m hopeful that this could be our biggest overseas team ever, given the inclusion of many team sports. From my reckoning we have the ability to qualify both genders for Baseball/softball, cricket, hockey, flag football, football (mens team rumours dependent), lacrosse and rugby sevens.  
 
In terms of ideas for the club heading to LA, I would recommend looking at what some of the other nations had been doing for Paris before it is all removed, for some inspiration. It might be nice to have a designated GB qualification tracker table or a calendar of upcoming GB qualification events.
 
And finally, with the Paralympics not too far away, I hope we can have some kind of forum to discuss events, although likely not as large, given the strength of Para Sports in the UK

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

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. 

Olympics: British Olympic chiefs target men's football side at LA 2028 - BBC Sport

A positive little post games noise, but i've heard this one before, we can but hope

Unfortunately you have missed out on a medal and the funding is in danger. I'm just saying what I've been told

Analysis of Team GB’s performance from the British Olympic Association in this piece in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/11/britains-performance-in-paris-should-be-celebrated-claim-team-gb-chiefs
 
 

1. Alex Yee’s heroic kick off in the last seconds of the Triathlon to take the Gold.
 
2. Bryony Page’s reaction to winning the Gold.
 
3. Thorpe and Shortman taking the Silver in the Artistic Swimming. A really lovely backstory and I think it must be so hard being the pioneer in your sport in the country. They have nobody to look to but themselves and I hope it will inspire lots of people to give it a go. 
 
Honourable mentions: Pidcock’s comeback in the Men’s BMX and Roberts realising he’d won Gold. 

Last event 😭

And like 3 years ago, here i am watching water polo clutching on to the dying flames of the Olympics wishing it we had another week. 

Week 2 was underwhelming but hopefully we can bounce back in L.A and have more champion's like we know our team is capable off. I have enjoyed having this forum to share the experience with as well, and look forward to following the progress towards 2028 (and 2026 winters of course, but its not the same) maybe create a review topic for tomorrow? 

Winning more medals than tokyo, very good! 
Winning significantly less golds than expected, bad
Finishing below netherlands and other sporting rivals, very bad and hopefully the shot in the foot we need going into the next olympiad

Medal everyday of these Olympics. Carrying on from Tokyo 2020, our unbroken medal streak is at 30 days.
 
Emily Campbell is guaranteed a medal in the weightlifting, so we’ll be at least 65 which is one better than Tokyo. If Carlin takes a medal in the keiran, we’d finish on 66 which is one better than London.

Illness.

Really sound points made.
 
That artistic swimming medal is one of the stories of the games for me - they have such a great backstory with their mums competing for GB back in the 90s. Hope it gets the sport some exposure in the country. 
 
Climbing looks to be in a good place. I do wonder why we don’t manage to get anyone through on the speed side of things, something to maybe consider. There’s no doubt though the lead/bouldering is absolutely thrilling to watch. 
 
Cycling it’s tricky to say without Kate Archibald what could have been. The Canadian team have been dealing with a nasty sickness bug and you do wonder if something is going around the velodrome, much as it did the swimming teams. 
 
Boxing is a rebuilding cycle but also I think we and many other counties were screwed out of medal chances by dodgy judging. Wouldn’t be bothered if it didn’t feature in LA. 
 
Modern Pentathlon - Choong has already said he wants to take up fencing full time and will leave when obstacle courses are brought in. He has also said he didn’t want to compete and he’s upset because his girlfriend wasn’t selected. Obviously a lot going on there and I think he needs to take some time away to figure out what he wants. Brown seemed a solid competitor who could develop, but questions over the format going forward. 
 
Sailing is really disappointing. Micky Beckett was tipped as the next Ben Ainslie by Shirley Robertson. As you say an overall disappointing regatta salvaged only by Ellie Aldridge on a new discipline. Lessons to be learned. 
 
Major positive is rowing. Abysmal in Tokyo, yet here they are in Paris as the sport providing us with the most Gold medals. Proves that lessons can be learned when needed. 
 
They’ll go away and learn their lessons I’m sure, on to LA2028!

Athletics: Any Brits in the top twenty? No
Ceremonies: Who is/are the flagbearer(s)? KJT and Orangehair (removed due to funding cuts) Alex Yee
Cycling Track: Any golds? Yes
Modern Pentathlon: Gold? No
Weightlifting: Does Campbell get a medal? Yes
 
Huge thanks for doing these, very very enjoyable - even if at times due to other commitments my answers were some uneducated guesses!

63-65 will be the likely split tomorrow between Campbell, Finucane and Bryson/French. This has not been a successful games but any stretch but it's also not been bad - disappointing is the best way to describe it. Our likely final position in the medal table of 6th-8th best reflects our performance as a nation during the entire cycle, and a poor qualification campaign that started off so well and a dissapointing games packed with near misses after having the best 1st week in our history. The truth is we're going through a transition where we have older athletes in their last who aren't good enough any more to get to that top step and younger athletes in their first games who aren't experienced enough or have that clinical edge to take to the top step of the podium and this is reflected in our position in the medal table and our number of golds with our talent pool being reflected in the number of medals won. LA was always gonna be Rio 2.0, this was essentially just try and replicate what we did in Tokyo which we unfortunately failed to do. 

Dutch disqualified from the madison (not that it effects any of the standings) and fined €900 for improper conduct.

Perhaps van Schip may also face a lengthy professional ban for such dangerous and blatant behaviour. 
 
van Schip’s aggression, Telgenkamp’s disrespect and van de Velde… aren’t the Dutch embarrassed?
 

Really sound points made.
 
That artistic swimming medal is one of the stories of the games for me - they have such a great backstory with their mums competing for GB back in the 90s. Hope it gets the sport some exposure in the country. 
 
Climbing looks to be in a good place. I do wonder why we don’t manage to get anyone through on the speed side of things, something to maybe consider. There’s no doubt though the lead/bouldering is absolutely thrilling to watch. 
 
Cycling it’s tricky to say without Kate Archibald what could have been. The Canadian team have been dealing with a nasty sickness bug and you do wonder if something is going around the velodrome, much as it did the swimming teams. 
 
Boxing is a rebuilding cycle but also I think we and many other counties were screwed out of medal chances by dodgy judging. Wouldn’t be bothered if it didn’t feature in LA. 
 
Modern Pentathlon - Choong has already said he wants to take up fencing full time and will leave when obstacle courses are brought in. He has also said he didn’t want to compete and he’s upset because his girlfriend wasn’t selected. Obviously a lot going on there and I think he needs to take some time away to figure out what he wants. Brown seemed a solid competitor who could develop, but questions over the format going forward. 
 
Sailing is really disappointing. Micky Beckett was tipped as the next Ben Ainslie by Shirley Robertson. As you say an overall disappointing regatta salvaged only by Ellie Aldridge on a new discipline. Lessons to be learned. 
 
Major positive is rowing. Abysmal in Tokyo, yet here they are in Paris as the sport providing us with the most Gold medals. Proves that lessons can be learned when needed. 
 
They’ll go away and learn their lessons I’m sure, on to LA2028!

Seb Coe will go for it. Not sure he’ll get it though.

Well, when the torch is put out, these summaries, dodgy Photoshops and leaderboard tracking will be done. Thanks to you lot I enjoyed it!
 
Thank you for making this the most active national club for Paris 2024 on Totallympics. The daily threads ranged from about 100-200 posts a day. This blows our biggest rival clubs out of the water
 
Many of you took part in the Question of the Day and some of you even got some questions right. It seemed that for every sport most people didn't know, someone was on hand to explain. It looks like cjsavory will be the winner unless Olympicsnell puts up a Pidcockian effort at the end
 
We've had brilliant moments, near misses, promises (or threats) to cyber streak if the Dutch hockey team didn't win, and more serious moments too like the Dujardin discussion
 
I hope you stay around for the Paralympics, Milan and LA cycles, major world championships, qualifying, and the phantom Commonwealth Games
 
 

It is always good to ask questions. But:
 
UK Sport work on medals, not golds, and do that for a reason. The number of paper-thin 2nd places this time has been rather astonishing, 2 in the pool, three in the athletics, arguably one on the cycle track. Similarly a lot of hard luck fourths, perhaps most notably Lichfield who swam a blinder. In addition, as sometimes happens some other countries found the superman de jour - Harry Levreysen, Leon Marchand, etc. GB had that previously with Hoy or Kenny, but the table for multiple medalists this time is remarkably short for GB - therein lies your first issue.
 
Building on the last point, a big drop in golds, but no drop in medals suggests underlying relative health. We snigger at the US system of listing nations by number of medals rather than gold first - and its good to mock it - but under their system, GBR are third. More medals than the host, more than Australia. I'd rather be third on our list, but there's no way that's a disaster.
 
One of the biggest failures of the last games, rowing, has come Roaring back after just one cycle. Those sports that have underperformed this time don't need 'punished', they need a decent review, a bit of honesty and some critical thinking.
 
Sport by sport:
 
Archery: Havers and Hall rather took the bad look of the tournament with decent little runs in the individual. but generally, it was a shambles. Healey and Pitman are clearly both talented, but  that's not really cutting it here. I'm not suggesting we copy the South Koreans, because they are, frankly, loopy on this sport. Pure loopy. But there is no reason GB - the GB of robin hood and agincourt should not be looking at how the GB divers have made themselves the significant force beneth all conquering china and saying, we could do that.
 
Artistic swimming: We live in the age of miracles - what those two girls have done is nothing short. I admit, I don't understand the sport, and I'm not entirely certain I want to, but to even have one pair of this talent is the stuff of fantasy. GB Aquatics must be in pieces at this luck.
 
Athletics: As always with a sport this big, a curates egg. I heartily disagree with UKA attitude to selection, and I think the unfancied Fincham-Dukes wonderful 5th place bears that out. The non-medal result for the team for me was this morning Emile Cairess, 4th in the Olympic marathon - in a sense carrying on the good work of Callum Hawkins. This games has been a watershed, probably heavily linked with doping scandals, but the supernatural African dominance of distance events is clearly over - they will continue to be very strong, but they won't be unbeatable.
 
as for the rest, 5 relays medals is both good and bad - Women's 4x1 had gold at their mercy, the rest were brave bronzes. GB has Keely, Josh and Possibly Matthew all able to stretch to LA, it has Phoebe and Amber and Louie coming through, but this feels like a slightly aging team - Georgia Bell is not going to be Laura Muir's successor, sadly, though her medal was magnificent. KJT is unlikely to make it to LA. There is a lot of young talent concertinaed into certain events/areas - notably middle distance, but e need to start envigourating field events and decathlon - Jade's respectable debut suggest heptathlon will be all right long term.
 
UK athletics will be delighted to have justified its funding with 10 medals and a few near misses, and one or two chokes that might fix themselves. But the underlying problems remain. A stay of execution - but when your on death row, and stay is welcome.
 
Badminton, Table tennis: Very poor. just not at the races in these sports.
 
Swimming: Frustrating games, but not at all an actually bad one. Most of the big hitters got something, targets will have been safely met. but like athletics this is an aging team. We have a legendary generation likely to fade out at roughly the same time. And the female side remains frustratingly weak, which is my key takeaway. I have more faith in GB Aquatics than in UK Athletics, but the jr side also seems to be going downhill. Still, their cash should be very safe.
 
Diving - no golds for first time since 2012, but 5 medals, all the synchro, possibly dropped a couple more chances in Jack and Andrea, but the depth is excellent, the youth is coming through, Tom and Jack can now go off, their labours complete.
 
Equestrian : Excellent team work, some disappointments on the individuals. The post Games debrief on Dujardin may be brutal - the question will be do they try and rehabilitate her, given she remains a major talent, or do they throw the book at her for the good of the sport. Hester will be a significant player in that game. Other than that, obviously they are in good shape
 
Climbing : Absolutely excellent, topped off with gold from a prodigy. Could not have asked for more, and can see this going on to be a huge thing for GB
 
Canoe Slalom - slightly disappointed not to get a gold somewhere, but all in all a very, very creditable performance with only Mallory missing out, and she held the fort last time; we seem to have good reserves on men's side, not so sure on the women's. But the system obviously works. For slalom. 
 
Cycling - still one important day to go so caveats, but a bit of a malaise seems to have fallen on almost the entire UK cycling scene. Given the pretty dreadful madison today - and, really Netherlands, headbutts? - I'm not convinced there's not some illness in the camp. Pleasantly surprised at the men's sprint under the direction of that stout yeoman Jack Carlin (4 medals in two games - he may not be Hoy or Kenny, but in historic context, that's excellent). not to cross about Beth or Kye, that shit happens, tom did Tom things but the men's road squad disappointed. The problem for cycling is they get a LOT of money as the medal factory, and other sports are possible entitled to say, hold on, they aren't the factory any more. By the same token cycling still produces umpteen medals. rather than lose funds, I suspect there may be some coaching turnover - though CArlins success probably means a bigger role for Jason Kenny who passed his first test.
 
Gymnastics - one of those sports with a lot of near misses. The  women's team nearly produced a team miracle, and if the Gadirovas and Achompng return fit, there's a squad there. Notwithstanding disappointments, the boys side actually look in good shape going forward, as do the trampolinists who will come to the fore now Bethany Page is probably done
 
Golf, not really an issue, great medal for Tommy.
 
Hockey, Rugby 7s...I think GB need a root and branch review of how team sports outside football operate, from grass roots to would be elite. Obviously the current UK sport model doesn't work with that kind of sport, and we should stop trying to make it fit that paradigm, it's pointless.
 
Judo, Boxing...It's been a pretty brutal cycle all round for these two combat sports. Sometimes, the talent is not there...but neither should the sports be waiting around for talent to magically appear. Judo, in particular, concerns me
 
Modern pentathlon - girls doing absolute fine, but boys...disastrous fencing rounds from Joe Choong and Charlie brown killed any challenge - Choong, frankly, looks like he's sick of the whole thing, perhaps understandably. I predict he quits the sport before the obstacle race gets added - indeed, they all might; it's hard to underestimate how important equestrianism is domestically to populate this sport - some countries come  to it through a fencing culture; GB always came through a pony club culture.
 
Rowing - The big winner in my view, they really got their mojo back, A+
 
Sailing - begorrah, but Eli Aldridge saved your bacon this week - very, very mediocre regatta otherwise, and a few questions to ask
 
Shooting - at the other extreme, the shooters have done well. Seoniad was a bit of a disappointment, but what should have been two golds is an excellent return on limited investment
 
Skateboarding - in women's park there seems to be a good clutch of girls to come through. But it's not our natural milieu
 
Tennis: Issues go beyond Olympics as with golf, but it was a fun ride all the same. Thanks, Andy
 
triathlon - excellent returns on investment.  some issues on male side but Sam Dickinson did trojan work, and I see reasons for hope heading to LA
 
taekwondo - 1 medal seems a low return, but it's not really, in context, the arcane qualification rules, and Bradly's unfortunate injury have to be taken into account. Somewhat relieved Jones did not medal in context. Time to move on I think from that generation.
 
Weightlifting - pretty sure injury has removed any realistic chance of a medal tomorrow, but lets see.
 
 

Interesting that all the dutch screaming for carlins head have been very quiet about their madison team since what looks like a clear targeted hit on oliver wood