TeamGB

If you has said at the beginning of last season that all 3 of the new girls would win a world cup I would have looked at you in shock. I don't think the qualification for 2026 has started yet but surely we must be contenders for a full skeleton squad alongside the Germans.

My knowledge of Winter sport isn't great, and I feel I tend to be over optimistic but I'll give it a go for . Alpine Skiing - Never won a medal before but Zak-Carrick Smith picked up 3 including 2 golds at the Winter Youth Olympics earlier in the year. It's clearly a very outside shot but we will see how he progresses. Dave Ryding could also medal on his day, although he will be 39 in 2026 Bobsleigh - Brad Hall and Co have been in with a shot for a number of years now, winning numerous medals on the worlds circuit. 2026 will likely be their last but I can see them giving it a good go. Adele Nicoll is still a relative newbie but with another 2 seasons under her belt and some help from hall she could be a contender. Cross Country Skiing - Andrew Musgrave is still kicking around and he has won world cup medals in the past. Curling - In 2022 our only medals came in curling. Bruce Mouat will certainly go in as one of the favourites, but the women's team is going through a bit of rebuilding. Double gold at the winter youth games bodes well for the future Figure Skating - Fear and Gibson have looked good this year and could return us to the golden era of the 80's. Freestyle Skiing - Zoe Atkin and Kirsty Muir both won medals at last year world cup, and Atkin took silver at the worlds, so they would be medal contenders, but both in very crowded events Short Track Speed Skating - Not really and serious opportunities after the retirement of Elise Christie. Skeleton - After an extremely disappointing Beijing, the team has bounced back well and will be competitive in all 3 events, it's nice to see the team having a range of strong athletes rather than being dominated by a couple of exceptional ones. We better not do to well though, or the American's may blame us for cheating again. Snowboarding - Mia Brookes is the current world Champion, and would be the most likely to medal in 2026. In the Snowboard Cross, Charlotte Bankes will be up there, and I feel like Huw Nightingale could progress this year, after some great performances in the Mixed team event. As is the case with British Winter Sport, there are no clear favourites in any events, but there is a nice mix of competitive athletes in a diverse range of sports.

Coming into Beijing, I (perhaps naïvely), believed that GB could get 5+ golds. In 2026, that possibility is still there, if not slightly greater, but my expectations have been lowered. We are still quite far away from the games but I feel the team is shaping up quite nicely, with a nice breadth of medal contending sports as opposed to our usual medal factories.

https://www.britishswimming.org/news/latest-swimming-news/olympic-medallists-and-senior-debutants-combine-for-world-short-course-champs/ Team for Short Course Worlds in December.

I remember a couple of years during the athletics worlds in Oregon one of the British athletes wasn’t able to enter the US due to visa issues. I feel like something similar will happen in LA, and I don’t envisage Trump succumbing to an appeal to let an unfortunate athlete in.

Some other fast swims today include a new commonwealth record by Duncan Scott in the 400m free and a European record in the 100m IM by Marchand. Watch out for some quick swims in the 200m free and 200m IM later on.

Has the UCI website glitched or has Josh Charlton just beaten Gannas Individual Pursuit World Record?!!!

I seem to recall that the qualifying was streamed for glasgow in 2023, although I think that was just because it was being integrated with the para track racing.

GB team for 2024 UCI Track Cycling world Championships Based on provisional UCI entry list (individual events only) Men's Sprint Hayden Norris - Sprint, Keirin, Kilo Joe Truman - Sprint, Keirin, Kilo Harry Ledingham-Horn - Sprint, Keirin Alistair Fielding Marcus Hiley Men's Endurance Will Tidball - Elimination (R) Noah Hobbs - Elimination, Scratch (R), Omnium (R) Josh Charlton - Individual Pursuit Dan Bigham - Individual Pursuit Charlie Tanfield - Individual Pursuit Josh Tarling - Scratch, Madison Mark Stewart - Points Race, Madison Will Perret - Points Race (R) Ethan Hayter - Omnium Ollie Wood - Madison (R) Ethan Vernon Rhys Britton Michael Gill Women's Sprint Sophie Capewell - Sprint, Keirin (R), 500m TT Emma Finucane - Sprint, Keirin, 500m TT (R) Lowri Thomas - Sprint (R), 500m TT Katie Marchant - Sprint, Keirin, 500m TT Women's Endurance Jess Roberts - Elimination, Individual Pursuit (R), Omnium Katie Archibald - Elimination (R), Madison Josie Knight - Individual Pursuit Anna Morris - Individual Pursuit Megan Barker - Individual Pursuit Neah Evans - Scratch, Points Race, Omnium (R), Madison Sophie Lewis - Scratch (R) Madeline Leech - Points Race (R) Elinor Barker - Madison (R)

Badminton My prediction - 1 Gold, 3 medals Result - 0 Gold, 2 medals The results were marginally better than Tokyo although some events felt like a missed opportunity. Dan Bethell was particularly unfortunate to miss out on gold, whist Coombs was beaten more comprehensively. In LA, the programme may well be extended even more and so it is important that the team expands with it. There are 6 members of the Para Badminton performance squad but the team sent 21 athletes to the European championships last year, so the set up is quite deep. Obviously it is too early to predict who will retire and who will break through but the overall squad feels like it is in a fairly good place.

Athletics My prediction - 10 golds, 30 medals Result - 6 golds, 18 medals There is no hiding that this result was pretty disappointing, and another reason UK athletics is not working as intended. Much like with the olympic squad, the team was considerably smaller than previous games, although the total medal haul was far lower then exceptions than for the Olympics. The team was terrible but the overall results were definitely 'carried' by the performances of some athletes. 1 mens wheelchair medal is very poor, especially given the pedigree of all the athletes competing. The team was heading through a transitional phase heading into Tokyo, and it feels like the squad has regressed since then. Looking towards LA, Cockroft seems pretty confident of competing again, Sandilands will be 25, Kinghorn 32 (in an event with lots of longevity), and Fortune will be 31, so will hopefully be contenders again. Many of the throwing squad will be in their mid to late 30's but again the sport can see older athletes compete. 16 year old Maddie Down will likely be competing and could challenge in LA, but apart from that there aren't really any stand out young athletes. The future will alway be unknown and I'm sure new athletes will come through, but the trends shown aren't that promising.

Archery My prediction - 0 golds, 2 medals Result - 1 Gold, 2 medals The team this year was much smaller then previous years, which is a slightly concerning trend for the development of the sport. However, the team still performed strongly, exceeding expectations and bringing home a gold. There are currently 8 members of the world class para squad, 4 of whom went to Paris. The team is comprised of a large range of ages, although the age impairments of archery aren't as large as in other sports. A new performance archery centre opened in Lilleshall at the start of this year, which looks to have world class facilities and hopefully will improve both Olympic and Paralympic results across the next cycle. In addition to this a new para academy was established last year, which will also be a boost to the teams chances.

With the games drawing to a close today, I thought I would look back over the last couple of weeks of sporting action, compare the results to my predictions and discuss what the future looks like in LA.

Day 10 - 7th September 2024 Apologies for a lack of schedules the past couple of days, I have been really busy with work. 08:30 - Road Cycling - Men's C1-3 Road Race - Fin Graham, Ben Watson, Jaco van Gass, Matthew Robertson 08:35 - Road Cycling - Women's C1-3 Road Race - Frances Brown, Dafne Schrager 08:40 - Swimming - Women's 200m IM SM10 - Heats - Faye Rogers (Q3) 09:00 - Athletics - Men's Long Jump T13 - Final - Zak Skinner 09:11 - Athletics - Men's 800m T34 - Final - Isaac Towers 09:12 - Judo - Men's +90kg J2 - Quarterfinals - Skelley vs Zorgani 09:12 - Judo - Men's -90kg J2 - Quarterfinals - Casanova vs Molloy 09:15 - Canoe - Men's KL2 200m - Semifinal - Dave Phillipson 09:16 - Athletics - Women's 100m Butterfly S8 - Heats - Alice Tai, Brock Whiston 09:28 - Canoe - Women's VL2 200m - Semifinal - Jeannette Chippington 09:31 - Swimming - Women's 50m Butterfly S7 - Heats - Iona Winnifrith 09:42 - Canoe - Men's KL3 200m - Semifinal - Rob Oliver 09:47 - Swimming - Men's 100m Butterfly S12 - Heats - Stephen Clegg 09:48 - Judo - Men's -90kg J1 - Quarterfinal - Powell vs TBD 09:57 - Equestrian - Individual Freestye G5 - Sophie Wells 10:28 - Athletics - Women's 100m T63 - Round 1 - Didi Okoh 10:36 - Canoe - Men's KL2 200m - Final - Dave Phillipson (P) 10:36 - Canoe - Women's VL2 - Final - Jeannette Chippington (P), Emma Wiggs 11:10 - Canoe - Men's KL3 200m - Final - Rob Oliver (P) 11:36 - Canoe - Women's VL3 - Final - Charlotte Henshaw, Hope Gordon 11:39 - Equestrian - Individual Freestyle G1 - Mari Durward-Akhurst 11:40 - Fencing - Men's Team Epee - Quarterfinal - vs 12:30 - Tennis - Men's Singles - Final - Hewett vs Oda 13:06 - Equestrian - Individual Freestyle G2 - Georgia Wilson 14:33 - Equestrian - Individual Freestyle G3 - Georgia Baker 16:00 - Powerlifting - Women's -97kg - Louise Sugden 19:20 - Athletics - Men's Shot Put T63 - Final - Aled Davies 16:38 - Swimming - Women's 200m IM SM10 - Final - Faye Rogers 17:07 - Swimming - Women's 100m Butterfly S8 - Final - Alice Tai, Brock Whiston (P) 17:36 - Swimming - Women's 50m Butterfly S7 - Final - Iona Winnifrith (P) 18:27 - Swimming - Men's 100m Butterfly S12 - Final - Stephen Clegg (P) 19:25 - Athletics - Women's 800m T34 - Final - Hannah Cockroft, Kare Adenegan, Fabienne Andre 20:30 - Basketball - Men's Tournament - Final - vs 20:37 - Athletics - Women's 100m T63 - Round 1 - Didi Okoh (P)

Takes it by 4 seconds!!