Rafa Maciel

Great chance of 2 floor finalists - Jarman's score upgraded to 14.966 and Luke Whitehouse with 14.533.

First potential shock in qualifying - world bronze medalist Ahmad Abu Al Soud unlikely to make the final on pommel as he scores just 12.466

On slightly less positive news, Jake Jarman didn't have a great second vault and scores 14.699 overall. He currently sits 3rd behind team mate Hepworth (14.766) and Benovic (14.733). He should still make the final, but it could be close. Having said that, he did score more than he did in qualifying for Antwerp and we know how that ended.

Strong start for GB in the Eventing - Tom McEwen topping the table after the first round of team riders

Half an hour in and BBC still haven't shown any sport - in fact they are basically repeating the same stuff they showed in the run up to the opening ceremony last night. It doesn't exactly fill me with hope for the next 2 weeks. I have no idea what the Chinese commentators are saying, but at least they are showing a live handball match

OK - I think I am giving up on this. For the first time since Barcelona, I'm not going to make it through an opening ceremony but it's 3:30 now and I don't think I can stomach another 2 hours of this.

Although some people would argue that it looks a lot like a Persimmon new build

These statues look very plastic and a bit flimsy - like a gust of wind could have them toppling into the Seine

Did I miss the bit where they explained who/what he was?

The metal/opera bit has been the strongest element so far - visually impressive but I'm still not convinced that they've got the sound levels right. Maybe they are paying the price of not being able to have a full rehearsal.

This is definitely beginning to stray into the territory of being weird. Watching this I am getting a greater appreciation for what the non-Brits must have felt like when they were watching all those nurses pushing hospital beds around at London 2012.

When do we get to the cultural part? I've heard Lady Gaga being described in a variety of ways, but can't say "cultural" has ever been one of them

Fair play to them for trying something different but it's not really working for me. For all the focus on who would be the flag bearers, they are just getting lost in amongst the crowd. Not sure if it's just me but the sound on the Gaga performance was terrible.

Technically they are 3/4 of the way through for the mixed team

As a "country wane", have to say, I thought the video was all a bit 'meh' in the end - but I do think it will be difficult for her to recover from. Watching the longer version that is doing the rounds, it's not like she was constantly whipping the horse. Typically, they were grouped together in 3 or 4 strikes. I think I counted 6 in relative quick succession early on, but from the sound, it was equally possible that some of those strikes hit the wall and not the horse itself. That being said, there was one strike at the start of the video where she had a kind of two-handed lunge which I did think looked bad. One of the interesting things in the video is that far from being disgusted or worried about what they were seeing, the person who was filming could be heard laughing in the background.

If I remember correctly from the winter Olympics, on Sky at least, Eurosport had a separate channel for each of the events but I am not sure if they are doing the same thing for Paris. For anyone who has Sky and hasn't done it already, definitely worth setting up your free Discovery+ subscription.

Isn't Whitlock competing on the Saturday morning? Normally the athletes who are competing on the first day don't even attend the opening ceremony because of the time it takes.

This is the second prediction that I have seen with Mathilde Gros taking the gold in the individual sprint in track cycling. Whilst I do think the French team will benefit from home crowd advantage, I just can't see it helping Gros to that extent. She was 7th at the Worlds last year, 4th at this year's Europeans and although she did win the last Nations Cup, it was the weakest field in the series. What am I missing?

I am almost willing to bet that everyday BBC coverage will have at least 1 insert talking about sustainability and environmental impact of the games, which would be fine if they didn't prioritise it over showing some live action.

Surely that is a distinction without a difference - given he was second on stage 9 last week, his fitness levels would seem to have been just fine prior to falling ill with Covid.

So, the UCI is still showing with 2 spots in the women's time trial whereas , , and others are all showing as having declined time trial quotas. Assume that means GB Cycling are still to make their mind up on who will line up for the second spot.

Fred Wright another who withdrew from TdF with potential Covid. Who knows, it could work in their favour if symptoms are mild - they'll lose a few days of training but at least we know they should make it to the starting line in one piece.

Did Okoro get the OQT? I thought she had missed it on the 50 and the 100 so she wouldn't be eligible for an individual place?

I blame and I say that as a Scotsman.

Was going to wait until after the games before conducting postmortem but here's my current thinking: Archery - I completely agree with you - this is probably the biggest surprise of the qualifying cycle. We've got 2 strong archers on the women's side but we've struggled to get a 3rd at the same level. On the men's side, there was nothing in the results in the run up to the qualifying event that suggested they would qualify. Artistic Swimming - It's great that we got the duet in and that they are likely to be in the mix for medals come Paris. I am however disappointed that GB didn't at least contend for a team quota at the World Champs. I'm not suggesting they would have got it, but they at least need to be putting themselves in the fight. Athletics - Wont spent too much time on this as the squad could have and should have been bigger. We've lost some to injury but equally the management of UKA are basically doing everything they can to destroy the sport - particularly the field events. That being said, we could easily come back with half a dozen medals from athletics and everyone will be patting themselves on the back and praising the fact that we are raising the standard. Badminton - At the start of the qualifying cycle I think it would have been fair to project a quota across all events except for men's singles after the retirement of Toby Penty. To not have a pairing in the mixed doubles and/or the women's doubles is disappointing. Basketball - The progression made by the women's basketball team seems to have stalled. Again, I'm not saying that we were going to qualify but it is disappointing that the women threw away their chances against Germany and the decision of the men to reject their place in the OQT is another wasted opportunity. On the upside, early signs that the federation are taking things a bit more seriously ahead of LA and we should hopefully be seeing GB 3x3 squads competing in the near term. Beach Volleyball - The Bello brothers came close and were unlucky that injury impacted the early part of the qualifying window. On the upside, they are beginning to show greater degree of consistency. Boxing - This was a mess across all 3 qualifying tournaments. I appreciate your comment on the impact of changes to qualifying system, but simply put, too many of our boxers lost too early. Breaking - Like you, I don't care - I just hope they don't get any additional public funding ahead of LA. Canoe - Agree on slalom and with your comment about GB not being a natural sprint canoe nation but at the same time, we are among the strongest nations at the para-sprint events so the program is clearly in place and we've had reasonable representation in the sport across multiple cycles so this definitely feels like a sport that has regressed since Tokyo. Cycling - As you say, plenty of positives to focus on with the disappointment being the BMX racing - across both men and women TBH. On the men's side, we have more depth and should have been able to get 2 quotas whilst on the women's side, perhaps if Shriever had competed in the European cup events, GB could sneaked a second spot for Emily Hutt. On the freestyle events, had the original qualifying document stood, I think we would have got 2 quotas for both the men and women so the disappointment here is more aimed at the UCI changing the goalposts halfway through the qualifying window. Equestrian - great to have a full team, disappointing that world number 1 Oliver Townend isn't on the team due to injury. Fencing - Sure we're not great at the sport, but still disappointing not to have a single fencer competing on the biggest stage. Football - Another instance where my disappointment is less aimed at the team and more at governing body. As continental champion that would be enough for pretty much every other continent to qualify - but not for UEFA. Runner-up at the world cup should have been more than enough to qualify as European representative and would have been at pretty much every other Olympic cycle, but not this time. Instead UEFA decides to add a new competition right after the world cup when our squad were knackered. Golf - Technically it's not a full house as we could have qualified a maximum of 4 had they all been in the top 15. As it is, 2+2 is as good as we could have hoped for. Gymnastics - I was impressed that the artistic teams were able to nail the quota at the first opportunity but perhaps that was the benefit of home crowd. Sadly the women's team has since been decimated by injury. Still have some decent medal chances though on the men's side. For trampoline, I won't lie, I would have liked that second quota in the men's event but that was always going to be a stretch given the weird qualifying pathways that was in place. For rhythmic gymnastics, I wasn't expecting a quota. Handball - I'm just happy that we actually seem to have an active handball squad now and appreciate the fact that even though they knew they didn't have cat in hell's chance of qualifying, when the chance came for them to compete at the qualifying tournament, they jumped at the opportunity. Hockey - Remains the only team event where we can generally be confident that we can qualify. Judo - Another major disappointment but only on the men's side. Going into the qualifying period, there were realistic prospect for Hall, Moorhead and Petgrave to qualify and none of them did. OK, Hall was injured early on and changed his weight class which impacted his chances but none of the men's squad performed when it mattered most - you just can't make the Olympics if all you are getting are participation points. Modern Pentathlon - No complaints from me. I do wonder if Choong has already mentally checked-out from the sport at the lower level events but still think he will raise his game when it comes to Paris - He wants to bow out as double Olympic champion. Rowing - I've no doubt that the rowing squad will come back with multiple medals but this is another sport where disappointment is aimed at the federation rather than the squad themselves - why did we not even try to qualify the men's double sculls at the last chance regatta? Rugby 7s - The whole campaign on the men's side was a endless stream of disappointment. Sailing - Full squad so happy days. Shooting - It is disappointing that we started off so strongly and backed a handful of early quotas but never seemed to be able to build on that. Biggest disappointment is the men's skeet but equally, we had plenty of disappointing performances from the likes of coward-Holley who can count himself lucky that he got quota through ranking because he wasn't exactly challenging for quota when it mattered. Skateboarding - Let's be honest, all we really cared about was getting Sky Brown on the start list. Anyone after that was a bonus, even if it is a guy who is heading towards pension age. Nevertheless, skateboarding was probably our weakest discipline in the OQS - we seemed to qualify plenty of athletes, but few of them were able to rise to the occasion. Sport Climbing - Given we started from such a low base, to now have full team in the boulder/lead events is impressive. Hopefully going into LA the speed program can see similar development. Surfing - I wasn't really expecting a quota so I can't complain. Table Tennis - The men's team were in a qualifying position for the majority of the qualifying window so disappointing that their chances were scuppered by injury when it mattered most. Taekwondo - I hate the qualifying limitations in this sport - it's basically designed to benefit China. So I'm happy we got 4 qualified (and all genuine medal contenders) but i would have liked us to have the opportunity to fight for more. Tennis - Hmmm not actually sure what to think on this. On the plus side, we got full team on the men's side but on the downside, Neil Skupski dropped out of the top 10 in the doubles ranking - had he held on to top-10 place, I think we would have been guaranteed 2 doubles pairings. On the women's side, we've Boulter in as a seed, but she's not going to do anything. Jodie Burrage probably would have been in with a shout of qualifying but was sidelined with injury and Raducanu being Raducanu, decides not to play. Triathlon - Second games where we haven't been able to get the 3rd quota on the men's side and if anything, it feels like we were further away from getting this time compared to Tokyo. Volleyball - I mean, do we even have a national volleyball team now? BTW - I am WAY too old to be "dude!" Weightlifting - It's a shame that the reduction in quotas had such a drastic impact on the GB squad numbers - going down from 4 in Tokyo to just 1 in Paris is understandable, but disappointing nonetheless. Wrestling - Why this is still an Olympic sport is a mystery to me. Swimming - Final sport where disappointment is aimed at the federation and not the squad. There is absolutely no excuse for any federation to be building a maximum team size into their selection policies. Their job is to encourage participation, not to limit people's aspirations. Diving - Full squad so again, job done.