Rafa Maciel

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.

Can't help but feel decidedly underwhelmed by the qualifying performances across a lot of the sports - after Tokyo I was expecting us to be sending a much bigger team.

"that thing"?

To be fair to Learmouth, he wanted the opportunity to run in front of a home crowd - there's not that many opportunities for major sporting events to be held in Scotland after all. Sure he may not have exactly set the track alight but there was every chance that he could have/would have put in a decent performance. I agree with you on your second point - nothing is going to change whilst the recognisable names of the sport speak out. That should have started earlier this year with the talking heads on the BBC - but given Denise Lewis' view of Learmouth was "he just wasn't good enough to be selected" and Ennis-Hill doesn't want to say anything that could be viewed as controversial, that's not likely to happen. I'll be interested to see if it is brought up again in Paris and whether Michael Johnson has a more forthright opinion on it (but I kind of doubt it). So, as you say, until you get the likes of DAS, Hodgkinson, Reekie, Muir, Kerr, KJT, Wightman etc. going public and criticising the sport, nothing will change and that should be worrying for everyone in the sport given we are due to host the Europeans in '26 and there is a real risk that if we carry on with the selection policy, GB will be missing from the majority of field events and have limited representation on the track.

A couple of surprising results over the last few days. I really didn't think that Dart would be able to trouble Katie Boulter given the form that she's be in this grass court season. Unfortunately I think Dart's run will likely come to an end in the next round. Biggest surprise was Cam Norrie finally getting his s**t together this season to beat Jack Draper. I had expected Draper to make a deep run into the draw and I definitely think he'll view it as a missed opportunity. Good to see Raducanu back to the kind of form that took her to the US Open title. The draw to the semi-final has really opened up for her. With her results so far this week, she should be back inside the top 100 and if she can win her next match (against a qualifier from New Zealand) she'll be knocking on the top 60. There's always 1 British player who has a bit of a breakout tournament and this year that honour goes to Sonay Kartal. OK she was steamrollered in the 2nd set against Gauff, but she was able to hold her own in the first set.

So maybe I am reading too much into the presentation of the squad announcement for the women's road cycling team but on first reading, it looks like GB may not be filling their second spot in the women's individual time trial - it's only Anna Henderson that is showing as taking part.

Anyone have Kartal getting through to the 3rd round on their bingo card? She's having quite a week.

After defeats for Watson, Broady, Broom and Frey, Raducanu becomes first Brit to progress to the second round with an entertaining 7-6 6-4 victory over the Mexican luck loser Renata Zarazua. That was quickly followed by an excellent win for Lily Miyazaki who came through comfortably 6-2 6-1 over Tamara Korpatsch. Worth saying that it's only day 1 but the quarter of the draw that Raducanu is in has already started to open up with the withdrawal of Sabalenka and the defeat of 6th seed Zheng Qinwen.

Heather Watson becomes first Brit to fall, losing to her doubles partner in straight sets - 7-5 6-4. Watson didn't win a point until the 3rd game of the first set but she came back pretty strongly in the first set winning 4 games in a row to lead 5-4. Ultimately, Minnen was able to raise her game enough to break back and take the set. The second set was close but Watson paid the price for some erratic serving.

Emma Raducanu gets a big boost ahead of her 1st round as 22nd seed Ekaterina Alexandrova has withdrawn with illness. Raducanu now faces a lucky loser - #98 Renata Zarazua.

My argument was purely that the cost of sending the team to an Olympic games falls to the BOA - preparing the athletes for the games absolutely falls to the national federations. Having said that, given the games are only a few weeks away, those costs have already been incurred so unlikely to be much more in the way of additional costs for UKA. I'm not disputing that UKA is financially challenged (and grossly mismanaged) but at the same time, I can't think of a recent major event that UKA have not sent a decent sized squad to with the exception of race walking. The biggest impact we've seen from the financial situation has been that the number of athletics events that the UK is hosting has been reduced to bare minimum. The biggest impact on the squad selection approach has been brought about by the hiring of Jack Buckner. I've no doubt that the introduction of the limited number of places on the team for the Europeans was brought about by him. Given that was the system he used at British Swimming, we probably shouldn't be too surprised by it. I don't think the policy works particularly well or is fair, but until the bigger named athletes start using their platform and speaking out against the selection policy then we're stuck with it.

I don't think cost is a factor when it comes to the Olympics as the costs of sending the team, support staff etc. are borne by the BOA as opposed to UK Athletics.