Epic Failure

My entirely snap judgment is that Judo and Badminton are *extremely* lucky to receive uplifts considering their recent record, and also that UK Sport clearly has little support for UKA right now.

Technically he became known as the 'brains' behind a small independent trade team that was outperforming national teams, before then working with the Danish TP in Tokyo. It was after all that happened that INEOS/GB finally came calling. I think they never fully appreciated his talents until it was almost too late.

The Red Wings' maverick approach of having practically no competent defenders or goalies has started about as well as you would imagine that it would. Looks like it could be a long season....

Completely dumb and unnecessary.

Well...mostly unstoppable.

Got a bit hairy late, but pull away from 58-55 in the rugby.

lead in the rugby 28-27 at the half.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo These sportsmen and women are tough cookies.

Dammit. Had I made it to Paris I'd still have been in with a shot, but LA looks like I'll be aged out!

I'm sure he doesn't. But I'm sure that he feels better for the relay and probably wouldn't have benefitted if they had spent the entire week just telling him what an idiot he was for the FS. Maybe they did. Who knows? The point isn't to criticise winning but criticising winning at all costs (and therefore, by default, writing off those that didn't win but only got bronze or a top 8 finish as not worthy of admiration).

Which is even more impressive when you realise that some of France's top 8s were effectively guaranteed by being the host nation.

I think both are important. Like, I'm not going to criticise Australia and the Netherlands for being delighted with their gold figures in Paris. They should be rightly proud. Equally, I think we should be rightly proud of our overall performance, especially in terms of total medals. Other countries can be proud of their first medal, or in some cases their first final. There's not a limit to happiness! In related news, I'm pleased with the comments coming out of UK Sport, looking at both their own website and the Beeb story about the athletes coming back from the Games. I still hope that they (and the various sports) have the sensible tough discussions that all good governance should have but also that a "win at all costs" mentality is not necessarily conducive to healthy environments.

Men have competition from Ireland as well. Bigger issue will be whether Scotland will agree to work with the ECB on this or do a football. Obviously Wales isn't a problem on that side. On the subject of how people performed, think you are being harsh to some sports, if you are judging them on how they could have been expected on form. The women's rugby were not seeded to qualify from the group. So coming 7th is an over-peformance on that front. There's a separate argument about whether they should be doing better generally but that isn't related to the performance at the games. Same with table tennis - both Hursey and Pitchford lost to higher seeded players in the round you would expect them to do so. That's doing what is expected to me. Again, if we want to consider the overall health of the sport, that's a different matter. Skateboarding getting a 5 whilst mountain biking getting a 10 also seems weird. Both delivered pretty much exactly what we might have expected from them.

I dislike that Yorkshire gets its own segment but the right side of the Pennines just gets lumped into "North West".

I really want to but LA in July and August makes my pasty British body burn in anticipation.