Epic Failure

So take this with a huge grain of salt because it is only my opinion, but I reckon that 88 of our 135 top 8 finishes have a strong chance of being back in LA. Of that 88, 40 of our 65 medalists could reasonably return, including 12 of our golds. My vague methodology to work it out was removing anyone who would be over 30 in 2028, or potentially even younger in some sports (ie swimmers and gymnasts sometimes retire competitively by the time they are 25). I've also positively included teams like rowers, where we always seem to find someone who will be at least competitive in most disciplines. Same with athletics relays etc. I've been cautious in my thinking, erring on the side of ruling someone out if I thought there was any doubt. Obviously there will undoubtedly be some of the athletes who will make it who are older and some younger who won't. But it is a good starting point to consider. This definitely was not a team of grizzled veterans.

I really hope so. Would be a shame to lose it. If we do lose it, I'd prefer it to be in 2030 after a successful Canadian hosting. Just because I think there would be a lovely symmetry to that.

1. Everything about Tom Pidcock's mountain biking 2. The artistic swimming, both the performance and the reaction. 3. Megan Keith epitomising the Olympic spirit in the 10000m.

Actually, the progression in the 800 is far more believable. She went 2:03 as a 20 year old, coming second in the British age group champs in 2014. Hell, she'd gone 2:08 as a 15 year old. That might not sound impressive, but it is quicker than Phoebe Gill went at the same age. Bell was a talented youth who fell out of love with the sport after a disastrous few years, including a couple of years in the NCAAs which did nothing for her. She's now being trained by the same coaches as Keely Hodgkinson, coaches which include Jenny Meadows (a 1:57 800m runner herself). I understand that people will have their doubts and I'm certainly not going to sit here and claim that no British person would ever be a doper. But let's not also pretend that she has no absolutely no athletic background at all either.

So I've not worked out exactly, but with the medals won by teams etc, around 110 of our 320-ish athletes are coming back with a medal of some colour. 36 athletes will be coming back with a gold. That sounds like a silly thing to care about, but each of those medalists might serve as an inspiration to someone from their local community down the line. You just never know.

I just hate the 2 week wait until the Paralympics start. Don't want to go back to normal life. Not having a Commonwealths in 26 sucks as well. Normally that's a lovely mid point in cycles.

I'm sure that I'll think of others down the line but right now the ones that come to mind are the general enthusiasm that the skateboarders (amongst others) have for each other's performances, the women especially. It just seems a sport filled with positivity. And in a similar note to the marathon, Megan Keith persevering in finishing the women's 10000m the other night, despite being well off her best form. It would have been easier to DNF, especially as she started the final lap after everyone else had finished. Glad the crowd got behind her. A reminder for us all that these are people trying their best. And sometimes their best on the day is just completing the race.

Today definitely falls into the "bad luck" argument for me. We lose a potential gold medal hope to illness, we lose 2 minor medal hopes to crashes in front of them, and we get a bronze in an event where there's not an unreasonable chance that had she been on the other side of the draw it might have been silver. The only real disappointment today is the selection of Evans, who looks hopelessly off form. Thanks to Emma and Emily we get through the Games winning a medal every day, which is a first for us that I know about, at least in the modern era. Overall, a good games for me. Not a great games, the drop in gold clearly prevents that. I've no doubt that it will be seen as worse in public perception than it actually was, because of that drop in gold. We increase our total medal tally from Tokyo, as well as our top 8 finishes (as things stand; please no drugs failures taking things away!). We match the tally from Tokyo of medalling in 18 different sports, including 2 new ones (artistic swimming and climbing). That to me shows that our sports are generally in a good place. Clearly I'm sure there will be serious conversations happening, as there should be. But - for me at least - it's easier to have those conversation when you have some silverware to back it up. It shows a system that is mostly working but needs tweaking, rather than a system that needs ripping out and starting again.

Any sport worth its salt will have tough questions for itself. That's how you keep competing. I'm sure rowing asked itself some taxing things after Tokyo. But the "plucky top 10" finishes are important. Because that shows a sport in good health, not a sport that needs a complete reset or should lose funding. For some of the smaller sports, getting that plucky top 10 might be the difference between them being funded and not. Track cycling will come home with, at worst, matching the total medal haul from Tokyo. Again, it should ask tough questions because that's healthy. But it should also be acknowledged that it still delivered hardware.

I think we're forgetting some of the early results in the relatively disappointing week 2. We had both good and bad luck in the mountain biking, for example. We also had one of the German riders not making it round the cross country, and the Chinese top qualifier in the trampolining mucking up. I'm not disagreeing with your assessment generally that the top step has escaped us more than we would like, or that seems reasonable. But it hasn't *all* gone wrong in that way.

I know you're (at least partially, I presume) joking, but I would argue that it is a better measure of general sporting excellence. Whereas golds are a better measure of performance on the day. Both have value. And post games we should be looking at where we might be able to make the infamous marginal gains to potentially change the ratio in LA. We're going to hit about the same number of medals and top 8 finishes as we had in London/Rio/Tokyo. The only real difference in the games is the number of golds.

Has to be above the chinstrap I think and I'm not sure it was.

It's the speed of things I think. The athletes obviously tend to get it right more often than not because they feel the contact. But the referee is trying to watch multiple things and sometimes misses a split second thing.

She's on leg 1 usually so you would expect her to be slower. But that was very much slower than to be expected. Still, job done.

Eesh, that was harder work than needed to be. Not sure if Vicky was the right call on that first leg. Would have been interesting if we had been half a second quicker on the first leg whether Femke could have caught us then.

Tebogo actually beat his split by 0.05. That kid is just phenomenal.

Davey split 44.9. Absolutely nothing wrong with that split. Putting Reardon in would likely not have made any difference unless his form improved, which the heat indicated was less likely.

Yeah strong fencing and luck with the horse goes a long way to deciding the medals.

New European record from the men. Great run (with two astonishing runs ahead of them).

SML in the US team, so that's the gold wrapped up (in case there was any doubt).

Not just the bronze, but a new British record as well. Fine run from Laura as well. *That* would have been a British record itself. Not a bad week for the Trevor Painter trained athletes!

Not to be. Le boo.

Emma just clobbered the Columbian there...metaphorically at least. If Sophie were to get through that would guarantee a medal.

Horrible to see.

Cunning tactic from the Chinese athlete going into the blue there. Doubt any of the 20 cameras would spot it.