G-ann

The UK won't be building new pools sadly. It would be nice if local government, underfunded by central government in massive debt, stopped closing them. This is an article from 2023:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/12/england-has-lost-almost-400-swimming-pools-since-2010
 

As much as it’d be nice I would rather we continue the Jack of all trades approach just in case disaster happened in that one sport. 

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

England (for which read GB, obviously) are ranked 6th in the world in Men's Lacross and 3rd in the world in Women's. They are the top European side in both, and their closest European rivals are, Italy aside, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The 6th place ranking also includes the Haudenosaunee who I hope are included as USA 2, but not convinced.
 
Which is a long winded way of saying I'm pretty confident GBR can qualify for both men's and women's across, and will be at least competitive for a medal.
 
Cricket speaks for itself, obviously, and the only issue is how small the field is (6 teams). Clearly the host will want in, India and Australia are certain, that only leaves three spots on men's side. I'm imagining short regional tournaments for the last three places - possibly West (Americas, Africa, Europe) and East (Asia-Pacific), with one winner from each qualifying, and possibly next two in each going to a final IOC qualifier - So England, South Africa, Jamaica, Guyana, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and possibly two 'qualifiers' in West, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Afghanistan, New Zealand + 2 in the East. You might end up with South Africa and Pakistan Qualifying, and a final Qualifier tournament of England, Jamaica, New Zealand and Afghanistan...
 
6 teams is REALLY too small for cricket, eight would have worked better
 
In flag football (dear sweet jesus) GB are the number 4 ranked women's team, and top European behind three North American teams. That looks a good bet.
In the men's however, they only lie 15th.
 
Finally in baseball/softball, both GB sides are actually pretty decent, but might struggle to qualify in a small field.
 
And in squash, obviously, while not the dominant power, British players are well represented in the rankings of both men's and women's
 
 
I am managing my grief on an hour-to-hour basis about breaking. I may have watched the clips of 'B-Girl Raygun' attempting to clean the floor with her head  while crying with laughter more often than is entirely healthy.

Olympics: British Olympic chiefs target men's football side at LA 2028 - BBC Sport

A positive little post games noise, but i've heard this one before, we can but hope

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.

I’d like to thank whoever made this visual representation of the medal related strife: Instagram Reel

Personal schedule: 

First round 
1140 go to refresh forum out of habit
1141 remember Olympics is over 
1142 sadness 
 
repeat hourly until paralympics 

1. Pidcock, too many emotional mood swings in one race, rollercoaster
 
2. Toby Roberts
 
3. The womens, i wanna say quad, inching out the netherlands for gold
 
Honourable mentions: Keeley and Bryony golds, KJT finally getting a medal, and yee

1. Pidcock's comeback
2. Yee's Comeback
3. Keely finally getting gold

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.

1. Alex Yees comeback in the Triathlon
2. Keelys Athletics Win 
3. Andy Murray fighting to the bitter end in the Mens Doubles

1) Alex Yee - My favourite Team GB gold of the games. Thinking he was out of it, them cutting away from the action and then as soon as they cut back he was right behind Wilde. Amazing.
 
2) Toby Roberts - I love anytime we get gold in a new sport, shows we are a jack of all trades team and don’t just rely on one or two sports to soak up all the medals. *coughjudoandwrestlingcough* 
 
3) Andy Murray, enough said. I got a new found respect for Dan Evans these games. 

Went to get in my car for the first time in 17 days this morning, battery was dead *sigh*

Unfortunately you have missed out on a medal and the funding is in danger. I'm just saying what I've been told

Yes you came 4th by two points

Hello, welcome to Team GB Debrief, a chance for us to yammer, unfortunately, in the past tense, about Team GB at the Paris Olympics.
 
SCHEDULE
 
1000 WORK FORGET THE RULES OF TAEKWONDO - Preliminary Round
1300 LUNCH BREAK GLOOMILY SCROLL THROUGH THE PARALYMPICS SCHEDULE - Preliminary
1700 HOME ACTUALLY HAVE TIME TO MAKE A MEAL - Gold Race
2000 SPEAK TO LOVED ONES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO WEEKS - Final
 
Leaderboard
 
Congratulations to Olympic Champion, Fencing, 1976 @cjsavoryOLY for 115 points and victory. The silver goes to @Olympicsnellon 109 and the bronze to me on 102. @G-annbeats @adolphinto fourth, 93 to 91
 
Medal count
14/22/29
 
Bollocks. It's over.

Analysis of Team GB’s performance from the British Olympic Association in this piece in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/11/britains-performance-in-paris-should-be-celebrated-claim-team-gb-chiefs
 
 

Don't worry I'm on it.... Scope will be anyone who made quarters or top 10 in a final I'll actually look up ages! See you in 2-3 hours. 
 
(Yes I am extracting it from Wikipedia and not manually typing in everyone) 
 

Don't worry I'm on it.... Scope will be anyone who made quarters or top 10 in a final I'll actually look up ages! See you in 2-3 hours. 
 
(Yes I am extracting it from Wikipedia and not manually typing in everyone) 
 

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.

Last event 😭

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.

1. Alex Yee’s heroic kick off in the last seconds of the Triathlon to take the Gold.
 
2. Bryony Page’s reaction to winning the Gold.
 
3. Thorpe and Shortman taking the Silver in the Artistic Swimming. A really lovely backstory and I think it must be so hard being the pioneer in your sport in the country. They have nobody to look to but themselves and I hope it will inspire lots of people to give it a go. 
 
Honourable mentions: Pidcock’s comeback in the Men’s BMX and Roberts realising he’d won Gold. 

Medal everyday of these Olympics. Carrying on from Tokyo 2020, our unbroken medal streak is at 30 days.
 
Emily Campbell is guaranteed a medal in the weightlifting, so we’ll be at least 65 which is one better than Tokyo. If Carlin takes a medal in the keiran, we’d finish on 66 which is one better than London.