NearPup

Well, decided (without much advance planning) to attend my first Olympics - and to do my first trip to Europe. Only going for a few days, and got five tickets - women's ice hockey finals (A), short track women's 1500m QF/SF/F and men's 5000m relay finals (A), Aerials mixed team (A), women's ski half pipe finals (B) and women's curling finals (A). Somewhat regretting my women's curling finals ticket because getting from Livigno Saturday night to Cortina Sunday morning looks to be a massive pain in the butt, but I think I found an itinerary that minimizes the suck. Unfortunately I don't think there is a practical way for me to do my Milan -> Livigno -> Cortina -> Venice itinerary without having a rental car from when I leave Milan. Flying SEA -> JFK -> MXP on the way there and VCE -> FCO -> FRA -> SEA on the way back (with an overnight layover in FCO, figured it wasn't any more expensive to get a hotel room there than anywhere close to Cortina).

If it's anything like 2024 it's mixed rather than open - there are six women's quotas and two open quotas for each team.

Oh, that's good. I don't expect any men to compete still, but it's a positive that they have the opportunity to.

Given WA isn’t even holding the 50 anymore… I think that particular dream is very dead unless walking gets a very unexpected surge in popularity.

The other two I’m whatever on, but this is incredibly stupid.

No. I’m unhappy they removed a race walk event (even though it def could have used some workshopping). I’m guessing it’s going to be a very limited field, given this is taking away quotas from recurve. Very strange decision from the IOC, but from World Archery’s point of view it was likely the priority to get compound into the games in any form, even if it’s some weird eight team mixed event format. I do prefer this to cuts that make the recurve event significantly worse. Though I do think the IOC should have just taken a pass on recurve if they weren’t willing to increase the athlete quota.

Small thing there, men's boxing has the same number of events and athletes as in Paris. Women's boxing also has the same athlete quota, but with one more event now.

Given men's football is the one event in all of the Olympics where the best athletes aren't allowed to compete... not sure how this move is "pure wokism". The women's tournament is essentially a mini world cup, the men's tournament is a side show we tolerate because it generates ticket sales. Would be a different story, of course, if the men's event wasn't a U23 competition that isn't even within a FIFA window.

Eh, not sure I agree. The team events are basically a free gold medal for China, so they are trading two free gold medals for one free gold medal and two likely gold medals. Doubles is a format where upsets are much more likely to happen than team matches. Either way, I think from a spectator standpoint it is a win. The doubles tournaments will be much more interesting than the team tournaments were.

Have they even re-added it to the worlds program yet?

Rightfully so. If we were to axe / make mixed a further rowing event I actually think the fours makes more sense. Eights is simply the most iconic rowing event, if there was one rowing event in the Olympics it should be the eights.

Really hard to see how they design a fair qualification system for cricket given the small number of available quota spots.

OH, I missed something big. The men's and women's team events in Table Tennis are *gone*, and replaced by men's and women's doubles. Format for mixed team is simply a Bo5, with a men's single, women's single, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles match. Teams must consist of three to four athletes of each gender, and at least three athletes per gender must compete in each match.

I think the best news from these announcments is that climbing now has a full set of six events. I am personally very happy with a mixed golf team event but I understand that's not a unanimous position. I'm mostly indiferent to the other changes. I'll wait to see the details of the mixed team events in gymnastics and table tennis before passing judgement. I don't care for the stroke 50s and I'd say I'm slightly negative about their addition. Dissapointed they changed the mixed race walk into a mixed 4x100m relay. I feel like athletics could really use some relays for longer distance races and while not perfect the mixed race walk provided that.

Apparently only Modern Pentathlon lost quotas (they go to climbing) Breaking quotas went to adding 3x3 teams. Format for mixed gymnastics event is TBD.

Based on the press conference it sure looks like the men's and women's eights are on the chopping block for 2032 / that a mixed eights might replace it. Also the IOC seems to think the mixed 4x400m in athletics is a huge success. Bleh.

Honnestly this is not as bad as I feared? The additional sports being outside of the 10500 athlete quota is a *huge* relief.

Cricket, Baseball, Softball, Flag Football and Lacrosse are all six team tournaments. Squash is a 16 men's single and women's single draw. Roster size per sport: Baseball: 24 Cricket: 15 Flag Football: 10 Lacrosse: 11 Softball: 15

https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/LA28/Official-Programme-of-the-Olympic-Games-Los-Angeles-2028.pdf

Might be wront because I'm transcribing while watching live (while also being on a work meeting) 50m events in all strokes 12 women's teams in water polo Compound (!) mixed team event archery 4x100m mixed relay in athletics Mixed race walk relay removed 12 teams in 3x3 basketball 7 men's and women's events in boxing Football will have 16 women's teams and 12 men's teams Mixed team event in golf Mixed artistic gymnastics team event (!) Coastal rowing is three events (men's, women's, mixed double sculls), removing lightweight rowing NO MORE COMBINED IN CLIMBING! Speed, boulder and lead are all different events Mixed team event in table tennis (in addition to mixed doubles? O.o) 10500 athlete quota only applies to core sports for LA More women's quotas than men's quotas overall

Obviously we need a 48 team Olympic tournament, since FIFA has discovered this is the optimal number.

The thing is, counting football players in the athlete quota doesn't even really make any sense. They don't stay in the village, and they bring in more revenue than they cost. Like I get why people dislike the men's football tournament, but it would be an absolutely braindead move to remove it.

IIRC this is how early Korea always does Olympic selections for short track. It's actually a small part of why Ahn Hyun-soo / Viktor An went from to , he didn't have a chance to qualify for the 2010 Olympics because of an injury he suffered in 2008.

It's a real shame they've had so many issues with the electronic handles, having an objective measure for hog line violations was much better.

Time for the IOC to consider raising the athlete cap above 2900...