Grassmarket

You may want to see it, but how much time do spend training rhythmic gymnastics?

Ineos team named. Adam Yates will be the leader. Tom Pidcock will be snubbing the European Mountain Bike Champs , which will be left for the usual tiny group of cultists. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/58150688

First of all, take a trip to Paris this winter (it’s cheaper in the winter) and so some basic research on the location of venues, metro & rail routes & the location of cheap hotels. Because that is going to be crucial, and it will save you a lot of hassle if you have got all that in your head well before time. Also, timetabling for free events - road cycling, triathlon etc. You’ll get a lot of value for money if you include those. Bound to be plenty big screens in the streets. Unpopular (in France) sports. In London 2012 it was easy to get tickets for volleyball, handball, basketball group games, because those were unknown chez nous. For France, I suppose field hockey, women’s soccer, badminton….

Pretty sure it is geo-blocked here although the page does not say so. However! I think they will work after the rights revert back to the IOC in the New Year. Maybe we can pin this thread somewhere, or at least the links. I know that the Olympics.tv page is hopeless to navigate.

will be back & ready to rumble!

Money spent on buying athletes from abroad is money wasted: money spent on hiring coaches from abroad is money invested.

For pretty much a 9/10. Almost every sport exceeded expectations. Only Rowing was a disappointment with internal political struggles producing an under-prepared team. Shooting lost a medal favourite, Amber Hill, to COVID. Taekwondo list another medal favourite, Jade Jones to nerves & having to fight an opponent from a merged weight category. No Gold in Athletics, but Athletics is going through an era of very high standards. Otherwise, everyone far exceeded expectations. Optimistic predictions were for 15 Gold, 50 Medals total, top 10 overall. Instead 22G, 65 total - more than London 2012 - and 4th overall. Many new or unknown sports like BMX, Mountain Biking & Modern Pentathlon were introduced to the British public. Established sports like Swimming & Cycling created a new generation of fans. Many of our best competitors will be going forward to Paris, so there is lots to look forward to.

Ultimately all you can do is use the ignore button; I certainly don't want to see some vast Facebook-style censorship operation on this or any board.

Because Mekhissi Benabbad created the reputation of idiotic French athletes, and this guy is continuing it.

Was thinking the same thing. It's not the Olympics without some major act of robbery. There were a couple of "Eh, what?" moments from individual rounds and judges,, but otherwise about as sane as boxing ever is. Still prefer the Beijing "Frantically mash buttons to register punches" system. What's the point on giving credit for defense, if you can't defend yourself you're in the wrong sport. Only aggression should be marked, as it is in all the other combat sports.

No major games would be complete without a Frenchman acting like an idiot. French runner Morhad Amdouni was the subject of fierce debate on social media after he appeared to deliberately knock over an entire row of water bottles during the men's Olympic marathon. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-9873783/French-runner-Morhad-Amdouni-causes-HUGE-controversy-mens-marathon-knocking-bottles.html

Confident that the sleep patterns I used for Tokyo will work for Beijing as well, so I fear nothing.

Have got about 12 days of volleyball to get through

Thing is, all those guys are sprinters, so none if them want to race more than 200m. If you can take it long, you’ve got a chance.

The results were misleading. What actually happened in all the races was that all the crews were in medal position at half-way then faded away outside. So that argues that something went wrong in the preparation.

To sum up: we have missed & must catch up on… Tour de WallonieClassica San Sebastian M+FTour de l’AinArctic Race of Norway ….before the Vuelta starts on Saturday.

Spoiler. It’s all swimmers. And Lisa Carrington beat Siffan Hassan.

Well, things have fairly turned around. Rowing stunk up the first few days, but was the only serious failure. Athletics looked bad for a while, but our historically strongest events - middle distances & relays - just about rescued us. A huge number of success stories in sports major & minor, new & old. Far more gold than anyone predicted, far more medals than anyone predicted & a far higher placing in the medal than anyone predicted. And there’s far more good young athletes going forward to Paris than there will be retirees.

I think the central problem MP at the Olympics is this insistance on being a last weekend event. If they Kept the existing format Switched the stadium events to Day 1 + 2 when not many medals are given out Held the Fencing RR on Day -1 or 0 like the Archery RR It would all be a lot more attractive & get more TV attention. But it’s never going to get a huge audience against the big team sport final rounds.

I like them both but: Require massive numbers of players Require facilities that are useless for much else Often last as long as the 50k walk Don’t attract the best players Not really strong recommendations.

Well, they invented canoeing & kayaking.

Those judges just won’t stay bought.

Incidentally, Griff, are two golds and a silver this Olympics.

It's like Jack Nicholson's book in The Shining. Jump higher next time Jump higher next time Jump higher next time Jump higher next time Jump higher next time