JoshMartini007

Well, it was nice being on top for a while, but I believe this will be our last week.

The mind games must have been intense during the C&J

Assuming this is a complete list, I'm surprised swimming only has so few.

Pretty crazy, just imagine if they won the World Baseball Classic (though personally I equate the two pretty closely).

Yeah, in general, the freestyle/classical switches each Olympics.

I believe, the IOC has admitted the cap will have to be relaxed for 2028. I think they will go with what you proposed. 10,500 for core sports plus some for extra sports

If lacrosse can be selected then I don't see why Australian rules football can't be selected if they get Olympic sport recognition. Australia will obviously dominate, but there's enough other nations to make a tournament. As for netball, a women's only event is still much more likely to be accepted than a men's only event. Australia and the netball federation can spin it as bringing equality to the number of men's and women's events (while obviously ignoring that there will be more women at the Olympics).

The US only had about 28 million for Paris 2024. It would take quite the advertising campaign to almost quadruple their viewership, even with a better timeslot.

Way too high. That's Super Bowl numbers for an event that's mostly watching athletes walking in, a bunch of speeches and a few performances sprinkled in. I enjoy it, but I understand most people wouldn't. As a comparison the 1996 Olympics had about 40 million US viewership, adjusting for population that puts it at around 48 million. Throw in fewer people owning a TV and this event not exactly bringing people to bars to watch, I would say if they broke 50 million it would be very successful

Taiwan wins gold. Quite the rebound after last years World Classic.

It's still early on, but I suspect cricket and baseball/softball have an early advantage. If they have a good tournament, I think squash may have a decent chance at returning despite not being really high on Australia's priority list. American Football and Lacrosse will likely remain North American sports in the future. Netball might make a play with a women's only event. I expect rugby nines to make a push to be added alongside sevens, but I don't think the IOC will add them. If Australian Rules Football gets added as an Olympic Sport then they are guaranteed to be added.

Depends what time they start. If it's the usual 8pm local start it will likely be lower since over half the country lives +3 hours ahead.

This is on "playing the wrong national anthem" levels of wrong. At least it's not another joke.

Panama's 10th inning loss to the Netherlands ultimately cost it a spot in the Super Round. Still, a great tournament for them. This is all the more reason to want a 12-team tournament at the Olympics.

You are correct. I was in this case, defending the ethnic-Chinese that were born in the nation they compete for. Looking at the 2024 Olympics, it seems less than 10% were Chinese-born competing for a different nation (this potentially includes athletes which immigrated to their nation as children). That may be a mild concern, but there are many sports like wrestling and some events in athletics where it is a lot worse. I think the difference is that there isn't a lot of money in table tennis outside of China. While there's not a lot in wrestling either, it is more spread out globally. A 4th rate table tennis player probably still makes more money competing in China than competing in a different place while a 4th rate Russian wrestler could make more money competing somewhere else. World Table Tennis is trying to globalize the financial part of the sport so it will be interesting to see if things change. They may have to incorporate these rules too.

Are you talking about Maria Xiao? She was born in Spain, grew up in Portugal before returning to Spain. That shouldn't count and definitely not the same as people moving to a country with no ties to compete

making the most of their debut.

Paris 2024 was horrible. Pictograms need to be easy to understand. 2026 is very easy to understand.

Yeah, Trump is very pro-Olympics. I imagine he's pretty excited that he will get to open the games Visas for some nations have always been tough and I do imagine some qualified individuals will fail to enter the United States (regardless who is President), but the IOC will likely sweep it under the rug.

The only way this works is if they try to emulate street hockey. But that already has their own sport federation.

As mentioned before, there's enough nations which play cricket for it to be Olympic viable. The challenge, like baseball/softball is the venue size.

India might be the big prize, but the IOC is quite interested in expanding across South Asia. When that region has 3/10 most populous nations and relatively low interest you should want to make an effort to bring in more people/money. Perhaps in a couple decades we'll see Pencak Silat or Dambe become an Olympic sport to bring in the or market respectively.

Is there some kind of delay for the stadium in LA? I guess New York time is slightly better than LA time for India...

Oof, no badminton and table tennis will ruffle some feathers. Sad no rugby sevens will be held...

As mentioned before, 3x3 hockey is not developed enough to be its own event and given the proposed size of teams it will literally be a B-level hockey tournament with likely the same teams as the full size. If they want to follow in basketball's footstep the team size should be 6 players, no padding outside of the goalie, and the game played on a street of a quiet neighbourhood. Maybe throw in a car every now and then to force the players to stop and clear the street .