dodge

Rowing team for the European champs 

Lightweight double

Paul O’Donovan/Fintan McCarthy

lightweight  single 

Jake McCarthy

openweight single

Paul O’Donovan (!)

lightweight single 

Mags Cremen

Openweight double

Zoe Hyde/Alison Bergin

Aoife Casey isn’t fit. Hyde was injured for World Cup 1 so they’re in here

It’ll be interesting to see if POD does the heavyweight single and the LW double…

Sure. I wouldn’t be surprised to see either SA or GB win a medal, but it also wouldn’t be a surprise when one or both doesn’t qualify 

for the record so far this seaisn

Dubai

 1st

 10th

 11th

 12th

Cape Town

 6th

 7th

 9th

 10th

Perth

 5th

 8th

 11th

 12th

Vancouver 

 7th

 9th

 11th

12th

LA

 2nd

 4th

 11th

 12th 

HK

 6th

 8th

 11th

12th 

South Africa on top in 4 of the 6. Spain 2nd in 3 of last 4. Only one event where 2 of these 4 weren’t the bottom two

Don’t think any of them are guaranteed to win. 4 very flaky teams. Obviously GB are still heavy favourites 

3 hours ago, Benolympique said:

https://worldrowing.com/event/2024-world-rowing-european-olympic-and-paralympic-qualification-regatta

entry list tqo europe

Only 5 nations going for the 2 spots in the lightweight women’s double.

Meanwhile Klimovich, a Tokyo Olympian for  is the only  entrant in women’s singles

Seems to be some confusion about quotas and places etc. These relay quotas are the same as 4x100, 4x400 etc 

A nation that qualifies a walking relay team can enter that team with any man and any woman they want, but they can’t use those quotas to get extra individuals in the 20km walk

Most countries will use their strongest individuals (ie those already qualified) for the team event though so they won’t be additional quota spots for most.
 

Canada is an example where qualification increases their athletic team by one. Dunfee will go in the individual event and he’ll go in the relay too. His partner in the relay won’t be in the individual event though 

46 minutes ago, phelps said:

1 pair per Nation + the 5 best "2nd pair" from 5 Nations 

in total, max 22 pairs

Technically it isn’t the “5 best 2nd pairs” 

It’s the first 22 pairs (with a max of 2 per NOC)

In reality it’s likely the same thing but just in case…

4 minutes ago, Federer91 said:

 

Spoken truly like someone, who has read only headlines growing up and never bothered learning how the system was functioning. 

I’ve actually studied this exact topic. The “system” was indeed the basis, but let’s not kid ourselves on doping here. 

16 minutes ago, OlympicsFan said:

Obviously that is nonsense. Everyone at the top dopes (at least in somewhat relevant sports), Eastern Europeans just doped more ruthlessly. Whenever there is money involved, there is cheating. Makes no sense to assume that someone who isn’t doping can win gold, when the huge majority of people live in countries where doping pays off most of the time. Why should someone in Africa/Russia/China/India not dope, when they can become „rich“ by doing it and don’t really face much consequences even if they get caught? In order to outperform the most talented, doped athletes from those nations, you have to dope as well. There is nothing to suggest that people from rich nations are genetically superior and therefore don’t have to dope to beat the doped athletes from all those other nations (that represent at least 80 % of the global population/talent pool). 
 

Anyone who disagrees has to defend one of the following two lines of reasoning and in my opinion both don’t really make sense:

a) People in rich nations are somehow special and therefore don’t have to dope to dominate the most talented, doped up athletes from the rest of the world (that makes up at least 80 % of the talent pool)

b) There is no widespread doping in poorer nations (despite the evidence from countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Russia or China saying otherwise)

I enjoy you saying this is nonsense followed by “eastern Europeans just doped more ruthlessly”

So even when you agree with my point, you still have to argue. 
 

You remain unrivalled on here 

Is someone genuinely asking why Eastern bloc countries fell off in terms of sporting results after the arrival of democracy? 
 

East Germany only competed in 5 Olympics in rowing, but they won 48 medals, including 33 gold. They were only overtaken by the US in 2016 in the all time medal list (and they’re still ahead of the rest)

In Athletics, there’s still several European records that exist since the 80s with East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and the USSR all involved. 
 

This isn’t a slight on the fine people from Eastern Europe on here and the current athletes doing their best.

But the answer to why they were so strong in the 1980s is doping. No one disputes this. 

Their medal predications for  

Gold

McCarthy/O’Donovan - Lightweight double sculls Rowing

Rhys McClenaghan - pommel gymnastics 

Silver

Daniel Wiffen - 800m free swimming

Cian O’Connor - showjumping

Kelly Harrington - 60kg boxing

Bronze

Daniel Wiffen - 1500m free swimming

Rory McIlroy - golf

Gracenote medal predictions for Ireland

Gold 

McCarthy/O’Donovan

McClenaghan

Silver

Kelly Harrington

Cian O’Connor

Wiffen 800m

Bronze

Rory McIlroy

Wiffen 1500m

Those 400m free times are insane

Woo-min was about 3 seconds slower than his World Championship winning time, but the Aussie pair are way ahead of that, with Winnington only .19 off his PB already

Completely irrelevant here, but funny to me to see Hong Kong first in an alphabetical list of nations! 

(Japan and India first in some events too)

 has sent a team that includes the 5 boxers who qualified at last year's European Games including Olympic champion Kelly Harrington

It doesn't include boxers who fought at the last World Qualifier, or are scheduled to fight at the World qualifier in Thailand

I honestly have no idea. It seems it is a shock to most in the athletics world. No clarification yet

22 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Are Irish, French, Finnish, Portuguese, Swiss, Czech and Belgium people really significantly smaller on average?  

Maybe the Belgians aren’t smaller than the Dutch…

But yes, the rest are. 

12 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

It does make it easier and better to view for non-regular viewers if the differences in the categories are only limited to the number of athletes in the boat and the oars (or however it's called) they're using, and something less visible like weight isn't really a thing anymore. Lightweight classes have often felt a bit like a category for rowers who are too small, like if there's a special volleyball competition for people under 1.65m  

  Hide contents

Said as someone who only watches rowing at the big events and isn't knowledgeable about it at all, I am aware of that  

 

Joking aside, the biggest issue is that lightweights were brought in to help nations whose people just aren’t as big as the power nations 

Mine is one of them, so I’m biased, but the following countries have had Olympic finalists in the last 20 or so years that aren’t from “traditional” rowing countries; Japan, France, South Africa, Greece, Cuba, Finland, Portugal, Ireland, Switzerland, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Belgium. 
 

Theres extra places for qualification too compared to heavyweight doubles so even more countries are brought in.

Obviously some of the countries above have had the odd heavyweight success too but lightweights have brought in a lot to the sport. Shame, IMO, they’re excluded from the Olympics now 

So far today in the rowing finals;

Keogh/Murtagh silver behind the Dutch. They looked OK so probably still in the top 4/5 but without Australia and Romania we won’t know if they’re likely to contend for a medal yet

Doyle/Lynch went off very slow but had an insane finish to grab bronze. They’ll need to be more consistent to challenge in Paris

The women’s four were miles off two GB boats and finished in 4th as the Dutch eased away. Still a good regatta for them though and I’m more confident they’ll qualify now 

Timoney/Corrigan win the B final and let’s hope the illness/injury is behind them 

Lots of impressive British boats yeah. I think the lightweight women’s double are the biggest “locks” for gold in Paris in any sport tbh

No errors here. Livestream working fine 

Thanks for everything. It’s time to try something new

My favourite for the 400m gold sounds like she’s retiring…

Squad announcement for world athletics relays  

Our big names all there on the women’s sides including Adeleke, Mawdsley, Healy and Becker. Interestingly Becker only listed as reserve for the mixed. The men include Tom Barr, Cillin Greene and Jack Raftery. Stalwart of the mixed team Chris O’Donnell is only listed as a travelling reserve

No Men’s team so we have 4 men and 7 women travelling. 

Squad announcement for  

Our big names all there on the women’s sides including Adeleke, Mawdsley, Healy and Becker. Interestingly Becker only listed as reserve for the mixed. The men include Tom Barr, Cillin Greene and Jack Raftery. Stalwart of the mixed team Chris O’Donnell is only listed as a travelling reserve

No Men’s team so we have 4 men and 7 women travelling. 

Good start for new women's four in Varese. Sanita won her heat too.

Men's side didn't look as strong but they don't have to peak until July

Only the best countries have flag cousins