dodge

It’s nonsense if you actually believe that sport is apolitical. The IOC and others say a lot of things they don’t mean yes, most of the countries you mention should be banned too

International sport is political. It’s frankly nonsense to suggest it’s just about connecting people. No worse example than the Germany you mention. The 1936 Olympics was total propaganda. East Germany after the break up showed how much sport was used to project fake values from a country. The governments involved couldn’t care less what ordinary people thought. Russia should be banned from the Olympics for about 10 different reasons - many of them sporting. And other countries should be too. It doesn’t matter if it helps or not. There must be a minimum standard of human rights etc for a country to be allowed participate in international sport IMO

The RTE sports personality of the year was awarded tonight. The main award for Irish sport Sports personality of the Year : Katie Taylor (boxing) Team of the Year : Men’s Lightweight double sculls - Paul O’Donovan/Fintan McCarthy (rowing) Young SPOTY : Rhasidat Adeleke (athletics) Manager of the year : Vera Pauw (football)

So Wiffen is creeping into medal contention then?

How we feeling now folks? Needle hasn't moved much in recent months except for our mens 7s rugby side who seem to be consistently getting good results now

Basically we're talking about the TV age because nothing before that is "remembered" but for a long time, Ronnie Delany winning gold in the 1500m in Melbourne 1956 was Ireland's last gold medal so it was very high up in the sporting consciousness Anyway, here's my suggestions for 1) Katie Taylor winning gold in 2012. In the views of Irish people, and supported by plenty outside of Ireland, there would be no Olympic boxing without her. She is still Ireland's most popular athlete as she tops the pro ranks too 2) Sonia O'Sullivan's Olympic roller-coaster. 4th in 1992, she was red hot favourite in 1996 having overcome the Chinese wave. Some thought she just had to show up to win. Illness ruined those chances and it took a while for her to recover any form. Her silver in Sydney in 2000 was a national relief and she absolutely deserved at least one Olympic medal for an amazing career. Irish people *love* a redemption story and Sonia wore every bit of her omtion on her sleeve 3) Paul O'Donovan (and friends). Paul and Gary O'Donovan gained worldwide recognition for their after race interviews in 2016 on their way to Silver in Rio. 5 years later, Fintan McCarthy had replaced Gary and the Irish lightweight double was unbeatable. Paul is a star and one of only 3 Irish men to win medals at two games 4) John Treacy winning silver in the Marathon in 1984. Mainly because of an amazing piece of commentary from RTE's JImmy Magee who listed every Irish medalist until then as Treacy ran the final 100m. The clip was used a lot when I was growing up and still pops up all the time on sporting montages 5) Michael Carruth wins gold in 1992. Boxing has always had a special place in the Irish consciousness and it has been our most successful Olympic sport 9and continues to be so) but Carruth winning gold was the first time for boxing and indeed the first time since 1956 for Ireland in any sport. Michelle Smith winning 3 golds in 1996 was obviously massive at the time but she's rarely mentioned now...

Obviously I agree with number one but I’m not even sure Harrington makes the squad. I think Amy Broadhurst will win gold at either 60 or 66kg Rhys can win gold. Or win nothing. Such is pommel. bizarre as this may sound. I also see a path for the men’s rugby 7s to win gold even though I could see them struggling to qualify! The sport is very unpredictable but our lads have beaten all the top teams.

Kazakhstan moved for financial reasons. Their clubs are now in UEFA Competitions. Their nation is involved in collective TV rights for nations league, European championship and World Cup They know they likely won’t qualify either way, so it’s purely a financial decision

Mexico doesn’t need any help to qualify for the World Cup. What is this nonsense?

England are the worlds best. So it is still an upset Great stat put out earlier though 4 games v Netherlands and Ireland. 3 defeats and a no result

No. No one does. I think they’ve one Scottish born player in the squad. Ireland has one Irish born player in the squad. There’s no appetite for the game at all outside of Its heartlands

It's not the sport's fault that 12 teams get in ahead of 16. I'm sure football would love to have 16 for example. In rowing, there were events with only 7 in. I'm sure World Rowing would prefer that to 16 in the fours or whatever.

My point is that there are plenty of chances for "the best" to qualify so if they don't, they can't really be considered the best. Even Taekwondo with it's limited fields still produced medalists from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas. The African medalists all came through the continental qualifier. Can't see how that's a bad thing. Wrestling, a sport I've no interest in so won't claim to be an expert in, gave individuals 3 chances to get in? World champs, continental champs and then a world qualifier? I think that's enough chances for any athlete who thinks they can medal I know women's football is often held up as a bad example (only 3 European teams) but for the sport, it's clearly better to have a team from Africa in there. Zambia wouldn't have got in last time but they finished 3rd in their group and hopefully that sort of stuff can help develop the team. There could be no suggestion of having a world cup without an African team, so why should there be an Olympics without one? I don't think either of us will change our minds on this, but I@m happy to see as many nations compete in as many sports as possible. I don't think any medal winners will ever feel their medal is devalued in any way

Rowing is the wrong sport to use as only the Lightweight Doubles (to bring more countries outside of the power houses in) and the Singles (much like the 100m in athletics for representation) use continental qualifiers 10 of the 14 events don't use continental qualifiers at all.. It's world championship and world qualifiers only. So even though you cite them as a problem sport, they're acting in a way that you're advocating. Oh and Uruguay qualified through the continental route for Mens lightweight double and they made the final.

I disagree. I'm all for inclusiveness. The argument that "only the best" must be included falls down when you're talking about competitors ranked in the low 20s/early 30s. For me, it's better that those last spots go to continental qualifiers to ensure a good geographical spread, rather than athletes unlikely to challenge for medals, but who come from established nations

Story on Reuters here *Sigh*

The IBA has banned Ukraine’s federation and all their boxers Boxing, one of my favourite Olympic sports, is done

Unlikely to be too many to care enough to publish anything without a press release from the FEI unfortunately

I notice too that Canada is only a team of 3. Shame Swiss should get the qualifying spot easily enough

Full interview with O’Donovan and McCarthy here. O’Donovan cracked in the end

Finalists in Olympic class events (14 max) 11 10 8 4 3 2 1 China and Austria have no men's qualifiers. Italy, Czechia, Estonia, Moldova, Norway, Poland and Serbia have no women's qualifiers. Figures includes the women 8 where there were no qualification races

I think you can rule out much of what has happened so far this season as an indicator. for example tried a few different combinations in W2- and W4- and broke up the LW2x team too this year. Even the European champs was seen as a warm up for this WC. Plenty of Olympic crews from a variety of nations took some time off and are only now getting back together, so this is definitely the first step towards Paris for many

Poor day for today with 3 4th place finishes sending crews into the C/D semis. Only the new mens double will be particularly disappointed with that though. Of course our golden boys in the lightweight double won their quarter and Paul O’Donovan looks on course for a 5th successive gold medal at the world champs (two of them in the single)

More relevant to the general cycling thread but good day in the relegation battle for EF and BEX…

Why are some nations listed as individuals but not all @dcro? For example aren't but do have individual after their name?