Dragon

From Rugby there is Johnny Sexton and Alun Wyn Jones

And Cavendish has already announced a comeback...

This is actually a serious threat to the Youth Olympics. A lot of countries are beginning to turn against the concept of world level competition for teenagers because of the damage they think it does to their long term prospects

The database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs says that the Olympic medal winning fencer Sergey Bida is wanted under an article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, but which one is not specified. Other articles mention he's a member of the Russian National Guard but emigrated to the USA in the summer.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it from what is becoming the undersea Kingdom of Wales. And if you don't celebrate have a good rest of 2023 anyway.

Personally, based on what we know, I think I can narrow it down to three athletes but I'd not be confident on which one it was. Even then if I'd be relying on all the information we think we know being correct

Male sportsman of the Year - Josh Kerr (athletics) Female - Katie Archibald (cycling)

Bad news for Hungarian supporters

BBC Sports Personality of the year Junior award - Mia Brookes (Snowboarding) Team Award - Manchester City Coach of the Year - Pep Guardiola (Football) World Award - Erling Haaland (Football) Main Award 1 Mary Earps (Football) 2 Stuart Broad (Cricket) 3 Katrina Johnson-Thompson (Athletics) Lifetime Achievement Award - Kenny Dalglish (Football)

Here's what I saw https://radiojamaicanewsonline.com/sports/swiss-sprinter-alex-wilson-implicated-in-fbi-anti-doping-investigation

The Swiss athlete is Alex Wilson

Welsh Sports Person of the Year - Emma Finucane (Cycling)

But not fully fit it seems

For anybody who can read Russian or, more probably, uses Google Translate - there's a good explanation on what Russia thinks of Olympic qualification chances here https://www.sport-express.ru/olympics/paris2024/reviews/kto-iz-rossiyan-i-v-kakih-vidah-sporta-mozhet-poehat-na-igry-2024-goda-v-parizh-podrobnosti-olimpiyskoy-kvalifikacii-2156314/

The head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said that the issue of ensuring the safety of Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is critically important, which was also noted by the Russian Foreign Ministry. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its comments always says that the issue of security is critical in this situation. The same was discussed at the board of the Ministry of Sports. Neither the national federation, nor government services, nor the national Olympic committee, which is cut off from the process by these recommendations, will deal with this,” TASS quotes Pozdnyakov as saying. This sounds a lot like what the USSR said before the 1984 Games. Using athlete safety concerns to justify pulling out of the Games

Earps is a strong favourite in the betting for this.

Interesting news that Josh Tarling is training with the GB pursuit team with a view to possibly doubling up on road and track in Paris.

European judo champion Gemma Howell has retired

The People's Republic of the Celtic Nations have won these championships.

A long time ago I wrote an article on the worst Winter Olympic country of all time https://olympstats.com/2014/02/04/its-not-the-winning-its-the-taking-part-that-counts/

Had surgery in the autumn, will probably miss all this season. Also Laura Deas (skeleton) will miss this winter due to pregnancy

Sailor Hamish Hardie, one of the last survivors of the British team from the 1948 Olympics, died this month at the age of 95

Is there a list of these 11 qualifiers anywhere?

Very much the #2 Briton on the Euro Cup circuit last season...