Dragon

My analysis. Baseball POSITIVES - One of the biggest sports in the host country, will require no new facilities, might attract big crowds live, A US Olympics might persuade MLB to allow players to compete NEGATIVES - Little interest outside a few parts of the world (North America, parts of Central and South America and East Asia), If MLB doesn't allow their players to go the Olympics then the competition will be the lowest quality of any Olympic sport. Will take a lot of quota places Flag Football POSITIVES - A variation of one of the biggest sports in the host country, will require no new facilities, might attract big crowds live. A US Olympics might persuade the NFL to allow players to compete NEGATIVES - Little interest outside the USA, the USA will win easily, unlike Rugby Sevens it's not established as a serious sport. Will take a lot of quota places Breaking - POSITIVES - Got to be in with the street culture, dude. It's quite fun to watch NEGATIVES - There is no subjective way of judging the "sport". Is it even a sport? Cricket POSITIVES - India is the last important country in the world where Olympic TV rights are undervalued. Mr.Bach likes Rupees. NEGATIVES - Will need new facilities. Cricket is only played well in about 25 countries around the world. Will take a lot of quota places Lacrosse POSITIVES - Popular in North America. Exciting to watch. NEGATIVES - Only a handful of countries are competitive. Will take a lot of quota places Karate and Kickboxing POSITIVES - Widespread competition around the world NEGATIVES - Too many similar combat sports in the Olympics. E-Karting POSITIVES - There must be some? NEGATIVES - Does motorsport belong in the Olympics anyway?

I'm now being told breaking will be in for 2028 as well.

Rumours are that cricket will miss out for 2028 but baseball/softball and flag football will win a place. Flag football must be considered a surprise.

David Watkins, one of the few Rugby players to have been a star in both Rugby Union and Rugby League has died at the age of 81

Let's have some breaking news from the 2012 London Olympics... The Russian and World Anti-Doping Agencies (Rusada and WADA) have won an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against an original decision by RUSADA's Anti-Doping Commitee concerning 2012 Super-Heavyweight Olympic medalist and multiple World and European champion Tatyana Kashirina. Kashirina has now been banned for 8 years based on data from the infamous Moscow lab (LIMS) database and could lose years of results from the time the offence took place. Since most of the problems in LIMS come from 2011 to 2013 they has the potential to strip Kashirina of a great lot of medals.

Absolutely. There were some really stupid decisions made by UK Athletics this time round. Not picking Jade O'Dowda (hep) and Lavaii Nielsen (individual 400s) was especially dumb

For those who follow motor sport Ben Llewellin is the son of David Llewellin who was British Rally Champion in the 1980s and competed regularly in the World Rally Championships.

This is actually a better ranking than the one officially published because it ignores all the results that will not be counted when the rankings close next June

Helen Smart (formerly Helen Don-Duncan), British swimmer at the 2000 Olympics and World Short Course Championships medalist, died on Saturday at the age of 42.

My mistake. I had Kouame as being born in 2001.

1 - Actually I thought that was true as well. Although I think not all the new parts will be on every bicycle. 2 - Finucane was 0.17 seconds slower than Friedrich in February, today she was 0.16 seconds faster. Not unexpected that a 20 year old could improve that much in 7 months. 3 - Very important that you remember that Finucane is eighteen months younger that Propster and Kouame and at the World Juniors was a sixteen year old competing against eighteen year olds. The fact she beat them at the European Juniors that year kind of proves my point.

Also she won two silver medals at the Europeans in February and was European Junior champion in 2019 as a 16 year old, beating cyclists two years older than her...

I knew she was good but I didn't expect her to be this good at such a young age.

Reminds me of the controversy about using the word "Niggardly" in English. It's an obscure word meaning "mean about money". It doesn't have any links with racist terms but the far right use it because they can still hint at being racist to their followers while still being able to deny being racist.

I can see a Kuala Lumpur / Singapore / India Commonwealth Games bid working well for 2016

http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/recent_deaths Not easy to find on the website

5 Live Sports Extra are providing about 2 hours radio commentary of the finals most days.

Sarah Lavin of qualified for the Paris Olympics at the 100m hurdles today. You might not know that her boyfriend/partner was the rally driver Craig Breen, who was killed practicing for Rally Croatia three months ago.

Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali said on Twitter: "We are so sad to learn of the passing of Dilano van 't Hoff today at Spa-Francorchamps. "Dilano died in pursuit of his dream to reach the pinnacle of motorsport. Along with the entire motorsport community, our thoughts are with his family and loved ones." McLaren also added: "The McLaren Racing Team are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dilano van 't Hoff in a Formula Regional race at Spa-Francorchamps today. "Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and the entire MP Motorsport team at this difficult time."

The medal format in athletics is just plain stupid.

The vote to expel the IBA passed on a vote of 69 to 1 with 5 declining to vote. Wonder who voted in favour of the IBA?

In Graz, Hmmm.

Rest In Peace Sir Ben Helfgott 1929-2023 His parents and sister were killed by the Nazis and he survived 3 years at the Triblinka extermination camp before sent to England after the war ended. He was captain of the British weightlifting team at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics and became a leader of the Jewish community in the UK. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2018.