Dragon

After that there was Backley and Mick Hill...

"Chosen to compete at Paris Olympics" ???

Massive win for . The Australians and South Africans with Italian passports are making a big difference

Team GB confirm Olympic nominations Men’s singles - Andy Murray (ITF wildcard) - Jack Draper - Dan Evans - Cameron Norrie Women’s singles - Katie Boulter Men’s doubles - Salisbury-Skupski - Murray-Evans Women’s doubles - Boulter-Watson - Dart-Lumsden Raducanu turned down an ITF wildcard

Romania beating Italy would be a bigger shock than any we've seen at the World Cup

Didn't Le Pen's father, a previous leader of her party, confess to torturing Algerians during the War for Algerian independence?

Press release notes that "This list will be updated in line with the decisions of the Individual Neutral Athlete Eligibility Review Panel"

On the subject of , day 1 is going to be important. If Tarling wins gold (and he defintely has a chance) it could be an amazing Games for GB.

I have the USA narrowly beating Australia on day 1 by 7 medals to 6 but the the Aussies will top the medal table if you go by gold medals rather than total medals

Today, during the second day of its meeting at Olympic House in Lausanne, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) accepted 11 applications for athletes’ changes of sporting nationality, in accordance with Rule 41 of the Olympic Charter. All 11 are in view of the Olympic Games Paris 2024: Samalulu Clifton – Canoe – from New Zealand to Samoa Colin Heathcock – Fencing – from Germany to the USA Dean Donny Huijsen Wijsmuller – Football – from the Netherlands to Spain Mateo Joseph Fernandez-Regatillo – Football – from Great Britain to Spain Gor Minasyan – Weightlifting – from Armenia to Bahrain Richard Murray – Triathlon – from South Africa to the Netherlands Lesman Paredes Montano – Weightlifting – from Colombia to Bahrain Alexis Peterson – Basketball – from the USA to Germany Kim Polling – Judo – from the Netherlands to Italy Denis Taradin – Sailing – from Russia to Cyprus Chermen Valiev – Wrestling – from Russia to Albania

Final Confirmation that the GB gymnastic team are missing Jessica Gadirova Jennifer Gadirova Ondine Achampong

As yet Elina does not have Armenian citizenship though

Specific to cricket, the USA was undoubtedly the worst run cricket federation in the world up until a few years ago. Now they're almost competent

https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/23720 Actually it's worse that that. 128 years

The US Olympic Commitee contacted their swimmers to tell them to expect gold medals but it turned out they jumped the gun by a long, long way.

https://ita.sport/news/the-ita-reports-that-three-turkish-weightlifters-have-committed-anti-doping-rule-violations-within-a-period-of-12-months/ Does this trigger a ban on Turkish lifters for Paris?

A question for @bestmen Djemel Sedjati of Algeria may be the favourite for the 800m Olympic title but what do we know of his history before 2021? Can we be sure he is not a drug cheat?

The following athletes are confirmed to receive their Olympic medals at Champions Park on August 9 2024 because of disqualifications due to doping: Sydney 2000 – Athletics, Women’s 200m Bronze: Beverly McDonald (JAM) Beijing 2008 – Athletics, Women’s Long Jump Bronze: Chelsea Hammond-Ross (JAM) London 2012 – Weightlifting, Men’s 85kg Bronze: Tarek Yehia Fouad Abdelazim (EGY) London 2012 – Athletics, Men’s High Jump Gold: Erik Kynard (USA) Silver: Derek Drouin (CAN) London 2012 – Weightlifting, Men’s +105kg Bronze: Sang-Guen Jeon (KOR) London 2012 – Athletics, Women’s 1500m Bronze: Abeba Aregawi (ETH) London 2012 – Athletics, Women's 400m Hurdles Gold: Lashinda Demus (USA) Silver: Zuzana Hejnova (CZE) Bronze: Kaliese Spencer (JAM)

I still haven't seen the fight so I can't comment on the merits of the case. But if you ever want to see an example of how not to phrase your appeal then this is a perfect one.

Miguel Angel Lopez - cycling - banned for 4 years

Would not surprise if he "defects" to that Enhanced Games thing being held next year

It's a four year ban though and I assume he'll also lose his scholarship to his American university

It's been noted....

dressage rider Elliott Patterson has died of injuries sustained in a freak accident some weeks ago. His horse panicked, slipped and landed on top of him causing severe head injuries