dullard

Women's category restricted to biological women and an open category for everyone else seems to be World Athletics' ultimate goal as well.

That was also the Australian Olympic Committee's position when they made a statement about a week ago but that doesn't mean the federal government will agree with the AOC. https://www.olympics.com.au/news/aoc-endorses-ioc-statement-on-russia-and-belarus/

I think they'll probably stick with Ledecky for #1 but they won't be able to deny McIntosh that spot in 2024.

Trans athletes likely barred from female categories (paywalled, text below)

Those rankings seem to be a bit more reasonable this year compared to the last couple of years.

I saw some discussion about this else where and it seems as long as NCAA refuses to have WADA anti-doping at their meets or bring their rules in line with World Athletics including enforcing the shoe regulations they won't get the WA label for their meets.

Is there an entry list anywhere?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-20/australian-olympian-peter-bol-fails-drug-test/101878094

The scheduling of the 4x400 heats and 400 final on the same day is really unfair for the smaller countries that can't rest their stars from the 4x400 heats.

I'm pretty useless at these polls for anything besides swimming, athletics and tennis.

https://antydoping.pl/en/cases-of-anti-doping-rule-violations/

MacNeil is the favourite at this point but her win in Tokyo wasn't exactly dominant.

So what are the odds that the Asian Games will actually go ahead this year?

The requirement for teams to qualify relays at the 2024 World Aquatic Championships in Doha has been abandoned. https://www.stateofswimming.com/world-aquatics-hears-athlete-coach-voices-to-lift-doha-relays-lock-for-paris-olympics/

No the numbers are capped and only 50% of the places are available to those who meet the entry standard. https://olympics.com/en/news/how-to-qualify-paris-2024-athletics-qualification-system-explained So I guess that means if there's too many that meet the standard they will take the fastest and the rest need to qualify via ranking.

The news about the Hungarian swimmer has reached SwimSwam now.

Kenyan athletics is being given an enema by AIU 💩

AIU suspends three Kenyan athletes for doping

I wasn't paying attention so I missed these polls. Bummer. Women's 400 free 1. Ariarne Titmus 2. Summer McIntosh 3. Katie Ledecky It'll be very close though and I might be a bit biased putting Titmus first. Post Paris I expect McIntosh will ecclipse Titmus. Men's 4x100 free 1. Great Britain 2. United States 3. Italy GBR for the upset. Women's 4x100 free 1. Australia 2. United States 3. Canada Australia to win again but United States are going to improve a lot.

And Temple somehow managed to split 1.3 seconds faster than his individual on fly.

Popovici exceeded my expectations entirely. The time he went with his physique in the small pool is just mindblowing because it favours explosiveness because of all the walls. Maybe he can take down Biedermann's supersuit WR in the 200. I wasn't even expecting Australia to medal with that team but they really stepped up.

I really have no idea how the Australian men won that 4x50. Shocking scenes.

I'm not sure anyone will be getting down to 45 flat. The Netherlands have always been better in short course 4x200 than long course because it's easier for 100 sprinters to stretch up to 200 in the small pool. The medals for this relay in the big pool will continue to rotate between Australia, USA, Canada and China for the forseeable future.

USA will work.

Well it is supposed to be on All Aquatics for the Netherlands otherwise you'll have to use a VPN to watch on YouTube (I've been doing this despite it being broadcasted in Australia).