mpjmcevoy

And this with relatively small fields, so lots of nations with no skin in the game.

It is by far the biggest ticket sales of any sport at the Olympics - even 70% full stadia means about 58 matches with 30-40,000 odd crowds - even the athletics rarely sells that many tickets (usually across 18 sessions full to the brim, the equivalent of about 36 matches of 30-40,000.) and no sport other than track and field comes close. Moreover, it tends to create an easy win for 'spreading' the Olympic bounty, and rarely requires any meaningful new build, unlike Athletics. You are talking, when you add in VIp ticket sales and the usual venue add ons, generating revenue in the $200-300 million range - Revenue which, unlike most of the money from the Games (TV rights, sponsorship, branded merch), goes to the host organiser, not the IOC. The thing about being an Olympic fanatic is that we often get here precisely because we rejected to some extent or other the overwhelming soccer culture that exists everywhere outside North america and the antipodes. So we aren't Olympic football's target audience. Casual fans who like football - of whom there are a LOT - are. I do wonder, in all sincerity, if Brisbane might be better doing this with cricket than soccer - or if LA would have been better doing it with baseball.

The women's top 50 is so crammed with athletes from the same five nations that it is not inconceivable they are unable to fill the full quota from the top 50, in which case a third double spot would open up between USA/BEL/GBR

That women's pursuit team looks brutally fast. Batter you over the head into submission brutal, perhaps not seen since the early Trott-Rowsell days The 4 minute barrier could be on borrowed time. The two British women sprinters Finucane and Caldwell also look pretty ominous, indeed the whole women's sprint team looks in some shape and with some depth to get that result without Finucane Work to do for the British men's teams, but they won't be unhappy either, not to mention Joe Truman's unexpected Kilo win.

The rankings look likely to give two spots each in the men's side to Egypt (2nd athlete at 3) and GB (second athlete at 9). the nearest contender after that is France and both Egypt and GB have plenty of contenders after their respective number 2 but before France's umber 2 Women's side looks a bit more of a battle, with Egypt again likely to provide 2, and then a fight between USA, GBR and BEL for the other lucky double spot. That said, so dominant are the Egyptians, Americans and Brits, that failing to find all the contenders in the top 50 is entirely plausible, possibly opening a third 'double' spot.

I think there was a feeling before the obstacle course was introduced that really, really solid endurance runners were starting to dominate - in Triathlon you might call it the Alex Yee conundrum. Personally, I don't mind at all if the 'martial' elements are reemphasised as that is the real 'soul' of the sport - Triathlon, Marathon and Road cycing are there for genuine endurace, MP is in some senses a 'soldiery' test - one reason I thought Judo might have been a better addition than the obstacle course. But placing a higher emphasis on the fight bits over the flight bits seems a legitimate idea - though it should also increase the X-country nature of the run so that the test of a fresh shooter at the beginning is rather different from the test of a knackered one at the end. I quite like the artificial hill in rio.

Wth Hepwort's worth on rings, I think tulloch is no longer a required get out of jail free card. Equally, GBR are going through an unusual moment of being a bit weak on pommel. finally, if Whitlock can get himself into anything like the 2020 zone and do three clean routines, he remains a major medal chance, and boosts the team medal chances. Hall was a fabulous swiss army knife of a gymnast, but again the trio of Jarman, Hepworth and Fraser probably cover your AA/Swiss army knife needs. Haven't seen enough of Yolshin-Cash yet to really draw conclusions. I'd say Jarmin, Hepworth, Whitehouse, Fraser and a.n. other is about right On the girls side, it's kind of tragic what's happened the Gadirova's in terms of injury - like Ellie D, there's a hint of what might have been, even as they have had a great career.

Looks like Weston, if he gets fit, might be a very good bet indeed on this track. Stoeker was very good in the team later on, and Wyatt upped his level.

North american cup incorporating Pan American Champs are running at same weekend, I think.

Exactly the other example I thought of. I genuinely think there's an issue with those two sports - in Diving the rise of GB prevented somewhat embarrassing back to back to back clean sweeps; they would be well advised imho to seek to add mixed synchro, team and high dive events, which could be done faguely cleaply with relatively little rise in total quota (14 fr the high dive - the rest could be found from existing competitors), and uses only another reasonably cheap venue (Basically scaffolding with wrap, a big pool which you can reuse, and temp seating near the beach) - given the increase in beach based events - volleyball, but more so coastal rowing and beach sprint canoe, and possibly triathlon and open water swimming, there's no harm adding a nice spectacular high dive event with about 24 quotas total (12+12) - the advantage being the Chinese are not so into high dive so it automatically jazzes up your medal table - in a way its a pity Gymnastics aren't having a beach based flying rings competition which has a long Venice Beach tradition. Don't know how we fix Table tennis, truth be told - it is simply 'their' game, in a way not even diving is - they have tables in railways stations and everything.

There are only 10 gold medals. A spread of 6 winners i frankly pretty good - you should try Diving...

But certainly a dope. Well, he apparently has earned a lot of money from his adult career, so perhaps that's the gamble he chose. Interesting that he originally told a bit of a fib about what he was being investigated for - he claimed it was his adult site content, but it turned out it was leaking some of that content on a more mainstream social media site, on an account linking to Gb Canoeing. It's a long way from cheeky rugby calendars with carefully placed balls...

It's looking, as suspected like CGF has persuaded Nigeria they will get 2034 if they have their sh1t together. Rumours suggest New Zealand have suddenly got their appetite back - perhaps on a more Glasgow scale - for 2038 - if true, that's quite a change in certainty

5 individual medals was exactly the same as Paris, despite injuries to two of GBs best prospects, Caudrey and Kerr. Hunt's medal was a revelation, wightman's a vindication, while KJT's felt a bit valedictory, although O'Dowda had an excellent two days - the big news out of it, however, was the continued rise of Anna Hall and Kate O'Conner - the event felt very much like a signal for the end of what has been the Nafi-KJT era, or even the Nafi-KJT-Ennis era if you want to go all the way back to 2009. The relays were the issue. They were, let's be honest, appalling. I could be mistaken, but as i understand it MHS has some mental issues that make relays a bit of an ordeal unless he runs first leg. The wheels certainly came off at this champs, but if they are coming off, this is the champs for it to happen. I would still add Charlie Dobson to your list for this cycle, in a similar position to Burgin. I would add Amber Anning to that. I have felt like we're on the downslope with both Daryll and Dina for a while now. I'm not sure how in love with the sport Dina is any more, her other passions seem to be asserting themselves, and the move to America really only set her back, after enjoying the culture to begin with. Daryll has not had a great couple of years, and Imani seems to be an injury casualty now. That generation may have had its time, not unlike the great Gemili-Hughes-Mitchell-Blake cycle a few years earlier...

I think the swap has to be reasonable in motivation - as in, for legitimate reasons, bot as in 'middle of the road' - so Benji, for example, yeah, it's odd, but it's legit, a genuine quirk of his personal history. Obviously Ireland is a diaspora nation, and that diaspora story is culturally pretty important to us - a real sense people were FORCED to leave, not just chose to, so I have very little problem with the 'grandparent' rule. No real problem with the marriage rule either, save only the sham marriage route. I don't like the full mercenary route. I understand the attraction to the athlete but it just stinks really when a country buys an athlete who has no plausible connection whatsoever with the country. It makes you think, what's the point of international sport in that case? Now, if you spend several years genuinely living in the country before the switch, that's a bit different - at that point you're a genuine immigrant. But since I adore bundee aki, I might be biased! i really don't like the pairs/ice dance figure skating system, I have to admit.

There's a strong tradition of Fijian army recruits turning up in English union.

He's been on the radar a couple of years now, some ridiculous results for a 19/20yo. Also worth noting Kate Waugh had a big win in the T100 over the weekend; a number of major triathletes whose season was broken up leaving them out of the WTCS reckoning prioritised the T100

It occasionally happens that a great nation in a sport, through the fullness of time and events, simply fades away from the top table, or near the top table - the travails of Romania in rugby union and gymnastics, for example, although the romanian girls seem to be back on an upward slope - it is very sad to see West Indies in that position. One wonders if a mooted 2 division structure might not be good for them to reboot and come back,

Ireland have shelved the men's programme, but as I understand it, not the women's.

To be honest, the Euros have pitched themselves since 2012 as a moment to get Q times for the Olympics - I don't think it helps - much better to be an event for Olympians to either bask in their glory, or save their disappointing season - sure some, maybe even quite a few will skip it - but they are skipping it now anyway

In my opinion both Matchplay and proper team events are a criminally underused format - even tennis has the good wit to put some beef into its Davis and BJK Cup - they aren't the Slams, but they matter. Really wish a smaller team match play format ( maybe just 2 men, 2 women, playing 1 mens singles, 1 womens singles and 1 mixed alternate shot foursome over nne holes) was introduced to the Olympics - 16 teams could have a full knockout competition over only 36 holes and two days - Rd 16, QF, SF, Medal matches - each match over nine holes but consisting of three ' ties as set out above, with 2 pts for the win, 1 for the tie, target of 4 out of 6 points, and if its 3-3 after nine, single shot nearest the hole tie breaker on '10th' for the deciding point 4-3 - you could even seed the event based on the strokeplay scores

And Bob McIntyre makes it...comfortable, after a fashion, removing any asterisk based on the injury half. Fightback very important for the event, and the Americans can draw something from it. Continue to believe that both team formats and matchplay are criminally underused in the sport, they create a unique vibe, and really wish the team event in the Olympics was an alternate shot mini matchplay event, to showcase the format - indeed, it might be even better if the 'teams' were made of 4 (2M, 2W, playing three matches per tie over nine holes - 1 women singles, 1 men singles 1 mixed foursome) with a sudden death nearest the pin tiebreaker if match ties 1 1/2 - 1 1/2

GBR look to be in something of a straight fight with Austria for what will likely be the European spot in the women's flag football in LA; if rankings based, they probably have the edge now, but the Worlds will tell. Am assuming the same 1 per continent + hosts rule will probably apply as seems to be in mind for lacrosse and cricket - as it stands GB could well have 5 teams out of 6 across flagfootball, lacrosse and cricket, but may lose places in rugby sevens. Big winners of the system may be Japan and Australia who lead their respective continents in most team events (bar sevens, and Aus will still be high enough ranked to qualify) Must be a decent chance of a spot in women's soccer for GBR, though, and a punchers chance in women's water polo if they can keep up the improvement rate ( relatively recently they were nobody, now they seem a decent tier II force (see also men's ice hockey and women's softball)

Yes, they did. Boosting GDR was more important to the Communist project than any nation other than the USSR itself because it was seen as in direct competition with West Germany, a flagbearer in the non-Slavic space in Europe. we no from the files that GDR brought an astonishing level of science, discipline and ruthlessness to the issue, and led the world in sport science both legitimate and illegitimate - and to hell iwth the health consequences, especially for the girls who, being female, were superresponders to oral testosterone. Indeed, it's always a bit of a giveaway that a state sponsored, or at least state encouraged system of professional doping based on testosterone is in place if there is a sudden across the board rise in results for a nation's girls, but not nearly as obvious for their boys - See the sudden rise in Russian girls swimming at the european juniors in the years leading up to their being caught at Sochi for an excellent example (say 2010 to 2016) - from middling to utter domination in a few years, but ony dominating the girls. The tells on blood doping and EPO, etc are rather different and less sex skewed - plus less evidence of government pushing it - but tend to entail a sudden simultaneous rise in pure endurance athletes in the pool, on the track and on the bike.

I note Emiy's brother, another MTB cyclist, just got hammered with a SIX YEAR doping ban, which doesn't fill one with confidence.