mpjmcevoy

It is bizarre - not least because the sport has hotspots on four continents historically. I often wondered in some bigwig at the IOC had caught a squash player in flagrente delicto with his better half and swore a blood vow they were never getting in. Not unlike Badminton, Sports climbing and skateboarding - once it's in, I would be shocked if it leaves; the Aussies like it too, and the fancy glass wall version designed for tv actually looks good. Just a few tweaks and commentary fixes needed, specifically explaining the let rule with examples, and show the tactics around it.

I'd have thought the darts and snooker relatively straightforward to hold, using only existing venues. What serious Olympic town doesn't have at minimum a theatre or town hall? You could put together a venue for pennies in comparison to most other sports

Darts is to archery as snooker is to golf as table tennis is to tennis - absolutely nothing inherently problematic in darts or cue sports beyond perhaps understandable snobbery around their origins. Moreover, Darts and Snooker are both good at fiddling with formats to meet Olympic need, would require limited quotas, and the major players would be screaming to get selected.

Why do you think that - darts is objectively sport. Breaking is...a subjectively judged seizure.

Can do - suspension of the NF amd/or fine and/or loss of participation rights Given that one of the positives is a whereabouts, they might just squeeze through with a big fine, but they shouldn't.

Almost agree entirely, but not on cue sports - my feeling is that the definition of winter sports should be extended to include - 'chamber' sports - that is sports designed specifically for indoor areans out of the elements, not just those that have kind of ended up there like judo and badminton, but sports to which being indoors is intrinsic, that have an almost clubroom/parlour game quality - and that's where cue sports - and darts - come in - winter disciplines - events generally and habitually played in poor, wintery conditions, but not necessarily snow and ice - two obvious ones are cyclocross and cross country running

You could go all in here, in a good way Introduce two new events : The "Swift" a kind of a one day Sprint omnium of flying lap, match sprint (done like placings races), keirin and Kilo/500 and the one day " Enduro "which would be broadly the current omnium, then refashion the "Omnium" as a seven event all round test over two-three days with IP, reverse Devil (winner of each sprint eliminated with top available points) and an equivalent of the beep test which will quickly earn the nickname "the Rack", included...

"she'll still Irish". So's Graham Norton. He's not our problem either. i'm odd on this stuff; on the one hand I despise racism in Irish sport, have done since I hero-worshipped Paul McGrath. I don't care where the hell you come from if you pull on that jersey legitimately, you're one of ours, whether by birth, birthright, heritage or later choice. Whether you're Rhasidate Adeleke, Ciara Mageaan, Ben Healy/Dan Martin (cycling) or Bundie Aki, you're ours and we'll circle the damn wagons around ye if needed. But if you're Ben Healy (rugby), Kyran Bracken, Bethany Firth or Amy Broadhurst, I wish you well (well, not Kyran Bracken, the gobshite - can you see the scars of past thumpings>!) but you're not our problem... Even if, weirdly, I actually would cheer for you with my GBR hat on (which for Firth I do, and for Broadhurst I might have done)! And then to cap off the oddness, the only golf I care about is the Ryder Cup, and I couldn't care less about the B&I Lions.

As I understand it she partially won an appeal on this (on moral culpability, I think), but never came back to the sport.

To be fair, Ireland only brought 4 men, already having three Qs, and 2 of those 4 are still in the game As for Amy, wish her well with my GBR hat on, but she's no longer Ireland's problem

We already do that split though - the first week is 'tentpoled' by Swimming and the second by athletics; what is being suggested is simply having a third 'tentpole' - the only change I'd make is that I'd add cycling to gymnastics to keep the second week tight. I've always liked the three week idea as it gives time for variety, ebb and flow. I would also have a mid games 'ceremony' to celebrate for the first tranch of leavers and the second tranch of arrivals. I'd make a 'free sport in the city' a centre piece of each of the four week ends - Weekend 1: Cycling Road Races. Weekend 2: Individual Triathlons and cycllng TT. Weekend 3: Race walks and Triathlon relay. Weekend 4 Marathons. I would not leave the main stadium empty for a week. Sevens should be there through most of week 2. I would introduce a form of field archery at the mountain bike circuit when the bikers are done. I'd bring back karate, and make a point of having the three oriental combat sports back to back to back using the same venue - a real life fight club. I'd do something in the urban core not dissimilar to free sport in the city, some kind of pop up ampithetre for BMX freestyle flatland, parkour etc What other sports could share venues in a longer games to reduce costs? i'd also suggest rotating some big team sports; Baseball and Cricket, most obviously - once every eight years would really make each event mean something, and the larger family of bat-and-ball sports would always be represented.

The histrionics are a function of multiple world class riders with multiple world class egos.

Perhaps we have a confusion of terms here? Platform diving is 10m indoors. High Diving is 27m outdoors. Cliff diving is just whatever is available. Three different things. Hunt is primarily a high diver. He also cliff dives, and historically - and now - he platform dives.

Jakob MIGHT be tempted to make it REALLY slow to try and spook the Brits into worrying about the rest of the field, which will contain a few real kickers, and thus take it out themselves, but that doesn't really help Jakob if Josh and Jake double team him. More likely, I think is that Jakob gambles he's still the fastest overall, and takes it out on a near suicidal pace, try and burn off the Scots. the problem being that this tactic works in paced races where someone takes the wind for you for 800 metres, and you don't lose any more energy than those on your shoulder, but in a non-paced champs race, the guy in front gets the wind. As for Keely, the issue now is how to factor in Mu. "Run her own race" is obviously the plan for Moraa, but that might not work v Mu - moreover, if Mu positions on Moraa's shoulder, can Keely let them BOTH go just to keep her race? A danger that Keely comes screaming past Moraa on the bend only to find Mu already gone...

KJT announced a while back she was doing it. A little surprised, given they were selected, that Bianca Williams and Amy Hunt arenot runing the individual 200m

If Yee is in the first group in the peloton after transition, he becomes short odds for the win. If. Everyone in that peloton knows what they need to do to him; the GBR 'Pilot' will know what he needs to do FOR him. Kinda fascinating, actually. If the race becomes a duathlon because of the Seine, I can only see one winner, Pilot or no pilot. The women's race, though is an absolute binfire. but the return to form of Taylor-Brown, and the strength of the French seems to me the narrative heading in to Paris

How much hope does Ben Llewllin have of somehow nabbing a reallocated unused quota in Men's Skeet?

Tentatively looking like GBR has got 2 riders in both men's and women's MTB thanks to Charlie Aldridge's heroics and some bad luck for the Danes - GBR needed to net just over 100 points in Nove Mesto, seem to have done that with room to spare. GBR also have the only full house on the road, one of the few full houses on the track, and look well set at this point to pick up 2 men's quotas in the BMX freestyle. They have one woman's quota in the Freestyle more or less in the bag thanks to the 2023 Worlds, but a second would take a minor miracle in Budapest. Big question this week becomes can the guys somehow haul back a second BMX racing quota. A second women's quota looks impossible at this stage in BMX racing. All in all though, GBR will almost certainly have one of the biggest cycling squads in Paris, with real medal chances in all 5 disciplines (Tarling and Henderson in the Road TTs, umpteen on the track, Pidcock and possibly even Aldridge in the Men's MTB, Beth Schreiver if she can get fit and Kye Whyte in BMX racing, Kieren Reilly in the Freestyle)

GBR needed to net Denmark by just over 100 points - in the event, I think they've taken them for about 250 - certainly tom and Charlie netted about 300 odd over the danes in the senior races, and I don't think the U23 Danes got anything super back.. The GB women hardly scored this weekend, but had a rather handy 4-500 point lead over Brazil and Germany.

A fifth and probably final Grand Tour podium, three of them in the last two years after his 36th birthday. In his time he won the tour over Doumoulin and Froome, was runner up to Bernal and Roglic, and third behind Pogi twice, Vingegaard and Danny Martinez.....two olympic gold, and he won most of the big 1 week races - Suisse, Romandie, Dauphine and Paris-Nice (though never Adriatico), as well as Rundfahrts, the Alps and the Algarve. Not a bad palmares for a cranky deisel from South Wales... As often happens in cycling, periods of dominance are intersperced with interregna as the new generation sorts its order out - and in the short chaotic period, a strong willing rider can really make his mark, albeit briefly - Think Roche and Delgado between the Lemond/Fignon/Hinault years and the reign of Indurain, or Sastre. cadel Evans and Wiggo between Contador and Froome (happens in tennis too - note some of the big winners between Sampras and Federer eras). I think Thomas belongs in that category, doing his work in the interregnum between Froome and Pogi/Rog/Vingegaard. His time is now done, but he's put together a rather lovely palmares in those years. And he'll always have Paris.

Can't deny it, GBR having an absolute mare - looking increasingly like a major step backwards for GBR this cycle - would only say Rowing suffered this moment three years ago, and they've come roaring back. But there's gonna have to be a review of what's been happening.

Big result for GBR at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Novo Maesto, hugely impressive win for Pidcock who looks like a hard favourite for Paris, and a brilliant 4th for 2023 U23 World Champ Charlie Aldridge. Those results, I think, will pretty much guarantee GBR a second men's MTB slot, and Aldridge his seat on the Paris train. combined with a key withdrawal of a Dane, I think they've got the points.

In the 800m, it looked like Keely's team had finally figured out the code for Moraa - that she will sprint to the front, lead out a fast 300, then start mucking up her rivals momentum with stop/starts to create a 300m final race. Today, Kellet showed how to beat that - stay well away from Moraa, and don't challenge her - you keep your momentum and avoid the damage to the kick of all the stop/starting - then pile it on with 5-600 to go from a distance behind Moraa. Now the question is how will that play with Mu The 1500 was epic, and psychologically important between Josh and Jakob; it will disuade Jakob somewhat from the assumption that his own race plan suits him uniquely.

Wasn't aware until today that Stapley is in the odd position of being eligible for GBR right now - but NOT for these Olympics because he started the Paris process in Australian colours. however both Stapely and Milner look solid candidates for the future. Given Yee also has at least 1 if not two more cycles in him, the men's cupboard is not as bare as I feared a few months ago. Waugh and Fullager, I suspect, will step up post Paris on the distaff side. Personally, I'd take Dickinson, a competent super sprint relay lead and he proved his credentials as a pilot today

Si vous pensez que c'est mauvais, vous devriez voir mon allemand !