mpjmcevoy

Perhaps they can be Independent Neutral Athletes... More seriously, if they have no NOC how can they argue to be part of the Games? It's a basic entry requirement. Disapplying it would open up another can of worms in every separatist region on earth. I'd much rather they were there, but it would realistically have to be as USA 2 or CAN 2. Otherwise I fear the tournament will go on without them.

Sovereign first nations and all that.

It's a dirty job but someone, you kmow...

Pint balancing Beermat flipping

That Simpsons 0 days since an accident meme was kind of made for us, wasn't it! Personally still haven't forgiven them for Kyran Bracken (who's pretty obviously Ciaran Bracken in reality!)

Including the Yanks

Sixes - basically box lacrosse outdoors - seems a very clever form to bring to the Games - there's something of the Rugby sevens magic to it in terms of fitting in a nulti-sport event. Any Random soccer/football field can hold it. Coming from Ireland where we have the two big fast moving Gaelic field sports, football and hurling, I can sort of see how Sevens and Sixes might actually complement each other rather well as major multi event 'tasters' for the main sport (and much like beach volleyball too, come to think of it)..If it works as well as some of the videos I've seen, it may be able to make a case for hanging about - and give the other larger team sports some pause for thought. Big team sports are almost absent from the European Games, and are probably the main culprit in the overexpansion of the Commonwealth Games - 'small sided' versions of these sports are going to get increasingly popular with organisers (hence, presumably 3x3, even though basketball probably didn't need to do it). So how could baseball/softball, cricket, hockey, water polo, handball meet that challenge? i know the Kiwis had an interesting Pre-T20 idea of six a side cricket in a football stadium, drop in pitch, with modified scoring (4 for boundary, 6 for first-tier stand, 8 for second-tier, 10 for clearing the stadium sort of idea) - six a side, 10 overs, 5 all-rounder's and a wicketkeeper, 2 overs per bowler. T20 is fabulous as a TV sized product, but it's not small sided - the round and the player numbers are still the same.

It's always hard to tell, but to be honest, I don't think that's a bad squad looking forward, esp Aldridge - I do also wonder if this indicates something re Pidcock. He's not happy at Ineos, the Hayters have both left, Iget the feeling the sponsors interest has wained, the original principal's interest too and the team is in the doldrums - in addition, their raison d'etre is not only stimied by the superstar generation, but in a sense is now not needed, there's TONNEs of brit riders in the pro peloton now. I don't think Pidcock has it to be a GC rider - he's a great classics guy, but he loves MTB - I wonder if there's a team outside INEOS will offer him both, maybe with a bit CycloX, but broadly not bother with the GTs and stage racing, and try and get Sponsor value from his dualism,,

I believe His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will perhaps suggest mercy to His Majesty the King of Australia. His Mjaesty the King of Canada may wish to intercede at some point, I wonder if he has the other Kings' numbers...

Yeah, funding is not the argument to make here. Hindes from Germany was a better example of that. The guy clearly had 'split loyalties' pretty much all along - he moved aged 9, so he already probably had some small sense of identity (football support etc) before he moved, he was clearly thinking of moving 'back' as it were as early as 19. Having a GB girlfriend has probably just made all the bits fit for now - he wants to be with her, he's automatically entitled to pull on GB vest, he was harbouring feelings about it anyway. Frankly it was pretty decent of him to see out the cycle with Oz and give them a good return in two cycles.

Australia has over 100 Olympic sized swimming pools, almost all open to the public. It's absolutely imbedded in aussie culture. Do some aussies dope? Sure, ever country has that, but some countries do also care a LOT about certain sports on a cultural level. I'm not sure aussie swimming is the best example.

Which means they would need triple the number of olympic size swimming pools to create the opportunities that exist in Australia per person, despite having about 10% of the pools so far. (UK has13, one of which is run mainly for swim Ireland - Australia has 100+) - so to get from 12 to 300 = 288 new swimming pools. The last one build was Sandwell in Birmingham for 2022 - it cost 75 million £ 288 x 75M =21+BILLION£ TWENTY - ONE - BILLION If you think the British government are going to spend 0.5% of that much on pools for a nation that prefers to bike and run, I have a bridge to see ya. You want low hanging fruit - work out why GBR has had an absolute world class competitor in almost every field event, and NONE of their learnings have been systematically used to create a high value elite field event culture except possibly Heptathlon. Why aren't we using Sanderson, Whitbred, Daley Thompson, Dean Macey J Edwards, Aldama, Ashia Hansen. Capes, Backley, Hill, Grant, Grabartz, Steve Smith, Kate Rooney and Holly Bradshaw, Ugen and Procter, Sophie hitchon, Nick Miller, Rutherford - in a concentrated and systematic way? Look at the GB cycling coaching system - sure hoy and Trott-Kenny and Rowsell took the media route, and do it well, but Jason Kenny is back in the pitlane, Paul Manning was a superb rider turned coach, and even the non coaches mentor. AND GB Cycling use them. When British Athletics do find something like that, look what happens - Painter and Jenny MEadows set up a coaching group with his know how and her experience...and we Get Keely Hodgkinson, Erin Wallace, Sarah Healy... Martin Rooney works with the Hudson smith and the relay team, look what happens - they KNOW how to do it on the track, yet never bother on the field... 16 events. Small fields, no 'fast twtich' advantages, no 'altitude' advantages...

Take away his passport!! Not an overreaction at all, like...

To be fair, reading up on Richardson he's been pretty torn about this for a while, it's not some new fangled thing. The fact he has a star cyclist Welsh girlfriend however, that's brilliant work by the GB Cycling entrapement department! Well done, agent finucane.

Name like that, obvious Scottish ancestry, time for Fabrizio romano...HER WE GO....

We're owed - you took Ellen Gandy of us and ruined her....

Dunno, that might make some GBR's cast lustful eyes over the two golds and two bronze won for Ireland by Nordies!

If we could, it would make sense for all the Americas to be treated as simple "Americas", Oceania to join asia in "Asia-Pacific" and "Europe" and "Africa" to remain more or or less as they are - that's between 50-60 NOCS in each of the four 'regions'. Or you could get creative and break off Commonwealth Asia from the Rest of Asia - IND, PAK, SRI, BAN, MAS, BRU, SGP and possibly in the future East Timor, Nepal , and join it with its Commonwealth brethren from Oceania.

I see the British domestic competition has been confirmed as SuperLeague Basketball. Nine clubs, with Plymouth pulling out. All a bit embarrassing but probably the only sensible answer to the 777 debacle, in the short term anyway. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that ice hockey went through something similar with Sekonda superLeague, and its replacement EIHL has become a reasonable product that actually got GB Ice Hockey moving upwards a bit.

Olympic methodone. Love it!

There are more Olympic size pools in Melbourne, as I understand it, than in the entire UK. In addition, because of Australian weather, they are cheaper to build because they can be outdoors, and swimming is a huge part of the culture - indeed, only the NCAA college model allows USA to keep up. To be frank, the way GB became a cycling power was little short of miraculous, but it was ruthlessly based on the original understanding that track cycling was low hang fruit, and the good luck of the Manchester Velodrome. Australia has the culture. America has the NCAA. China has the numbers, the state planning and who knows what. The Russia had plenty of who knows what. In that context, GBR's doing ok. They've quietly become essentially the number 2 diving nation in the world, the only nation to deny China in the last three cycles, They've picked up an artistic swimming medal by the luck of fate bringing thee two daughters of two mothers together. They've picked up 5 medals and been unlucky it wasn't a few more. I would say that Jr results have tailed off a bit in recent years, and too many, especially the girls seem to plateau. But we aren't going to catch Australia, hoss.

You mean ol' Harry Lavery, son? 'Course he is!

That's utter madness. GB suddenly have 2 and 3 of the top sprinters alive, the dutch have 1 and 4... Penny for the thoughts of cycling australia - actually don't need a penny, I've read them already, super giant huff!

I'm sure Kata is very historically meaningful, but it's not sport. Lots of dancing is very ritualised too. Still not sport.

Cross-country is a long standing WA ask. Handball was never going to get Beach, Gymnastics would defo want tumbling, but possibly prefer double mini or trampoline synchro to acrobatic. High diving SHOULD get in and Archery would be better looking at field events, but may be satisfied with the five it has.