mpjmcevoy

You could do a lot worse in hosting terms than 2027 Portugal, 2031 Croatia - it might create a stable foundation for the event going forward to have two hosts ready in advance. Meanwhile still absolutely no word whatsoever on possible hosts for the 2026 European Championships event, which despite being the more popular fanwise, looks like it's about to come unstuck after two editions...

In a significant number of sports, the national authorities essentially run the sport, and the athletes, in their country, even in democratic states, but especially in authoritarian ones. In such circumstances, national bans seem the only way to deal with egregious and repeated rule-breaking. In this case, it is brutally clear that the Kazakh authorities simply see the ethical rules of the sport as an annoyance to be got around. I don't see any alternative in such a situation to expulsion. The rights of the many outweigh the desires of the few. Participation in specific competitions is not a human right. and it should not be set out as though it were one the way Bach does. Nor is it racial discrimination to expel a national federation, of whatever ethnicity, where there is clear evidence of systemic problems and unacceptable actions, particularly where those problems appear to have a state-backed basis. That may seem rough on the 'clean' - or as is more often the case, just not yet caught, as shown particularly vividly by the post Sochi Russian crises - athletes of corrupted national federations, but the level of pretend naivite used to justify ignoring systemic doping is killing sport - and that's whether it's central Asians in weightlifting, Western and Southern Europeans and North Americans in cycling, West African's in weightlifting, East Africans in athletics or Russians in just about everything. Enough with the handwringing.

It would also complicate it, if which is the 'qualifier' team becomes contentious. From Scotland's point of view they have essentially lost the Scotland basketball team and the Scottish rugby sevens team already because of the Olympics. I think their football team is safe, but there WOULD be some pressure, to begin with, for the home nations to field only one U21 side, even if they kept separate full national sides. and to Scotland, that's the thin end of the wedge. That said, in our lifetimes there's every chance there will be a Scottish Olympic Association anyway, given demographics and background polling. In such an event, how long Wales would be willing to play the role of Montenegro or Herzegovina is open to question. Cricket would suggest quite long.

True, and clearly got themselves far too dependent on the generosity of the BBC, whose generosity in sports fees can no longer be trusted in these chastened times.

One 3000 metres indoors back in January, presumably before the injury.

They're broke, Rafa. Really, really broke. 'Probably going bankrupt after Paris' broke. It's patently clear - look at the U23 squad they're sending, a fair amount of quality, but next to no depth. At some point I forsee an inquiry on where the money has gone; they seem to have made a number of calamitous decisions, and moving into (and hen out of) the Alexander appears to have been disastrous.

As someone with a foot in two camps, I'd say 1. GBR's failure with 1 exception to take anyone in a non Olympic Game spsport was a mistake, and disrespectful of the Games - indeed, disrespecting the event is a standing problem. I'm not saying the event is particularly surging anywhere (except italy!) but with these things sometimes the thing is what you make it. I know enough to know the very best US and Jamaican sprinters don't go to the Pan-americans, or necessarly many of the top-tier distance runners to th Africans, but I increasingly think that's a really foolish attitude for the athletes, the federations, the Olympic committees and the sports themselves. You ahve to push every opportunity you get in the modern ecosystem. For GB, this was - yet again - an opportunity missed imho. 2. The divers had the excuse that the federation made a perhaps justifiable call, and may even worked out quite well for some of the divers. The athletics had no excuse whatsoever. I maybe understand the desire to protect the stars - but let's be clear, there ain't that many stars. And if Keely Hodgkinson can do an U23 400m, for example, she can darn well do a European Games 800 (and Boffay was far from the worst level reserve, there, she was justifiable. 3. going back to 1. if Team GB/BOA are unwilling to pick in non-olympic sports then let some other organisation - a 'World Games' based equivalent, take over and do it for non-Olympic sports. It's unforgivable that GBR kickboxers, thaiboxers missed out on what would be a major event for them, and a medal winning opportunity in some cases, becuse the BOA has no interest in their non-Olympic sport - not least because going forward, non-Olympic/'World Games' sports are likely to be an increasingly important part of the event, for the variety they introduce - as an Irish + GBR fan, the last two days of the kickboxing was incredibly exciting because the Irish cared enough to send people - and won medals that put a real gloss on their games. 4. The various European Feds and the EOC need to come together and stop fighting for dominance - the EOC has no event without the sports feds, but the sports feds have few (and possibly fewer re European Championships model) opportunities to get 'casual' eyeballs on their events, and the EOC event, if done right - cheaper, continued regional model, continued non Olympic games sports, extended OG qualification spots - is a perfect opportunity to 'create value' as they say, and eventually make separate money for the European Feds rather than rely on the trickle down from the IOC and global feds..

Ireland will be pleased, and will be confident a couple of their near misses might collar a place in the World Qualifier. Agree re GB, but I would imagine that's fixible - this cycles talent doesn't however look as strong as last cycle's. Like much else in these games, it's been a bit of a curate's egg for GB - good in places. Italy seem to be battle ready in every sport recently...

Ahhh. Thanks, it's bugged me for years - so the o is only there as a "leathen le leathen "thing.

I'm thinking more the lenition of the b - with broad vowels should it not be W rather than V?

Is that not just Caolin (KEE-linn), done fancy?

can be either EE-veen or Ay-veen The one that always throws me is Siobhain - Shi-VONN...but by standard Irish pronunciation rules, should be Shi-WAHN, surely? ('bh' between broad vowels is W, not V?)

No reason on earth this shouldn't be an Olympic event. Good fun, slightly different skill set (it's more 'sprinter' based), arguably more back and forth action than individual event, and if the quotas are done right, not a single extra one required. Works as both 2 and 4 person mixed relay. Strong Triathlon mixed relay vibe to me, in that, if this was brought in, you'd quickly wonder why it wasn't there all along. Would suggest only the inclusion in the cross country run bit of at least a wee bit of uphill and downhill not flat laps - Tokyo managed it with just a bit of scaffolding and some planks, frankly, doesn't need a major 'investment' but it nuances the event.

Indeed, totallympics might be a good place for such a thing, to complement the forums...

Wikipedia might be greatly improved if editors had some limited right to bar certain superusers from amending them - that way no one person could get all that powr, and notorious bullies could be detected. The other answer, of course, would be to begin a proper SportsWiki of your own which had a looser rule set specifically on statbook, primary sources, crystal balling and notability

You could put together a simple enough system - connecting punch (jab basically) 1pt, connecting combination (double jab, 'soft' 1-2) 2pt, CP with power (hook, unprotected jab, uppercut) 3 pts, CC with power four points(classic forceful combo). 5 judges, 4 buttons each, an attack scores the highest value 3 of the judges agree on instantaneously -so if the 5 judges split with 2 claiming a combo, no force, 1 thinks 1 punch had force but not combo, and 2 thought it was a combo with force - that's 2pt, 2pt, 3 pt, 4pt 4pt - which means three judges gave at least three points - so 3 points scored. If a mandatory 8 count grants oddly enough 8pts, snf of vourse a KO/TKO ends the contest immediately, there's your system. Score cumulatively, or over three round by round scores (I prefer cumulative, round by round leads to a lot of dead rubber thirds rounds). Obviously punches defended with arms and gloves aren't going to score at all, so in effect sound defence is well rewarded. Eventually you could look at similar pressure sensors in the gloves as TKD has, but that's not a necessity right now. If you think successfuly inflicted power should be better rewarded, make those numbers 4 and 6, and a standing count 10 rather than 3 and 4. If you think pure technique more important put everything up one to 2,3,4,5, as this will make a successful jap worth 40% a hard combo, rather than 25%. Fiddle and trial until you are happy Remember TKD fiddled with its scoring a lot to start with, introduced rounds, incentivised and then disincentivised roundhouse kicks - there's no harm in messing with the rules a bit - the key, maybe, is to get away from the assumption that Olympic boxing is just a training ground for the prize fighting pros of the future, so should basically look like prizefighting. That' need not be true..

GBs had that sort of week in the pool...whe it was good, it was very, very good...and when it was bad, it was shocking. to top it off poor Jsmes Heatly appears to have developed the yips.

The talent just doesn't seem to be there. Despite its travails in Poland GB Boxing is still in a pretty good place. GB Taekwondo is a wonder of the world, frankly. But GB Judo - a sport where GBR was a genuine global power in living memory, and where they can still field a pretty strong women's team, seems to have lost anything like an idea in the men's side.

GBR favourites I think in the men's final tournament. ALL the good teams likely to qualify directly. Tonga likely the biggest banana skin

GBR have, quietly, had a pretty dreadful qualification tournament given their pedigree. I still think they'll do quite well in the final qualification tournament. Ireland's men have not dazzled, though their women have, as have Turkey's. There's been an amazing spread of the men's spots, but the women's spots have gone in the main to the same handful of countries.

Who we thinking from oceania?

As I heard it, the powers that be were actually genuinely lobbied by certain people COMPLAINING that objective buzzer mechanisms were taking away their 'power' and 'influence' - and actually CAVED to that demand because it helped when securing event hosts and fees if home boxers could expect some favours! Anecdotal, but where do you even start if there's truth in that?

Thats tough on those who won their groups, but that's the nature of sport, the seed who muck up can expect to suffer consequences, and the non seeds who excel ought to see rewards

I never entirely understood - well, I knew it was a corruption thing, but you know - why, when boxing with its buzzer system had found the beginnings of a way to counter these things, actively dumped it for subjective, corruptable judging. Taekwondo used to be riddled; they've managed to sort of sort it out. Gymnastics was renounded for homers; the code of ponts seems to have levelled the playing field a bit. Yet boxing actively chose the worse option...

Sadly, Heatly seemed to stutter stop the last dive - eventually took it quite well but I think that's the second time that's happened him this week, a worrying 'yips' style development for him in what has been a pretty excellent week for the 'B' team. Eden Cheng taking a European solo crown and an Olympic quota the highlight.