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Great result for GBR. Good result for Powell in particular having gone up a weight to try and grab this spot. Williams matches do look messy, but to use a swimming aphorism, 'gotta lane, gotta chance', and she seems to be building back her form - more to the point, having both go through in the top 4 increases the chances significantly - Powell the more likely

Looks like it's a stadium issue. They're at Stade de France, so they prob That's just ridiculous. Why not simply have the sevens at Parc des Princes, arguably the spritual home of French Rugby anyway.

Bad look for Powell, who arguably has the form to come through the whole process. ~Are they both fighting at the weight between Jones and McGowan?

Interesting indeed - would presumably free up a road Race quota if Tarling could ride TT on a track quota? Given the parcours, slightly surprised similar ideas haven't surfaced around Pidcock (MTB/RR)

That's not the worry. The fear isn't, and never was, Moscow 1980 or Los Angeles 1984 for anyone but Bach and his own personal gripes. The fear is Munich 1972. A couple of hotheads who think they can strike a blow for freedom if they attack some judoku or gymnast aligned to the Russian Army club coming out of the cantina. Put it this way. I would REALLY not be comfortable sharing a tower block in Paris with AIN athletes. I don't like the odds.

Like I said, no boycott

There will be no meaningful boycott.

Not sure if you noticed, Woodie, but Scotland have already been relegated, and by a distance. In The Second League, Ireland just put 6 past Northern Ireland, in Belfast. Sometimes the gaps at this level are big. I've actually been watching the game. Scotland defended well for 30 minutes, and have gamely tried throughout and then ran out of steam - England clearly has better conditioning. This is the European champion, World Cup runner up here. The issue maybe isn't why they've demolished Scotland, but why they weren't demolishing everyone in the group until now. Anyway, it's 5-0 Eng, 2-0 Ned now, so from this point, it is a straight shootout.

I think there's something to be said for a 'Best Sporting Moment of the year' classification - that stand out Olympic sport episode, separate from the best athlete. It can even be sort of negative - a sporting howler that created a monumental climax I think there's possibly a similar class for a kind of 'social moment' of the year, when an athlete somehow transcended sport - think Rashford's food drive or the ~US gymnasts taking on their federation over Nasser et al from years past.

I often look at how relatively well Great Britain is currently doing in men's ice hockey (in which it has a enjoyable but hardly top tier league and limited grassroots) and baseball (where it has no league to speak of) and wonder why GBR are so fundamentally badly run in basketball - a game with far more reach, and in which, despite everything, they seem to produce a decent number of US College ballers every year...I used to wonder was it because rugby snaffled the tall talents, but I don't think it is...

Yep, just did the numbers - Cunningham in comfortably, McGowan about 60 points clear of Cook. Jones had a rather hand 107 pts lead on 6th so she was already safe. Sinden long since safe. Barring injury, I think that's your four, with potentially Cook and Powell on standby.

The fairly astonishing rise to relevance of the men's ice hockey team on the back of a fun, enjoyable but hardly elite (pun intended) league is an object lesson to basketball. Oddly, the recent EIHL tragedy has shown the familial collegiality of the sport in its best light.

Things just got saucy in W+69 with Multiple World Champ Bianka Cook eliminated, with domestic rival Rebecca McGowan still in, with Jade Jones going out eRly and A Powell medalling, feels like a changing of the guard moment.... Lauren Williams looks to be done, sad loss of form, while Caden Cunninghams early elimination will have to play out. Unlike Williams, CC would get a final shot.

They had quite a lot of problems uniting, in the run up to 2012, and the team have not been successful since. Indeed, the 'home nations' effectively launched a coup of the GB Basketball organisation a few years later, specifically to protect home nations interests at the expense of GB ones - one of the multiple reasons why GBR international basketball is a bit of a mess. From the leading GBR Basketball website, hoopsfix:

Host Americas 3 Asia-Pacific 2 Europe 3 Africa 2 Final qualifier knockout tournament over 9 days NAmerica 2 SAmerica 1 Europe 2 Asia 2 Pacific 1 Africa 2 Note N and S America, Asia and Oceania all guaranteed specific final qualifier berths, not like in original Q. 2nd team from any region with 2 teams (NAm 2, EU 2, As 2, Africa 2) play in playin round. 2 winners join remaining 6 (NAm 1, SAm 1, Africa 1, Asia 1, Pacific 1 and Europe 1) in QF, winner Q

I agree the curlers are happy. For historical reasons they tend to be drawn from rural, generally unionist communities. Its more the casual fans that grumble! Rugby is a good point - indeed, its a shambles. Could also note that combining for basketball has not been successful, either.

Best. Sports. Ad. Ever. And it's not even close. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuAPPeRg3Nw&ab_channel=C4Paralympics Honourable mentions

I'm afraid that's a ridiculous comment that shows no understanding at all of the football dynamics of the UK. More to the point, ye had a two goal lead and you blew it - frankly, ye were lucky in the end to still have it in your hands, it could very easily have been 4-2. The last - the very last - scenario England would have wanted was to go to Hampden Park needing a goalfest against a Scotland team already embarrassed - and then relying on Belgium to show up v the Netherlands. The perverse delight Scotland fans would take in preventing GBR getting to the Olympics would be off the scale. Have you any idea how much it grates on Scotland to have to adopt the GBR moniker when going to the Olympics for Curling?

You always have to watch certain blue riband events, but the women's 100m looks far more intriguing than the men's truth be told.

Christophe Lemaitre, MJ Perec, Chloe Muffat (sister of camille), Teddy Riner

With my three hats on.... : IRL Women's 400 metres Men's Pommel Horse Women's 1500 metres Men's 1500m freestyle Men's golf : GBR Women's 800 metres Men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay Men's Pommel Horse (my event of the whole Games) Women's Madison Women's 57kg taekwondo (Jade Jones) Left out Women's floor (but see below) and Women's skateboard park due to injuries likely undermining GBR hopes : GLOBAL Women's floor - Biles' swansong Men's 1500 metres Men's road race Women's 100 metres Men's 200 metres freestyle ...and the rugby sevens, 'cos I' love the sevens : Will not watch if you paid me, and my own brother was in it. Breaking.

Didn't she famously flee the Games?

I do think it would be preferable if the 2026(2027) event was in Canada if that could be done, if only for the historical 'reset' it allows. Celebrate the Centenary, but emphasise the 'evolution' AWAY from empire games, and away from 'Olympics' clone to something more like a Commonwealth Championships model with more hosts of fewer sports, with a push to host in smaller and newer members appropriate to their size, and an emphasis on indigenous and first nations communities as 'hosts' of the Games - Canada and Australia do this a lot already, but CWG seems a very good place to push this - perhaps the whole queen's Baton lark should end now, replaced with something indigenous and culturally significant to each nation that hosts...

And over the weekend, six other sports - Canoeing, Rowing, table tennis, triathlon, sports climbing and volleyball, along with cycling, signed up long term to the European championships concept. Athletics is out for 2026 (or, given Birmingham city Council's woes, is it?), but apparently gymnastics and to a slightly lesser extent aquatics have signalled real interest in taking part in 2026 - but perhaps not with quite the long term commitment of the other sports - would not be surprised if gymastics did a cycling and threw all its events together once every four years - like cycling, and unlike swimming and athletics, it works on annual champs, so 1 in 4 is a good trade for them to get the extra eyes. In any event, apparently they're going to announce 2026 and 2030 hosts at the same time, so the event seems to have stablised. Word is that both the European Games and the european Para Championships have interested bidders too, and there are even rumours of a 'reproachement' between EOC and Euro Champs where in future (post 2026) they might 'combine' their narratives in certain sports (i.e. Euro championships will provide some direct qualification to Olympics, while also providing main qualifiers to the European Games the following year, which itself provides next tranch of Olympic qualifiers). I have my doubts that will work out, but it's an interesting idea that the two organisations are not quite as much at each others throats as they used to be...

Not a former senator, a former state department official.