mpjmcevoy

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

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.

The worlds in Denmark a few years back had a magnificent hill, so steep it felt like the Ventoux in the 2013 Tour de France, just watching elite athletes go 'out the back' - it was fabulous, and a lovely different look for athletics... See also the Kitzbuehl triathlon

At this stage I'm not seeing GBR getting a third male - the cupboards gone bare there - temptation may be to bring the best sprint distance athlete as a relay specialist, especially if he can swim the first leg hard. On the women's side, it looks a straight two from three between Taylor-Brown, Waugh and Coldwell, though one cannot rule out an amazing season start by a Fullagar, Matthias or even Learmonth.

If I've calculated this right; the following quotas are basically mathematically safe already - there are a handy handful who would need to be monumentally unlucky to be squeezed down to 6th, or out of 6th where Grand Slam comes into play, GBR, UZB and KOR in W=67 for example, but mathemtically they aren't, I think guaranteed top 5 in the rankings even with a hundred points: M - 58 M - 68 M - 80 M + 80 W - 49 W - 57 W - 67 W +67

At some point the rubber's gonna hit the tarmac on this as regards Australia and Canada, who increasingly seem to be creating a legal regime that is basically incompatible with an emerging international rules consensus - Canada's treatment of one recusant female powerlifter suggests this may well blow up there at some point. GB met that moment with Emily Bridges, and the objections of the women's track pursuit team, and basically the movement has all been one way there since - crucially, the emerging international consensus seems to be following GB rather than Canada and Australia (or the IOC, for that matter)

Presumably GBR are going to have to pull up a few trees to sneak in in the Team pursuit...

I'd say Samoa are strong favourites BUT I wouldn't under-estimate the Kenyans or Argentinians. Anyone else would be a bit of a shock, but shocks do happen and this looks, like the Challenger series, like a cracking competition. Like Field Hockey, final Olympic Qualifiers can provide a hell of a spectacle in themselves (last time in field hockey when Canada and Ireland split the last chance saloon finals, ties were extraordinarily tense - other team sports take note!)

: Rhys McCleneghan, obviously enough. Never had an olympic gymnastics medal yet. On events - Men's 1500 free for Wiffen, women's 400m for Adeleke : Tony Roberts, Boulder and Lead for a possible first climbing medal

Surely it has to be Teddy Riner??

It's the key difference that is keeping Kenya this side of the Russia line - the doping is clearly as systemic as in russia, maybe even a little worse. But the state and authorities are not actively in on the deal; they are trying to get a grip on it...and as cycling showed, the first stages of getting a grip can look pretty awful - but are still better than ignorance. The important thing is that Kenya doesn't backslide in the face of dreadful headlines.

I'm primarily Irish. She's lucky she's not Ainé O'Kane.

Are China and Page not in a particularly strong position,? As I read it - the top 3 in the Olympic Qualification rankings can earn a SECOND place for their NOC, provided the first was won at the World Champs. China currently 1 and 2 Page 3, with a big gap to 4th (don't know if 4th inherits the second chinese place in top 3, I assume not)... "The highest ranked three (3) athletes of the Olympic Qualification Ranking List may qualify a second quota place for their NOC provided their NOC qualified through the 2023 World Championships."

It seemed in the past like Azerbaijan and Turkey were happy enough to swap at leisure - presumably that extends to Turkish Cypriots.

I think you can certainly make a case that a type of track suits a power sprinter, or a rush sprinter; someone who can maintain speed, and someone who can accelerate to a super high speed for a shorter time. That doesn't mak the track bad for sprinting - it might make it 'bad' for a certain subgroup of sprinters - nothing new in that - Helsinki Athletics track is infamous for its tight bends, i've even heard people comment about deeper and shallower 50 metre pools. the only bad track is one that is either wildly unfair or one that allows no room for tactics - the first is a disservice to the athletes, the second to the fans

The straight in London was/is unusually long if memory serves, which before the Games was thought to maybe help the more pure power-based sprinters - Hoy, Meares and Bauge. in Two of those cases, it worked, but Kenny found a way around Bauge. I suppose what you do is you factor it in, bring some expertise and analysis to bear, and work out how to manage it with your talent pool, up to and including attacking a full bend earlier.

Seems like there is probably a direct line between this story and the previous one : https://www.britishjudo.org.uk/statement-european-judo-championships/ It does seem relatively common in the combat sports, especially if there is a hint of personal grievance with a national body - Aaron Cook and Alice Schlesinger, both of whom were rathe higher up the totem poll, spring to mind - although Alice had, if I recall, a close family tie to the UK. What stands out for me is not that Toprak made this move (and it does smack of a pure Aaron Cook style desperate move to get to Paris - that's understandable, you get one life, if your dream is Olympic..) but the fact there seems to be no 'stand down' period worth talking about. That's on IJF.

UEC.ch have announced they have agreed with ECM, the company that runs the European Championships event, for the inclusion of cycling, in multiple formats for 2026, 2030, 2034 - the first news we've heard in a year that the 2026 event is even happening. With European Games seemingly well embedded, and having a similar agreement with European athletics for 2027 and 2031, it seems neither of these rivals are going anywhere after all, when both looked in trouble...

Poor enough outing for GBR. Lachland picked up a couple of wins which was good, and Giles was dependable as ever. Otherwise? I counted a single win by Yates-Brown and thats it. Every other fighter lost first round.

Quota : Women's Triathlon Medal, Men's Sevens

See also gbr archery, javelin (I mean, a nation that produced Backley, Whitehead, Sanderstead and Sayers), Canoe sprint, judo until gemma gibbons breakthrough, and dare I say men's triathlon, where Yee seems the last of a very long line of world class men going back to Lessing. Ireland, God love us, we're never strong enough, really, in Olympic sport to 'fall off'..we had some fallow-ish years in athletics, but always had one or two,and now we're blooming!

It's always interesting to watch a nation become 'a force' in a sport, seemingly churning out talent where there was little before. The post-communist archetype was the early years of British cycling. Like Dutch athletics, GB cycling always had a Porter, a Boardman, an Obree or a McGregor, partly because of a long legacy of GB TT racing, but never a system that 'churned'. Likewise Irish lightweight rowing.