mpjmcevoy

I'm still confused. Surely GBR already has maximum quotas - 1 per slalom event, and they ca all enter the KX

If you told anyone in the 90's that GBR would have multiple world champions, a multiple Olympic champion, and would be clearly one of the 'Big 5' nations in the world at the sport (though Italy are closing on making that 6) You would have been committed to the local funny farm, and rightly so. The heroics begun by Beth Tweddle, and before her Neil Thomas, have led to extraordinary places.

Canoe slalom has always been a relatively successful GBR olympic niche - not world leading, mind, but always with somebody competitive. Mind you, it used to be the same for Shooting and Archery, and GBR currently have a small number of excellent (mostly female) athletes, but no longer any depth. These ebbs and flows through niche sports are intriguing - like how GBR is all but the second nation in the world in diving - Albeit a LONG way behind Chins. How Ireland became a particular force in lightweight sculling, or the swiss domination of mountain bike...

Patrick Kavanagh got the answer right in 'Epic' "I made the Illead from such a local row. Gods make their own importance" All sport is ridiculous taken apart; all the matters is that those who play, and those who watch, care.

~Kayak Cross puts me in mind of the admiring yet terrible french description of the doomed Charge of the Light Brigade: C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre. It's great bloody fun, and I'll buy it as an event, but it ain't slalom. That said, BMX ain't Tour de France either, so I'm all for let a thousand flowers bloom. And I'd certainly watch it over bloody breaking. Looking forward to a similar vibe once obstacle comes into Modern Pentathlon. Up and at 'em, and may the devil take the last.

Raises an interesting quandry for GBR. Do they take both Mallory and Wood, even if, say, Mallory is the better bet in both K1 and C1, on the basis that doing so gets them two entrants into the KX1?

If A country gets a quota in each event, can they both ride both?.

Canoe Slalom Men's C1 Qualified: 1 OQP : (Robert Kendrick) G'onn ye boy ye!

Is that a prediction, or is it how the doubling up mathematics has already worked out?

Lombaridia is a kind of race that might suit a Pidcock with his descending ability - the finish comes after a fairly sharp descent that Sean Kelly used to relish back in the day

It strikes me Lombardia may be the big one, then

Tarling's victory may be more important yet - as I understand it, it may have dragged GBR back into the 4 rider team contention.

The chances of Scotland's women sandbagging to keep hope of an Olympic spot in what would be more or less an England team alive is so small as to be subatomic

Men's Team Canoe : FRANCE (FRA) : 99.17 Nicolas Gestin; Jules Bernardet; Luis Roisin : GREAT BRITAIN (GBR) : +0.03 (!! Tight!) Adam Burgess; Ryan Westley: James Kettle : ITALY (ITA) :+1.14 Roberto Colazingari; Raffaello Ivaldi; Paulo Ceccon

First medals of the event decided: Women's Team Canoe: Gold : GREAT BRITAIN (GBR) Mallory Franklin ; Kimberley Woods; Ella Miller : 112.45 Silver: CZECHIA (CZE) +2.10 Gabriela Satkova; Tereza Fiserova; Tereza Kneblova Bronze: SLOVENIA (SLO) +2.87 Eva Hocevar; Alja Kozorog; Lea Novak

It is, and I'd rather that not have happened. but better that than the men's situation where Europe's champions (England U21) are completely unrepresented at the games. Hockey made it work. Basketball and Rugby sevens couldn't (the latter rather surprisingly since there's a long tradition of Lions rugby every 4 years with home nations co-ordinating) Football situation is complicated by relatively little known Home nations near control of the rules (though not the governance) of football through IFAB - half of eight seats got to four 'home nations', essentially giving UK a veto on rule changes in soccer. Scotland and Wales loathe to put that at risk by agreeing to be GBR for certain purposes.

Artistic gymnastics is one of the worst in a whole host of nations US, Canada, GBR, Rom, Ger, Rus One might conclude that the issue is not the nation, but the sport, that what the sport values - especially on the women's side - is an archaic overhang of old attitudes and beliefs that is not actually healthy for young women.

There's another 3 in the current top 20 women that set my antennae flashing, another two I have my doubts about. So, yeah, my shortlist is 4, 6 at a stretch, but 4. And if you think I'm going to publically defame them on the basis of my hunches, you're a loon!

I think a CWG 2030 would make more sense both for CGF and India, perhaps with a mind to using the same venues as part of the core of the 2036 bid.

It is not as if CWG is uniquely guilty of white elephant hosting - Montreal was an early Olympic fiasco, with Athens not wonderful either. And Rio speaks for itself. I think we have to recognise that sport - especially Olympic sport - has had its 'imperial' phase where it colonised and insisted upon built 'legacy', and even major cities and regions lacked the venues to host without a massive building scheme, so the need to do so was built in. Arguably, Beijing was the last 'successful' imperial build, and Rio the last one full stop - we're in an age of established megahosts - London did do a big build, but arguably did so on the cheap apart from the il fated architectural selfishness in the Aquatic centre, it still had a lot of removable venue - then we have Tokyo, Paris, LA - along with London, that's going to e 11 of the historic Summer hosts total! I suspect these megahosts are the future - existing venue space tweaked, an update hear, the occasional new build there. India would be a 'back to Beijing' moment, but there might be much to be said to build in two phases. A first 'footprint' for say 2030 CWG, to act as a seed/testground for a 2036 OG bid - with venues getting several major uses to justify the build (World Athletics?)

Sadly, for various reasons, that does not shock me. I'd heard a few mumblings over the years along the lines that her determination to succeed seemed worryingly extreme. I doubt she's the only one, but if I'd been asked to pick a likely one, she'd have been on the list, and the list would have been short. I guess we'll see what happens, but the judgment is pretty damning. Possibly we have the first full-throated Lance Armstrong/Marion Jones level career-long cheat caught bang to rights in Tennis. What is interesting now - and not a little disturbing - is the relative silence from the WTA playership. She won Grand Slams, she was world #1, she's made $40M dollars in career earnings from a career that looks to have broadly been a lie. That must be close to six figures per high level pro (top 150) on the tour. Her peers should be a LOT angrier than they seem to be, Serena the notable exception.

As I understand it, all post-yugoslav nations are allowed to enter in right of the former Yugoslavia. Wonder why the northern European Countries don't have something like this based around the 'northern seas - North Sea, Baltic, north Atlantic and Arctic?

I think there's a better than average chance that, at a minimum the yates boys will do Il Lombadia which has big points. Pidcock could very well have a crack at it too. Agree on the Europeans

They've..em...sharpened it up since then To understand this entirely, you need to understand the history between Ireland, New Zealand and Munster. It's mythical. The match afterwards was astonishing. Understand, at this point (2008) the Ireland national team had been playing the All Blacks for 100 years and never beaten them. Never. But one Irish team had. In 1978, The All Blacks toured, and decimated everyone in their path - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales all put to the sword. Eighteen matches. Seventeen wins. One loss. The loss was to Munster,a provincial Irish team who are the current URC champions. Back then, an amateur side that wasn't even a club side, turned over the unbeatable, undefeated, Grand Slam winning All Blacks 12-0. The Blacks didn't even score. The game is mythical in Irish rugby, a miracle that plays have been written about. Much of monsters romantic aura, which matured in their herculean quest to win the European cup, was born in this match. Fast forward, 30th anniversary. The all blacks came again, and Munster, denuded of its Irish internationals, face the All Blacks again. That's the video above. New Zealand won this time. Just. A last-minute try by Joe Rokokoko to edge the match 18-16, after Barry Murphy's earlier try for Munster, the only try the All Blacks conceded on the entire tour. Anyway, THIS is how you do Haka.

I think the track cycling was skewed by 1) the TeamGB strategy that puts every egg in the Olympic basket, unlike many other nations and 2) The specific odd case of Jason Kenny, whose tendency to disappear and reappear infuriated Bauge among others. Probably not unconnected to the fact that Kenny was not built in the prototypical sprinter style. If you leave GB aside, most other countries tend to be consistent across worlds and Olympics, saving the experimentation for Europeans or (in case of AUS, NZL, CAN, TTO etc) Commies for example