mpjmcevoy

I'd rather see the dumping of the Fed than the sport - and the recent ITA document, damning as it is, gives plenty of justification. But the sport is utterly, utterly riddled with doping culture - makes 1990's road cycling look vegan.

You got to feel a bit for Godley. To be fair, she's not a medal chance at -76 - all the other Brits are.

Comhghairdeas, a Mharcais!! Tóiceo, seo linn!

I agree whole heartedly on futsal - as I've said already, for a lot of the big, cumbersome ball sports, small sided 'Games friendly' versions should be encouraged - beach volleyball, 3x3 and 7s show the way, and Futsal would do the same. The old pre T20 version of cricket invented by the Kiwis (basically six a side cricket, all-rounder friendly, small field, everyone but wicketkeeper bowls 2 overs each, done and dusted in an hour, rewards big hitting, and having '5' wickets instead of 10 is mathematically neat) would fit very well, I dare say baseball could invent something similar if it wanted to, leaving really only hand ball and hockey (water polo is already small sided by nature I think). If I want a full blown world cup experience, I'll seek one out - to some extent the Olympics should be an amazing 2 week taster menu for those sort o sports, preferably with a version the Olympics is the pinnicle of. The Commonwealth Games used to have a rule that no team sports were allowed, and while that's a bit too drastic, I think 'small sided' is the way forward. Agree, with great sadness, on weightlifting - it is, in fact, a brilliant spectator sport, crazy as it sounds. The tension, the poker of picking your lift, is magic, but the sport is utterly, utterly corrupted. It's interesting that bmx freestyle, skateboard, surfing and breaking have all basically got in at once. If there's an itch for 'judged' youth sports beyond gymnastics, it's been well and truly scratched - though I wonder if ignoring dancesport in a world of "dancing with the stars" is actually a mad missed opportunity. see also 'Parkour pursuit'.

Ninja Warrior can be fit in relatively easily, believe it or not - you take a step back - and its an extreme obstacle race - in other words, it fits pretty neatly in the wider family of cross country athletics. One might imagine 4 cross country styles 'SprintX' - basically ninja Warrior, time trial format (one on course at any one time) followed by QF, SF and F 'MilitaryX' - basically an assault course, in the nature of Krypton Factor - much longer and more aerobic than NW, much more obstacle based than 'standard' 'Cross country' - What we recognise currently as World Athletics Cross country - highly aerobic 'EnduranceX' - basically Tough Mudder

On that note, I'd like to see Gaelic Football and hurling reintroduced. Yep, that's right, REintroduced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football_at_the_1904_Summer_Olympics

Hard agree on inclusion of Darts and Cue Sports (suspect would ned to get Pool, billiards and Snooker together to make a presentation - plus it would feel more like a family of sports being included) - Darts is to Archery as table tennis is to tennis (and arguably Snooker is to golf, come to think of it). for darts, men's single, women's singles, men's pairs and women's pairs. I'd hold off on the 'team' event for a cycle or two - GBR and NED would still be far too dominant (fight between IRL, CAN, AUS, BEL and USA for the bronze would be cool though). It occurred to me that such quintessential indoor sports as snooker and darts might actually be best placed at Winter Games, where a small pre-existing multi purpose hall, and relatively small number of players and officials, could create a relatively profitable event for a host. And it would VERY quickly become the pinnacle of the sport! On bowls and Bowling - again, it seems perverse that the entire family of bowling sports is absent - 10 pin has more world reach, while lawn bowls has a much longer history of Games involvement, especially Commonwealth, and a very established event system - the latter also is rare in being a sport that one can continue to play as one gets older, and while we talk about the Youth of the world, sports that might encourage older people back into activity must be considered a genuine aim with an aging world population. On the one's to dump, I'd hesitate at dumping 3x3, because I think small sided versions of the big team ball sports should be encouraged - better to have 24 nations repped in 3x3 than try and add an extra 4 teams to the main version, and having watched 3x3 at Youth Olympics, it does have some of the excitement and buzz of rugby sevens (a HUGE hit in Rio, which actually seems to have sparked interest in Rugby in general in Brazil). Indeed, a bigger 3x3 would justify a smaller pool of teams for the 'big event'. That said, the team sports - especially basketball and football - are big ticket sellers for hosts, which ha to be factored in to why they keep their place. To be honest, I can live without Karate - it's great fun to watch, but I find the scoring system impossible - the idea that a punch that connects must have some sort of artistic merit....nah - sort that out, you'd be welcome back - if Judo can have 15 events on its own, Taekwondo and Karate can have 16 events between them - so sort out the scoring and THEN come back. On that note, I'd ditch Greco-Roman wrestling. Male only, somewhat obscure, and wrestling already has 24 events - chop those 8, and all the 'fighting' styles have a rather nice East v west, grappling v striking 'balance' that feels 'complete' 'Western' grappling = wrestling = 16 'Western' striking = boxing=15 'Eastern grappling = judo = 15 'Eastern' striking = Karate + taekwondo = 16 for full balance, i'd split the Judo team events into men's and women's, and add one women's weight category in Boxing. Skateboarding...I dunno, I'd rather have it than surfing, personally

Agreed. BUT what if...The big team sports were brought together across, say, one moth as a Team Olympic Games....

Karate : remove Kata, replace with a weight category. I just can't be having competitive punching of invisible people as a sport. Have done my fair share of Kata, enjoyed them. they ain't sport. Gymnastics - Team Rythmic gymnastics; replace with either double mini trampoline or tumbling. Archery. Ditch mixed team, add Field Archery; kind of like Mountain bike for archery Canoe-Kayak - completely rejigged Slalom courses are expensive; you need to use them!! C1, K1, C2 and Extreme or relay 'Sprint' - ditch K4 events altogether, then C1, K1, K2 200 - C1, K1 1000, - K1 5000 My own controversial favourite : Major Team ball games sports should be on an eight year cycle, not a 4 year cycle - make Olympic basketball, baseball, football and, say, cricket a real 'one in a lifetime' chance; in return encourage all the major sports to go the basketball, rugby, volleyball route of creating a small sided game that can be at every games - 3x3, 7s, beach volleyball - this might be particular useful to football (futsal) and hockey (unihoc) . Rule would also NOT apply to team sports where Olympics are clearly the pinnicle - handball, volleyball, water polo.

I think Andy's super low current ranking was an issue - he really wanted to play doubles (where he might still actually have a shot at a medal if the gods smiled) but he and Jaime couldn't get in on combined ranking and Jamie had shown some prior reluctance. His only route in was Salisbury who as a top 10er had a basically free choice. Looks like the first mixed doubles team will be Salisbury and Konta, which actually sounds quite strong. I do wonder if Dan or Neal might try and hook up with Heather Watson who's actually a pretty accomplished mixed doubles player. I'd assume, unlike 2012, Andy's neither got the ranking nor the hip to do all three events. Romantically, it's fabulous the two time Olympic champ is coming back for one last roll of the dice - The Games are a part of Murrays legacy, and Murray part of the Games legacy in tennis that even the Big three don't quite match. Even with two Wimbly wins, in a sense the Olympics are Murray's Major (not unlike how the Ryder Cup became, in some ways Monty's Major).

It does say that. Unfortunately it also says other things that are incompatible with that. There's no definitive answer to be found in an internally incoherent document.

In order O.G. Cycling Athletics Swimming Triathlon Diving Artistic Gymnastics (and secretly can't abide: pistol shooting) P.G. Wheelchair rugby Swimming Para-Triathlon Athletics Wheelchair Tennis Para table tennis

Hmm....I think we (this is an odd 'we' for me, it's kinda we on both sides, though I give preference to the irish!)...but anyway, we have a better chance of gold in Gymnastics - Max Whitlock and Rhys are both a year older, and I think that favours Rhys a little; I agree however on Sanita, though we seem to be coming into form in the men's double sculls. We lost a few good boxers too, but the ones that remain look in fine shape, especially in the women's section.

Touch and go, I understand....fingers crossed.

The Paralympic route is the fairest. It would have the advantage of being 'gender affirming' - there would be no objection to calling the event say Women's sprint cycling TS1, where TS1 is the transgender categorisation, and I don't see how we can have an s14 category in swimming for intellectual disability that doesn't imply a learning difficulty, but we can't have a category that acknowledges gender dysphoria. and as for numbers there are significantly more people with a transgender identitiy than there are blind people, or people of short statutre, or people with double, above the knee amputations. As for a 'queer olympics' (shudder at word queer), there are both the Gay Games and the OutGames already.

It is a kinder answer than the strictly logical/rational one - biologically Caster, Niyonsaba and Wambui are male, albeit with a significant DSD condition (In Caster's case at least, almost certainly 46 XY 5-ARD, which is an absolutely male specific condition). By the letter of the law, they should be kept out of all female only events. WA however have attempted to acknowledge the difficult social reality here for a group who would never be able to compete equally with other males for precisely the same medical reason. If you want the right, right answer, then they should be excluded from female events altogether. There's nothing knee-jerk about that, it's the rational conclusion when their conditions are discovered. WA have done the best they can to mitigate that harsh rationality.

Sanita Puspure and Thomas Barr, or failing that Katie Mullan and Billy Dardis, the captain of the two team sports we've qualified, the first time we've qualified two teams in two sports since 1948 Jason and Laura Trott - Greatest male and female Olympians, married couple, both going for outright records, and it would just be cute. Failing that, Helen Glover and Ed Clancy.

If Hubbard had not been considered eligible, Charisma Tarrent, the Aussie lifter, would have got a 'World Ranking' place, rather than the Oceania place she has taken. This would have freed up that Oceania place, which as I understand it would have gone to a young Tongan, Nini Manumua. It would be great if we did not conflate transgender inclusion, which is one difficult issue, with inclusion of athletes with rare intersex conditions (e.g. Caster Semenya) which is also difficult, but an entirely separate issue. Caster was born, registered and raised as female. She has always, socially if not biologically, been a woman. While I reluctantly believe WA has come as close as they can to the right answer, Caster deserves nothing but sympathy and support. Hubbard does not have any intersex condition, and was indisputably biologically and socially male from birth, until transition in mid 30's. That transition presumably was necessitated by gender dysphoria, but while IOC have allowed transgender people without full surgery (A much smaller cohort) to compete as women since 2015, we have had three very significant studies since 2019 that pretty much conclusively prove that the biological advantage male puberty creates - about 15% speed, 35% power and strength, and nearly 200% strike force (punching) - is barely reduced even by three years full testosterone suppression. Hubbard may well be playing by the rules as they are, and seems to be entirely genuine in their gender identity, and this is not a personal attack, but the 2015 rules are wrong - even the trans woman whose evidence was used to justify the 2015 rule change, Joanna Harper, basically admitted this year that the science shows that male pubertal advantage largely remains (there was a <5% drop over 3 years where one might expect and require a 30% drop). in other words, Hubbard retains the exact male advantage that is supposed to be eliminated by having female events in the first place. I don't know what the answer is. A third category at the Olympic seems unlikely. a specific Trans (and DSD) category at the Paralympics, for example, seems more plausible, and could be done in a gender affirming way without undermining women. But what has happened here is not sustainable. Far from increasing inclusion and acceptance of trans people, it is causing people who never had an issue with trans people in general to be come angry and resentful. It's actually making things worse. If Hubbard squeezes say Sarah Robles, or Emily Campbell out of a medal, it will become absolutely toxic. My 2c.

100 back has a bit of "4 into 3 won't go" feel to it. McKeown, Dawson, Smith, Masse....and there's no better thing in an olympic year than having a 4 into 3 situation. ATM I'd say it's McKeown, Masse, Dawson .. but I think Dawson might have a lot stlll in the tank, and we know what Smith is capable of...

Perhaps, but I'd put money that Murray would crawl over broken glass to play if he's at all fit. Pretty sure Djok is very determined to go too. no-one who saw Djok cry at his elimination by Del Potro in Rio would be in any doubt that the Games still meant something. After all, let us recall Fed walked away from Paris, and Rafa has dumped Wimbledon as well as Tokyo - I don't think this is a Games issue, I think this is an aging giants in an age of Covid issue. Some players, esp historically us male players, have just not 'got it', treating their career in almost business terms... But I know John Mcenroe famously refused to attend the Olympics .. and admitted years later he bitterly regretted it.

This is an absolute howler from USATF, rightly condemned, but Russiagate this isn't - it's the classic US terror of a court case - apparently Houlihan turned up with an order from a low divisional court which didn't understand the way sports admin works internationally. In attempting to bypass and frustrate CAS with a domestic court order, Houlihan is actually committing another offence. But I suspect she's past caring.

There hasn't been a worlds since 2019. GB haven't faced Germany at a Worlds or Europeans since then, and GBR are the reigning European champions which GER skipped, just as GBR skipped in 2020. The only time they've duelled at all recently was at the World Cup, where GBR won. There's an argument Germany is the stronger team, and certainly they may win - but in no sane universe are they a sure thing on paper, it simply isn't true.

I think Rowing will be their second sport this edition - they are VERY strong in boxing, especially considering women's side, stronger perhaps even than usual

I think Sanita has a good chance of a medal, and an outside shout of gold, but the delay of a year's been terrible for her, I fear.

The velodrome's been a bit of a goldmine in recent years because of GBR's habit of 'hiding' between Games. I don't think GB will have as good a velodromes games as in previous ediitons, but for all that they're gonna win 3 or 4 golds, i'm pretty sure - the women's pursuit squad is just too strong, as their probably underreported Euros times showed at the end of 2020. To my mind, that's what you're looing for - events which are 'misleading' in terms of world champs, and events where there's a GBR 'favourite' who shouldn't be (because home jingoisitc support of course skews the odds offered). I'm quietly hopeful they'll offer stupid odds re Charlotte Dujardin, not understanding that with a new horse, she needs a miracle to win and any medal at all would be a super result - to the bookies she's just double Olympic champ back again....