mpjmcevoy

I wouldn't disagree. Dressage is a sport long hallowed by its history. But you absolutely would not invent it now - training horses to unnaturally mimic dancing - at leat the other two events train the horses to do something they basically do naturally anyway (gallop and jump). My strong suspicion is that it is impossible to make horses do Dressage to any significant level without fairly frequent physical chastisement. And I think everyone in the sport knows that and keeps schtum, like the old cycling omerta. This is intriguing but it seems pretty likely that one team, or individual on that team has broken that omerta at a time calculated to gain partizan gain. That will bring repercussions, especially given the Tokyo Mod Pent incident.

I'm going to go with, yes, treating animals harshly is very bad, but still not on the scale of raping little girls. What I find hard to swallow is the, I'm pretty certain, blinding hypocrisy of it. Naked partisan is one thing. When you know damn well the nature of European dressage training, its difficult to stomach. i'm perfectly content that Dujardin is banned, and Hester is investigated. Good. But I damn well hope the Dutch get what's coming to them too.

I suspect the reality is that this use of the whip on legs is absolutely the standard practice. And on the lower end of it, frankly, if you've read up on Rollkur. But, as you say, like pro wrestling, you're not supposed to let it out. The parallels with Strictly Come dancing are astonishing. In which case, I suspect we will see over the next few years something of a revenge mission against the Dutch. You don't break Kayfabe.

No, its not. Dressage is a bit like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars - a big glittery smile covering a lot of unpleasant behaviour - even here, the whistleblower appears to be doing it and timing it for the most personal gain (obviously seems to be coming from the dutch dressage community). There are no good guys here.

Ockham's razor with a touch of cui bono, innit.

Apparently it has come to light from the Dutch. So that suggests a fairly obvious motivation.

Given Dutch dressage training practices historically, it stinks to high heaven. Sadly this looks like the Dutch sporting establishment once more showing it's a pretty tawdry group of people. This isn't about animal welfare. It's about naked self interest. Just like picking the rapist. Edit: sorry, get it right, CHILD rapist.

Will you quit with this crap. There is no suggestion of that, that is not the issue. What is your obsession with making up funding stories?

Indeed. The latter puts the sport at risk - even if it might be closer to the truth. there are many in the Olympic movement who are genuinely uncomfortable with any animals being used in sport, and certainly Olympic sport - leaving aside the expense of horse sport and the perception of it as an elite, white sport - the animal welfare aspects of it are becoming more and more controversial - even riding a horse AT ALL is anathema to some who brook no arguments about how the animals are bred for it and would die out without it - see also, cattle re veganism. It's the same urge that questions the existence of things like the Grand National. i hold my hand up as someone who doesn't really care about Dressage as a sport, while admiring the abilities, and worrying about the welfare. As someone I suspect cares very, very deeply, Dujardin (and Hester) will know what needs to be done to avoid worse damage for the sport - if nothing else, Dujardin probably has a training career to save.

The IOC is not particularly fond of equestrianism. We saw what happened in Modern Pentathlon. Dressage is notoriously rough on horses; the Germans and Dutch have both been criticised in the past for how the Horses are made to do what they do - there's a whole thing about training technique called Rollkur and the shape of the horses neck - GBR's recent ascendency in the sport was a very feel good story, but the reality is that elevation has probably involved some pretty harsh treatment - Dressage isn't realy possible any other way, frankly. I supect the reason Charlotte has done a mea culpa here - and forgive the politicking - but she knows as well as everyone else that rough, even cruel, treatment of horses in Dressage is very, very common at the elite end. If she's been caught hurting a horse (which seems the most likely explanation for all this), possibly by videos from animal rights people, then as one of the generational riders of the era, it creates a genuinely existential crises for Olympic dressage. Pressure from the IOC to 'do a Modern pentathlon' would be immense. Taking the fall in a personal sense may be about saving the sport, not punishing herself. consider: https://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/open-letter-to-the-fei-describes-abuse-in-dressage-as-a-wake-up-call-850538

Pogacar had the chance to go for a Golden Triple Crown, something even Mercks and Roche could never claim - the Pink, the Yellow, The Gold, the Rainbows (and the Doyenne of course) it would have stamped it as the greatest season of the greatest rider in history. To let that extremely rare, most likely only, chance pass out of spite and a huff.... Note how Steffi Grafs 'Golden Slam' pretty much sealed her fame, even if she didn't realise at the time it would. You don't pass up these chances.

Kiessenhofer remains one of my favourite ever Olympic stories, and a great demonstration why the odd radio-less race is to be welcomed - it just shakes up the dynamic. She literally attacked at the gun, and somehow Keyser Soze'd the entire peloton, convincing the hugely strong dutch in particular that she didn't exist! that may stick in some minds this time around and make the stronger teams jumpy and over excited; by the time we get to the business end the peloton could be in chaos.

I have a vague memory that its staff room was gutted relatively recently

Sometimes 10 gold sometimes 5... Dear god, for Ireland to have those sort of ambitions, we'd have to have actual bloody leprechauns over there right now making the f*****s for us!

Hmmm...NOCs are notoriously good at holding a grudge. Pog may find, if this is true, that he doesn't necessarily get another chance.

Without meaning to be rude about our piscine crew, swimmers at the Olympics are absolutely notorious. Given the relatively monastic life required prior to the Games, the hard bodies created, the week with complete time to kill, it is not entirely to be unexpected...

This one's funny. No idea whatsoever how this got through the subeditors...Bulgaria??? All I can say is the world awaits to see the miracles pulled off by Kevin Penev.

Never ceases to amaze me the lack of research well paid sports journos in America do on international sport. Half expect them to predict Steve Redgrave to win the men's Pair, and Russia to dominate the gymnastics.

Shit news. He is obviously set on recovery followed by a crack at the Triple Crown, but still, would a dig at a first ever Golden Triple Crown not have been worth it? Will be interesting to see what form Remco brings in, as well as Matthieu vdP and Wout vA. no Tadej = changes of plans.

The silver is silly, it's blooming golf ffs! But the other 4 are civilised calls (though personally I'd rather they named Rhys for silver because of 'jinx' rules) That said, I also think they've left a medal or two out in the field (I cannot see 10 boxers coming back with nothing) - it may also be a games of quite frustrating fourth places esp in equestrian, athletics etc

I agree, but would say Dobson is the one athlete behind the current big two still taking chunks out of his PB - with respect, the idea of a Brit now running 44.2 not being seen as at least a medal shot is unprecedented, and I genuinely believe there might be a 44 flat in him even this year. as for the winner, that 43.7 by Matt was electric, but he didn't even run through...there's at least another tenth, possibly two in there.

7 for Hester, equalling Skelton, and Hestor might not be a bad shout - Dressage's sudden rise needs recognised and Hester is the wellspring of the whole thing, plus he's one of the few openly LGB male Olympians from GB and it's his 7th go My 'fear' is Tom Daley because...and i'm not proud of this...I can't abide him. Pure nails on a blackboard stuff.

I will say this. much slower race, but in the last 100 Phoebe put more metres into Reekie at Trials than Keely did today. But that was off the back of 29.1, 29.1, 29.1 today

The thing today was Keely laid off the pacemaker (so no 'draft') but absolutely ran her own race - exactly the tactics she used to beat Mary earlier this year, and I suspect the tactical game plan they've come up with to neutralise Moraa's ridiculous mucking about with tempo and pace. If Reekie has decided that her best gameplan is to track Keely like a limpet, it's a very good game plan that clearly works for her. It also creates the possibility of a GBR 'wall; in the final if they get there. The rogue element is Gill. How does she react, in particular, to Moraa's antics, given her lack of experience. My hunch is she will reach the final, and when there might just rabbit, deny Moraa the lead and make the race very fast. if so, it plays right into Keely's hands because it forces Moraa's pace up in the first 500, robbing her of her spoiler slow middle 200. we shall see. absolutely intriguing.

Azu, Hinch and a clearly-returning-from-a-worse-injury-than-he-admitted Hughes actually looked ok here, 2 sub 10, 1 10 flat. Medal chances are not huge, but if Hughes keeps coming back, the man ran 9.83 last year, and Noah and Oblique aside, no-one is pulling up trees. An Azu-Hinch-NMB-Hughes team is still a strong medal outfit in my view - even today Azu and Hinch were on a flyer before calamity struck. For me the medal chance tiers are (out of 10) 10: Should win gold, roaring favourite - Keely 9: Very strong gold chance, probably favourite - Matt 8: 7: Good gold chance, strong medal favourite - Josh, Molly 6: Outside gold chance , strong medal chance - W4x1, M4x4 5: 4: good medal chance, gold unlikely - Jemma, M4 x 1, KJT 3: outside medal chance, worth a watch - W 4 x 4, Pattison/Wightman, Muir/Bell, 2: As 3: but less so - Zharnel 100, Dina 100, Sember 100h 1: who the hell knows - X x 4 0: Won't see that coming - Anyone else. for the record, in 2012 I'd have put Farah !0 and 9 in the two events, ennis 9 Ohurougu 5, Grabarz 2 and rutherford 6