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I was glad when Japan abandoned that monstrosity by Zaha Hadid.

Personally, I’ll be happy if the Gabba stays a modest, unpretentious venue, rather than become a grandiose vanity design a la the Bird’s Nest. That would make the statement that it’s the people rather than the concrete, that makes the games.

The design for the Gabba hasn't even been made public yet.

Actually, Oslo would've been the "perfect" host for 2022, had the IOC not been such a prima donna with their list of 'demands', & then Norway sent them packing in the end. Or Munich, had they not bailed out early on. At the time, SLC would've been considered too soon since 2002 anyway. But if we were talking between a hypothetical 2022 vote between SLC, Beijing & A-town, then yes, SLC would've been the obvious choice there.

I have to confess, I do get a bit of schadenfreude watching the debacle Bach ravels himself into - maybe he’ll retire early to foist the mess onto his successor. But it’s so typically Bach to play the fence sitter and still manage to piss off everyone in the process. He provokes the west into publically labelling him Russia’s pet, while his Moscow mates still accuse him of being a NATO puppet. Just let your balls drop Thomas, and you might actually be able to leave the job with some semblance of a legacy. Meanwhile, it’s the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) who are emerging as the rogue mavericks of the Olympic movement. It’s them (and the AFC in football) that are playing kissy-kissy with Vlad now he’s found himself with no friends in Europe bar Lukashenkostan. And that shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s stuffed full of potential mates - China, Iran, the Stans - even Saudi Arabia, the “ally” the West is embarrassed to acknowledge and which only pays lip service to the West because it hates Iran more. And cash counts in the OCA - surely the only continental Olympic council where petro dollars can buy the Winter Asiad for the world’s most pre-eminent hot desert fiefdom. I’m glad Oz and NZ seem to have deleted the OCA off its Tinder contacts.

Global Athletes not mincing their words here: https://twitter.com/globalathletehq/status/1618310843246215168?s=46&t=6k7u6lXGIbD0dKKZ5E5RaA

Own goal by? Zelensky for demanding this and getting reprimanded by the IOC? Certainly not. By the Lausanne crowd? Oh definitely. Once they let Russia and Lukashia back in, much of Eastern and Northern Europe goes out the front door. Macron also knows this, and he has no interest in it happening, so I suspect for now he‘ll play Fencing 1976 with the same empty rethoric that Bach is used to himself.