Sir Rols

Well, technically, Sydney 2000 opened in the suburb Homebush, rather than the City of Sydney, which only really covers the inner city CBD. I think also that none of the UK’s games opened in the actual City of London area of greater London. I think it’s more of an American thing to make a bigger deal of local government administrative areas. To all intents and purposes, Homebush is part of Sydney, Wembley etc are parts of London, Colombes is Paris and Inglewood is LA.

Spoken like a proud Frenchman. Thing is, one of the most successful soft power achievements of the British Empire was in exporting its sports traditions and culture around the world. And don’t forget your great countryman, the late great Baron Pierre, was actually inspired a lot by the British public school sports traditions and when he concocted his idea of an Olympic Games. With LA, personally I think it’s problematic that so many of their optional sports picks are team sports - talk about smashing the athlete quotas. And too many of these extra team sports means diluting the pools for many of the traditional single sports. If I had my way, I’d limit the discretional optional sports hosts can nominate to a single team sport, and the rest need to be individual sports. As to cricket - it’s probably going to be here to stay - after LA, it’s going to be a good chance to be at Brisbane as well. And if India gets 2036, it’s almost certainly to make it for a third time. And once a sport appears thrice in a row, it becomes part of the permanent roster now under current IOC policy.

*WARNING/DISCLAIMER: The following post contains links to an Inside The Games article, and should be evaluated within the context of that publication’s recent ownership and editorial changes Okay, yes, the following are from ITG, so treat them as you will. Main reason I post them, though, is they may indicate Europe is expecting 2040 to be their next shot, and ceding 2036 to the Asian bids - India, Doha etc. Mayor of London eyes 2040 Olympics Madrid business wants 2040 Olympics

For sure it’s a clickbait title, and while it could be an interesting discussion on what is “the dirtiest race” ever, I doubt we’d ever know - the real dirtiest is likely one we‘d never know or suspect. I just thought the article was one of the best, interesting and easily readable on the general topic of Olympic doping, rather than as an indictment of one particular race.

I wasn’t sure where to put this, but this is such a good read I’d recommend everyone read it. I considered the London legacy thread, but it’s really only uses the one race as its starting point. The Mothef**king Russia thread is as much about politics as doping, and while this has a LOT to say about Russian state doping, it also casts its net wider. I’m sure we’ve had dedicated doping threads, but they tend to get forgotten and fall by the wayside. This one probably will eventually too, but in the meantime I really think it’s worth a thread of its own to bring it to everyone’s attention. I repeat, it’s a great read and really gives a good overview of the past 15 or so years of doping. Inside the dirtiest race in Olympic history: ‘It wasn’t fair. I wasn’t on a level playing field’

Well, I guess it depends on who the rising US stars are, and expectations. Swimming’s traditionally a hot ticket, and I assume the US will be expecting a good medal haul in the pool. Gymnastics will also be hot - how hot I guess will depend if Biles competes, or another successor to her emerges in the US ranks. Athletics is also a tradition blue riband event - but it also has more tix to sell. I remember in Atlanta, baskrtball with the Dream Team was a hot item. Does basketball still command the same attraction it did then? Then, of course, the opening.

We’ve always been equal opportunity blasphemers

I think you’re taking out your (likely justified) frustrations at some of the more hyperbolic discourse in general social media in the wrong forum. Yes, this site does skew liberal (especially compared with most of the internet cesspit), but I can’t recall anybody seriously predicting large scale 1980-type boycotts of LA or wishing for the World Cup and Olympics to fail. Yes, we’re venting our horror at what’s happening in the US in this forum, but I think when discussing the effects on the upcoming festivities, most of us are a bit more nuanced and realistic. Maybe there’s isolated outliers here, but I don’t think anybody reasonable’s taking them seriously. Anyway, it’s part of the territory that anticipation shifts to alarmism and doom and gloom in the immediate run-up to a games or a tournament. And naturally the turd in the White House is the biggest source of pre-games doom and gloom. And, yes, the orange oaf is going to colour for a lot of us how feel about and approach the games when they come.

I think it is helpful that those of us outside the US have a tangible way to express our displeasure and dismay to what’s happening in the US. Doesn’t mean we don’t know there’s still lots of Americans who share our dismay. Anyway, if I were to show up at LAX or JFK and have my devices and socials scanned for “subversive” material, I’d be stripped searched and sent to some undisclosed ICE detention centre before I could mutter “AUKUS ally”.

World Cup 2026 will undoubtedly break attendance records - just about impossible not to when it’s expanded to 48 teams. Could probably even break the record with half full stadiums. Otherwise, what @Rob2012 said - general tourism is already toileting. US sees biggest drop in Australian visitors since Covid as travellers avoid Trump’s America

I don’t care what anyone says, it’s a truth universally acknowledged that music peaked in the 1980s and has been sh!t since.

Me either - despite the fact that being in our time zone, I watched almost everything from them. PC evokes no memories whatsoever. What I recall of Beijing is mainly negative - the coolant towers behind the freestyle course, the barren brown mountains around the alpine events.

Interesting piece on the future of the Rigby WC tournament. Seems not all is well with the unions, and South Africa and NZ (who between them have won the past five tournaments) seem to be ruled out as future hosts. Rugby World Cups aren’t adding up for major unions and there is no easy fix

It does a bit. But quite like the colours and quite like the design - elegant and stylish.

C’mon, it’s chalk and cheese. LA at the moment is about tweaking and shuffling around lots of pre-existing locations, not talking about starting major construction projects. Brisbane will no doubt be doing the same down the track. What Brisbane has done so far to raise eyebrows is squander an entire three plus years not even getting the basic foundations of their plan tied down, even before they have to start the actual construction of some major keystone facilities of the games. It’s not comparable at all.

Japan’s cool! And you’ll be there for Sakura season. Have a great time!

Baseball/softball already has a strong base and competitive leagues in Oz. It’s also given us medals in both disciplines in the past, so far more likely than flag football, which is niche to say the least here, only “boosted” by a recent NFL-funded coaching clinic that toured a few schools for their PE lessons.

It’s virtually unknown in Australia.

I certainly won’t be visiting over the next four years How Trump Is Torpedoing Foreign Tourism To The US—Potentially For Years To Come, Say Analysts

FIFA pushing to have more women’s than men’s teams in LA Women’s soccer at 2028 LA Olympics In a further boost for women’s soccer, Infantino detailed FIFA’s plan to have more women’s teams than men’s playing at the next Olympics. There were just 12 teams in the women’s tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics and 16 in the men’s tournament. Though the International Olympic Committee strongly supports gender equality at the games, adding four more women’s teams — and about 70 extra players, plus team officials — would push the limit of agreed athlete quotas for organizers in Los Angeles. Infantino said on Thursday that FIFA’s new proposal is to flip the numbers to have 16 women’s teams and 12 in the men’s tournaments. The final decision is for the IOC, which has an executive board meeting next Wednesday. First Coast News

Surely the rule of thumb when considering Trump is: NEVER underestimate how vindictive, spiteful and utterly shameless he will be

Seems he’s looking at the Putin/Medvedev playbook Trump says ‘there are methods’ for seeking third term in White House

I think most hosts do a one year anniversary celebration of their games (and then significant anniversaries - 5 years, 10 years, 25 years etc) after that. So not really an innovation. Sydney had big celebrations planned for September 15 2001. But then 9/11 happened four days before, so it became a much smaller, muted affair.

Jokes about croc-dodging in Rockhampton aside (and there’ll be plenty of them over the next nine years), could we make a virtue of them and have a crocodile as the official mascot? Would be pretty iconic and soooooo Queensland. Could even rope in Bindi and Robert Irwin to introduce it, and be co-faces of the games. Pity Roy and HG are getting a bit long in the tooth. It’d be nce if they can hang around till 2032. If not an offical ascot, I’m sure THEY would make one our unofficial mascot, the 2032 answer to Fatso.

I was actually trying to separate the NIMBYs from the green space advocates. My natural sympathies would lean towards green space preservation. But the stadium is needed and it appears there weren’t many other viable options. I’ll delay judgement unbuilt we see how that all plays out. As for he indigenous aspect, I was aware it was a significant site, known to them as Barrambin, but apparently it’s also a location for a number of massacre incidents. The Guardian’s starting to focus on the indigenous aspect: Queensland plans to build 2032 Olympics stadium on significant Indigenous site The broken promise aspect seems to be the angle a lot of the headlines and comments the media’s focussing this morning. It was heavily drowned out though by Federal Budget coverage - it was brought down yesterday ahead of an election expected to be called within weeks.