Sir Rols

It’s the QAnon games You do realise Estanguet eats babies…

So it has indeed now been narrowed down to the Tower: Paris 2024 hopes Olympic Flame will burn at Eiffel Tower during Games So the question now is, what stage of the tower if not the top? And will his be the main cauldron, or an ancillary, or on of a number. For sure it seems it will be the one lit during the ceremony.

Btw @SportLightning, credit where credit’s due, nice collation you posted. THAT’S good posting

Is it just me, or is Atlanta’s a subtle nod to its Olympic look and colours? Apart from that, a pretty dull and uninspiring lot IMO. Fail.

I actually expect they’ll find a compromise with swimming - a mix of heats and finals for both morning and evening, similar to how athletics has also scheduled in recent games. As for other sports - I expect gymnastics is the obvious one to schedule for US prime time - not that it’;s not popular here, but our medal hopes are rare and few and far between. As for basketball - hmmm, our Boomers do have a strong following here, but I wouldn’t preclude that also going to mornings. Beach volleyball will slot in nicely. Late night finals worked in London (and will in Paris) because it also showcases nicely lit up landmark venues, whereas we’re going to want to show off our sunlit beach landscape.

That’s pretty common down here in Oz - quite a buzz cheering on a swimmer with your workmates.

Indeed. And a koala sanctuary really does seem better fitted to a community recreation precinct than a high performance niche sports facility.

Hmmm, maybe Bach really is going begging… Bach meets with SOPC President with talks surrounding Trojena 2029

Queensland to assess plans for Brisbane 2032 canoe slalom venue in Redland

I agree with you, M. It’s one thing that various businesses, buildings, parks and landmarks etc are named after individual ruling class toffs (I was born in a King George V Hospital and my partner currently works in a Royal Prince Alfred Hospital), but lots of other things change under the new regime - off the top of my head, the old Queens Counsel (QC) title in the legal profession here has now changed to KC. And the baton is just a container holding a message from the current throne warmer - unless Liz left a stack of spare messages for future games in her papers, Charlie will be the one writing the next one. It’s a bit silly then if it’s referred to as anything but the King’s Baton. It’s just an archaic feudal-age form of regal postal delivery. This whole monarchy sh!t is silly. It’s about time the CWGs dropped all the royal sh!t. Surely the number of republics and countries that don’t have the royals as their head of state now out-number the remaining holdout loyalist realms of the crown. It’s now irrelevant, and in many cases offensive, to the vast majority of the commonwealth.

Menus for Paris 2024 Olympic Village unveiled Sounds yum! But no alcohol? Not even Vin Ordinaire? Sacre Bleu!

Okay, upon further research on the Antwerp/Amsterdam situation, it wasn’t as clear cut as that. In fact, the bulk of the sailing took place in Belgium, at Ostend. It was actually only the final of one of the classes, the 12’ Dinghy, that tok place in Amsterdam. As per Wikipedia: So it is probably a stretch to put hem in the same category as Stockholm/Melbourne 1956, or Beijing/HK 2008. Also, I think Hong Kong would have a good case to make to be regarded as the second host of a dedicated Olympic Equestrian Games. That is, if Beijing wouldn’t have been so quick and insistent to ensure they were held under it’s brand - unlike Stockholm ‘56: And while Tahiti is going to be by far the farthest event staged away from the host city, in it’s case it’s still politically considered Metropolitan France.

… and we’re gonna see surfing in Tahiti. Good point though. I didn’t know about Antwerp’s Dutch detour. I guess in Antwerp/Amsterdam and Beijing/HK’s cases, those were held simultaneously with the main celebrations, whilst in 1956 those distant events were held months apart (June versus November).

While I never actually met him face to face, I actually spoke with him over the phone several times back in the day. That said, was never really much of a fan of his. While his most famous character may have been a drag act, ironically his views on many matters were far from progressive.

Perhaps

And then, what’s done is done

Yes, I came to the same conclusion

We’ll see

Why?

I think they’ve been all too well aware of the cause behind the “decline”, and not shy about what they need to turn it around: Federal government warned of $2 billion funding black hole ahead of green and gold decade it was the country’s willingness to throw money at elite sports and the AIS in the lead-up to the Sydney games that saw us achieve our second golden era, peaking with Athens. But then those funding flows started slowing about the same time others - notably Britain - borrowed the same recipe to boost their own results at their upcoming games. It’s no coincidence that a lot of our declining golds have come at the expense of sports where Australia and Britain have traditionally been competitive. Take track cycling. It was, pre-2004, one of our best performing areas outside the pool. But Britain specifically targetted it in the lead up to London with the result of them basically owning the velodrome come 2012. Britain’s also benefited from having a more consistent funding model than Oz - their National Lottery funding model has basically put its elite sports investment on a reliable funding scale, while here in Oz our funding is dependent on the whims and expediencies of the political cycle, with the AOC having to go cap in hand to the government every four years to squeeze whatever it can get out of it. It’s such a pity our States have already become too reliant on gambling revenue to carry out even their most basic needs like health, preventing us from adopting the UK model. Also worth mentioning is the existential struggle the AIS has gone through post-2008 or so, where it has been questioned whether it’s purpose has been to be specifically an Olympic gold medal machine or a general facilitator of elite sport. It’s a debate the UK is also having now a decade on from London. For us it resulted in various tinkering to the AIS’s internal funding and development priorities, with mixed results. We can’t kid ourselves that we are some sort of physiological super-race that just needs to turn up to “punch above our weight”. What we do have is a great foundation of prosperous infrastructure that also needs a generously funded program of talent sporting and training to get the most out of it. Hopefully the target of Brisbane is going to get that funding increasing again. And, of course, so much is dependent on luck and individual talent. It’s great to have a Thorpe or Phelps at your disposal. But when they retire, it’s not a simple matter to say we just need to create a Thorpe 2.0 now. We’re incredibly lucky to have a McKeon 1.0 at our disposal right now - let’s hope she’s still got fuel in the tank and fire in her ambition for 2024. i still see the “get out of the village” issue as a furphy that is more tailored to petty micro-management than a genuine performance enhancer. These athletes are elite competitors - to even make the team they need to have had the mental steel to be able to perform at their peak agains whatever distractions are thrown at them in elite competition. Our best swim meet since 2004 was achieved while the bulk of the team were in the village indulging through their usual shenanigans. The AOC now trying to restrict the Olympic village is just ridiculous petty over-reach.

Kids (cause that’s what most of them are) will be kids, and they’re not the first or last team to have gone overboard, but you’re right, that’s no excuse for being dicks. If it really is punishment for behaving badly in Tokyo, it should be handled by punishment to those who acted up badly, fines perhaps, rather than penalise the whole national squad. It should be the Chef de Mission’s job to police some discipline so the athletes don’t go overboard and embarrass heir country, yet still let them have the leeway to have fun and enjoy their nce in a lifetime experience., So they say, but they’ve had equally or even greater games in he past - Sydney, Athens - while being able to enjoy their Olympic experience. And it’s not, as Bear has so embarrassingly to us pointed out, as if they still didn’t act up in Tokyo. I’m sure a lot of factors came into the Tokyo results - extra year’s training, other teams’ and athletes’ preps disrupted etc - than just being more restricted that time around. Actually, considering that a huge bulk of our medals still came in the first week - when everyone was still around - and in swimming as usual (we had our best swim meet in a while), the fast in-and-out rule actually likely had little effect. Or it was likely more that the swimmers were under a bit more good behaviour supervision since Magnussen and co’s bogan-ish stilnox escapades at London, and performances were now reaping the benefits. That was more a text book case of how bad behaviour SHOULD be handled. It strikes me as akin to hanging onto a lucky superstition - “I always seem to win when I wear my green sock backwards, so I always do it now as part of my race preparation”…. Or just being plain fun-Nazis and micro-managing control freaks.

^^^ See, that’s what happens when they’re forced to leave early! You’re probably right, it is punishment for that, though the AOC says it’s about “performance”. Seriously, though. What’s the world coming to? The whole point of the Olympic village is for them all to mingle, and eventually turn it into an orgy and party town by the end of the games.

This is an outrage! Shamefull! ‘Sending them home early’: Aussie greats slam ‘shameful’ Olympic village ban It’s a betrayal of one of the great ideals and attractions of the games to athletes, being able to mingle, and forge friendships (and more) with their peers from around the world. Will our surfers even be allowed to take up their option to travel to Paris after their events?

Why not? The exercise is to be persuasive, not particularly what you want or believe. It’s always good to be able to play devil’s advocate.

Show me a report from Sweden with the SOK mentioning Latvia. The SOK itself (and do you really believe I’m not following it closely?) has actually said NOTHING since the initial announcement they were conducting the feasibility study. Anything else has ben speculation. All official mention of Sigulda has come from the Latvian side. Perhaps @Sigh, could you enlighten us if the SOK has acknowledged any more beyond that.