Sir Rols

If I have my way, it will be. But Yoshi (and the members) might think differently. And you’ve got to December… assuming we don’t settle on a different candidate

And the final formality, the Honour Roll… And, I forgot in my acceptance speech, a huge thanks to @yoshi for all his enthusiasm and work in keeping these comps going. Couldn’t have a more keen and scrupulous master of ceremonies. You’re a legend!

Grazie Mille @yoshi Grazie Mille Giorgia… Can I borrow your smoke mia bella so I can light mine? Grazie. Yes, your dress is a lot more beautiful than Kirsty’s. No, I don’t want my face painted on the fresco too. Ai! That’s enough cara, I’ll see you back in my room later… Multo, Multo Xtra Large Grazie to everyone who voted through what seemed at times like MMXL rounds of polls, and a special thanks to all those who voted for me, and even stuck with me through the pantomime when Yoshi and I were struggling with how to sell a tiebreak (and then stuffing it up) and sweating on whether any last minute votes would spoil our preps. And a round of applause to @Shiruba98 for giving us a tight race with such a great debut snd your sportsmanship for giving a vote in the final. Really, really hope to see you back in the next comp, it was an honour to compete with you. I dunno, a bit embarrassed to be accepting my third. Again, I feel a bit of an imposter amongst all our really brilliant competitors snd winners over the years. But thanks and baci to all again. By the way, re the fresco. We commissioned ones portraying @Shiruba98 and @Jon Will Chambers entries in case they had cone out as final winners. If you guys want a copy of yours before we paint over them, drop me a line. Seems like Yoshi’s full steam ahead to press on to comp number 20 later this year. @Bear, do you want to know the cities now so this time you’ll have time enough to come up with a concept? (j/k - we really appreciate all the support you’ve given the comps over the years). @baron-pierreIV, let me know if you want some help with a graphics app next time. And @krow, maybe you should start booking your tix to Trojena now. Anyway, I’ll finish off now with Dino Martino, who sadly got interrupted mid song in our aborted original tiebreak round. Sorry Dean…

It’s not quite over yet. Medal number six… Silver: Danielle Scott, Freestyle Aerials

If you watched the slalom and the downhill, there were indeed Chilean and Argie skiers. As my Chileno partner explains to me, it’s a rich person’s sport and not on the radar for the average person. It’s the gringos who fly into use the slopes mainly. Plus they don’t have the vast established coaching, training and development structures the Alpine powers boast.

This one wasn’t going to wait for the IOC Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics

With an hour to go, time to give Umberto one last blast…

Running out of time to get some of these guest acts in - but we couldn’t leave Rome without Umberto Tozzi!

Ukraine skeleton racer gifted $200,000 by Shakhtar owner after Winter Olympics ban

Wasn’t sure where to put this, but it does raise the question of IOC consistency Swiss broadcaster pulls Olympic commentary questioning presence of Israeli bobsledder

* Actually, totally forgot as well. The odious Gina Rinehart has been throwing sackfuls of money at our swimmers lately too as her own personal sportwashing. I’m sure that helped our Paris total.

Just a nice pic of our five medallists

I guess the reason was the snow sports were all so distant from Milan, so you couldn’t bring them in daily to get their medals (especially if they had more events to contest back at the slopes). So you’d have been left with only a one or two groups of ice athletes daily to pad out a plaza show.

That said, there is something to be said for generational talent. A few of our most gold prolific swim stars like Titmus and Emma McKeon have retired, for example, which no doubt would be welcome news to USA Swimming for 2028, which has been missing Phelps.

It’s a good point. The winter games atmosphere relies a lot on the landscapes - and boy those Alps in Cortina, Livigno et look impressive. But when it comes to ice, there’s really nothing to take them outdoors. Hence we’re not getting any sense of Milan in the equation. Equate this with the summers, where there’s so many opportunities to take them outdoors and to the streets and beaches and showcase the likes of Paris, Versailles, Copacabana, Horse Guards, Greenwich, the Acropolis, Sydney Harbour etc etc. it’s so much easier to sell a picturesque locale in the summer games.

Money makes a huge difference. Yes, we have a great system for talent spotting in swimming, but without the funding for high performance development and coaching, that can still go to nil. We freaked out in the 70s when we were coming home from the games with nothing to show. Hastily established the Australian Institute of Sport and threw money at it, and the results riose again. Or look at Britain before and after they started funding their elite sports programs either National Lottery funding.

I’d love to see dogs winning medals - but can you imagine how off their heads PETA would get

Okay Mina, take us through to another bump

We do know the IOC sent in the investigators when someone here leaked the Beijing 2008 logo ahead of release.

Sigh, whatever. I’m no lawyer and probably wouldn’t understand the legalese advice snd justification if I read it. It just strikes me as overbearing and looks sucky.

But what about the average viewer? Are they going to after kids now who get excited and paint the rings onto their bicycle helmet? Or a bunch of middle-age revellers who organise their own “Beerlympics” in their local pub? (or internet fans who run logo comps using the rings)? It’s a business protection, and I think it would be impossible for some new business to start using the name “Olympic” or the rings snd claim ignorance. Ditto, I find it hard to claim lack of use for an event that gets held every two years snd prefaces all its broadcasts with “The following broadcast is the propert of the International Olympic Committee snd cannot be reproduced without the … blah blah blah”. And if there is a risk of trademark lapse - then re-register. And is still doesn’t explain a legalistic reason why the rings and Olympic Games brand name need to be given equal size prominence to the Host’s branding.

Yes please. I’d like to see a proper reason for it, cause so far I just don’t buy it. I asked somewhere further up what sort of protections the ™ gives, but no answers yet (probably no trademark lawyers here) so I looked it up, and (granted, this is a Google AI summary) what I got was: “The ™ (trademark) symbol does not provide formal legal protection or exclusive nationwide rights, but it serves as a crucial "first line of defence" to signal that you are claiming ownership over a brand name, logo, or slogan, even if it is not officially registered. It functions primarily as a notice to competitors and consumers that the mark is in use as a brand identifier, often known as a "common law" trademark.“ Which is all very fine and well, but we know the IOC does indeed have formal ownership of the gamut of Olympic symbols and games, and are not shy of, indeed notorious for, enforcing it - sueing large and small businesses for using the Olympic rings or name, taking down footage in non-rights holding media etc etc. I can’t see in what jurisdiction someone could use the phrase “Winter Olympic Games” and somehow be able to successfully defend themselves. Could anyone claim they had no knowledge the IOC held rights to the words “Olympic Games”. Again, I’m no lawyer, but it strikes me that this, and the new emblem format rules (equal share between the rings and the host’s name and emblem) are slmost like the IOC are jealous of the credit and identity that the hosts get from a games. Are we eventually going to get “The 2040 Munich Olympic Games brought to you by the International Olympic Committee™”

Wow! Is this the first time a “look” has had to be changed mid-games because of a negative impact on play? What a fail.

An interesting (if typically meandering and polemical) article by Jens Weinreich on German Olympic bids Olympic Heritage: Coventry's failure, the Olympic Shop, the Riefenstahl films, the Nazi Olympics, motorways and German Olympic bids I was almost going to order one of those Garmisch t-shirts. Maybe I should quickly go back and do so before they’re withdrawn

Personally, I’m wistful that we’re not now watching the action in Stockholm and Åre. I’d have been a lot more excited.