Maximus Decimus

Tonight is the women's 100m and a poignant time to mention the absurdity of the 10.49 Flo-Jo world record, and probably not for the reasons you might think. Much is made of how she was likely doping, but it should have been discarded regardless of that. Basically, it was an incredibly windy day but the wind reading gave a reading of 0.0. There have been many studies since effectively proving that it was wind-assisted but still it stands to this day.

When it first came out, I thought it was cruel but in general I think it's been a success. You look at swimming and never see a false start, the days of many many false starts before a race are long gone. I might be wrong but I think they used to give you 3 each!

It is a requirement in the National Curriculum here that children can swim by the end of KS2. They all go as part of their schooling at some point. My lads school goes every week for a good 6 months. I like the swimming at the Olympics but this there are way too many events. At the last games, more than half of the USAs medals were in the pool. Plus we'd absolutely batter the Aussies on the medal table if it wasn't for blimming swimming.

Yes this. I'm firmly against transwomen in women's sports, and must admit my first reaction was that this was what we were seeing. However, it seems to be more of a case of the Semenya issue, where they might have only found out when they were older that were not biologically female. It's still a difficult issue though, as was Semenyas. It might seem cruel for them to be excluded in his way, but is it not fair for other female athletes to be at a disadvantage and lose their chance to compete or win at the highest level.

It's not a science, but I'd include sports like football, tennis, athletics etc. In opposition to this, you have sports like cricket and rugby which large swathes of the world don't really play at all seriously. There has to be a weighting for how difficult that sport is to get to the top, which comes down to numbers of people that take it seriously. I'm currently in Ireland and you could be the best GAA player of all time but the reality is you're playing a sport that only thousands have ever taken seriously.

I always preferred the old points system. The modern version is so frustrating. In just 3 rounds, one badly called round is very hard to overcome.

Whilst this doesn't seem that impressive when compared to the likes of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, for a Brit it is. I suppose a good indicator is whether he'll be in the conversation in say 10 years time. I somehow doubt it. Answering the question of who is is genuinely tricky. You have the problem of individual vs team sports, the worldwide nature of the sport, the level of competition etc. The reality is that there aren't many who can be in the conversation. You think of the likes of Steve Redgrave but rowing is a very niche sport. Sadly, I can't think of any British person in a very popular widespread sport who has been dominant.

My undergraduate degree is in Ancient History and Archaeology, and it wasn't something I ever considered as a career. The idea of digging up amazing interesting things is sadly rarely the case. I enjoyed my couple of weeks actually doing some archaeology (I dug up an 800 year old goat skeleton), but I think it would get boring pretty quickly. Likewise with history, I have friends who have gone further and in my experience you end up specialising in a niche area that nobody cares about. No lie, one of my tutors was an expert in loom stones. The essential problem I've always had is that I didn't know what I wanted to do even as a dream job. I was a singer until about 20, but didn't even really want to be famous. I like the idea of something in music without the nerves/stress of performance. Also sport. I'd love a job where I would be in shape just by doing the job.

I just can't believe that in this day and age, after everything that has happened over the years like this that these people didn't think yo maybe not believe the first rumour they saw on the Internet.

My best mate is from Southport and has a young girl. He's from that area and for a while I feared the worst. Luckily for him he's OK, but they were only a few streets away. These incidents are always tragic, but when it's in a place familiar to you it feels that much more sickening. I was trying to find information on-line, and I was pleased to find out that people have matured and don't believe the first rumour that gets spread across the Internet. Oh wait, that's not what happened at all .

Just looked it up, Tom Lancashire.

As a teacher, we've had a few visitors in schools I've been in, but none of which were what you'd call top level. There was this one guy, Tom something or other who was an 800/1500m runner IIRC. He might have had a commonwealth medal. He spoke about what his life looks like, and how often he trains. I'll always remember he jumped up on the spot and felt like he was about my height. Bit of a strange situation though, they were trying to get the kids to sponsor him or something.

Yeh I was a bit worried... Nobody seemed that concerned, and to be fair to come back after a puncture like that he totally deserved it!

Yes and another epic good in the mountain-biking!

Joyce needs to change up his attack. The whole blocking punches with his face isn't working.

Finally a good for Team GB! I'm a huge horsey jumping over fences fan.

Tom Daley and his partner got Olympic silver. I enjoy watching the diving, but I always find anything with judges a bit frustrating (see boxing). For instance, did anyone see the first medal we got in the diving? It was a bronze that we got after Australia bombed their last dive. However, if you looked at the scoring, one judge gave them an 8.0 for execution and another 4.0. How could there be such a wide variance?

There's one in Manchester.

Oh yes, I'm aware of that, I think I was getting that rather than take away events that shouldn't be there (to which I think football is one) they seem to add more and more events. I've always preferred sports where the Olympics is the pinnacle of that event. I'm not sure what Golf, Tennis, Football etc actually adds to it. For so many sports, the Olympic medal is what they've always dreamt of, for these sports it's like a nice little add on. Similarly, modified versions of sports like Rugby 7s and 3x3 basketball don't seem quite right. I don't lose any sleep over it, but the sheer amount of sports can make it hard to keep up at times.

I love the Olympics, but it seems to have gone down the route of the more sports the better. It seems to be an absolute behemoth now with the sheer number of sports included.

I don't see a contradiction here. I could be arguing that Southgate is the best manager of all time (I'm not) but that he could only get England so far. Pep Guardiola could manage Everton but they wouldn't win the PL without investment levels that they don't have. I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying here. I think Southgate only did a good job overall (moreso in 2021 and 22), but that his record is historically incredible for an England manager. A not insignificant part of that was luck. Take this tournament: If Denmark nick a goal against Serbia, we get Germany in the 2nd round - likely exit If Slovakia drag out injury time like Spain did we go home in disgrace We only beat Switzerland on pens, and even if we were good still is still part lottery If we don't get a terrible penalty against the Dutch who knows what happens You'd be insane to claim that Southgate's England was in the final based purely on merit. But there you have it, he did and that's what other managers will be compared to. They might not get the luck.

I genuinely didn't know I'd spelt that wrong! It looks right...

I think it's very naive to think that this level of success will continue. We could have a much better manager and not do this well. We've been very fortunate at times (especially this time) and can't rely on that again. The reality is that there are always a not insignificant group of countries that could win a tournament with a bit of luck. We are but one. Trust me, as soon as we have an earlier than anticipated exit (which will certainly happen), people will be unfavourably comparing it to the Southgate era. It's very much a poisoned chalice, because all the new manager can do is win a tournament to be judged a success.

The whole Linekar situation was a classic example of media stirring. The panel were reflecting on the game (I think Denmark) and saying it wasn't good which was everyone else was saying. Linekar then said something like 'yeh, it was just a bit s**t really wasn't it.' The media then confronted Kane saying 'Linekar said you're s**t, what do you think about that?' Anyone listening to the podcast, knew they weren't overly critical. They were always looking for the positives, and Southgate was playing the team in a way that literally nobody agreed with.

I'll always defend what Southgate achieved, and I feel sad that he's gone even though it was the best choice. When the dust settles, and the hurt is forgotten we'll look back on this time as a golden age of English football. If such a bet exists, I'd put one on the fact that people will be begging for his return come 10 years time. His replacement is tough. There were rumours around that things had been more difficult behind the scenes this time. We need someone who is going to be brave enough to be able to drop big names in favour of the team and not get slaughtered in the press for doing so. This points to a bigger more established name, but whether we'll get one is another matter. It might be a case of beggars can't be choosers. Gary Neville made the point that the final was like pretty much every big game England have played in since about 1996. Sometimes, you have to accept that there might be bigger issues than tactics. Take the Man Utd job, they've gone through so many big established names that you can't blame the manager too much for their ills.