Paris Olympics 2024

Yeah - but 6% reckon they could qualify for the 100m! Deluded.

As which country...
I definitely couldn't. Then again, with some googling and conveniently optimistic maths...

I've raced it once, last month, and ran 12.6s
The slowest guy in the preliminary rounds ran 12.1s
I reckon I could take half a second off if I trained for 4 years, or learned to use the blocks
Also would need a Tongan passport and hope nobody else tried to run faster

Alright fine, no chance of me being the surprise 46yr old Tongan via SE London sprint sensation in LA

There are 7 million people aged 15 to 24 in the UK, around 10% of the population. In 4 years’ time that cohort will be the right age for most Olympic sports. So 6% of the population thinking that with training they could compete in 4 years’ time isn’t ridiculous.

Nothing that requires subjective scoring is. We could cut the cost right down with some judicious culling:

A. Nothing that requires "scoring" - eliminates gymnastics, synchronised swimming, all martial arts, boxing, dressage, trampolining, breaking, etc..
B. Nothing where the Olympics is not the pinnacle competition; eliminates football, tennis, golf, basketball, etc..
C. Nothing with animals; eliminates showjumping and dressage (again)
D. Nothing that requires expensive permanent infrastructure; eliminates rowing (except beach sprints); canoeing, maybe others?

Got to say I'm not happy about some of those outcomes but it would reduce cost massively and move firmly towards the citius, altius, fortius motto.

Of course it would never happen. Gymnastics is one pf the top TV audience figures, especially in the US.

Surely to get to 6% of the whole population, using that approach would mean HALF of the 15-24 cohort were Olympic standard capable ... not in a million years.

The answer is dressage cos the horse does all the work. Horse dancing is not a sport

Oh fo sho.

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I agree it’s ambitious.

27% of Britons reckon that they could qualify for a sport at the 2028 Olympics, if they started training today

Think of the size of the boat they'd have needed for the opening ceremony...

no one said breakdancing?!

In a interview today Tanya Grey head of uk sport said certain sports will need re evaluating in order to be top 5 in all medal performances !

Already dropped
Or not taken up for LA28 as it was an optional event

isn’t ridiculous

It absolutely is ridiculous tbh. We're not talking just good, we're talking the sharpest tip of the spear.

It's not just about training, you need the natural physicals and the mentals for it. (E.g fast/slow twitch etc).

E.g Rowing, which was 7% of people I think on that list. Anyone under 6' or so is almost certainly out immediately, then you need people who have natural timing, you can't really teach that, you have it or you don't. (In my years coaching new rowers, it's amazingly rare to find someone who can actually keep decent time through the stroke, maybe one in every 500 people was a natural, if not less).

I guess you also have to factor in all the people who've already got a massive head start who you need to overtake, who've already been doing it for years and years and won't be answering yougov polls.

They are out there though, look at Helen Glover.

The answer changes a lot depending on whether the question is "could you meet unspecified qualifying criteria" or "could you get selected for team GB"

For golf to get selected for team GB youd have to be top 20 in the world minimum, making millions of dollars a year playing around the world. If 5% of respondants think that's realistic then there's no justification for them continuing their current lives and not switching to being a millionaire golfer

I'm taking the above as a complement despite not being addressed to me, having rowed stroke for a number of (very much) younger years.
Maybe there's a chance?

(No - there isnt.)

Anyone under 6' or so is almost certainly out immediately

Can we just fill the boats with coxs?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/12/paris-olympic-games-la-2028-sports-sailing-golf

After 2012 there was some do you fancy your chances thing aimed at young teens. My eldest submitted her physical dimensions and from that she was invited for a rowing try out in Salford Quays. More measurements and some physical tests ( no rowing) but she didn't make the cut. Some parents were doing a whole host of sports for an Olympic chance for their kids. These will be the ones labelled as just took up the sport x years ago.

My Olympic reform is:

1 person, per country, per event. (1 person can enter multiple events, e.g. 100m, 200m and Archery) (Team events still exist but you cannot do solo and team events, team events need to be mixed gender, Villa-Ru(le))
Nothing that requires horses
Replace football with 5 a side
Any previously won Olympic medals for your entered event must be worn at all time when competing (success ballast of sorts)
Getting the crowd to clap in time is instant disqualification
Olympic ring tattoos will receive aggressive litigation for copyright infringement

added:
90% of the rowing events, you do no need 1x 2x 4x 8x (although I do support adding Viking longship 20x racing)
Dancing
Biting medal will require full consumption of medal (thanks Dibble)
Swimming, freestyle to be renamed "front crawl", butterfly to be dropped, "Doggy paddle" to replace it

Dafuq! Pipped from podium by Japan? What was their late run in?

Can't even see GB on the medal list. Were you guys there or did you boycott because France and Brexit means Brexit?

(sorry Pidders, I know, I know, it's just for the LOLs mate, chill out)

Nobody tell the author how much bikes are. Odd article by a somewhat uninformed person.

Anyone “jokingly” biting their medal should be made to eat it

Very good.
I'd add that any non-individual event has to be mixed. Rowing 4s & 8s, Madison, 4x100 etc.

Unsurprisingly no one mentioning heavyweight boxing. Think AJ did it in 5 years and i'm 99% certain there was another Brit who did it in less.

Unsurprisingly no one mentioning heavyweight boxing

esp. when so many of our young kids and armchair fans are already in the right weight category.

100% this.