Paris Olympiad 2024

Not long to go now...

...nothing must inspire this year's athletes like seeing that Usain Bolt is advertising cleaning products, and Bradley Wiggins is bankrupt. Which of this year's new Olympians will be facing the same issues in 2036?

Poor Katie Archibald is out of this year's Games with a broken leg.
Gold medal prospect gone.

Such a shame .

Gutted for her.

^She's had a bloody awful time over the last couple of years too.

Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood have been selected to represent Team GB in the Olympic Golf event in Paris.

Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu will not defend her title after falling in the US trials final and finishing last in the race.

A penny for the thoughts of Keely Hodgkinson this morning.

So, finally all attention can turn to what I believe is the biggest and the best sporting event of them all.
The Olympic Games.
Bringing together so many people from so many countries and so many sports in one place at the same time.
My love affair with the Olympics is well documented on here. It has been a massively significant force in combatting my mental health struggles down the years and remains so to this very moment.
With all due respect to The FIFA World Cup, the Euros, The Ashes, Wimbledon, The Superbowl, Tour de France, Rugby World Cup, Open Golf Championship, Grand National, Ryder Cup or anything else one might care to mention there is nothing, absolutely nothing that comes remotely close to The Olympiad. The Olympics is a movement and on a higher plain. Faster - Higher - Stronger.
Pure sport at its very very best.
Yes of course it has sometimes been blighted by cheats and controversy like so many sport events down the years.
But at its best The Olympics is THE most inspiring. THE most intoxicating. THE most intense. THE most special. It has an aura all of its own. Just to be an Olympian is the ultimate privilege.

So to the athletes I say.
You have within you the power and honour of being an Olympian. Hold that privilege dear and forever close to your hearts.
It is something I and so many of us could only dream of.
Memories to be made, experiences to be cherished. To love the Olympics is to love the best in human spirit, achievement and resolve.
May you thrive, inspire and give hope to millions in your own countries and around the globe.

Paris, this is your moment.
Que votre Olympiade de 2024 soit un phare d’amour pour le monde.

Ruckus at the Argentina-Morocco match; as if being in the same group with Iraq and Ukraine wasn't bad enough.

So Charlotte DuJardin is rightly out of Team GB after a video of her mistreating a horse surfaced. Meanwhile, the Dutch Beach Volleyball Team has a convicted child rapist who met a 12 year old British girl on Facebook and travelled here to rape her.

What the actual fuck are the Dutch smoking???

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/dut...84299.html

Drama in the Rugby 7s.
New Zealand beaten 14-7 by South Africa.
Defending champions Fiji scraping past Ireland 19-15. France overcame Argentina by a score of 26-14.

The last of the quarter finals however saw a comfortable 18-0 victory for Australia over USA.

I find it odd that Slovenian cyclist Tadej Pogacar has pulled out from the Paris Olympics.

It's really unclear as to why he withdraw from their team citing, some reports say that he has extreme fatigue after winning the General Clasification in the Tour du France.

It could also be that his girlfriend wasn't picked despite being their double national champion in road race and time trial