Need to do the crocodile Dundee test 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/olympics/2024/07/30/banda-kundananji-zambia-football-testosterone-olympics/

Brilliant gold swim by McKeown! The competition was fierce but to then win by that margin and pull away in the final 25 was legendary. 

Disgraceful. USA break a tackle and run 100m to score and win. Australian girls bawling. Deserved crumble due to absolute stupidity and arrogance. Too fancy and got the basics wrong. 

Tense 7s bronze game. Australia dropping it over the line. It's just idiotic at times. 7:7 with 5 to go and the ref isn't helping.

Why is it if we pin them in the ruck on our feet we get penalised for handling but the moment they lay a pinkie on our ball before we've even formed a ruck they'll blow for not releasing?

if they forced out stajic and are fighting amongst themselves under gus, that suggests the issue is with the group and a new coach won't fix it

I'm blocked too but apparently Kerr's relationship with the group is at an all time low and the camp itself is an absolute shit show.

any juicy excerts behind the paywall?

Stunning revelations have been made about the disorganisation and disunity in the Matildas camp as their Olympic campaign lurches towards disaster.The Australian has exclusively uncovered the disharmony under coach Tony Gustavsson in a bombshell report published on Tuesday night.

2012 was painful. Clutched at massive straws to get anything. many 4th placings.

You won't win everything you expect and there will be surprises. Today we used up all our luck having beaten the last 2 time gold medal winner Serbia in men's water polo. What a victory! Women's basketball yesterday was a farce and they'll have to switch back on.

So far the disappointments have been the 3 missed bronzes on opening day. Had we won bronze in diving, you can bet we wouldn't have won gold in cycling. Men's cycling would've gone close to bronze so make that 4. men's 100m relay was a fine silver but the first 2 legs were shocking. Sam Short with his bug hasn't helped. I'd hoped for a surprise in the pool last night but young debutants did well in their finals.

The schedule on the official site doesn't show rowers when sorted by country so I've missed a lot and we've seemingly crashed out of a lot of that. Men's shotgun shooting 6th in final just now.

hmm that's interesting

curious where this culture war goes

most frutstrating day in olympics since london 2012 where we had a bunch of chokes that year for some reason

Absolute bottle job for women's 7s. Lead 12:0 and lost 21:12 to Canada. Have to play for bronze.

yeah and they are now the 2 highest paid players in women's football as well. 

Our best women's 1500m hope out with covid. Other swimmer 5th fastest so may sneak a bronze. Hoping for medals in women's backstroke and men's 200m relay tonight.

Men's 800m a decent shout. Sam Short has a bug and that's made his performance suffer. So true that any issue in the body will cut seconds off performance and recovery. 

Got some Sydney 2000 withdrawals the other day and the entire Roy and HG from Sydney 2000 is on YouTube. A great laugh  

Lol Ol Roy called a sports analyst haha
yep he’s been HG’s partner in crime for yonks - absolute hoots hearing their commentary the early days.
Great banter and send ups of athletes.
Lol a sports analyst that’s a classic 

I reckon its more impressive because with a gun you're not straining to hold it. Those bows they have are recurve so the pressure is there until they release the arrow.

Watching it again now.  Men and women singles.

Yep.

Sports analyst? I thought he was a comedian, H.G.Nelson's partner.

was that their two best players who failed the tests?

Boomers and popyrin playing soon 

Well Banda just signed for huge money for Orlando, so Im sure she's going to absolutely cop it over there until she can prove she's a women. Surely they wouldn't spend all that money unless they were sure? Gonna be an interesting watch.  

Yeah I had a vague memory of the South Koreans dominating the sport (or being up there) for years.

The skill is off the charts. 70m is 1 and a half olympic pools away and they're banging them in, or nearabouts, consistently in the 9 ring, if not the 10 nearly every time.

Amazing.

^^^^^

Change the tests or worse, ignore them, because of 'sensibilities'.

'Thoughts and prayers' to anyone undergoing these tests.

What a joke.

This was from Lucy Zelic's twitter:

Are we ready to discuss the elephant in the room? I understand that it’s a sensitive subject but it’s worthy of both addressing and questioning. I’ve received a number of messages and tweets to this effect so let’s look at the facts before us.

In 2022, Zambia women’s national team forward, Barbra Banda and fellow players were denied the opportunity to represent their nation at the Women's Africa Cup of Nations after “failing gender eligibility tests.”

Speaking to BBC Sport at the time, Andrew Kamanga, the president of the Football Association of Zambia said: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a CAF (Confederation of African Football) requirement, and unfortunately Banda did not meet the criteria set by CAF.”

In addition to Banda, “three teammates including striker Racheal Kundananji were also ruled ineligible to compete for Zambia in the World Cup-qualifying tournament.”

"It's unfortunate that we find ourselves going into the tournament without our best players." Said Kamanga.

Without Banda and others, Zambia went on to finish third, after losing to eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.

However, in 2023, these players were cleared to play at the Women’s World Cup because FIFA have permitted teams “to undergo their own internal gender assessments.”

All of this, in spite of the fact that football’s global governing body introduced gender verification regulations in 2011 for all competitions. Players subjected to it, cited them as “humiliating” because they physically had to remove their underpants as proof but there are much less invasive ways to prove a competitors sex and it involves a simple cheek swab.

“FIFA competitions are defined for specific groups determined by age and sex in order to ensure a level playing field for all players…It is a major responsibility of member associations and team physicians to ensure correct gender of their players.” Said FIFA in an official press release.

It must also be said that Zambians narrowly avoided missing out on featuring at this year’s Olympics after FIFA “threatened the country’s football association with suspension amid accusations of money-laundering offences against its president and “undue influence by third parties”.

Zambia’s coach, Bruce Mwape, has also been dogged with allegations of sexual misconduct stretching back to the women’s world cup last year with fresh allegations emerging in May this year.

This, very sadly for many of the female players, is not a nation immune from controversy.

On Monday morning against Australia, the players banned from competing at WAFCON 2022 - both Banda and Kundananji - scored all five of Zambia’s goals. Banda with another hat trick, while Kundananji secured a brace.

In 2021, Banda became the “first woman footballer in Olympic history to score back-to-back hat tricks and the first to score two hat tricks in one tournament.”

Furthermore, In September 2022, Banda led Zambia to win their first 2022 COSAFA Women's Cup, the top women's international football tournament for national teams from southern Africa. Banda’s ten goals resulted in the undeniably skilled footballer being awarded the Golden Ball Award.

Banda is also Africa’s all-time top goal-scorer in Olympic history and recently, together with Kundananji, they created history after signing in the NWSL and becoming two of the highest paid footballers in the women’s game.

So where does this leave us?

We are entitled to ask questions. We are entitled to know why the failed gender verification tests conducted in 2022 were completely ignored by FIFA in 2023 and continue to be ignored in 2024. That the International Olympics Committee do not have “as strict” rules when it comes to gender testing is also a slight on the credibility of the organisation and the sports being contested.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that Australia won 6-5 or that Zambia fails to progress at the Olympics - what matters is the integrity of the game.

I read somewhere that the Sth Korean women have won gold at the archery for the last 10 Olympics in a row, they must have some pretty elite development program going on over there. 

They would have to put out some second stringers, games played every few days at this tournament, would be a massive benefit to rest players before the quarter finals. Small squads so cant rest too many anyway, but I'd assume Spain do the same as they've also qualified. If we somehow get through, even winning would probably have us only 3rd in the group and a very likely match up with a rested Spain in the quarters. 

especially dead centre bulls eye - wouldn't want to be at the end of those missiles !
Similar to shooting - amazing hand stediness and eye.

Canada has appealed the 6-point deduction for spying with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A hearing is likely to take place Tuesday, with a decision coming Wednesday.

Any point changes would impact all 12 Olympic teams hours before final group games.

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/40672450/olympics-2024-canada-file-appeal-spying-points-penalty

Watched the 20 minute highlights the other day vs Zambia of the full match and thought what rubbish but then last night I watched the last 20 minutes in full and it was dead set shithouse. Zambia could have scored half a dozen times in the last 20. Once the Zambian lass almost backpassed it to our keeper when she was one on one from about 5 out. We had chances too that we squandered big time. Kerr would have buried 2 or 3 of them easily.

I can't see us getting any sort of result against the US. The only chance we have is they're through and MAY put out some second stringers.