Off Topic Sport Other than Football - formerly the Ashes Thread

Nothing says state-sponsored corruption quite like taking out Andorra's entire internet infrastructure to knock a team out of a Minecraft tournament

 

Carnage from the West Indies but Adil Rashid 4 overs, 1-25 (despite 11 off his last over).

 

Great hitting from Moeen Ali in a devastating couple of overs.
That’s the thing with T20. The game can change in a few deliveries. 134-3 after 17 overs finishes up as 193-6 in 20.

 

What a come back, I am not a huge tennis fan, but that is some performance

 

Even better, you know that Novak Djokhead is seething...

 

I watched the last two sets.
If only England Test batsmen had his "over my dead body" attitude.
Never gives up; always manages to find his best when under the greatest pressure.

 

Great start to the Six Nations: both my parents are going to be grumpy sods all evening...

 

Nice to have Nigel Owen's on the commentary team explaining the changes made to an already unfathomable rules in the rugger

 

Not a fan of the Winter Olympics, but this made me laugh!

 

Not sure if this is a non-football comment, or a politics one - because with this the boundary is a grey area!

I refer to Russian skater Kamila Valieva being allowed to compete in an upcoming event because the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned her ban. I understand that it was not because they disputed the positive test, but because she has been deemed a 'protected person' and that a ban for someone of her age was considered too detrimental.

WTF! (several times) The CAS has overturned several bans and reduced the length of others, so they do not appear to be friends of the drive to end drug abuse in sport. One of the bans they reduced the length of was of all things, Russia (the country), imposed for their horrendous industrial scale doping at past winter olympics. This was apparently so that the ban did not impact on younger Russian athletes who were blameless in all the wrongdoing. Well, er, here's a young athlete who may well be new into the Russian state-sponsored drug abuse programme, which kind of makes the CAS generosity to Russia a bit moot. Plus perhaps this allows for a drug-regime for pre-16 year olds because even if they go clean after that, they will presumably take much benefit into their adult sporting career.

Moreover (1) is banning a young athlete more detrimental to them than having them on a drug programme at an early age? And (2) if you are so worried about the impact on 15 year olds of banning them, then maybe consider the impact on 15 year olds of sending them to the olympics at all. Personally I'd have no problem if there was a minimum 16 year old minimum age limit for athletes. Because without it, what goes on in events such as gymnastics could possibly creep into the definition of child abuse.

I think a lot of clean athletes might again be saying to themselves today "what's the point"?

Edit: I have now found (as it is lacking from any reports on this subject but shouldn't be) that the substance itself in theory can enable an athlete to train for longer than otherwise, so it can be beneficial. I also hear that there have been a number of Russian female skaters that came onto the scene as young prodigies but were broken by 19 due to the training regime. I would argue that perhaps they should be protected from that kind of abuse, while instead they seem to be giving the green light for doping them up at an early age.

 

Somebody won the Super Bowl

Anyway, moving on...

 

Has it ended now?
Or are we just on another commercial break?
When’s Taylor Swift appearing?

 

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Turns out the British bits of wood they're sliding down on in skeleton are crap and we aren't getting a medal this time despite getting one every time since that event has been introduced.

 

Let's face it ,the Winter Olympics are just various forms of sliding

 

Looks like we get at least a silver in mens ice sweeping , well done chaps

 

Are they Scottish?
I imagine they been sweeping ice since birth

 

Two teams in the sweeping finals, well done everyone

 

Two excellent boxers met in 2017, making it the first time that dual Olympic gold medallist had fought professionally.
Their overall record at that point, including amateur fights, was 897 wins to 14 losses. No draws.