There are provisions that allow under-represented countries to get into some events even if nobody from that country actually meets the qualification conditions. The 100m dash is the most popular of those events.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that those countries are any way invested in a track and field program, just that many countries have a guy somewhere who can run 100m in a straight line in a time that’s not completely embarrassing for an initial heat race.
BBC1 prime time Friday night - the womens’ field hockey final live uninterrupted and entirely set in a context to inspire an entire generation of nine year old girls sitting in front of a tv with mum and dad; girls together, teamwork, community, interviews with family, tacticians. And it’s friggin hockey …
Have to say the BBC have done a Gold Medal job of framing Rio in such an inspiring context for the kids, they do it every time anyway - public service mandate, etc - but it’s going to be beautiful 3 Olympics after Tokyo.
c’mon girls - batter the Dutch! 
Quite a story. His horse, Big Star is pretty old too.
Britain’s teams are doing really well in Rio.
http://m.bbc.com/sport/olympics/36691138
https://www.rio2016.com/en/news/at-58-equestrian-gold-medallist-nick-skelton-becomes-great-britain-s-oldest
.
Both track & field and swimming allow every country to have at least 1 man and at least 1 woman in the Olympics. The 50m freestyle sets aside separate heats for these “underqualified” swimmers, although there were a few that entered the 100m freestyle instead.
4 saves out of 4 in that shootout - I’ll be looking for Maddie Hinch’s name in the New Year’s Honours.
NBC news estimated Lochte will lose between 5 and 10 million dollars in endorsements.
Brazilian official summed it up nicely. All he had to do was admit he got drunk and did a little damage and it would have blown over.
Entertaining men’s 10m platform prelims. A Mexican did the only 4.1 difficulty dive I’ve ever seen (not badly, either) and the first perfect 10 of this Olympics was awarded. Shockingly NOT to a Chinese diver, but Tom Daley. David Boudia did very well but still qualified 50 and 70 points adrift of the Chinese and 80 behind Daley. Tomorrow should be quite a show.
Big deal, I can do four out of five of those things.
Yep, sounds like a normal Friday night in south London. The only thing missing is the Uber to get home.
And now there’s this thing with the UK being disqualified from the 4x400 men’s. There’s still no explanation as to what the violation was. And it puts Brazil in. Seems fishy.
They said “lane violation”, but I haven’t seen a replay.
I’ve seen the replays, and I can’t see anything obvious. The thing that seems so bad is that they’ve been so slow to say what they were actually calling.
And now the US men have been DQ’d in the 4x100. No explanation yet.
Well, it’s Brazil and the IOC. I’m going to assume the fix is in.
They’re saying early pass.
So, dirty officials or incompetent officials?
As corrupt as the IOC is, I can’t see them deliberately colluding to move Brazil into 6th.
But I can definitely see it in the 4x400.
Or maybe the judges noticed that Gatlin took the baton too soon?
Still doesn’t explain the radio silence on the 4x400. These judges should have the guts to come out and say exactly what they were calling; not just make everyone guess for hours.
Absolutely - Michael Johnson and Steve Cram have came up with some theories on the BBC coverage, but found nothing damning yet. The IAAF need to explain properly, and not a couple of hours later either.