I think they can only have one competitor in each weight class
I wish they'd be more consistent with this.
I suspect part of this is that there's a pretty hard limit on the total number of athletes the IOC want to be competing in any Olympics (something around 28k IIRC). So that has a knock-on effect on each nation's total permitted representation, and then I suppose each sport's federations have to decide between themselves and the IOC what the sport-by-sport breakdown is.
If you think about it, the amount of bureaucracy and organisation behind running an Olympics -
before you even get to what the host country itself has to do - is terrifyingly immense.
Is it just me or do a lot of the Track athletes come across as arrogant assholes?
Personally, I really love all that stuff.
The posturing swagger of sprinters especially is just brilliant fun. It's part of the theatre/entertainment of the event to me. Plus, when they justify it by getting world records, frankly, I love it when they metaphorically stick two fingers up at those who doubted them.
Just watched the BMX from a couple days ago, great entertainment once again. It looks goofy, but it's extremely competitive with close competition, yet very noticable differences in the riders' strength and a good amount (but not too much) of chance adding to the unpredictability.
Yeah, it's really good entertainment value. Lots of close racing, and not a little NASCAR style high drama due to the potential for something to go spectacularly wrong. Of course, god forbid any serious injuries, but a few injury-free high-speed crashes do add to the spectacle of the event. I heard that the BMX has the highest ratio of medical staff presence to athletes of any sport in the Olympics.
Looking forward to the 4x100 now. I want to see a WR!
And finally, before I end this post: Mo Farah is a legend.
