So, it begins properly tomorrow and surprise, has many non football based sports.

Here’s the general schedule, taken from Eurosport.

DATES OF TOKYO 2020 SPORTS

3×3 basketball (July 24-28)
Archery (July 23-31)
Artistic gymnastics (July 24 - August 3)
Artistic swimming (August 2-7)
Athletics (July 30 - August 8)
Badminton (July 24 - August 2)
Baseball/softball (July 21 - August 7)
Beach volleyball (July 24 - August 7)
Boxing (July 24 - August 8)
Canoe slalom (July 25-30)
Canoe sprint (August 2-7)
Cycling BMX freestyle (July 31 - August 1)
Cycling BMX racing (July 29-30)
Cycling mountain biking (July 26-27)
Cycling road (July 25-26; July 29)
Cycling track (August 2-8)
Diving (July 25 - August 7)
Equestrian (July 24 - August 7)
Fencing (July 24 - August 1)
Football (July 21 - August 7)
Golf (30 July - August 2; August 5-8)
Handball (July 24 - August 8)
Hockey (July 24 - August 6)
Judo (July 24-31)
Karate (August 5-7)
Marathon swimming (August 4-5)
Modern pentathlon (August 5-7)
Rhythmic gymnastics (August 6-8)
Rowing (July 23-30)
Rugby (July 26-31)
Sailing (July 26 - August 4)
Shooting (July 24 - August 2)
Skateboarding (July 25-26; August 4-5)
Sport climbing (August 3-6)
Surfing (July 25 - August 1)
Swimming (July 24 - August 1)
Table tennis (July 24 - August 6)
Taekwondo (July 24-27)
Tennis (July 24 - August 1)
Trampoline gymnastics (July 30-31)
Triathlon (July 26-27; July 31)
Volleyball (July 24 - August 8)
Water polo (July 24 - August 8)
Weightlifting (July 24-28; July 31 - August 4)
Wrestling (August 1-7)

What follows is a rant, really. Feel free to not unveil it 🙂

I always mark the passing of longer stretches of time with the olympics. It was almost an attainable target for me as a youngster, but the sheer distance involved in a kid from the highlands training with the Scotland hockey squad (a 400 mile round trip each time) and subsequently the idea of a 1000* mile round trip to go through several trials for GB ended that dream.

I say this not in a “could’ve been a contender” way, more to illustrate why, eg. the GB women’s football team seems to have a disproportionately high level of players from one nation. The location of the HQs for GB teams has always been contentious. It makes it very difficult for anyone outside of a certain radius to perform well, or even turn up. Financially and physically I can attest to training at that level being tough anyway, then add on top of that, these geographical effects.

It’s obviously even tougher for those on the island of Ireland.

Hopefully it’ll point out at least one systemic problem that leads to “issues”, and put into perspective the effort and debt these athletes (and yes, even the ones closer to HQ do that too) expend and accumulate.

Anyway, I have a weird time with the games. I can’t miss em, I stay up all night for them. And then it disappears like cicadas do for the next 4 years and all these athletes get back down to the graft in silence, while they watch premiere league footballers get mollycoddled and wasted. 🙂

For me, this is real sport. The pinnacle of it all, and the ones who actually followed through, they are deserving of my eternal admiration.

*1200 actually. The GB training centre is in Bisham Abbey