Today, two more sports have announced their qualification procedures, meaning we now have ten out of forty-seven released officially (or, if you group sports like beach volleyball and volleyball together, then we have seven out of thirty-two). The sports in question are rather strong sports for Team GB: hockey and modern pentathlon.
Hockey
Hockey has men’s and women’s tournaments with 12 spots each, including one host spot. The eleven qualifying spots are the same for men and women:
– The winners of 5 Continental Qualifiers (including the EuroHockey Championship 2023)
– The top 3 teams in 2 FIH Olympic Qualification Tournaments
This seems like a tricky pathway where it is easy to slip up, especially for the men, in my view. That said, we should still qualify with relative ease, and you could imagine heads will roll if not.
Modern Pentathlon
Modern pentathlon is a sport in which Team GB won gold for both genders in 2016. There are 36 spots per gender (max 2 per NOC, allocated to the athlete by name) with 1 host spot and two universality places. Thus, there are 33 qualifying spots:
– The winner of the UIPM 2023 World Cup Final
– A total of 20 places from Continental Championships, including 8 from Europe
– The top 3 at the UIPM 2024 Pentathlon World Championships
– The top 6 in the UIPM Olympic Pentathlon World Ranking List (as of 17 June 2024)
Let’s hope Team GB can get a full compliment of both hockey teams and two modern pentathletes for both genders.
GB Games 