The Olympic Qualifiers are coming thick and fast now, with Archery, Basketball, Basketball 3×3, Boxing, Fencing, Golf, Judo, Rugby Sevens, Shooting, Taekwondo and Wrestling releasing qualification systems.
Archery
Archery retains five events, with a men’s and women’s individual team, and a mixed team. Twelve nations per gender, including hosts France, will qualify a team, with the three members of the team also participating in the individual events. The remaining 28 spots, including two universality places, will be earned on an individual basis, with at most one per NOC. There is no separate qualifying for the mixed team, with entry automatic for every NOC with at least one athlete per gender.
The team section has been changed, with a ranking and a continental system added. The 2023 World Archery Championship (Berlin, GER, 28 Jul-6 Aug 2023) will earn just three spots, down from eight. Three of those spots will go to the winners of Continental Championships, including one for Europe. There will still be a Final World Team Qualification Tournament for three places. Finally, two places will be earned for a Team World Ranking List, the date which will count will be announced at a later date.
The winners of the mixed team competition at five Continental Games, including the 2023 European Games (Krakow, POL, 21 Jun-2 Jul 2023). The 2023 African Games (Accra, GHA, Dates to be announced) are also meant to be part of this, but as of right now, archery is not on the programme. If this remains the case, one extra place per gender will be available for the Individual Qualifying Tournament.
The remaining twenty-one places per gender are earned individually. Three will be earned at the 2023 World Archery Championship, two each will be earned at three Continental Games (including the European Games) and ten (including three for Europe) will be earned at five Continental Qualification Tournaments. Finally two (plus the potential reallocated African Games spot) will be earned at the Final World Individual Qualification Tournament (date and location to be announced).
GB’s goal should be to qualify a full team of three for both genders, although this will be by no means easy.
Basketball
Basketball retains two twelve-team tournaments, just like Tokyo 2020. The qualification system for eleven teams each (as one spot goes to hosts France) is the same, differing however between men and women. For men, seven teams qualify from the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup (Various cities, IDN, JPN, PHI, Aug 25-Sep 10 2023): the top two teams from America and Europe and the top team from Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Qualification is in progress for that event. The remaining four spots will be earned in 2024 at FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournaments, which will include nineteen teams from the World Cup and five from Olympic pre-qualifying tournaments: the winners of each of the four tournaments, with six teams each, will earn the final spot.
Great Britain will aim to qualify for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, and though this is a hard ask (they have won one game and lost one game in their initial group, with the top three out of four going to a final group phase) A place in the 2024 OPQT is probably a minimum target.
For women, only the champion of the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup (Sydney, AUS, 22 Sep-1 Oct 2022) will qualify: the qualification procedure for that is finished. The remaining ten places will be earned at FIBA Olympic Qualification Tournaments: there will be four groups of four, with the top three qualifying, although France and the Women’s World Cup champions will be included: in the groups with those two, only two places will be earned. This is no change from the Tokyo 2020 system. We missed out on the Women’s World Cup, but we should aim to get into the OPQT.
Basketball 3×3
Basketball 3×3 will be a tricky sport to qualify, with our men ranked 38th and women ranked 26th in this 8-team sport. The good news is that two of the spots are earned in Universality-driven Qualifying Tournaments, with three each being earned in rankings and the Olympic Qualifying Tournament. One GB team qualifying, though an outside chance, could be a goal here.
Boxing
Boxing is a strong sport for us, with seven male and six female weight categories. There is one spot per NOC, and we’ll aim to qualify a boxer in all of them. The first even in the calendar is the 2023 IBA World Championships, where the finallists in each even will earn a qualification spot (for most Olympic weight classes that is four spots as two IBA weight classes broadly link up to one Olympic weight class), for both men and women. The remaining places will be earned via Olympic Ranking lists and a World Qualification tournament.
Fencing
In Fencing, there are twelve events: men’s and women’s individual and team foil, sabre, and epée. We usually qualify just a couple of athletes in this sport, and with the team qualification completely based on the ranking list of 1 April 2024 it seems unlikely we will qualify. Qualification is similar to archery, where if you qualify a team, you also get 3 individuals, but if you do not you can have at most one per NOC. Again, most fencers will qualify based on the ranking of 1 April 2024, although one athlete will qualify as the winner of four “zonal qualifying events”: zones meaning continents, and one of those places being for Europe.
Golf
In Golf, there are men’s and women’s events, with it being purely based on ranking, qualification being from the Olympic Golf Ranking of 17 June 2024 for Men and 24 June 2024 for Women. The top sixty will qualify, including one host spot and one from each continent guaranteed. There are at most two athletes per NOC, unless there are more than two per NOC in the top 15: then there can be at most four per NOC.
Judo
Judo is normally a medal hope for GB, and we should be qualifying a good amount of athletes in this sport. There are seven weight categories per gender and a “mixed team” event: there is no qualification specifically for mixed team, instead, if you have three athletes eligible from each gender who are in different weight classes you can qualify. However, one team per continent (so five in total) will be offered an invitational team place: the eligible countries will have five of the necessary six qualified and will be given the extra space.
For each event, where there is at most one athlete per NOC, the top 17 ranked athletes on the IJF World Ranking of 25 June 2024 will qualify, as will a total of 50 more men and 50 more women based on continent, including 13 European men and 12 European women, with at most one athlete per NOC out of these 100. It seems like the IJF is at great pains to diversify the athletes participating in these games, which may make it harder for a very large British team, but we can still qualify some top athletes.
Rugby Sevens
Rugby Sevens has twelve-team events in each gender and the bare minimum is that GB qualify for both. The top four teams in the 2022-3 World Rugby Sevens World Series, will gain a spot, as will the winners of six Regional Association Olympic Qualification Tournaments in 2023 and a Final Olympic Repechage Tournament which should happen in 2024.
Shooting
Shooting has a long and complicated process to qualify, and normally we have a decent team.
The programme is slightly changed. The men’s and women’s events are the same (10m Air Rifle, 50m 3 Positions, 10m Air Pistol, 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Men)/25m Pistol (Women), Trap, and Skeet) while the Mixed Team in 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol also remain, although the Mixed Team Trap is replaced for a mixed Team Skeet event.
There is no mixed team qualification: instead those with one man and one woman in each event can enter a corresponding mixed team: at most two teams per NOC. At most twelve men and at most twelve women per NOC can qualify, and at most two athletes per individual event per NOC can qualify. There are 25 qualification spots per event, with a host country spot, one universality spot (two in the air rifle and air pistol events) and one earned at the Olympic Qualification Ranking of 9 June 2024.
In the Air Rifle and Air Pistol events, four spots are earned at the 2022 World Rifle and Pistol Championship (Cairo, EGY, 12-25 Oct 2022). Two spots are earned at the 2023 European 10m Championship (Tallinn, EST, 5-15 Mar 2023). One spot is earned at the 2023 European Games (Krakow, POL, 21 Jun-2 Jul 2023), four at the 2023 World Championship (14-31 Aug 2023, location TBC), two at the 2024 European 10m Championship (Gyor, HUN, exact dates TBC), two from a 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship (date and location TBC), and some others from events on other continents.
For the 25m and 50m events, two spots are earned at the 2022 European 25m/50m Championship (Wroclaw, POL, 5-18 Sep 2022). Four spots are earned at the 2022 World Rifle and Pistol Championship, one at the 2022 CAT Championship, one at the 2023 European Games, four at the 2023 World Championship, two at the 2024 European 25m/50m Qualification Event (dates and locations tbc),and two from a 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship.
The trap and skeet events will be the first event to get underway, with the 2022 European Shotgun Championships (Larnaca, CYP, 24 Aug-12 Sep 2022) earning two spots. Four spots will be earned at the 2022 World Shotgun Championship (Osijek, CRO, 22 Sep-11 Oct 2022), one at the 2023 European Shotgun Championship (Leobersdorf, AUT, 25 Jul-6 Aug 2023), four at the 2023 World Championship, one at the 2024 European Shotgun Championship (Dates and locations TBC), two at the 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Championship.
This replacement of World Cup events with more continental European events could both help or hinder us, I’m not really sure. I suppose the only thing to do is wait and see.
Taekwondo
Taekwondo has four weight classes per gender, and for each there are fifteen qualification spots, with at most one athlete per NOC per event. 5 spots per event are earned via the Olympic Ranking, one via the WT Grand Slam Champions series, and 9 through continental qualifying events (including two from Europe). A tricky qualifier with little room for error, with a large amount of athletes qualifying through ranking, but GB is a strong Taekwondo team especially in Europe. We should get a fair few athletes qualified.
Wrestling
Wrestling is normally quite a weak spot for GB and qualifying anyone would be a bonus. There are eighteen total events: six weight classes for freestyle in both genders, and six in the male-only Greco-Roman style.
The top five athletes for each event at the 2023 Senior World Championships (Krasnoyarsk, RUS, 16-24 Sep 2023, obviously take that with a pinch of salt) gain a place. Then, the top two athletes at four 2024 Continental Qualification Tournaments (including the European Tournament, 4-7 Apr 2024, location TBC) gain a place. Finally, the top three athletes for each event at the 2024 World Qualification Tournament (9-12 May 2024, location TBC) will earn a place. As I said, any British qualifier will be a bonus.
More qualification systems will be on their way soon: we are now over half-way there.
GB Games 