The idea of a Ryder Cup-style event between various British and American sporting contingencies is gaining steam, as British Olympic Association Chief Executive, Bill Sweeney is engaging in talks with the United State Olympic Committee. Based on the format of the current Ryder Cup, a biennial men’s golf competition between teams from Europe and the U.S., the multi-sport version would take place every two years as well and, according to Inside the Games, could come as early as 2019.
The prospect was originally brought up in December of last year at the same time the BOA, UK Sport and other national governing bodies within Great Britain began discussions surrounding replacing separate, sport-by-sport traditional Olympic trials with a televised, multi-sport competitive event.
Of the idea of an ongoing multi-sport Ryder Cup, Sweeney says, “The question now is to identify which sports this works best for, and speaking to those sports and our stakeholders about it.
“A number of our sports have said they are interested in doing it and the concept is based around a home and away series, every two years, as we see in the world of golf.
“That will give us another opportunity to generate additional revenue that we can pump back into the system.”
Swim fans got a taste of what a swimming-specific competition between Great Britain and America would be like just this past weekend in Indianapolis A 40+ strong British squad traveled to the States to compete at the Arena Pro Swim Series, pitting rivals such as world record holder and individual gold medalist Adam Peaty against American Olympians Cody Miller and Kevin Cordes.
From an American perspective, a British and American duel may be a viable substitute for the at-risk Duel in the Pool, the all-star meet between the United States and Europe that typically took place in odd-numbered years. With major sponsor Mutual of Omaha dropping its relationship with USA Swimming, the Duel in the Pool may potentially be sunk.
What about curling?
2019 . Maybe by that time the morally superior titans of the universe aka British Parliament will permit that common person from Trump Tower aka The President of the United States to enter its building .
Sheesh – get the basics done first .
No Russians? No Chinese? No Germans? No French? No Latins? No Kenyans?
This would be pointless.
This is a trick…don’t fall for it. Britain would dominate and perhaps humiliate us in sports like cricket, rowing, marbles, the other kind of football, darts and that Scottish sport where you have to toss a tree trunk upside down.
Marley09 – since you asked, 6 of the last 7 World Highland Games champions are actually Americans, and the other (2016) is English. The US has won 17 times, while Australia, England, and Scotland have each won 7 times.
Braden, I concede the point. Please amend my post above and exclude the tree throwing thing. Replace with Quidditch. You’ve seen those movies…..No way we even compete with them in Quidditch.
MARLEY09 – I think you’d be surprised. It looks as if the burgeoning US college club system is going to be providing a steady pipeline of top flight Quidditch players in the next few years. And while some people may argue that Muggle Quidditch is a totally different sport, due to the lack of flying broomsticks, others argue that the ground-based game helps players focus on certain technical aspects that wizards just don’t spend enough time on whilst they’re flying around. 🙂
For for more info: https://www.usquidditch.org/teams
If it were a competition of throwing trees on ice, however…you Canadians would be in great shape! Or quiddich on ice. Or really any sport, but on ice.
There is only 1 sport that really matters. Maybe two if you count curling. Swimming and the others just a diversion until playoffs start.
A European team (as it actually is with the Ryder Cup) would make far more sense. Peaty, Guy and Scott would join the likes of Manaudou, Cseh, Koch, Balandin, Paltrinieri, Kenderesi, Rylov, Stravius, Gyurta, Timmers and Detti on the men’s side.
For the women there’d be the addition to the British girls mentioned previously of Hosszu, Sjostrom, Pelligrini, Belmonte, Ruta (if she finds her form again) and a very strong group of Dutch/Danish girls. The European team relays would be really fun to watch.
We already have “Duel in the Pool” which is usa vs europe in SCM. Even though the last couple have been close, europe has yet to win this meet.
This doesn’t bode well for just UK alone.
People forget that British swimming is getting an upswing. Yes, Peaty is THE star because he is in a league of his own in 50/100 breaststroke. But, there are other good British swimmers both on the men and women side, that all shined in Rio like Duncan Scott, James Guy, Siobhan Marie-O’Connor to mention a few. The team is clearly not resting on their laurels. They are improving their training and injecting new blood.
The problem is that the US has those up and comers AND established stars at all times without fail. Sure once a decade there might be one country able to give the US a push, but that’s it. The US puts up contenders in almost every event, every year
No one country is going to be able to give the US a challenge in the pool. It’d be a slaughter.