Surreal

Yeah, see the BBC interview.  Coming off a hamstring in the summer.
 
Matt Weston wins 10th World Cup skeleton gold in Italy - BBC Sport
 
 women's team don't do quite so well, but no reason to despair yet.  As ever, starts are excellent, drives are patchy.  the opposite - average starting but great driving.   But everyone with a long way to go.

I think 2025 Christmas Time may be a good time to deliver the final simulation/predictions of 2026 Winter Olympics.
 
Stay tuned then!!!
 
Work in progress…

Legend

Legend

Day 1 - Evening Results
 
Women's Long Jump (Qualifying)- Jaz Sawyers misses out on a place in the final after placing 16th overall with a jump of 6.54m - well down on the automatic qualifying of 6.75m and 6cm shy of 12th place. It's a shame, but in the context of her return from injury perhaps it is understandable. 
 
Women's 100m (Heats) - All 3 Brits safely through (although I actually fell asleep so didn't see them ) 
 
Women's 1,500m (Heats)- Erin Wallace (Heat 1) finishes in 8th and doesn't progress. Revee Walcott-Nolan (Heat 2) qualifies for semi finals but looked far from convincing. Laura Muir (Heat 4) - Lord knows what happened to her in the last 100m. Such a shame given she seemed to be rounding into decent form. 
 
Men's 100m (Heats) - Romell Glave (Heat 1) finished 4 in 10 flat so had to rely on fastest loser spot. Jeremiah Azu (Heat 4) and Zharnel Hughes (Heat 6) both take automatic spots. Hughes looked the most likely to get to the final.  
 
Men's Shot Put (Final) - Scott Lincoln qualified for the final in 5th with 21.00m - and finishes 8th in the final with 21.00m. It was the highest place by a brit in a Shot Put final so can't really complain.
 
Women's 10,000m (Final) - Megan Keith and Cali Haugher-Thackery finish in 10th and 11th so both hit my target of top 12 finish. m. A top 12 finish and/or being the first European to finish would be decent result.  
 
Mixed 4x400m Relay (Final) - GB finished a disappointing 5th. The selectors kept faith with Lewis Davies and instead switched out Yemi Mary John. Harries and Yeargin were left with too much to do - had we been better placed, I think the bronze was there for the taking. Can't help thinking this was a missed opportunity to get the medal count moving on day 1

Latest update is that 10 US swimmers are too sick to travel with the rest of the team to Singapore. Apparently some GB swimmers, who were staying at the same resort, were also affected

There was a bit of confusion about this a couple of months back, but skeleton slider Laura Deas confirms retirement after losing her team spot during her baby break.
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/cn8vdqqnq54o

yep that's what cost us the silver. But they held Ireland thankfully

And yes this is precisely why I moaned excessively and loudly on here when Tarling was not included in the track team. It was a decision I really didn’t understand then and still now.
 
good news out of today was the fence by Kate and Kerenza. They should be in contention.
 
looking for a surprise gold medal from somewhere; maybe Hector in the Seine, one of the taekwondo fighters or the men’s 4x4 relay (that would make the games for me if we somehow took down USA)

We had world number 1 in both kayak cross, Franklin and Clarke were probably expected to win medals and didn't in the slalom

He's doing a Pogacar!

OMG I completely forgot KJT is yet to compete lol

It's just so fucking sickening at this point with the near misses that it's become hard to celebrate the silvers - how many near misses can one team have at an Olympic games!?

Halfway point 😭
 
Archery: Does Havers get at least one set point? NO
Artistic Gymnastics: Do GB win at least one gold today? YES
Athletics: Do we get a RELAY medal? YES
Boxing: Does Richardson win? NO
Canoe Slalom: How many Brits avoid the repechage? 3
Cycling Road: Do GB win a medal? NO
Equestrian: Do GB win a medal? YES
Hockey: Do GB avoid defeat? NO
Golf: Is FLEETWOOD in a medal position at the end of the day? YES
Sailing: Does WILSON win gold? NO
Shooting: Is Rutter in the top ten at the end of the day? YES
Swimming: Do we get a RELAY medal? NO
 

Oh dear. She always underwhelms at the Olympics. 

It may be one of the others is ill/off form and they therefore cannot spare Hayter in the heats of the TP.
 
It does seem bizarre that GB went to the trouble of qualifying two entries for both TTs and then don't bother using the second one in each.

Honstly I think you're being a bit harsh on him, he's probably just as good a 100 Flyer atm as Guy based on Jimmy's form so far this season in the 100 Fly. Putting Joe on the medley or mixed medley heats is fine.
 
The fact that Guy's entered in the 100 Fly individually makes me think they'll swim Joe in the mixed medley heats because heats of the mixed medley is on the same day as the heats/semis of the 100 Fly - I'm guessing GB will compare their respective times and whoever's quicker gets the spot for the men's medley relay.

Lets talk about Athletics:
 
Sydney Mclaughlin  : W 400M Hurdles
Kipyegon  : W 1500m
Ingebrigtsen  : M 5000M
Crouser  : M Shot Put
Duplantis  : M Pole Vault
 
They all seem like pretty safe gold medal picks to me - Thoughts?. Anyone missing?
 

I don’t think is accurate at all. For anyone who has been watching this year, Finucane has shown her dominance in the sprint to prove she is clearly the fastest sprinter going into Paris.
 
What was lacking in the past was her race craft in the Keirin. She seems to have improved this throughout the season, and benefited from the confidence of knowing she is the quickest rider and was utterly dominant in winning the Keirin in Hong Kong when she last competed internationally.

I wouldn’t have any rider has a dominant fav in this due to the variability in the event itself, anything can and often does happen, however Finucane should rightly start as the favourite in the Keirin.
A small note on Ellesse; she has had to come back from a really nasty crash for this Olympics, and the missed training is certainly a big hurdle to overcome. She has better medal chances in the Keirin than the individual sprint I believe. 

Oh yeah, forgot about Marchand because he may well be not doing that one. Not really considering Watanabe, but he could be up there indeed.

In terms of track cycling there are a few near locks I can think of:
 
Harrie Lavreysen : Men's Individual Sprint   - A couple of years ago he was challenged by the Aussie Richardson but he's been a class apart from everyone for the last 18 or so months. Right now I'd pick him to win 3 Golds with the individual sprint a near lock.
 
Emma Finucane: Women's Individual Sprint   - Has dominated this event this past year. Set the fastest Flying 200m time not on altitude at the world champs last year with a 10.2. Still only 21 so will only improve and like Lavreysen is also destined for greatness in Paris imo with 3 Golds not out of the equation for her too.
 
 
Ethan Hayter: Men's Omnium  -  Been tremendous in this discipline ever since Tokyo, In fact I don't even think he's lost an omnium he's competed in since Tokyo (not completely sure, happy to be proven wrong). - One thing I will say about the omnium though is that crashes and luck do sometimes play a major part so I'm much more confident in the previously mentioned riders.

Keirin is such a lottery that I can see Lavreijsen not win it definitely. I can’t really remember a top international Keirin performance by Finucane, she will win the sprint (and battle the team sprint out with the Germans) but I can’t see her take the Keirin from the likes of Friedrich, Andrews and Bayona.

Final Standing 
 
Rank User Nation Total 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 #PP #4 #3 #2 1 dullard 208 15 23 32 29** 21 14 32* 42* 2 20 15 6 2 Topicmaster1010 189 16 25* 16 21* 17 17* 38* 39* 3 19 6 9 3 Ogreman 189 16 30* 24* 23* 16 19 27 34** 2 21 13 6 4 Henry_Leon 183 22* 20* 27* 18 16 17 27* 36* 4 16 12 11 5 Surreal 179 19 18* 21* 31* 19 18* 20 33* 1 18 8 7 6 Erigert 178 19 19 18* 21 16 20 31*** 34* 1 17 13 9 7 Cinnamon Bun 175 16 13 21* 22 23** 14* 33* 33 4 16 8 14 8 ady48 173 14 22 33*** 20 11 13 35* 25* 3 19 8 4 9 Ufilov 172 14 20* 27** 26* 17* 9 27 32 3 20 10 6 10 valtellina 172 18* 13 29* 23* 16 10 21* 42* 2 17 4 8 11 Josh 172 18* 19 21** 24 21 15 20 34* 2 15 9 10 12 Pablita 169 19 18 21* 27* 13* 10 30** 31 1 17 9 12 13 maestro 166 20 15 20 24* 13 13* 28** 33* 2 18 6 4 14 africaboy 160 15 20* 17 18* 19* 11 32* 28* 2 17 5 6 15 MCMXC 160 16* 22* 15** 20 17 13 22 35*   18 1 10 16 Émile028293 145 17 16 17 19 23 9 17 27 1 16 13 6 17 vlad 134 17** 17 11* 15* 14 14 23* 23   12 10 7 18 Vinicius Vaz 132 17* 14 11 17 7* 16 27*** 23   12 6 4 19 pedja789 128 17 10* 10* 18* 15* 17* 16 25 1 13 9 5 20 PakoNatxo 118 8** 13 18** 9* 14 18 21 17   10 6 3 21 SteveParker 113 11** 5* 17* 10* 13 20 12 25 1 12 8 5 22 OlympicsFan 102 11 13 18 11 8 16 13 12 1 10 7 5 23 rybak 92 3 13 14** 12 4 12** 11 23*   7 5 6  
01: February 11th - Day 1
02: February 12th - Day 2
03: February 13th - Day 3
04: February 14th - Day 4
05: February 15th -  Day 5
06: February 16th - Day 6
07: February 17th - Day 7
08: February 18th - Day 8

Fixed!

Thank you very much