G-ann

Bronze! 

BIG day in prospect! Super exciting. Double screens at 6pm!

Somehow I've managed to combine lambing season on my farm with the best Winter Olympics in GB history.
May I just say **** **** **** and also ****

First time EVER we've won multiple Golds at one Winter Games too!!!

I too love winning a semi on Valentine’s Day.
 
However like Treacy I won’t always finish

Hooray! I’m in bits.
 
I bloody love the olympics. 

I rescind my earlier joy for today. Never-mind! On to tomorrow

Curling: Yes
Freestyle Skiing: Yes
Skeleton: 5
Snowboard: Yes
Speed Skating: No
 
What a thrilling lineup to shift the misery of another damp flipping Monday  

I am watching it, be will switch to curling at half one

now have a 100% success rate at the Olympics, long may it continue

Discovery Plus doing the same as Paris for those wondering, £4 a month to get all of the Olympic action. Not bad at all.

The UK won't be building new pools sadly. It would be nice if local government, underfunded by central government in massive debt, stopped closing them. This is an article from 2023:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/mar/12/england-has-lost-almost-400-swimming-pools-since-2010
 

As much as it’d be nice I would rather we continue the Jack of all trades approach just in case disaster happened in that one sport. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c990yd94j7eo
 
These sportsmen and women are tough cookies.

England (for which read GB, obviously) are ranked 6th in the world in Men's Lacross and 3rd in the world in Women's. They are the top European side in both, and their closest European rivals are, Italy aside, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The 6th place ranking also includes the Haudenosaunee who I hope are included as USA 2, but not convinced.
 
Which is a long winded way of saying I'm pretty confident GBR can qualify for both men's and women's across, and will be at least competitive for a medal.
 
Cricket speaks for itself, obviously, and the only issue is how small the field is (6 teams). Clearly the host will want in, India and Australia are certain, that only leaves three spots on men's side. I'm imagining short regional tournaments for the last three places - possibly West (Americas, Africa, Europe) and East (Asia-Pacific), with one winner from each qualifying, and possibly next two in each going to a final IOC qualifier - So England, South Africa, Jamaica, Guyana, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and possibly two 'qualifiers' in West, and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, UAE, Afghanistan, New Zealand + 2 in the East. You might end up with South Africa and Pakistan Qualifying, and a final Qualifier tournament of England, Jamaica, New Zealand and Afghanistan...
 
6 teams is REALLY too small for cricket, eight would have worked better
 
In flag football (dear sweet jesus) GB are the number 4 ranked women's team, and top European behind three North American teams. That looks a good bet.
In the men's however, they only lie 15th.
 
Finally in baseball/softball, both GB sides are actually pretty decent, but might struggle to qualify in a small field.
 
And in squash, obviously, while not the dominant power, British players are well represented in the rankings of both men's and women's
 
 
I am managing my grief on an hour-to-hour basis about breaking. I may have watched the clips of 'B-Girl Raygun' attempting to clean the floor with her head  while crying with laughter more often than is entirely healthy.

Olympics: British Olympic chiefs target men's football side at LA 2028 - BBC Sport

A positive little post games noise, but i've heard this one before, we can but hope

I think both are important.
 
Like, I'm not going to criticise Australia and the Netherlands for being delighted with their gold figures in Paris. They should be rightly proud.
 
Equally, I think we should be rightly proud of our overall performance, especially in terms of total medals.
 
Other countries can be proud of their first medal, or in some cases their first final. There's not a limit to happiness!
 
 
In related news, I'm pleased with the comments coming out of UK Sport, looking at both their own website and the Beeb story about the athletes coming back from the Games. I still hope that they (and the various sports) have the sensible tough discussions that all good governance should have but also that a "win at all costs" mentality is not necessarily conducive to healthy environments.

I’d like to thank whoever made this visual representation of the medal related strife: Instagram Reel

Personal schedule: 

First round 
1140 go to refresh forum out of habit
1141 remember Olympics is over 
1142 sadness 
 
repeat hourly until paralympics 

1. Pidcock, too many emotional mood swings in one race, rollercoaster
 
2. Toby Roberts
 
3. The womens, i wanna say quad, inching out the netherlands for gold
 
Honourable mentions: Keeley and Bryony golds, KJT finally getting a medal, and yee

1. Pidcock's comeback
2. Yee's Comeback
3. Keely finally getting gold

1. Everything about Tom Pidcock's mountain biking
 
2. The artistic swimming, both the performance and the reaction.
 
3. Megan Keith epitomising the Olympic spirit in the 10000m.

1. Alex Yees comeback in the Triathlon
2. Keelys Athletics Win 
3. Andy Murray fighting to the bitter end in the Mens Doubles

1) Alex Yee - My favourite Team GB gold of the games. Thinking he was out of it, them cutting away from the action and then as soon as they cut back he was right behind Wilde. Amazing.
 
2) Toby Roberts - I love anytime we get gold in a new sport, shows we are a jack of all trades team and don’t just rely on one or two sports to soak up all the medals. *coughjudoandwrestlingcough* 
 
3) Andy Murray, enough said. I got a new found respect for Dan Evans these games. 

Went to get in my car for the first time in 17 days this morning, battery was dead *sigh*