[ritchiebaby]

Well, after all the doubts and hype, the Beijing Winter Olympics finally start on 2nd February 2022. Just ignore the official date of 4th February for the Opening Ceremony with the Mixed Doubles Curling and the Luge Practice Sessions starting 2 days earlier.

There are a couple of websites giving excellent information, the succinct BBC Day-by-day Guide - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/60111409 - and the Official Winter Olympics site which is more like War And Peace than Mills and Boon https://olympics.com/en/beijing-2022/ . Having said that the official website gives you full details of all the events and all the athletes, as well as a whole load of guff about "Together For A Shared Future", legacy, purity and the like.

Team GB is represented by the following 50 athletes plus 2 nominated reserves:-
Alpine skiing
Billy Major, Dave Ryding, Charlie Guest, Alex Tilley
Bobsleigh
Brad Hall, Nick Gleeson, Greg Cackett, Taylor Lawrence, Ben Simons (reserve), Mica McNeill, Montell Douglas, Adele Nicoll (reserve)
Cross country skiing
James Clugnet, Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young
Curling
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Ross Whyte, Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff, Mili Smith
Figure skating
Natasha McKay, Lilah Fear, Lewis Gibson
Freestyle skiing
Lloyd Wallace, Leonie Gerken-Schofield, Makayla Gerken-Schofield, Will Feneley, Ollie Davies, Gus Kenworthy, Zoe Atkin, James Woods, Izzy Atkin, Kirsty Muir, Katie Summerhayes
Luge
Rupert Staudinger
Speed skating
Kathryn Thomson, Farrell Treacy, Niall Treacy, Cornelius Kersten, Ellia Smeding
Skeleton
Laura Deas, Brogan Crowley, Matt Weston, Marcus Wyatt
Snowboarding
Huw Nightingale, Charlotte Bankes, Katie Ormerod

Eve Muirhead, Gus Kenworthy, Izzy Atkins and Laura Deas have all won Olympic medals already, so a few more wouldn't go amiss. I've bravely (stupidly) predicted GB would win 9 medals at these Games and I've a good feeling about doing it, as we're on the up in Winter Sports.

There is blanket coverage of the events from 12 midnight Wednesday/Thursday lasting all morning on the Eurosport channels. The BBC will ravenously devour a scrap or two thrown away by the media giants. Ppplease sir, I want some more? MORE!!! (in a Brian Blessed voice). You know the rest.

Anyway, there will be more to come from me over the weekend, so bate your breath and gast your flabbers for further revelations. 

[Lord Snooty]

Nice one, ritchiebaby.

I noticed Dave Ryding won a downhill the other day. Is he a contender?

Otherwise are we hoping for the usual Skeleton and Curling medals?

[ritchiebaby]

It's brave/stupid enough to predict 9 medals, but to name the winners? That is definitely stupid. However, never afraid of being wrong, here goes.

We could definitely win 2 of them in the 3 curling events - Mixed Doubles and Men's. The Women are good enough, but suffer occasional lapses, which you can't afford to do at this level.

I'd put Dave Ryding, Andrew Musgrave and perhaps James Clugnet as potential medallists in the Traditional Skiing events, alongwith Zoe Atkin, Izzy Atkin, James Woods and Katie Summerhayes in Freestyle Skiing.

Brad Hall's 4-man Bobsleigh team must also have a slim chance to get a podium place. And also, featuring in the Hanging-on-for-dear-life Skeleton event, we have Laura Deas who could repeat her success 4 years ago.

As a World Cup winner, Charlotte Banks could do well in the Snowboarding, along with Katie Ormerod if she has recovered sufficiently from her various injuries. They're both good enough and taking risks in their events can bring huge rewards (or broken bones).

So that's 13 possibles and, allowing for the usual disappointments, 9 is definitely achievable. Fingers crossed.

[ritchiebaby]

Confirmation today that Izzy Atkins has withdrawn from the Freestyle Skiing Big Air event, but is atill planning to take part in the Slopestyle. As she is still recovering from a broken pelvis, this will depend on medical advice from the team doctors.

Eurosport 1 will be showing live coverage of the Mixed Doubles Curling on Wednesday 2 February at 12 noon when GB play against Sweden, with loads of repeats (highlights) later in the day. At 01.00 on Thursday 3 February the 2nd games take place and features GB v Canada. From then on Eurosport seem ta have continuous coverage of various events - Curling, Alpine Skiing, Ice Hockey and Freestyle Skiing - both live and highlights. I would imagine the 24 hour coverage will continue right through the Games, eventually featuring all the sports.


Here's what all the effort is for and in the vain hope that somebody might be interested in the history behind the design, I have copied the following from the Olympic website.

The Beijing 2022 medals - named "Tong Xin", meaning "together as one" - are composed of five rings and a centre; the design is based on Chinese ancient jade concentric circle pendants with the five rings representing the Olympic spirit to bring people together and the splendour of the Olympic Winter Games being shared all over the world.
The five Olympic rings are engraved in the centre on the front of the medals and the words “XXIV Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022” are engraved around it, surrounded by ice, snow and cloud patterns. On the back, the emblem of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 is placed in the centre with the full Chinese name of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games（北京2022年第24届冬季奥林匹克运动会) engraved around it. Also on its back is the name of the medal event, engraved on the outermost ring. The ring is concave, which echoes the traditional jade pendant design.

[ritchiebaby]

Happy New Year to you all - all donations in a plain red envelope welcomed. This is the Year Of The Tiger denoting bravery, courage and strength, great characteristics for all Olympic champions to call on.


Here are the Team GB Mixed Doubles Team of Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat who are the current World Champions at this discipline.

They, Canada, Norway and Switzerland will probably be favourites to be the Semi-finalists on Monday, but it's a slippery game.

Team GB start against Sweden tomorrow, followed by Canada and Switzerland on Thursday, making it a difficult opening to their campaign.

[ritchiebaby]

A good start for GB with a hard-fought win over Sweden by 9-5, greatly helped by a strong finish, winning the last 3 ends. Both Norway and Switzerland went down to 1 shot defeats in the same session

[ritchiebaby]

I should have spotted tha unusual fact that the Norway v Czech Republic game, which the bouncing Czechs won 7-6 after an extra end, featured 2 married couples. Playing for Czech Republc were Zuzana Paulova and Tomas Paul, which should have meant something to me, but I have a valid excuse for not recognising a party married couple when I see one with Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten representing Norway.

I should also add that GB won their game when an open take-out with Sweden's last stone saw a complete miss from Almida de Val to give GB the win. A successful take-out would have forced an extra end. There seems to have been a lot of nerves from all the teams in their opening games.

[ritchiebaby]

I am currently watching GB v Switzerland in their 3rd game on the BBC Sport website, where GB scored 1 shot in the 1st end with last stone. It also seems to be on BBC RB1 on the telly. GB had earlier beat Canada 6-4 after the opposition failed to take full advantage of last stone. GB have just lost 3 shots in the 2nd end to give the Swiss pair a distinct advantage.

The Olympic coverage on BBC 1 and 2 seems to start just after midnight on Saturday morning right through until late afternoon/early evening that night and every day thereafter. There is also a highlights programme at 7pm each evening.

There is also news of 55 positive Covid cases in the various Olympic bubbles - no further details yet.

I'll add that BBC 1 is showing live coverage of the Opening Ceremony at 11.30 until 14.15 tomorrow.

---

At the halfway break GB are 3-6 down, Switzerland having 2 counts of 3. I'm off curling soon, but I'll report back tonight.

[ritchiebaby]

GB rallied with 3 shots in the 7th end, to tie the game at 7 shots each, but lost the last end by a single shot. Jen Dodds' last stone draw finished a few inches short, meaning Switzerland didn't need to play their last stone. Tomorrow GB play qualifiers Australia at 05.35. The Figure Skating Team Event also starts tomorrow at 01.55, but without any GB interest.

In the Mixed Doubles on Saturday GB play Czech Republic and Italy. Saturday also sees Medal Events in Biathlon, Cross-country Skiing, Freestyle Skiing, Short-track Speed Skating, Ski Jumping and Speed Skating. Qualifying events in Snowboard Slopestyle feature Katie Ormerod; Will Feneley in Moguls; Kathryn Thomson, Farrell and Niall Treacy in Short-track; and Rupert Staudinger in Luge:

GB's flagbearers for the Opening Ceremony tomorrow will be Dave Ryding and Eve Muirhead, both competing in their 4th Winter Olympics.


Apparently there are now 232 positive Covid cases in the Olympic bubbles, including some medal favourite athletes, but thankfully none of them come from Team GB.

[ritchiebaby]

GB overcame a spirited Aussie fightback to win 9-8 after an extra end decider. GB were 6-1 ahead after 4 ends but lost 3 shots in the 5th end and 2 shots in the 6th end to leave the game tied. 2 shots for either team led to the extra end and last stone for GB, which was not needed. That leaves GB with 3 wins and 1 defeat so far, sitting 2nd in the table with Canada behind surprise leaders Italy. Both Norway and Switzerland have a lot to do now with only 1 win from 4 games.

For my sins, I have 3 curling games today, so there will be no posts from me tonight.