[Lord Snooty]

Good old Curling!

[ritchiebaby]

I've delayed giving out information on the 4-man Bob competition because I was waiting for something to come up on the Olympic website, but all it says is "not yet started". Well, I know that    as the 1st Heat is timed for Saturday morning at 01.30 followed by Heat 2 later. Heats 3 and 4 are on Sunday starting at 01.30 and hopefully Brad Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence can put up a great showing, having finished 2nd 3 times in the current World Cup season.

[Lord Snooty]

Ooh in't it exciting!

[ritchiebaby]

The GB Men's curling team fell agonisingly short of victory in the Gold/Silver Medal game, eventually losing 4-5 to Sweden after an extra end. Bruce Mouat missed the second half of a double take-out by inches with his last stone, giving Niklas Edin's team the Gold Medal. Still it was an excellent performance from Gb winning a well-deserved Silver Medal.

After Eve Muirhead's dramatic victory over Sweden in a wildly fluctuating game by 12-11, an unlikely scoreline in a top-class game, GB now have to play Japan in the Final tomorrow at 01.05. After getting to bed at 02.30 this morning, I'm certainly not staying up to watch until at least 04.00. I'll be watching at a much more reasonable hour on the i-Player.

Zoe Atkins finished in 9th place in the Women's Freeski Halfpipe after falling in the first 2 runs.

Gus Kenworthy also had a good 3rd run in the Men's Freeski Halfpipe Final, again after 2 falls, the second one an horrendous crash, but only good enough for 8th place.

Oliver Davis was eliminated at the Eighth-final stage in the Men's Ski Cross.

Cornelius Kersten finished in a very good 9th position in the Men's 1000m Speed Skating event, just under a second behind the winner and only 0.31 seconds behind the Bronze Medallist.

Montell Douglas and Mica McNeill had disappointing performances in the first 2 Heats of the 2-woman Bob, but improved in Heats 3 and 4, but still could only manage 17th overall.

In the reduced section, the 40% off Cross-country 50km Mass Start saw an annoyed Andrew Musgrave finish in 12th place.

Brad Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence are certainly in the hunt for a medal in the 4-man Bob, lying in 6th position after Heat 2. They are 0.69 seconds adrift, but only 0.31 seconds behind 3rd position. Heat 3 starts at 01.30 tomorrow morning, followed by Heat 4 for the top 20 sleds at 03.20.

GB have a guaranteed medal in the curling and a medal chance in the 4-man Bob to finish the 2022 Winter Olympics on a high. Go get 'em, GB!

[Lord Snooty]

Well that was worth waking up in the middle of the night for.

Gold for the GB Women.

[ritchiebaby]

Brad Hall, Greg Cackett, Nick Gleeson and Taylor Lawrence competed at their usual high standard in the 4-man Bob, finishing within half a second of the leading time on each run. They held their 6th position on Heats 3 and 4 but the deficit stretched out to 1.42 seconds and 0.63 seconds behind Bronze. Considering they are self-funded after losing Olympic funding after the 2018 games, they have done exceptionally well.

And so on to the brilliant display by GB Women in their curling Final against Japan which they dominated, winning by 10-3 with an end to play. After 4 attempts, Eve Muirhead finally won Olympic Gold along with Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff. While Eve gets all the headlines for being the skip, in my opinion the person who did the most to get them through all the games was Vicky Wright.

I maybe should mention in passing that all the GB Medals won at these Games were won by Scots. Now I'll let it pass, as I'm sure Team GB will be holding a lengthy inquest as to the generally poor showing. As far as I'm concerned, more funding means better performances in general, a lot of it in better equipment and back-up staff, but success is not always guaranteed.

In the Closing Ceremony, Silver Medallist Bruce Mouat was the GB flagbearer. Leaving the lotus blossom behind in Beijing, we move to Cortina in Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics. With any luck I'll still be going strong to give you my thoughts. I won't be around for the Winter Paralympics starting on 4 March in Beijing, but I hope someone will post something to help you along the way.

[Lord Snooty]

Thanks, Ritchie. Been a great Olympics. Hopefully with the next one being in Europe, we'll get to see more of it.
I'm shattered now after watching that live last night or this morning or whenever it was.

[St Charles Owl]

Thanks Ritchie, brilliant posts from yourself. Your wife was right though, there is more to the Olympics than just curling and you covered it all brilliantly.

[ritchiebaby]

Thanks for the kind comments, guys. I wish I had more time to expand my posts a little to include the winners of the various events.

I just hope you got the Lotus Cortina link in my last paragraph, or was I wasting my time?

[Lord Snooty]

Yeah, totally missed that one, Ritchie. I thought Ford made Cortinas anyway.