Winter Olympics Betting: Brit Watch Day 12

Britwatch / Dan Fitch / 24 February 2010 / Leave a comment

I'd say that Chemmy would have been more successful if she'd spent more time lying down, but it's bound to be miscontrued.

All this British failure has got to Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch, to the extent that he has turned to a native success story that we can always fall back upon - The Beatles.

Now we’ve even been let down by these guys. If only we could find a winter event where the competitors could have a kip, we’d be knee deep in gold.

"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away..." So sang Paul McCartney and that was years before he met the one-legged ice skater Heather Mills.

Yesterday, all my troubles (ie. what to write about) seemed pretty far away, though I should have known better. I was full of medal hopes yesterday, but like McCartney's post Beatles project Wings, our British athletes were always destined to disappoint.

Steve Cram has faced his share of Olympic disappointment during his athletics career, but surely nothing has stung quite as bad, as watching his beloved women's curling team being defeated by Canada and therefore fail to make the semis.

The men's team also lost to Norway yesterday and now face a play off against the Swedish team that beat them in the opening game, to make the semi finals.

As the winner will have to play Canada in the semis (another nation that GB have already lost to) it's easy to think that British chances of gold are doomed anyway, but if you are of a particularly sunny disposition, we are still available at [6.2] to take the top prize.

Another event we had our hoped pinned upon was the women's Bobsleigh, but by the halfway mark, Nicola Minichello and Gillian Cooke are in tenth, while Paula Walker and Kelly Thomas are eleventh. You can now get odds of [200.0] on a British gold.

Let's face it. During the summer Olympics we win the odd medal on the track, but the bulk of our loot comes from events where the Brits are sat down on something, whether it's a bike, horse or canoe.

The Winter Olympics are no different. We know that we're not going to win anything in events that involve our athletes using their legs to move about on, so we concentrate on events where we can just stand around (curling), or even better, lie down (bobsleigh).

Now we've even been let down by these guys. If only we could find a winter event where the competitors could have a kip, we'd be knee deep in gold.

So you can forgive me for not feeling that optimistic about our chances in the women's giant slalom today, where Brtitain's Chemmy Alcott will be stood upright on her hind legs. The Chemster's remote chances are reflected in a price of [120.0] for her to win gold and [24.0] to win a medal.

Still, I guess that if Heather Mills can appear on Dancing On Ice, there's hope for the plucky British spirit yet. Come back tomorrow for another stoic Brit Watch.

Tags: chemmy alcott, great britain bobsleigh, great britain olympics, men's curling team, vancouver betting, winter olympics betting