[ritchiebaby]

Not long to go now - the Winter Olympics starts on 4th February and ends on 22nd February. I'll be posting intermittently throughout, totally depending on family and curling commitments. For lots of useless information try https://www.olympics.com/en/milano-cortina-2026. During the Games the BBC Sport website https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports is usually pretty good.

The full list of Team GB members for the Winter Olympics are

Curling
Bruce Mouat (men’s team and mixed team).
Grant Hardie (men’s team).
Hammy McMillan Jr (men’s team).
Bobby Lammie (men’s team).
Kyle Waddell (men’s team).
Rebecca Morrison (women’s team).
Sophie Jackson (women’s team).
Sophie Sinclair (women’s team).
Jennifer Dodds (women’s team and mixed team).
Fay Henderson (women’s team).

Skeleton
Matt Weston.
Marcus Wyatt.
Amelia Coltman.
Freya Tarbit.
Tabby Stoecker.

Bobsleigh
Brad Hall (two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh).
Taylor Lawrence (two-man bobsleigh and four-man bobsleigh).
Leon Greenwood (four-man bobsleigh).
Greg Cackett (four-man bobsleigh).
Adele Nicoll (monobob and two-woman bobsleigh).
Ashleigh Nelson (two-woman bobsleigh).
Travelling Reserves are Alex Cartagena (four-man bobsleigh) and Kya Placide (two-woman bobsleigh)

Park And Pipe
Zoe Atkin (ski halfpipe).
Gus Kenworthy (ski halfpipe).
Liam Richards (ski halfpipe).
Chris McCormick (ski slopestyle and Big Air).
Kirsty Muir (ski slopestyle and Big Air).
Mia Brookes (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).
Maisie Hill (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).
Txema Mazet-Brown (snowboard slopestyle and Big Air).

Alpine Skiing
Billy Major (slalom).
Dave Ryding (slalom). - in his 5th and final Olympics
Laurie Taylor (slalom).

Cross-Country
James Clugnet.
Joe Davies.
Andrew Musgrave.
Anna Pryce.

Snowboard Cross
Charlotte Bankes (individual and team).
Huw Nightingale (individual and team).

Ski Cross
Ollie Davies.

Moguls
Makayla Gerken Schofield.
Mateo Jeannesson.

Figure Skating
Lilah Fear (team event/ice dance).
Lewis Gibson (team event/ice dance).
Phebe Bekker (team event/ice dance).
James Hernandez (team event/ice dance).
Anastasia Vaipan-Law (team event/pairs).
Luke Digby (team event/pairs).
Kristen Spours (team event/women’s singles).
Edward Appleby (team event).

Short Track Speed Skating
Niall Treacy – men’s 500m, 1000m and 1500m.

Speedskating
Ellia Smeding – women’s 1000m and 1500m.

Biathlon
Jacques Jefferies.
Shawna Pendry.

Wee bits and bobs around the world
There are 92 Olympic Committees participating with the unlikeliest being from the United Arab Emirates.
Ex-GB athlete Mica Moore from Welsh Wales is to represent Jamaica in the Monobob (Cool Running strikes again with Jamaica also in the Men's 2-man and 4-man teams in the Bobsleigh).
South African Matt Smith has only been skiing for 2 years and is one of 5 athletes from his home country.
Mariah Carey will perform in the Opening Ceremony (2 days after the first event starts! ) and Snoop Dogg will be an honorary coach for the USA team. Also supporting the USA team will be ICE agents in charge of their security - so expect some protests along the way.

Please feel free (ooh, er, missus) to join in whenever you feel like it. All contributions will be very welcome.

[Lord Snooty]

Amelia's treated us to a Radio Times this week for the Olympic special.

[ritchiebaby]

I know you all get over-excited about the various mascots each time a major sporting event comes around, so contain yourselves for the big reveal. This is Tina (and family) on the left for the Olympics and Milo (and family) on the right for the Paralympics. A couple of stoat(er)s if ever I saw one (or more). Numerous shopping opportunities are available.


And there's the usual guff associated with the promotion of the Games. For example, "This emblem is made up of the number 26 in one single trace, with Milano Cortina 2026 explaining: "Think of the gesture of a child. A simple, spontaneous gesture that comes to life on a misted glass, revealing what is beneath, and tracing the number 26 on the surface. "A journey made of gestures begins: the sign becomes a window revealing colourful sporting and everyday pictures. In a continuous comparison between sporting and daily actions, a story of images accompanies us on a dualistic path allowing us to fully understand the meaning of the logo.""


And the end result will be all about the medals. The usual guff appears here as well, with the "Italian Spirit - vibrant, young and dynamic. Celebrating the power of differences — two unique halves coming together to create a bold, unified statement


On a more practical note, to give you an idea of prices for the events, a hospitality package for the curling varies between 225 Euros for earlier games to 495 Euros for the Gold Medal Games. This gets you a session ticket, access to the lounge (basically an ice rink cafe) and light bites and beverages with memorabilia available. Ticket only prices for the sessions vary between 50 Euros and 150 Euros. Italy is inclined to be expensive, Olympic season will be very expensive, so be prepared.

[Lord Snooty]

'Ow much?!

[ritchiebaby]

The Olympic Mixed Doubles Curling gets underway with the first session at 6.05pm tomorrow. The GBR team of Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds are the 2025 World Silver Medallists and will play Norway. Although the Norwegians have not won medals recently, they are still dangerous opponents.

Bruce and Jennifer's next game is against Estonia on Thursday at 9.05am with another game at 6.05pm that evening against Czechia. Although this is Estonia's first appearance at the Olympics, they were the 2024 World Silver Medallists and will also be dangerous. Czechia have the youngest team in the event and were Qualifiers, so will be keen to prove their worth.

This form of curling usually means that there will be plenty of stones in play and a missed shot can be as crucial in deciding the score as much as a great one.

[Lord Snooty]

Cheers, ritchiebaby. Got it on i-player now.

[ritchiebaby]

Snooty/Amelia - you'll know as well as I do that GBR won 8-6 against Norway when last stone proved decisive. The game against Estonia tomorrow is on BBC2 from 9am, but I can't find any mention of the Czech game on TV. Perhaps the new owners of a Radio Times can throw some light on the matter.

In other news, Txema Mazet-Brown (no, not a spelling error) is in the Men's Snowboard Big Air Qualification Round, where only the Top 12 will progress.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

I do love me some Olympic curling; was glued to every game four years ago when Eve Muirhead led the women to our only gold, and had a pleasant couple of hours this evening watching Mouat and Dodds get off to a cracking start.

And as the proud owner of a Radio Times, I can confirm that they've scheduled the Czech match for the red button at 6 tomorrow too.