[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.