Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sailor's Gold Medals put Team GB third at Olympics

Yesterday's promise was today's gold, with two sailing medals to add to Team GB's total, putting us a rather amazing third. As its probably not going to last I did the following screen grab:


Today was a complete contrast to yesterday - strong winds and big waves must have made a nice change from the calm of Saturday. I did see a couple of articles complaining about the selection of Qingdao for the sailing events as being unable to guarantee wind, but to be realistic is the south coast of the UK going to be any different in 2012?

This summer we've had just that type of range of weather conditions within 24 hours - plus the tidal streams around Weymouth will add another interesting twist to the competition.

There's a couple of nice videos on the BBC's Olympics sailing page here.

The Olympics have been an interesting pointer to the benefits of internet TV: while I'm sure there is some sailing on broadcast TV (especially given the photogenic nature of our Yngling trio) it can require patience.

Video over the internet however lets you choose directly the sport and clips of interest, and on the BBC site all for free. This in general is a very good thing and hopefully a sign of things to come, especially the free bit.

And the gold medals should also raise the profile of the sport in the UK and guarantee continual support heading towards 2012.

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