Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Big Ben



Wait. It's almost the end of July?  Sailing at the Olympics starts in a few days?  How did that creep up on me so fast?

I need to do some research on who the top sailors in each class are, and who is going to win the medals, and which country will win the most sailing medals. My friends, ace reporters Buff Staysail and Sassi Tweet, who are covering the Games for Team JP, are depending on me.

Let's see. There are boys and girls in 470's, and boys in 49ers and Stars, and boys and girls on windsurfers, and boys and girls on keelboats. It's so confusing. Who are all these people?

Maybe I should just stick to what I know best. Singlehanded boats. The Finn, the Laser and the Laser Radial.

Hmmm.

OK. Call me crazy, but I'm going to stick my neck out and say that Ben Ainslie will win the gold medal in the Finn, thereby confirming his reputation as the greatest Olympic sailor of all time on the planet in the history of the universe.

"But what makes Ben so good?" I hear you ask.

After extensive research (aka as Googling "What makes Ben Ainslie so good?") I see that the BBC has the answer at this link - London 2012. What makes GB sailor Ben Ainslie so good?

Wait. All I get is this message: "Cannot play media. Sorry, this media is not available in your territory. Available to UK users only."

Ah ah. Those Brits are devilishly clever. They are not telling all the world Ben's secrets before the Olympics. Take that you Aussies!

Let's see what the Guardian has to say. They have an article - Ben Ainslie: "There are 12 guys who could beat me to London 2012 gold."

What?  The Guardian reporter rambles on about how good Ben's competition is, how old Ben is, about Ben's bad back, about Ben's bad ankles, etc. etc. etc.

Oh, I get it. This is just a classic piece of disinformation designed to lull Ben's competitors into a false sense of security. These British sailors will stop at nothing to win.

So what does make Ben so good?

Maybe YouTube has the answer.





2 comments:

JP said...

I've got my tickets and am so looking forward to watching Ben sail down in Weymouth.

Of course I can't go down there every day but luckily the team say they've got it covered.

Tillerman said...

That's great. I must admit I've never really been in to sailing as a spectator sport before, but since going to watch the J-Class Yachts last year and the AC45s a few weeks ago in Newport I am a convert. Have fun!

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