Rooting in My Sleep

Whoah. What happened? I blinked, and the Olympics (at least for the Lasers which is all I really care about) are almost over. Days with no wind. One day with too much wind. Hey, sounds just like any other regatta.

So the medal races are tomorrow, or tonight, or something like that. I'm not staying up till the wee hours of the morning to watch the medal races on the Internet, so it will all be over by the time I wake up tomorrow.

So who to root for in my sleep?

Well the Brit of course. Paul Goodison only needs to come 9th or better in the 10 boat medal race to clinch the gold medal. Should be a piece of cake.

Is it just my imagination or is good old GBR dominating the sailing again at this Olympics?

And then there's a bunch of guys close to each other in contention for the silver. But I'm going to be rooting (while sleeping) for Gustavo Lima of Portugal because...

• he's the only one of the bunch that I've met (though I doubt he remembers our conversation in the line for the BBQ on the beach in Cabarete)
  
  
• he's the only one that I've raced against
  
  
• he's the only one that I've beaten to the windward mark in a race (OK a practice race)
  
  
• I think that my fifteen seconds of minor glory story will be even more dramatic if I can bore folks with the line "did you hear about the day I beat an Olympic silver medalist?"

And then there's the Laser Radials where Anne Tunnicliffe (USA) is assured of some kind of medal and goes into the medal race with a 7 point lead over her nearest rival.

The great thing about being of one nationality (GBR) while living in another country (USA) is that you have twice the chance of being able to support a winner at the Olympics. (Though Tillerwoman with her Australian roots is even better placed to be able to cheer a sailing gold medal winner in any given event.)

Anyway, regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will know that I've been something of an Anna groupie for over two years now with posts such as Anna Wins Gold, Go Anna!, and Anna Wins Gold in China.



But you know what will happen if Mrs Funk (yes Anna married Brad Funk earlier this year) brings home the gold in the Laser Radial class? Thousands of young American women will be inspired to take up Laser Radial sailing and major Laser regattas will be inundated with hordes of nubile young women wearing tight outfits of Lycra and Neoprene and asking for advice on how loose their vangs should be. The prospect for a dirty old Laser geezer like me is enough to make me drool in anticipation.

(Just looking dear, just looking.)

Go Anna!