As we gear up for the first day of the Tokyo Paralympics starting in just a couple of hours (*excited squeal*), I’ve finally found time to look back at my predictions for the Olympics earlier this summer. And yes, I know they finished a couple of weeks ago – sadly real life got in the way of things and I’ve not been able to get around to looking at all the results until now!
Below is a table showcasing quite how terribly I did! I’ve recorded both predictions I got spot on, as well as tracking those I predicted to medal, but got the colour wrong.
If my maths is correct (never a guarantee), I have a correct prediction rate of just under 1 in 4 – or 25% if you prefer. If you look at the partially correct predictions, that comes to around 53%.
Breaking the predictions down further, it is perhaps unsurprising that Athletics and Swimming were among the better events for my predictions. They are two of the Olympic sports I follow closest generally. More surprisingly is the fact that I did reasonably well in Weightlifting and Wrestling. These are two sports, it is fair to say, that I don’t follow quite so much!
All in all, I’m pretty satisfied with that, especially given the inherent uncertainty of this current pandemic world.
Looking at British predictions for a second, I predicted 18 of our medals correctly, and another 27 that they would medal but the wrong colour. To blow my own trumpet for a second, that compares favourably to the last pre-game predictions from Gracenote, who are the prediction firm often quoted in newspapers and the like. They predicted 14 GB medals correctly and 20 more partially correct.
Finally, listed below are what I’m calling “perfect podium predictions” – these are the 15 events that I predicted the entire podium correctly. Something of an eclectic mix!
- Artistic Swimming – Duet
- Artistic Swimming – Team
- Athletics – M 400m Hurdles
- Athletics – M Shot Put
- Athletics – W 400m Hurdles
- Canoeing – M K4 500m
- Canoeing – W K4 500m
- Cycling – M Team Sprint
- Equestrian – Team Dressage
- Fencing – W Team Sabre
- Skateboarding – W Park
- Swimming – W 800m Free
- Swimming – M 200m Back
- Water Polo – Women
- Weightlifting – W 87kg
Ian's World Of Sports 