This betting preview was written before news of Lindsay Vonn's shin injury was made public.
Our Andy Schooler has been sifting through the betting markets ahead of the Winter Olympics and here are the bets he's come up with.
MEDAL SPECIALS
Great Britain to win 2-3 medals at 4/5 (William Hill)
Having medal totals of two and three on your side looks the way to go if you want to get involved in the Team GB market. Skeleton slider Shelley Rudman and the men's curling team are both odds-on to medal, while the Brits have a number of other podium 'possibles', including world bobsleigh champions Nicola Minichiello and Gillian Cooke, short-track speed skater Jon Eley, figure skating siblings John and Sinead Kerr and snowboarder Zoe Gillings. The official team target set by UK Sport is three, while a comparison of last year's world-level events showed Team GB won four medals in Olympic disciplines. Rudman, a silver medallist in Turin four years ago, has a fine chance. She has finished in the top four in seven of her eight World Cup races this season and looks a good bet to a top-three finish. The curlers are reigning world champions and are determined to go one better than they did in Turin, where they finished an agonising fourth. They'll need to finish in the top four in the round-robin stage and then one win in two knockout games will secure a medal. Should both of those come in, this bet looks solid and even if one misses out, there's a good chance one of the others will step up to the plate and deliver.
Canada to win more than 29 medals at 9/5 (Sportingbet)
The host nation's official target has been set at 35 with the stated aim of topping the medal table. But backers of this bet won't need them to get anywhere near that tally. Much has been made of home advantage at past Olympics and it's proven that the host nation performs better than otherwise would be expected. To get to our tally of 30, they'll need to win six more than they did in Turin. However, if that seems a lot you need to consider just how much work has been done and cash thrown at Team Canada since. The Canadians' 'Own The Podium' initiative is well known in Vancouver and its chief executive only last week was talking up Canada's chances. Pointing out the team's athletes identified as 'medal possbiles' (done via a stated formula I won't go into) had a conversion rate of 49 per cent at last year's world-level events, he said: "For Vancouver, with more than 60 medal potential podium athletes, we are expecting at least a similar conversion rate." If you are still wary of a team talking the talk, take a neutral view - the US-based Associated Press' predictions have Canada down to win 31 medals.
ALPINE SKIING
Maria Riesch to win the women's super-combined at 5/2 (Paddy Power, Coral)
All the pre-Vancouver talk has been about American Lindsey Vonn, who has dominated the World Cup circuit this year, posting no less than nine wins. However, her media profile appears to have pushed her price for the super-combined event below what it should be. The super-combined sees a downhill run followed by a slalom run, the two times being added together to determine the result. The theory is to find the best all-round skier. World Cup results suggests that skier is Maria Riesch and not Vonn. Riesch is second in the downhill World Cup standings after finishing on the podium in six of her seven races, and leads the way in slalom (four podiums in seven). While Vonn is the the one to beat at downhill (she's favourite for gold in the discipline), she's not so proficient in slalom, where the technical turns should see her lose time to Riesch. That's if she finishes - three times the American has skied out in slalom this season. Vonn's hope will be she's got plenty in hand from the downhill, but given Riesch's performances in that format, that's far from certain. Given both can be backed at 5/2, it's Riesch who looks the value call.
Lindsey Vonn to win women's downhill and super-G double at 3.73/1 (Betfred)
While we don't feel Vonn is worth getting with in the super-combined, she's deservedly a hot favourite in both the downhill and super-G and should be backed for the double. In downhill, Vonn has won five of the six World Cup races this season, while on the Olympic course in Whistler in 2008 she was second, only missing out on victory by 0.01secs. In super-G, the closest discipline to downhill, she's won seven of her last nine World Cup races and also posted victory in last year's World Championships. Betfred are the only firm offering her at odds-against in both events, making the double a 3.73/1 shot. Make them pay.
Manuel Osborne-Paradis to win the men's downhill at 10/1 (Coral)
The Canadian hope has to be worth a punt on his home hill. Osborne-Paradis is a member of the Whistler Ski Club and knows the Dave Murray Downhill run like the back of his hand. Admittedly, the Canadian is a bit all or nothing but when he's on he's very good - note victory in Val Gardena this season and a second place at Wengen. With the home fans behind him, Osborne-Paradis looks to have a good chance of beating some of the more well-known names in the Games' blue-riband event. The double-figure price looks a bit too big.
SPEED SKATING
Shani Davis to win men's 1,000m and 1,500m double at 1.47/1 (Betfred)
Specialist events such as speed skating rarely feature at the bookies so when they do, the layers are more likely to make mistakes. And Betfred appear to be taking too big a chance on laying Shani Davis in the middle-distance speed-skating events in Vancouver. The American, the defending champion at 1,000m, really should win two golds in these races. He's dominated the World Cup season, losing only once over these distances. In the last round just before Christimas, Davis set a new world record over 1,500m - a distance at which he's regularly won races by more than a second, a wide margin in speed-skating terms. Renowned for his focus - Davis had been practising away from the rest of the US team until last week - he should be relied upon to claim two golds. The double pays almost 6/4 at Betfred.
Maria Riesch - has advantage in technique.
