ok punters, study the form guide, and then put it on the line - do NOT lurk and then say "i told you so’ after the fact
men - whitfield, thompson, rana
women - lindquist, harrop, sears
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Ivan Raña and Ana Burgos
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docherty.
Whitfield, Kemper, Rana
Harrop, Taormina, Hill
Phelps will win 6 gold, two silver. He will not win the 200 fr (thorpe or someone else) and USA will be 2nd to AUS in the 800 fr relay. World records in the 100 and 200 fly, and 200 and 400 IMs.
Whitfield, Douchery, Kemper
Toarmina, Linquist, Savage
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Whitfield, Kemper, Docherty
Harrop, Hill, Taormina.
Docherty, Rana, Don.
Dillon, Lindquist, Harrop.
Whitfield doesn’t stand a chance in this olympics
Men Podium:** **Robertson (AUS) Raña (SPA) Marceau (SUI)
Womens Podium: Harrop (AUS), Taormina (USA), Fernandes (POR)
So Aussies will win both events…
Better yet, here’s the Vegas line on the gold medals. The house will be taking bets (in monopoly money, of course). Place yours now. $2 limit. List of winners and losers published after the Games.
Harrop 8-5
Taormina 2-1
Lindquist 5-1
Hill 7-1
Dittmer 7-1
Seear 10-1
Franzmann 10-1
Fernandes 12-1
Swallow 12-1
Savege 18-1
Burgos 25-1
Hidalgo 30-1
Balance of field 50-1 (you get them all with this bet)
Whitfield 7-2
Rana 4-1
Robertson 9-2
Docherty 6-1
Bennett 8-1
Gaag 10-1
Kemper 12-1
Carter 15-1
Polikarpenko 15-1
Don 18-1
Marceau 20-1
Thompson 25-1
Henning 30-1
Balance of field 50-1
Linquist win, Savege place, Taormina show
Bennett win, Whitfield place, Robertson show $2.00 each play
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OK Lew, I think I will go with
Female
“Balance of Field” I hear that many of the top 10 ranked women are entering Athens with “injuries”. I’ll go with a dark horse.
Men
I really should go with my countryman, Whitfield, but I always liked the way Marceau raced and his breakaway on the bike and lead for 5K of the Sydney run were what triathlon is all about, so I’ll take Olivier Marceau at 20-1.
Sorry, win betting only. To get Lindquist, Taormina, and Harrop to place or show, you’d have to take 1-10 odds - and it would be lower, if not for state law. But this “book” is offering win only wagers.
Swimming I still sort of know so six golds (both IMs and 200 fly and all three relays) and two silvers for Michael Phelps.
Triathlon I still don’t really know, but it would be great if Sheila added a gold in it to her relay gold from Atlanta.
“Whitfield doesn’t stand a chance in this olympics”
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro,
You obviously haven’t done your homework… Yes there are about 5 guys that can win. Whitfield is definitely one of them. A lot of it depends on how the race plays out… But he’s running faster than anybody right now.
Men
Whitfield, Kemper, Bevan
Women
Barb, Harrop, Taromina
Is that the real vegas line or the “Lew line”? If Veg is really taking bets at those numbers, smart money is going to get rich. Sporting bet’s take is below (If I were a betting man, I would be all over Whitfield to show at 5-1 on Sportingbet and Barb to win at 5-1 on Lew’s line. If Lew paid 1/4 to show like sportingbet, I would like Barb to show even better at +125.)
On this event, we are offering 3 places with 1/4 odds.
Men’s Triathlon :
Outrights 
Team To Win Bevan Docherty 5/2 Ivan Rana 3/1 Dimitry Gaag 6/1 Hunter Kemper 8/1 Peter Robertson 10/1 Tim Don 10/1 Rasmus Henning 14/1 Greg Bennett 16/1 Andrew Johns 20/1 Simon Whitfield 20/1 Vladimir Polikarpenko 20/1 Hamish Carter 25/1 Maik Petzold 25/1 Brent McMahon 33/1 Chris Hill 33/1 Olivier Marceau 33/1 Eneko Llanos 50/1 Andreas Raelert 66/1 Daniel Unger 66/1 Javier Rosa 80/1 Martin Krnavek 80/1 Victor Plata 80/1 Filip Ospaly 100/1 Frederic Belaubre 100/1 Hiroyuki Nishiuchi 100/1 Reto Hug 100/1 Vassilis Krommidas 100/1 Conrad Stoltz 250/1 Csaba Kuttor 250/1 Leandro Macedo 250/1 Stefan Poulat 250/1 Andriy Glushchenko 500/1 Daniel Fontana 500/1 Daniel Lee Chi Wo 500/1 Elico Cervantes 500/1 Gilberto Gonzalez 500/1 Juraci Moreira 500/1 Marko Albert 500/1 Norbert Domnik 500/1
It is in fact the “Lew Line”. Not sure who is setting odds for Sporting Bet . . . but any wager on Chris Hill will drop straight to the bottom line. He didn’t even make the Aussie team.
One more note. The secret to long-term success as a professional gambler is to always go with the overlays. At 20-1, Whitifleld leaps out at the serious student; when he’s right, he beats this kind, and after waxing everyone at Du Worlds last weekend, he sure looks on form. But if you want a real dark horse, try Andriy Glushchenko at 500-1; he’s been close in some pretty good fields and he’s still on an upward curve.
I’ll play
Women - lindquist, harrop, taormina… rina hill is my darkhouse. She will not even be on the radar entering T2, but that chick can run and if Lindquist, harrop, taormina for a break on the swim/bike (which is pretty likely) she might run at least one of them down (ala Siri Lindley style).
Men - Docherty, Robertson, rana - much harder to pick this one. The hills will soak the super fast runners and the fastest runner on the day will probably not be the “best” runner, but the “best” biker who saved himself for the run.
Unless I missed it (did he fall again?), Tyler will take the ITT gold.
Men; I belive Rasmus Henning will win. He’s strong enough on both the bike and the run for this type of course.
Women; Pilar Hidalgo
Robertson and Marceau will go away from the pack again on the bike and they will both finish in the podium. Rana will make a remarcable final run, as he normaly does, and will only be able to caught Marceau. Robertson wins 
Whitfield will stay with the pack but will not be able to run as he did in the last Olympics. I’ll be that he will be just outside the top5 
Just like in WC in 2003 (?)
I’m secretly hoping that Tyler Butterfield will make the main pack on the swim and have something special in store for the bike… but maybe that’s just because he lives down the street from me.