The Yorkshire Post's Nick Westby looks at the leading candidates from Yorkshire for medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics - here are the first five ...
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00:00Let's go with our first five for the moment, and we'll start off with Yasmin Harper, who
00:11is in the diving, and she's in the pool on Saturday, yeah?
00:15Yeah, she kicks off the entire Olympics, really. We could have an Olympic medal by 12 o'clock
00:23Saturday lunchtime, and it could be an athlete from Yorkshire. Yasmin is not actually from
00:28Yorkshire, she's from Chester, but she's moved over here a long time ago when she was just
00:33before her teenage years. She's been a City of Sheffield Diving Club member for 10 years
00:38now, and she heads over to Paris in the three-metre synchro with Scarlett Mew-Jensen and the three-metre
00:45individual, which happens in the second week of the Olympics. But they've got a really
00:50good chance of Mew-Jensen and Harper in the three-metre synchro on Saturday. They've won
00:59World Championship silver medal and World Championship bronze medal in the last two
01:03world championships over the last 18 months. I've spoken to their coach for a piece that's
01:08going in Saturday, Yorkshire Post. He really thinks it's between them, Australia, and the
01:14United States for the silver and bronze medals. China, obviously very strong in the diving.
01:19They're going to be hard to beat for that gold medal. But I wouldn't be surprised if we've got a
01:24Yorkshire athlete kicking us off on the medal table as early as Saturday, 12 o'clock.
01:29OK, great stuff. We're going to stay in the pool for the moment. Max Litchfield from Pontefract,
01:35400-metre individual medley. He's in action first up on Sunday, is that right?
01:41That's right, yeah. He's Sunday morning in the individual heat and then into the final on Sunday
01:47night. This is the only event he's qualified for. This is his third Games. He can count himself very
01:53unlucky, can Max. He finished fourth in Rio. That was a surprise, fourth place. Then he finished
01:58fourth again in Tokyo by a matter of millimetres, milliseconds really. So he couldn't have got
02:07closer to an Olympic medal. Hopefully, finally, this is the year that he does it. He comes in
02:13a lot stronger form than he has been in the past. He won a silver medal out in Doha in the World
02:17Championships in February. That's the first time he's gotten on the podium at a major meet like
02:24that. And he won the British title in April in a British record time in the 400 IM to book his
02:31place in Paris. So of all the uplifting stories, I think if Max can get a medal on Sunday night,
02:38that would be absolutely superb.
02:42Somebody moving on to our third athlete, somebody who already has an Olympic gold medal,
02:47well known obviously to people from the Leeds area, Tom Pidcock. He goes in two events,
02:53mountain bike on Monday, I believe, and the road race later on in the week.
02:59Yeah, it's Tom Pidcock. He's our new sporting superstar for my money. He's an absolute
03:07winning machine. He loves winning. He'd be one of these, you know, Max Litchfield would snap your
03:12hand off for a bronze medal. If you put a bronze medal around Tom Pidcock's neck, he's likely to
03:16throw it back in the guy's face who's just put it around his neck. He lives for winning. He won
03:21the mountain bike Olympic title three years ago in Turkey. I remember interviewing him straight
03:26afterwards and he said, I never realised how much an Olympic medal would mean to me.
03:30So ever since then, he has targeted the mountain bike and road race double in Paris. Now for his
03:39favourite in the mountain bike, he's nowhere near favourite in the road race, which comes just
03:45five days later on Saturday. So, you know, definitely for the mountain bike, he's a long
03:51shot for the road race, but I won't put it past him. Certainly not. It's all about how he recovers
03:57between the two races. But in terms of a, you know, a Yorkshire superstar,
04:04you're really looking at Tom Pidcock now as our number one.
04:08Well, moving inside briefly, looking at the next, well, there's two here. You've slightly cheated.
04:14I've cheated a little.
04:15Two guys from Leeds Gymnastics Club are going to be in the men's team final on Monday.
04:23Sorry, Harry Hepworth and Luke Whitehouse. Just a quick explanation of why you fancied them
04:29delivering medals.
04:31Well, Saturday's a big day for those guys. It's the qualifying for the team final and all the
04:36individual apparatus final that follows in the two weeks after that. But the team final is the
04:41big one. It's Max Whitlock's final Olympic Games. This is his fourth Games and his last one. He's
04:47already announced that. So he's the figurehead, but Luke is obviously going to be in the final.
04:52But Luke is only 22 from Halifax. Harry is 20 from Leeds. They're both longstanding Leeds
04:58Gymnastics Club members. Fantastic for that club having two athletes going to the Games.
05:03Monday night's a big one in the Bursley Arena. The team final, always a good chance there. And I
05:10think I wouldn't be surprised if Great Britain snuck a gold medal, snuck a bronze medal rather
05:17than that. And then hopefully, you never know, Luke is two-time European champion on the floor.
05:22So he's got a good chance of qualifying for that final and getting a medal. And
05:28Harry is very good at vaults and rings. So I think we've got to have one or two medals there.
05:33OK, moving back outside, Georgie Brayshaw, 30. She's from Leeds. She's in the Women's Squad
05:40Schools, which I think starts on Wednesday, yeah?
05:43Well, the final is on Wednesday. The heats are Saturday morning. Georgie is the one and only
05:51Yorkshire athlete that we've got in the rowing. When you think back to all the big names we've
05:57had in rowing, Debbie Flood, Andy Hodge down the years. Georgie from Leeds, very much a late starter
06:05to rowing. She's 31, I think she is now. But she was a horse rider in her youth and
06:13had a horse riding accident at 15. Nearly paralysed her, but she's fought her way back.
06:19Amazing story, really. Started taking rowing seriously at university and then when she joined
06:27Leeds Rowing Club. So a real strong candidate for a medal. They go in as European champions as well.
06:34So a team to beat and a team I expect,
06:37including Georgie Brayshaw, to be on the podium come Wednesday afternoon.