More Olympic predictions

So, on from the medal picks to the far more important business of the outfits.

Chances are that many countries will not stray too far from their usual kit: New Zealand is blessed with classic, slimming black, while Denmark have their apparently never-changing red with white stripes (which is, frankly, a little old). Admittedly, some do have little to work with, such as the red and livid green of Hungary; Lithuania has a similarly unforgiving palette.

A Swedish lycra in black with a blue and yellow sash made a welcome appearance at a round of the World Cup, while elsewhere in Scandinavia Norway has been channelling eighties adidas in its red stripes with a white ground on a black body. The Italians, in the somewhat unforgiving shiny pale blue of the House of Savoy, have also gone retro, with the lightweights really working the seventies roller-disco look, complete with white knee-socks.

Canada and Switzerland have both turned out athletes in characteristically efficient style, their red and white nicely crisp, while Australia have been pushing the boat out a little, debuting their directional military-green half-zip in the World Cup series.

The US have great potential, as shown by the excellent suits at the 2006 World Championships (even if the lettering peeled off before the finals), and despite a poor showing at the non-Olympic Worlds, I think the stars and stripes will be ones to watch. Great Britain, with the same colourway, are not even in the hunt: the team kit was previewed in the press, but they shouldn't have bothered as the designers clearly didn't.

My money, however, is on the Netherlands. Their orange, white and silver kit in Athens - complete with a sketched tulip in orange on the back - was a triumph. Don't be fooled by their uber-simple non-Olympic kit: the future's orange.