She stands a pretty good chance of winning
(Useful phrases for the Olympics)

    It's August now and the Athens Olympics will be starting in less than a week. Japan has some fine athletes like Ryoko Tani (judo) and Kosuke Kitajima (swimming), and I read somewhere that Japan hopes to win 10 gold medals. Anyway, what do you think of Japan's prospects for the 2004 Olympics? The next section will give you some useful phrases to help you talk about this.

    X stands a pretty good chance

    Let's imagine 4 Japanese athletes who are taking part in the Games:
     
      Ms Sugoi - one of the world's greatest high jumpers.
      Mr Warito - a  sprinter, who has recently won a few international events.
      Ms Mama - a pole-vaulter, who trains hard but has some tough competition.
      Mr Zannen - a swimmer, but not a very good one.

    So, will they be bringing any medals back home? Here's a useful structure we could use:
    • Ms Sugoi stands a very good chance of winning a medal, maybe even the gold medal.
    • With a bit of luck, Mr Warito has quite a good (a reasonable) chance of winning a medal.
    • I'm a bit doubtful about Ms Mama. She has a slight chance of winning a medal, but she has some pretty tough competition.
    • And as for Mr Zannen, sorry but he stands absolutely no chance of winning a medal, as far as I'm concerned.

    Note:
    Please notice the components of this structure:
    1. With chance we can use two verbs: have or stand.
    2. Notice the structure that follows chance: of + verb with ___ing.

    Some other useful phrases

    In the previous section our focus was on this structure:
     ...has/stands a (adjective) chance of ___ ing.
    However, did you also the following phrases in the examples: 
  •         with a bit of luck
  •         I'm a bit doubtful about...
  •         she has some pretty tough competition.
  •         as far as I'm concerned

       Here are some other phrases we could use:
  •         Mr Warito could be in with a chance of a medal.
  •         Ms Mama might win a medal, but I don't think much of her chances.
  •         Ms Mama might manage a bronze, but certainly nothing higher than that.
  •         I don't think Mr Zannen will even make it through the heats. (heats = 予選).

    Suggestion for practice

    Get together with some of your friends and use the structures above to talk about the prospects of some of the following athletes and teams:

    Ryoko Tani, Shingo Suetsugu, Koji Murofushi, Naoko Sakamoto, Kosuke Kitajima, Ai Fukuhara, Kyoko Hamaguchi, the men and women's soccer teams, the volleyball team, the synchronized swimmers etc.

    If you agree with your friends, you can say, "Yes, I think so, too."
    If you disagree, you can say, "Oh, come on! You're joking!"
    If you're not sure whether you disagree or not, you can say something like this:

        A:  I think Ryoko Tani stands a very good chance of winning a gold medal.
        B:  I'm not so sure. I mean, she still hasn't recovered from that foot injury.
        A:  Yes, I know, but she's determined to win.

    Anyway, I do hope that Ryoko Tani will be able to show her usual courage and determination and get the gold. Gambare, Yawara-chan!!
    We hope you'll enjoy the Olympics and that you'll get the chance to practise talking about them in English.       

    Click here if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons.

    © Robert E. Jones, 2004