Canada's Olympic performance "a disgrace"???

ScottyZ

I just heard Canada's Olympic medal results described as "a disgrace" on TV.

I don't get it. We won more medals per capita than, oh... let's say... the USA.

I think that's at the very least a pretty darn good result.

:canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada: :canada:

ScottyZ

Iron

I've been wondering about the same thing... our population is roughly 1/10th that of the USA, and our medal count is roughly 1/10th of theirs, but I gather they spend more than 10X more than we do on athletic program. Sounds good to me.

stpboy

Olympics and disgrace in the same sentence, thats brutal. How many people can ssay that they have competed at the Olympics? It's like coming back from war for your country and the public calling you or your performance A DISGRACE.

I'm all up for debating about the lack of funding that most Canadian athletics gets but geez...disgrace.

ScottyZ

Iron wrote:

I've been wondering about the same thing... our population is roughly 1/10th that of the USA, and our medal count is roughly 1/10th of theirs, but I gather they spend more than 10X more than we do on athletic program. Sounds good to me.

Oh my head.

Does this mean we should have been expected to win 10,000 medals?



:canada: :canada: :canada: ...

ScottyZ

Big J

I think the "disgrace" or "disappointment" feeling comes from the fact that we didn't take any medals in things that we normally would...first time with with no swimming medals since '64, no track and field medals, no medals in men's wrestling...combine it with stories like gold medal cyclist Lori-Ann Muenzer having to beg other teams for parts and just barely being able to afford to get to the games and Canada looks pretty bad on the world stage.

alex_844

In the last Winter Olympics we were 4th in the medal standings, I think that the Winter Olympics should be our priority as we are eminently more successful in it. If we win 12 medals in the summer we should be proud not ashamed. I'm sure Australia didn't win 12 medals last winter olympics!

Phred

We don't need to increase funding! What we need to do is decrease the number of fat-cats in the bureaucracy of sport in this country. If you DO want to increase funding how about this alternative? Get a group of major chains together (Petro-Canada, Mac's Milk, Tim Horton's, etc) and have them run a loonie for 'lympics campaign. Add a buck to your tab at any participating outlet, and the proceeds go fund our athletes. I fill up 3 times every two weeks, so that would be $78.00 right there. May not sound like much, but how many cars in this country? How many trips for groceries? It would be a cash cow!

Unknown

I've been wondering about the same thing... our population is roughly 1/10th that of the USA, and our medal count is roughly 1/10th of theirs, but I gather they spend more than 10X more than we do on athletic program. Sounds good to me.

Hmmm... I guess they don't factor in implied odds.

Regards,
all_aces

ps: It's OK if you don't get that attempt at humour. I don't either. :eek:

ScottyZ

(Petro-Canada, Mac's Milk, Tim Horton's, etc)

I doubt that an American company (can you spot which one?) would be too interested in supporting the Canadian Olympic movement.

ScottyZ

tpfelt

The per capita argument is good when comparing our population to that of the US, but falls apart when compared with Australia, which has about 2/3rds our population and 4 times the medals.

And I agree that we should focus money on our Winter Olympics team, particularly as we near an Olympic Games hosted here in Canada, but we are not only a 'winter' country. We have just as much summer as winter, and I feel our athletes have just as much to contribute at the summer games as the winter.

I think 'disgrace' is too strong a term to use for our Olympic performance this year, but 'disappointing' is not. Beyond the medal totals, let's just look at the number of people who failed to put up personal best performances at the time they should be peaking. Equally disappointing were the number of world champion athletes who failed to perform up to expectations. Mistakes happen and I know they worked hard, but the curse of the "Canadian choke" still hurts.

And this is not to take away from those who put forth exceptional performances in these games. There were some inspiring performances put on by Canadians this year and I am very proud of our athletes. But I can't help feeling that they would be able to achieve even more given a bit of support.

alex_844

tim hortons still has an interest in "appearing" canadian and participating in canadian programs even though it maybe owned by a big fat cat american corporation now.

ScottyZ

alex_844 wrote:

tim hortons still has an interest in "appearing" canadian and participating in canadian programs even though it maybe owned by a big fat cat american corporation now.

Good point, and I think Tim Horton's is actually doing *extremely* well in selling this image to the public.

I'm continually amazed at how many people think that Tim Horton's is a Canadian company. (Although, to be fair, it once was.)

ScottyZ

djw

ScottyZ wrote:

I doubt that an American company (can you spot which one?) would be too interested in supporting the Canadian Olympic movement.

ScottyZ

Well, Tim Horton's is owned by Wendy's which is american.

American company's do sponsor our olympic athletes though:

http://www.olympic.ca/EN/organization/sponsors/sponsors.shtml

ah well...