damn, do the Canadians at least get "participant ribbons" ...?

All our athletes who at least finished in the top 20 of their field recieve complimentary scorpion on a stick.

It's something. :D

Well, given the choice between funding Olympic class athletes or giving that same money to allow under priviledged children the opportunity to play ANY sports growing up, I'll take the latter every time.

When Canada DOES win a medal it probably means more to us as a nation BECAUSE we don't dole out the funding other countries do. The US and China win so regularly most people don't even take notice. Other than Michael Phelps and the two gymnast girls, can any American REALLY (without google or having followed really closely) name another gold medal winner? If WE win a GOLD medal, it'll be on every front page across the country and that person's name will be known from coast to coast by people that don't even follow the Olympics. People will talk about that ONE gold medal more here than any single gold medal in the US. THAT is National pride and I for one don't think that's a bad thing.

Would you be more proud of Canada if we took money away from those kids, gave them to the Olympians so we could compete internationally with the US and China? I wouldn't. I'd be ashamed and embarrassed when they played our national anthem knowing there's a bunch of kids sitting around watching what their parents money went to, instead of them outside playing some sort of organized sport themselves.

Really well said. Agreed completely. :thumbsup:thumbsup

Trust Ronaldo to come prancing in and throw a bucket of sense and reality on the bonfire of ignorance everyone is dancing around.

Damn him, damn him to hell. :D

Public funding of olympic programs is not the answer. Why do we always in Canada assume that there is some kind of trade-off? Why do we always go crying to the government to fix all our problems??

Political will and leadership doesn't mean stealing public money from poor little Johnny so Sally can be a gymnast. The reality is we have a crappy olympic program and our society places very little value in amateur sport (and by value I don't mean public funds.. I mean in attitude). As a society we are content with being Olympic losers because of the very fact that we think it's the government that should fix it and that if there's some inverse relationship between Olympic medals and how much poor people eat. The left in this Country has so many people by the balls you would think there would be an ad that says "Remember, every time a Canadian wins a gold medal, a poor child dies". Such a crock.

Once again, the United States federal government provides ZERO dollars for olympic programs. So, it's a fallacy that there is some bizzaro-world-robin-hood thing going on where the poor are being robbed so that Michael Phelps can break records.

Canadians should invest more in genetic doping research and what not.

lol

Seriously though, I understand what Steve is trying to say, I just think there are more important things in the world than sports.

I've said forever that as a Canadian I envy the patriotism the US has. Walk up and down any street in Canada and if you're lucky you MIGHT find one home with a Canadian flag. Walk down any street in the US and probably every second house has one. That's ALSO National pride. When the US anthem is playing, American's stand proudly. When Canada's is playing, Canadian's are annoyed because it interferes with their beer drinking time. I'm sure it helps that the US anthem is much more stirring than ours. Sorry, but it's true.

At the same time though, while I do envy and RESPECT US patriotism, sometimes it's misguided and many, yes MANY American's take it too far. There's nothing wrong with having pride in your country, but to argue vehemently that YOUR country is the ABSOLUTE best in the entire world is both ridiculous and futile. There are some things about Canada I'm sure I'd like to change, but for the most part wouldn't touch a thing. Talk to a lot of American's and they'll defend with their dying breath why every single thing they do is RIGHT and the BEST thing ever. That's just ignorant. Neither THEY nor anyone else ALWAYS knows best.

Should not be a problem.

Sounds like that is the problem. If your kid isn't a devoted star by the time he hits high school you can pretty much forget it. And high school is stretching it.

I understand your point as well Ronaldo, and I'm certainly not for us diluting the things that make us uniquely Canadian and becoming more americanized than we already are. But there must be some kind of middle ground - I refuse to accept that our "progressive socialism" or whatever you want to call it is mutually exclusive of Olympic performance, it's just a really lame excuse for cracking under the pressure...

LOL :warning

Then where is the money you want for this Olympic program going to come from? Corporate sponsorships? Great. I have no problem with that at all. Just don't raise my taxes.

I'll tell you this though. I believe most Canadians would be more proud of a gold medal won today than by an Olympic program that mass produces contenders and dilutes the personal value. Of course, I almost always root for the underdog.

I think by using the word "program" I'm implying some government program. What I mean is, it doesn't take alot of money to support amateur sport. Kids in this country are so sheltered and are underexposed to sport in general. We don't have manadatory participation in our public schools and we are so blinded by "the big 3" - hockey in the winter and soccer/baseball in the summer - that we miss out on opportunities.

By Olympic "program" I mean creating a culture in this Country that supports amateur sports. I believe the best way to achieve this would be through the education system. Exposure to the whole spectrum of amateur sport should happen in our public schools. From there, the "funding" comes from parents, just like it does for hockey. Who do you think pays for the "traning" of our elite NHL hockey players?? Their parents/family.

Does it take hundreds of millions of dollars to simple educate and inspire kids at a young age about how great amateur sports can be??

As I mentioned before, there may in fact be a net BENEFIT if there was some cost for this education. We publicly fund our healthcare system and more children participating in more sports means a healthier population in the future. Healthier population means lower healthcare costs.

In this Country if you don't excel at hockey, soccer or baseball, you are pretty much discouraged from participating in sports. Hence all the anti-sport attitude you see from Canadians in general.. they can't relate.

Good post and the only thing I disagree with is the anti-sports attitude. I don't think there's an anti-sports attitude at all. Most people I know or associate are very much pro sports. But you're right in the sense that we don't read up on the latest statistics of the local fencing finals. That's not having any interest in it, not being anti-sports. By introducing them to children in school they may have an interest in some of those sports in the future, sure. But you're still gonna find most kids interested in the sports you mentioned plus football and basketball, just because it's not reasonable to expect the neighborhood kids to get together and play archery together.

As much as I'm for children participaction MY big problem, and it may have been something you were somewhat alluding to, is our schools eliminating competition. When I was growing up, you actually got first, second, third and honorable mention ribbons. TODAY, all kids get ribbons of participation out of nothing more than fear of hurting a child's feeling. That to me is ridiculous and does in fact hurt potentially great athletes from improving. If my son joined a peewee football team, I'd expect him to play because I bloody well paid for him to play and not sit on the sidelines all the time. If my son didn't play as MUCH as another kid who was better, I'd tell my son to suck it up and improve. Most parents will just complain that their kid should get equal time just because. THAT eliminates the competition and desire to improve.

How many of us are fit enough to compete in the olympics? Just getting there says a lot

So what, we get all our kids playing sports, then say "sorry kid, you're on your own, I heard burger king was hiring" when they want to get good at it?

I wasn't aware that Canada ever had strong showings in the summer games. I thought they were more of a winter games kinda country.

Strong showing? By strong you mean 25 or 30+ medals? No, not that I can recall. But we have won medals in past Olympics, some very highly prized ones I might add. When Canada takes gold in the summer Olympics in any event it's a big deal here.

actually canada has 3 medals , so that would be 6 times 3, and brazil only has 5 so yes you are correct , in order to catch up to canada, brazil needs 13 more medals just to tie. Canada also has 1 gold , so to catch up brazil needs 6 golds.. good luck..

Congrats to Carol Huynh for the gold

HISTORICAL FACT:

Only 2 times in the modern history of the Olympics the host country hasn't won a GOLD medal: Montreal 1976 (summer games) and Calgary 1988 (Winter games, so its twice as bad since not every country has winter...). The 2 times is Canada. OUCH!

What an interesting thread and I can totally see where you are coming from. From an English POV, we have gone through the kind of soul searching you are experiencing in the past, (especially with our soccer team lol).

Currently, we are having a great Olympics and I would say its meant a definate surge in popularity in the coverage of the games. In the past we have always looked on in envy at the Australian model where they seem to devote a lot of resources to their sports and get more success as a result. This seems to engender a real "feel good factor" for them and I would say its most definately worth doing. On the rare occasion we have got one over them (in the Cricket or Rugby for instance) the impact on the nation is dramatic.

Im not saying that the Olympics will give that same feeling, but its good to be doing well and yes you do feel proud of them.

thats not suprising at all if you know anything about the olympics. They don't host the olympics in shithole countries.

I wonder if perhaps the fact canada has the lowest population of the host countries might have something to do with it. well duh..

In the 1988 winter games you mentioned usa had a total of 6 medals , canada had 4 or 5 i think with 1/10 the population. thus if canada had 5 medals , usa would need 50 medals just to tie canada in terms of population. so i think canada did damn well considering.


p.s. every country has a winter :helpme:1orglaugh

think about it this way , if every medal winner at the olympics took their medals home and shared a tiny piece of them with everyone in the country , CANADIANS would have more than most of the "big" countries like usa,china,japan, russia etc

In that case, we are clobbering China!

Yep... as i posted in another thread..

But then someone else pointed out that my comment about Japan and US being the richest countries doesn't hold true on a per Capita basis.. someone can run those numbers if they want but I've got to say that Australia kicks everyone's ass.

Interesting point of view... but I think you're making a mistake here... I didn't say we suck or I'm ashamed of Canada or anything, I just stated one FACT. Great to know about your explanation, but then again I think it shouldn't be looked at this way. It sounds like an excuse to avoid the actual fact that we didn't get a gold medal... Greece had gold medals, Korea, name it...Just my 2cents...

PS: Oh and you're right every country has winter, but you understood what I meant, not every country has the climate to potentially develop many athletes, enough to hopefully win something...:thumbsup

Relax, Canada is all about winter Olympics. Its like asking Zimbabwe to win medals in winter events. Now when you blow gold medals in Vancouver in men’s hockey, now that will be a fucking riot.. Russian will kick your ass just like they did this May in Quebec City..

did you see them cry in vancouver?

we all had bleeding hearts

i know i was just pointing out another fact, that canada has had the rare op of a very low population country hosting the olympics many times, so it shouldnt be suprising that they didn't get a gold in 2 of them, many countries with higher populations don't get golds , they just don't ever get to host the olympics, especially more than once.

Correct. The only benifit American athletes do have, is that they do get sponsors. Keep in mind that getting a sponsor isn't easy...

Concerning, small countries what about Cuba? With 8 Medals... 1 Gold, 3 Silver, 4 bronze

Ohh.. and Canada is up to Seven medals...

So because you have a winter that means you cant also do well in other sports? And no its not like asking zimbabwe to compete in the winter olympics, because i assume zimbabwe doesnt have a winter, canada has a summer. Canada has a better summer than the UK (who are in 3rd).

Bottom line answer to the original question: No, I am not ashamed of our Olympic performance. At times frustrated, as it's tough seeing so many of our athletes do well and come so close only to be shut out of the medals time and again. A lot of them broke Canadian records and surpassed their personal best, which is terrific but it's frustrating when the Canadian records aren't good enough to come close to or compete with world class times/performances.

Fact is for those atheletes who are underfunded and they still finish top 10 in the world it doesn't take a genius to realize they are running on pure national pride for Canada which drives them to do even that well. And finishing even top 20 in the world for any Olympic event is huge, and obviously more of an achievement then many here realize.

But ashamed? You've got to be fucking joking. I'm anything but ashamed. While people here were crying already on day 4 I remained optimistic for a very good reason... because I've looked at who our athletes are and what many of them were capable of and knew their events were still to come and that we would post a strong showing in them. I knew some medals would come, but even if we hadn't won any medals you've got a group of athletes who have broken dozens of Canadian records, improved dozens more of their personal bests, many who did so in a very short period of time in their chosen sport, and with less funding behind them than athletes from the leading countries.

And argue it any way you want, but you can not train to a level which requires 5, 6, even 8 or more hours a day for years straight, without proper funding. Try working a job to sustain yourself while training for the Olympics. Fuck, that alone is a monumental feat, just getting to that level, and then actually qualifying?

Sorry, anyone who is Canadian and is sitting there feeling ashamed should probably just apply to the US for citizenship and piss off already. We are a small nation, there are more people in the state of California than all of Canada. Yet still in most sports there we are, in the running like a dirty shirt time after time. I will allow myself to be frustrated at times, but never ashamed.

Cheers.

we do well in other sports, thats why we have so many medals.
umm you do realise that parts of canada are under snow all year long, and that the uk has twice the population of canada right.


btw brazil = 5 medals canada = 7 medals :) , brazil only needs 37 medals to catch up to canada in terms of population. :thumbsup good luck

So the uk is covered in rain pretty much 100% of the time there is no summer but there are very cold winters. The olympic table is ranked by golds, whoever has the most golds, you do not have so many golds, you dont even have "so many medals". The uk has less than double canadas population but nearly 6 x the golds.

We've had a second good day so far... With what's coming this week, we just might finish in the top 16 like the original goal was...

I agree our athletes are underfunded. It seems hard for politicians to justify expense in amateur sport with a country that has the tax rate we have, knowing the needs (medical budget are growing, education, etc...)

Top 16 place would be very satisfying.

thats because uk is better, thats why we have the olympics. otherwise we would just hand out medals according to population. lol

Excuse me? The UK doesn't have "very cold" winters at all. Cold yes, but they have no idea what very cold is. For that you have to come to Canada (or go to Russia).

And again I must point out that the games are far from over yet, plenty of medals yet to be won, yet some of you still continue to blather on about 6 times the golds this and not enough medals that. Canada just won two more medals today, a silver and bronze to add to the total. Why not shut the mouth and wait until the thing is over before continuing on with what really amounts to a stupid argument in the first place.

9 medals with possibly more to come is just fine for a country with the size of population and climate Canada has.

Well ok its just a bit of banter, but to point out the rankings are done by golds not total medals, so 9 medals this and that isnt really important. And canadas climate has nothing to do with it either, tell me how canadas climate affects anything?

I was correcting you on the "very cold UK winters" thing, that's all. It wasn't me who brought climate into the discussion. Personally I don't agree that climate is a factor in Canada's so-called "poor showing" at the summer games at all. We have indoor pools in every city, indoor tracks and gym facilities, year-round training facilities for just about any sport you can think of.

But as far as who has cold winters, it's no contest. :D

Maybe someone from the Canadian Olympic squad read over this cause they are doing well now. Tied for 12th overall medal count. Still not very many Golds though.

Doing very well - should've been gold for the men's trampoline. I thought the Canuck beat the Chinese guy's routine.

So did I. Chinese guy should have had a deduction for travelling outside the box.

Canadian guy's routine had a higher level of difficulty and he did it perfectly.

Doing great now - 13 medals and counting! 17th overall when ranking by golds. :thumbsup

The kayaker Van Koeverden is poised win two golds especially after setting a world record in one event yesterday.

And isn't it interesting how Canada is always competitive in rowing type events considering they can only train outdoors for half a year?

Anyways, in terms of medals per population Australia is the most kick-ass summer olympic country.

So we did alright. Everybody feel better now?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Bobsled_Team