The U.S. system is flawed too. Popular sports like gymnastics and basketball get much more corporate funding than a sport like fencing. As someone mentioned, I'd bet medals can be correlated a bit to overall spending and amount of training. China spends billions on their athletes, while most other countries don't.

If Canada plucked kids out of school at 3 years old and forced them to train for the next 10-15 years for an event with no regard for anything else and under intense funding, they'd win medals like that too.

Lets also not forget that countries like China cheat too about age, which is something that Canada wouldn't do.

can't blame the canadians... it's too cold for working out up there

I kinda like us flying under the radar, I don't need Olympic glory to give me a sense of national pride :)

Winning medals is about having the right person peaking at the right time, or a super-athlete as is the case with Phelps and Lance Armstrong who both clearly have 3 lungs.

I believe Canada is doing much better than we did in 2004, and I'm proud of everyone who gets to compete and represent our country.

Olympic athletes have a tendency to be great ambassadors and diplomats during and after they've competed, and obviously have amazing drive and determination. They're generally grade A people.

Also a great number of them hold down a job and take care of their family AND are good enough to compete amongst the world's best. Good for them!

Besides, the olympics isn't for you, it's for the athletes.

I would be ashamed in general to be canadian

dont worry i'm sure the canadians would be ashamed to have you too :1orglaugh

Most of that is generated privately as well. That's why some schools have much larger football budgets, for example, then others. They are good at raising money.

Are you saying Canadian schools don't have athletic programs?

Also to note, the school programs don't really kick in until about seventh-grade or so. If kids younger than that are being highly athletic and training hard, it's mainly due to parents and other community-based teams, not schools.

I'm talking university which is where a lot of these kids flourish. We have programs too but they are not as competitive and we don't get credit or encouraged really to play sports in university which I think makes a big difference. Football is a different beast because schools actually make money off those teams.

So you are saying that Canadians are not as athletic as the aussies?

Hardly!

The main difference is the care and attention given to amateur athletes. In Canada they are ignored, starved, maintain full-time jobs and are expected to reach the podium every time or else the critics begin chime.
In Aussieland they are better taken care of, much better.


I liken this to our national anthem: nobody can sing from memory, yet all state they are proud Canadians. Our athletes go through the same thing: they are ignored/unknown most of the time.

Another day of failure

I will correct myself on one thing I said earlier, that being that Canadian Olympic athletes aren't incentivised like those of the US, China, etc. That has changed in recent years, and apparently now our athletes are offered $20k for each gold they win.

Also, they do have corporate sponsorship, just not to the degree that US athletes see. One of our swimmers, Hayden I believe, was told he would get a sixty-thousand dollar SUV if he won a medal (any medal) in one of his events, from his sponsor. (he failed though, sadly for him)

We're obviously not doing enough though. But I haven't given up hope as there are still a huge amount of events yet to come.... track, indoor cycling, rowing finals, marathon, etc. Something's got to give. :D

Fail update:

Shot-put http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id...=topStory_main

in 4th place by 1cm, then fouls on his last attempt. Fail.

Medals per person, how about golds per person? And you cant compare like that agaisnt china, much of their population is in poverty, it would be like saying oh theres a billion people in india they should do good at the olympics, not when 95% of them live in tin huts.

Fact is there are 35million people in canada and you have not won a single medal so far, Togo, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and a whole load of other countries that are war torn or in an economic mess have even managed that, 85% of canadians are useless FACT.

LOL..... 100% agree!!!!

Brazilians says just the same thing!!!!

It amazes me to see that Brazil is currently better ranked than you guys.

And everybody is complaining about our performance down here, with 4 bonzes so far.

why would we compare golds per person ?
poor people can't run as fast ?

because china spent 100 times more on their atheletes ?

not sure what you are trying to say ?

everyone is quite concerned i'm sure lol. maybe its because we spend our time on things that matter, like education.

good for them ..

gee that makes alot of sense. canada hasn't won a medal thus 85%? of canadians are useless ? ok then :1orglaugh

Just because you say "FACT" at the end doesn't make it reality, it just makes you ignorant at math ( go figure ).

might be because they have 6 times the population , so for every 1 medal canada gets brazil must get 6 in order to match

So we still havent picked up a medal? Holy shit we suck at summer sports:1orglaugh

So 6 times 0, brazil got there work cut out.

100 ashamed Canucks

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