Canada and the olympics
 

How to you think Canada will to in this years olympic games? and who is your best hope for a medal??

15 medals is my guess. I think Alexandre Depatie in diving his good for one.

I don't see why people say "a country with 30 something million people has GOT to do better than 15 medals"

i mean... that's like the pop of California.

Especially with how athletics canada sucks ass... grr

Perdita Felicien had better win in the hurdles... there can finally be a CLEAN sprinter on the podium

Indeed, thats my best bet right there.

and hopefully we can do better than last time. maybe 20+ medals.

Not with the way amateur sport is funded right now. I heard something like the average canadian olympics athelete is just above the poverty line. Take it with a grain of salt though I ahve no clue where it came from.

Australia has about 20 million people and they finished fourth overall at the last Olympics and are gunning for the same finish this time around. We should win a bag full of medals but never do except in the winter games.

We simply have lacked anythign resembling ambition in this country to be successful at the Olympics.

And I think Felicien will win the hurdles and I hope to God she is clean.

I said this during the last Olympics and I'll say it again. Perhaps our athletes could use more funding, but all the funding in the world isn't going to win a medal.

I think the greatest fundamental change in pursuit for gold, silver or bronze is purely attitude. Take the Americans. Winning a silver medal is almost seen as a failure. That attitude of pushing the limits to the end wins medals.

During the last Olympics one of the mountain bikers I think placed around 126th out of 130. He said he was very happy and that was a personal best. Personal best? Excuse me but if that is the best he could do, what is he doing at the Olympics, and how much funding did he get for his personal best?

Anyways I expect some flamage for these comments. Just for the record, I couldn't give a shit if Canada wins any medals, and that has nothing to do with national pride or patronage.

Here's a link to a CBC story about our olympic athletes and how under funded they are, it's quite a shame when these people sacrifice so much to make their country proud and this is the reality.

http://www.cbc.ca/national/news/athletes/

When you compare the support our athletes get, it's no wonder they can't win more. At the school level we don't support athletics like the US or Aussies or many other nations, and at the elite level out athletes are working full time at the local Becker's to make ends meet and train when they can. Meanwhile athletes in nations serious about sports other than hockey train full time with generous support from their government and private sponsors and are well rewarded for medals.

Yay, a bronze medal in syncro diving. We now have something to be proud of :rolleyes:

Don't worry Canada... You'll always have the Winter Olympics.

Besides, isn't it hard to pratice track and field with snow on the ground? And aren't the pools frozen?

Signed
- Friendly Ignorant American :lol:

Good one Avertt

Too true Averett :)

I'm looking forward to the track events ... and better luck with our athletes.

my prectition are a bit of track, but its still fun to watch!

We're TOTALLY tied with Azerbaijain at the moment! GO good team!

/sarcasm off

See, and I'm one of those guys who DOES think the government should put a bit more money into developing amateur sports.

Either way it seems to be quite a string of bad luck. Disqualified rowers. Pshaw.

Canada's next Olympic gold = sometime in February 2006. :rolleyes:

We're suffering from a lot of bad luck, a lot of inexperience and a lot of poor performances. I think that the rest of Canada should put money into the sporting community as Quebec does. Just think, if Quebec ever does split from the rest of the country we'ld have like 1/4 of the contenders that we have right now. Very sad in my opinion.

Side Note: Anyone else as annoyed with the Air Canada commercials that are aired ... funny for a first laugh, but now they are playing them way to frequently.

Ugh... this is disappointing to no end... My TSN morning email is full of "Canadians disappoint in [insert event here]"

The following article is something I wholeheartly agree with. I don't have a problem increasing monies, but let's get that money to our top prospects. Sure some can argue that this is elitizing the elite, but by my own admission, given the example of the mountain biker, it is a better road to take than being embarrassed, especially for those who attach performance results with national pride.

----------------------------


Putting peddle to medals

Feds, COC to dangle cash in front of Canuck athletes

By MARIA McCLINTOCK, Parliamentary Bureau

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Ottawa...19/589984.html

A NEW plan by Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee will see funding targeted to athletes with the best chances of winning medals in future Olympics, the Sun has learned. The new Sports Review Panel, which is currently being assembled, comes as Canada's performance in Athens continues to disappoint, prompting renewed criticism about the level of funding for the country's elite athletes.

"Their job will eventually be ... to make recommendations to the government, and to the COC and other funding partners, as to where we should be making investments to see the best results," said Alastair Mullin, spokesman for Sports Minister Stephen Owen.

"We're not going to delay on this ... but we're also going ... to ensure we've got something that works. As any Olympic athlete will tell you, false starts are no good. We need to get this right."

AUSSIE TEMPLATE

Mullin said the overall goal of the new panel is "to look at not just 2006, not just 2008, not just 2010 but to grow a sports system, as the Australians have or many other countries have, which will do Canada proud at Olympics after Olympics."

In May, the federal government announced a $30-million, one-time funding boost to Sport Canada's $90-million budget. It won't be known until after the Athens Olympics how that cash will be divided, but it's expected a portion will go to increasing the current $1,100 per month stipend elite athletes receive.

The debate about how Canada can improve its Olympic medal count has been raging for years, in a country where the norm is to spread funding out "equitably" rather than target key sports, as is the case in countries such as Australia.

Now many within Canada's sporting community say the status quo is unacceptable.

"We get what we pay for in Canada," said Robert Bettauer, president of Ontario's Canadian Sports Centre, which offers training support to athletes and gets most of its funding from the federal government.

Bettauer, a former Davis Cup tennis player and two-time Olympic coach, predicted the new approach will also attract more corporate funding.

"What they're looking for is professional management and organization from sport, and if they see that's happening, that will entice more of them to want to get involved."

maria.mcclintock@ott.sunpub.com

I KNOW! For crying out loud... if you're gonna come up with some lame ads, at least make sure you've got enough for a 16 day rotation or your advertising will backfire and people will "know the brand" and hate it even more... Likewise with "The Little Blue Cow" ads, I like the brand, but those are the kind of ads that get to you after a bit, the Visa ones however, no problems, they're quiet, simple and portray the message effectively enough.

My Side Note: I *LOVE* watching the Olympics in HDTV, too bad it's CBS feed, and really, do I need 5.1 Dolby for commentators and such? The signal may be a bit much, but the image is so clear, and it's just... WOW, I love HDTV... I'm really impressed with it.

The prob with that theory is that we're only developing athletes after they're discovered. I know this has been rehashed with rhetoric but where it starts is in the schools. I can NOT speak for now at all (my kids are still too young) but I know that when I was just graduating we couldn't go to track meets because the school could not afford it. And as unlikely as it is, perhaps in my school, a future olympian went undiscovered because we couldn't raise enough to go to track meets or soccer games or so on.

Its an unfair world (IMHO, I know many will disagree) when our kids can't compete if a bake sale fails.

I am so dissapointed at these Olympics I could cry. Nothing against our athletes though- they are terribly under funded. It's just so sad that a country as great as Canada allows our athletes and Olympic performances to suffer so much. I bet those billions of dollars lost in the "sponsorship scaandal" could have helped. We can only hope our rowing teams, our hurdler and remaining divers can pull something out- so that Canada can strive above this 1 bronze medal bullshit.

Has our government heard of a thing called patriotism? We are getting embarrassed. Why do countries like the states win so many medals, sure some could argue it is there population, but the real reason is because of pride. They want to be the best country in the world, and they want other countries to know it. They invest a ton of money into there athletes for international events like this..so the rest of the world respects them. Canada must do the same.
And to whoever says that Canada is not a summer country, have they heard of an indoor pool? We should be able to get just as many medals in the pool as Australia. Or how bout gymnastics, or track. We should be just as good as anyone else.

well 1 bronze and counting... when the olympics are over and we finish with something like 4 medals, i am going to express my anger to athletics canada and whatnot.. :(

Canada got a silver for naked trampoline jumping, acrobatics,.. whatever it is called. Oooops, wrong olympics.

honestly, most of the althetes and coaches were not expecting more than 5 or so medals until week 2, when a lot of the multi-day events and more of our strong contenders kick into high gear

yes, many athletes have been dissapointing, but many other have broken milestones-Canadian records, best canadian finishes in events, etc. which we should all still be proud of, even if it doesn't win us a medal

silver in mens fours rowing damn brits

16 Greece 2 0 1 3
16 Zimbabwe 1 1 1 3
16 Austria 0 3 0 3
16 Spain 0 3 0 3
16 Canada 0 2 1 3
16 North Korea 0 2 1 3
16 Czech Republic 0 1 2 3
16 Denmark 0 0 3 3


We're right up there with Zimbabwe and North Korea now. Go Good guys!!!

What a weak showing so far.

Soooo close ... but still not close enough.
Hey, I'm glad that we are finally getting some hardware, but I'm one of those guys who thinks that if it's not gold, it doesn't matter. However, I do realize that it's quite a feat to get to the level of competition that they are at. Nonetheless, let's bring home some gold.

I wonder if the pathetic results from this Olympics will be a wakeup call that we need to do some overhauls.. get some funding in there, and pay more attention to our athletes.

We win Gold!

Horray for Men's floor gymnastics!

Yes very artistic.

Felicien advances
http://images.tsn.ca/images/stories/...dita_50611.jpg
K, is it just me or am I seeing a camel toe. Anyone else see it?

Kyle had an awesome showing :thumbsup:
It was tough to see Heese & Child losing yesterday though.

I think we are guaranteed a Silver (and hopefully Gold) in Wrestling...

Australia at the Olympics
 

I've noticed a few comparisons with Australia at the Olympics. At Montreal 1976 we won 1 silver and 4 bronze. The Australian Institute of Sport, which is the centrepiece of the Australian sports system, was founded in response to this pathetic showing and Australia's results at the Olympics have continued to improve ever since, except in 1988 in Seoul. This would seem to support the view that putting adequate resources into systematically developing athletes can yield competitive results on the world sporting stage. Australians athletes can't be any more naturally gifted than Canada's and if Canada commits to developing a system similar to Australia's you'll no doubt see the results at future Olympics as well.

Leo from Sydney, Australia

What's interesting about that is that the Australians liked the Canadian bureaucratic model and borrowed heavily from it... The main difference between the two is that the Auzzie throw a lot more money at the issue...

to opine or not to opine....
 

What's NOT helping the Canadian athletes is the deliberate raising of the bar by the Canadian Olympic Committee, requiring higher minimum levels of performance than the Internaional Olympic Committee standards.

from this article (linked),
And, to my amusement, yesterday's CBC viewers' poll was this:
Responses:
My opinion: good thing you're not watching it for Canadian underdogs. They're all watching from home, too. :P


edit: for more cbc polls, check
here.

edit also:

# Country (gold, silver, bronze, Total)
1 United States 21 22 15 58
2 China 22 15 11 48
3 Russia 6 14 17 37
...
17 Sweden 3 0 1 4
17 Turkey 3 0 1 4
17 Thailand 2 0 2 4
17 Canada 1 2 1 4
17 Indonesia 1 1 2 4
17 South Africa 1 1 2 4
17 North Korea 0 3 1 4
17 Croatia 0 2 2 4

Lori-Ann Muenzer scores a gold in track cycling :)

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

Perdita just wiped out... I can only imagine how she must feel.