Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
In China, a girl that shows gymnastic promise at 7 or 8 will be placed in a special school where they get 30 to 40 hours of practice per week. The child gets free schooling, room, and board.
In Canada, a co-worker has as 9 year old that is doing extremely well at provincial meets. He is paying $12,000 a year so that his daughter can get 20 hours of practice per week. Mostly, that is for facilities and a shared trainer. My co-worker would love to have a private trainer, but that would just be crazy money. He was saying that if you make Team Canada at 14 or 15, then you MIGHT get funding, but before then it is all on the parents. So it is extremely unlikely to see someone from a poor family winning a gold medal in gymnastics for Canada.
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As for whether it is worth it for the Canadian government to put more money into the Olympics - Alex Bauman I think put it best. In a country where there is an epidemic in obesity, where youth obesity is a huge problem, where kids are spending more and more time watching TV and playing video games - there needs to be some kind of celebration of athletic excellence.
Bauman was asking for $1/year/Canadian. That would seem like a small price to pay for the national pride that we get when a Donovan Baily wins a gold medal, or when Silken Laumann wins a silver medal....
Of course the money could be spent elsewhere. Teachers, doctors, etc. But Bauman's argument that there is almost no other way to spend so little money for the benefits of making Canada a leading athletic country...
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Isn't there something like 350 Canadians in this thing? We gotta right up there, per-capita, for athletes representing. Quite frankly, thats a better indication of athletic participation then fewer participants and more medals.
The China girl you mentioned probably is locked in to be a gynmist for life and will have to stay in China and serve in some capacity for the amount of commitment to her training. In China, they are serious about the training and treat the 9 y/o like its a job and will boot camp her to be the best. The Canadian girl can choose any career she wants, participate in other sports if she wants, and any funding thrown her way is in good will and she can choose a different career if she wants. Which do you think is better for Canadian children?
Quite frankly, I don't think another ball throwing or stick throwing facility in Wetaskawin is going to get new-gen Jonny Canuck off his fat fata ass to throw sticks and balls 40 hrs a week instead of playing Halo 4.