Quote:
Originally Posted by The Ditch
There was a dick CBC reporter interviewing the Canadian kayaker after his race. He ended up in 6th and she was leading him into really stupid questions that put him down, such as "How does it feel to train so hard and only get 6th". He actually kept his composure quite well but her final question was something like "How did you train for this leading up to the Olympics" and he said "My funding was cut leading up to the Olympics so I didn't get to go to any of the events every other country did, I had to make do training at home".
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Sounds like excuses to me. You realize that athletes in most countries get almost zero funding... I mean, look at a lot of these little African, Latin American, and Asian countries that seem to do well relative to their size. Many of those athletes get little support from their governments. Personally, I would love to see a level playing field where a country's wealth and ability to spend doesn't affect how many medals a country can win.
Honestly, does winning medals at the Olympics really make a big difference to the average citizen? I don't think it changes our lives at all one way or the other. For the people directly involved, maybe, but not for most of us.
Personally, I think there is a lot to be said for a country that can get past something superficial like piling up medals.