Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
Canadian atheletes are now being paid for their medals as well ($20k for gold and $15k for silver IIRC). So far it hasn't cost a lot, but at the same time the incentives are there.
I too get very tired of watching failure after failure. The fact is that the funding is starting to come through...but it will take at least 4 years for that to matter.
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I get tired of people ragging on these athletes who owe the average person nothing. Infact, unless you attend some of these events or watch them any other time then the olympics I think you have no right to complain about performance.
Fact is, these athletes work harder to get to this level then 90% of the population could even imagine.....training as hard as they do while working jobs to afford to go to event like these means they are working 80 hours a week just to make ends meet.
Canada is improving its abysmal funding system but its not enough to see a dramatic increase. The system needs to fund these people more then just for olympic medals. In every one of the medal leading countries the majority of the athletes are not working jobs to support themselves and can just focus on training. Its expensive for the government and tax payers but I'd rather see that happen then money being thrown into useless programs or rebates.
As far as i'm concerned i'm happy if they are out there setting new pb's and national records. The medals would be nice, but be realistic....unless funding reaches levels of other countries on a consistent basis, raising expectations isn't fair.