Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
How many realistic medal opportunities have been blown at this point?
I don't follow any of these sports so I'm not the one to answer that question. I have heard several times that most of Canada's best chances to medal are in the second week. There's definitely too many people who look on CBC and see 0 medals for Canada and then just make noise. If Canada was only expected to get 1 or 2 medals at this point is it really that much of a disappointment?
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I had a list several pages back of how many medals I thought Canada should be able to win and how many they had an outside shot at winning. My definition is that a 'should' is someone who, on a good day, is top three in the world. An outside shot is someone who, on a great day and with others having off days, is one of the top three in the world.
Hayden fits into the latter category. He would have had to swim the race of his life to medal in the finals, so at best he was a medal longshot. It's certainly not a failure on par with the men's eights rowing or Perdita Felicien at the last Olympics. The men's synchro diving is another I'd put into that category of long-shots. Beyond them though, I wouldn't have listed any of the Canadian athletes to compete so far to be even long-shots.
Expected to medal:
Karine Sergerie in Taekwando
Karen Cockburn in Trampoline
Adam van Koeverden in 500 and 1000 Kayak
Marie Helen Premont in Mountain Biking
Men's Eights in rowing
- qualified for final
Alexandre Despatie in 3m platform
Longshots:
Sebastien Michaud -Taekwondo
Tonya Verbeek -wrestling
Gary Reed -800m
Mark Oldershaw -canoing
Women's softball team -
2-0
Samantha Cools - BMX
Men's synchro diving -
no medal
Blythe Hartley - diving
Cameron and Kok - rowing -
qualified for semifinal
Frandsen and Calder - rowing
- qualified for final
Women's eights - rowing
- qualified for final
Chris Cook - sailing -
4th through 6 races
Brent Hayden -
no medal
Chris Brown - swimming*
Synchro swim team
Simon Whitfield - triathalon
*not on my medal radar previously