Quote:
Originally Posted by mmanzz
The recent improvements of Australia, UK , and China have a lot to do with targeting of specific events that are winnable. For example Men's swimming seems to be dominated by the US and a couple of other countries, long distance and middle distances are won by Africans, soccer and basketball are a complete waste of time! Unless we plan to recruit specific people to win those events(it seemed like everyone in the middle to long distance races has their own group of Kenyon runners), its best to leave them aside.
Their are sports that are intrinsically Canadian like rowing and kayaking where we should pile in the money, and there are a pile of sports that are win-able and should be targeted for heavy funding. It seems like Australia and now GB decided to get good at the cycling events and did so, this appears to be just a matter of proper funding and training.
Finally we need an overall Olympic strategy that takes into consideration the Olympic timetable, we need to get really good at some of the events that occur early in the games. A win or two in the first two days could help the confidence of some of the other athletes. There is no reason why should not be getting 10 gold and 30 medals in the summer games.
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I don't like this approach. There are amateur athletes in all fields in Canada. Should we fund some more than others because their events are "more winnable"?
All events are winnable if you have talented, driven individuals whose training is fostered by committed coaches, sporting bodies, and benefactors.
Re: Australians and swimming. Swimming in Australia is commonplace among young people. Kids growing up near the coast a members of surf clubs which all have swimming programs. It is like being in Scouting. All kids do it, so all kids growing up near a beach here can swim as well as they can walk. Australians do well in swimming not because they target it per se, but because it is part of the culture and so many people do it. My girlfriend used to swim competitively, not because she had any Olympic aspirations or was heavily funded, but just because it is a common thing to do and she had a lot of friends doing it. In an environment like that it is not hard to imagine a lot of Olympic-quality swimmers emerging; Australia doesn't necessarily need to target swimming as an area in which to rack up a bunch of medals.
It is like kids in Canada growing up playing hockey or figure skating at their local rinks or rec centres.
I can't comment on Australians targetting cycling medals though, I guess that could be the case.