There's a lot of reasons for less than competative showings at Olympics for Canada than the US.
1) It's really isn't the top of the heap in terms of priorities. Viewpoints like "I would rather spend money on social spending than olympic athletes" is more common here than in the States. Watching gold medal performances does very little for you if you have to remortgage your house to pay for your heart surgery.
2) The spoils of victory are not on the same magnitude here. Sponsors have an easier time putting money towards elite level US athletes than Canadian ones because a US gold medalist can sell 10x more wheaties than their Canadian counterpart. There's more fame and fortune to be had from being a gold medalist in the US. Somethine extra for those US athletes to shoot for. In Canada as a gold medalist you have a $40,000 cheque (which I'm sure can get spent up on training pretty easily), and a guaranteed interview/appearence with Micheal Landsberg on Off the Record.
3) We do not have a competative attitude towards athletics outside of hockey. Sure the US has its more favored sports, but when you live in a country of 300 million people and the world's largest economy, Americans take the view that regradless of sport or competition they as a nation must be winners or at the very least be a force. In Canada due to our very size we cannot have the same approach and keep our sanity.
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