Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Why on earth do we suck so much at certain sports?

Bunk · 02-21-2010, 10:26 AM

I think it comes down to how big a deal sports are in certain countries and the talent pool of elite athletes that are drawn to those sports. Sure some people cross country ski in Canada, but it's not ingrained in the national conciousness like it is in say Norway. As a result, they draw their best from a massively larger pool of athletes and win. Similar for luge for Germany, Speed skating for Netherlands, Alpine skiing for Austrians and the Swiss and so on.

There aren't that many sports in the winter games that garner that kind of stature in Canada with the exception of probably hockey, curling and the free-style events of skiing and snowboarding - all of which we are world leader. The fact that we get a good number of medals and world-class performances across a wide array of the winter sports is very impressive to me. There's very few countries that have a presence or are competitive in say more than half of the winter sports - Canada is one.

02-21-2010, 10:26 AM	#40
Bunk Franchise Player Join Date: Jul 2006 Exp:	I think it comes down to how big a deal sports are in certain countries and the talent pool of elite athletes that are drawn to those sports. Sure some people cross country ski in Canada, but it's not ingrained in the national conciousness like it is in say Norway. As a result, they draw their best from a massively larger pool of athletes and win. Similar for luge for Germany, Speed skating for Netherlands, Alpine skiing for Austrians and the Swiss and so on. There aren't that many sports in the winter games that garner that kind of stature in Canada with the exception of probably hockey, curling and the free-style events of skiing and snowboarding - all of which we are world leader. The fact that we get a good number of medals and world-class performances across a wide array of the winter sports is very impressive to me. There's very few countries that have a presence or are competitive in say more than half of the winter sports - Canada is one.