1)Skiing - True we may have world class hills but as was said before, we don't have the population by those remote locations. That and the cash. For example. I had a co-worker here in Calgary who's 11 year old kid was in a ski racing program. For one season of lessons, races, equipment, travel etc. they had spent over 10 grand. There is no corporate sponsorship (unlike in a lot of European countries) and all fundraising was done by the group. I could be wrong but I doubt the average family in Canada could foot that kind of yearly bill and heaven forbid that family has more than one kid.
2)Ski Jumping - There was a really good news story on the state of Ski Jumping in canada about a year ago in which they profiled the organiztion and atheletes in Canada and Calgary. They have virtually no money to run the organiztion. It is pretty much all volunteer driven. There is little if any funds to even maintain the facilities they have.
3) Long track speed skating - I wouldn't say this was a failure at all nor do we suck at it. As previously mentioned we have earned a lot of our medals from this sport and consistantly place well at the olympics and world cup.
4) Figure skating - Even if we won more I couldn't stoop that low. The only thing that reminded me it was Men's figure skating when I watched Johnny Wier's performance was that he was wearing pants.... even then I wasn't too sure. I really have a hard time with any purely jugded sport. I appreciate the athleticism but it isn't my cup of tea.
5) CCS - I would think this is actually one of the best stories of the program specifically on the men's side. The men haven't won a medal but have consistantly had all time top Canadian finishes. If nothing else it proves that the programs are headed in the right direction.
|