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Originally Posted by pepper24
Interesting stuff. That 6 medal average is greatly schewed from past Olympics when the Canadians didn't perform well. Every since around the 1998 Olympics the Canadians have taken off. It probably means that from the 1988 Olympics and earlier that we had less than 6 medals on average.
The reason? The Canadians are exceling at new Olympics sports such Curling, ski-cross, snowboard-cross, freestyle skiing, women's hockey, short track speed-skating, skeleton racing etc.
If you take away long-track speed skating (mainly the women), figure skating and women's bobsled what other medals are not new sports?
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That's obviously part of it, but the other big thing that has impacted Canadian medal growth is the legacy of the 88 games. The infrastructure left in place enabled Canada to take on a leading role in a number of sports and helped attract new athletes to various sports. Without the bobsled track in Calgary it's doubtful that the bobsled and skeleton programs are where they are, same goes for the impact of the oval on speed skating. The US is getting similar benefits from the Salt Lake games.