Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Australia managed to do all that, with a smaller population.
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Yes, but Australia is helped with a year round Summer climate which allows for their athletes to train year round. It's a lot more difficult for Canadian athletes who need to either find indoor training facilities or move down south to find proper training.
Although I do quite agree that Canada needs to find a way to be more competitive. We aren't even competitive in some of the major events (athletics, swimming, most of the team sports) in any discipline. Meanwhile the US has serious medal contenders in essentially every event. Population is a part of that of course, but we still should put up better results than we have shown thus far.
Even beyond just the medal account how many Canadians were serious medal contenders in the first 3 days? Really only the divers, who actually had a disappointing final dive, and would have won the Silver if they had hit their expected maneuver.
Another issue is that are only top athletes are for the most part women, who win out in sports that only so many countries bother competing in (like mountain biking, tampoline or wrestling). Not to sound sexist, but it's quite a bit easier to win medals in those fringe events than sports like swimming, track, or gymnastics.
Remember when Donovan Bailey won the gold in 1996? I really wish we could have historical victories like that every year; I would consider that one of the top 5 greatest moments in Canadian sports history.