Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelekin
My process is more logical. Sure, it would be fantastic if every Canadian won gold. But the average purveyor of the sport who shows up once every four years, and in general, I do not hear the sentiment of "well, good enough". What I am saying is that I am realistic and I watch world cup events of some of these sports, and so when I know a team rarely makes it to the podium, the odds are against them to make it to the podium. Furthermore to what you are saying, unlike in a lot of other countries, the average Canadian doesn't pay attention to what happens in those four years. No one is demanding of World Championship victories. How can one expect Olympians to medal if they do not expect them to be on the same pace during the rest of the time?
So for me, personally, I'd love to see us pump crazy amounts of money into sport and recreation and have world champions in everything. But I am someone who enjoys the sport regardless, and when I know a Canadian team is ranked 8th, I can go into the event going "well, if they do better than that, it's a huge improvement" and can also hope that they further improve in the World Cups to be competitive at the next Olympics.
|
And I guess that's where we differ - you have, in my opinion, a very standard Canadian view of sports. It's not one that very successful nations share. I think it needs to change. Sure, the Olympics bring viewers who watch the sports only every four years - but that doesn't mean we shouldn't expect better results all the time. I don't think expecting better results is exclusive to the Olympics. It's just one of the few times these sports are televised for the average Canadian.
In any case - it doesn't really matter. They had a good event but should have been better in the final run. They had run better before so it's not like the fourth run was representative of the best they can do. I don't think it's unreasonable to want the best run every time. I know there are tons of factors in sport (any sport) that impact an athlete's performance but those are the things we need to work on.