[GGG]

Originally Posted by trackercowe

In all fairness while the Dutch may dominate speed-skating today that does not mean other countries don't put crap loads of money into their speed-skating programs, in an effort to be contenders. In the past many other nations have put up positive results, just four years ago the Dutch had 7 medals, while Canada and the Koreans had 5, the US had 4, and a few other countries had 3. The Dutch have 103 medals all time, but prior to this year there wasn't much separation between the Norwegians with 80, the Americans with 67, the Russians with 72 (including USSR years), and the German nations with 72.

Now the Dutch are absolutely slaughtering other countries this year, but that likely won't continue to happen in the future, at least not with other countries properly funding their programs. Meanwhile in womens hockey it is true that really there are only two contenders, and nothing has changed in 16 years. The only thing that kept the same two teams from making it every single time is one random loss to a lucky Sweden team. Six tournaments in which the same two teams have meddled all six times. It's also not like other countries are getting better, or that they're starting to pump money into their programs either. The Swedes who won the bronze medal four years ago was out shot 70-9 a few days ago! I guess the Swiss made some progress, but who knows if that will even keep up.

The Canadians and Americans are great teams without a doubt, and likely deserve more attention to their games. But to compare it to the Netherlands dominance in speed-skating is nonsensical. There is a reason why womens hockey could be on the chopping block, as just like softball/baseball it doesn't make sense to keep around an event where the results are never going to change every four years. Can you name another event where one or two countries have been that far ahead of the competition for so long? Maybe one could argue mens basketball, but that's a significant money maker for the IOC with all the huge NBA stars taking part, I am not sure the same can be said for hockey.

Part of the problem is that the US and Canada have pushed each other to get significantly better. So while the other nations of the world have made dramatic improvements the gap is getting wider because the US and Canada have gotten better faster.