Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda
And don't forget how badly progressive countries like Canada, USA, Britain, and Australia have dominated women's sports in general for the last few decades. It is simply more acceptable for girls to take up sports in these nations and they have more opportunities to do so, but that's finally starting to change
Hell the men's game has actually seemed to regress over the last decade. For 3 of the last 4 Olympics we're going to see one of Canada or the US in the gold medal game, and it's only because of silly pool selections that's preventing them from both getting there again. Countries like Russia and the Czech Republic are shadows of what they once were, so really it's a 3 horse race when you put Sweden in with Finland as a dark horse
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Some of that is true, but the gap is closer than you might think. Just because the USA and Canada are able to win in elimination situations does not mean they're truly that dominate (neither are the other "elite" nations). I mean we're just coming off a game where Canada barely been the Latvians. Now I know the Swiss played Canada tough on the women's side, but that really was just a freak occurrence. There is definitely a pattern of actual competitive balance in the men's game, mostly because of the better structure and planning that go into each countries programs. We've seen pretty much every country pull off a major upset, or at least come close to one. The Swiss have become a formidable opposition, Slovenia beat the Czech's this year, and even Latvia (who beat the US a few years back) played Canada tough. Part of that is because they have a guy like Ted Nolan behind the bench, just like Canada and the US has real coaches for their women teams.
There is a vast difference between the men's and women's games, just because Canada and the US find ways to pull through in eliminations games does not mean the gap is that big. The competitive balance on one side is just fine, meanwhile on the other side it's just not there, nor is the landscape changing.