Good day in Athens

[Kidder]

Well Canada is finally rounding into shape after a solid showing today at the games.

Van Koeverdan won a gold in the K1 500 m, and was followed with a bronze medal won by Brunet in the womens K1 500m.

The Sailing team also picked up a silver.

This already is our best day of the Olympics picking up three medals (1G 1S 1B) and gold medal hopeful Alexander Despatie advancing to the 10 M platform diving finals tonight in first place.

Our running total is now 12 (3G 6S 3B) with 1 day left in the olympics and a few more realistic chances of medals.

Can Canada better there total of 14 medals in Sydney? Any predictions? I think it's going to be tough, but I could definetely see them matching there total from last year, still a step back IMO though.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I think it's most appropriate that we get a gold medal in Canoe. That's karma, eh?

I was really pulling for Alison Sydor to Medal, she's only had one good outing in an Olympic event, and would like to see her bookend her career with a medal of some sort.

[kipperiggy]

I can see Canada at least tying our total from Sydney. Hopefully we can better it, I think that that would be a special bonus considering the rest of the Olympics for us (oh so many fourths )

[calgaryred]

I see a tie or one less than Sydney. I'm happy to see Canada with 3 gold medals at least. I was afraid for awhile this nation was going to get a goose eggs!

[Mango]

Alexander Despatie finished fourth in the diving final. Three of his five dives were outstanding and he missed two of them.

I'm not sure if anyone else watched, but the two men from China were outstanding. I thought they would place one and two, but the final dive by the Aussie received 5(? or 6?) 10s.

Outstanding!

[JayP]

We have two wrestlers in the semi-finals tomorrow so there's a chance we tie our medal count from Sydney. When you consider the amount of 4th (we had tons of these) and 5th places finishes it's not that bad of an Olympics for Canada.

[browna]

Who needs a Navy when we're mastering the open waters in Greece?

Total suprise (thanks to CBC focusing on other stuff) regarding the Star Class sailing medal.

Good job for those on the water....if not for below avergae (for themselves, nevermind in the biggest event of theie lives) performances by swimmers, rowers, and some of the other week 1 athletes, we'd be closer to 20 IMO.

All the best to Igali and his Canadian teammate tomorrow in their (hopefully 3) matches.

[Crazy Flamer]

How many did we have in Sydney? 16?

[JayP]

Originally posted by Crazy Flamer@Aug 29 2004, 01:09 AM
How many did we have in Sydney? 16?

14

[lucid]

Not a bad day at all.

It would have been better, of course, with Despatie pulling through in diving. man, was the kid even down in his interview with Radio-Canada. The Chinese divers are incredible... that must be some intense training they do. More rip entries from them than from the rest of the field combined almost! The Aussie was surprised with his 2nd place finish; he must've assumed a 1-2 finish for the Chinese as well.

I was thrilled to see van Koeverden do well. What a great race! He's the future. Not only the future of canoe/kayak as a young 22 year old with many years ahead of him, but he also has that desire to compete to win. It's time we (as Canadians) shed the mentality that seems to breed mediocrity rather than champions: the goal shouldn't just be to participate or to qualify. You race/compete to win. I think it could lead to quite an improvement in canadian sporting results if we start moving in the direction that van Koeverden is a proponent of.

There have been a lot of firsts in these Olympics (canoe, gymnastics, women's wrestling, etc.) Hopefully we can build on that!

[icarus]

The Canadian contingent is smaller in Athens than it was in Sydney. If we get another medal I say we've already done better than Sydney. Not to mention three golds in Sydney, three (so far) in Athens.

Just think how many more medals we would have had if the Little Blue Cow hadn't tested positive for steroids in her milk.

[octothorp]

Originally posted by icarus@Aug 28 2004, 09:44 PM
The Canadian contingent is smaller in Athens than it was in Sydney. If we get another medal I say we've already done better than Sydney. Not to mention three golds in Sydney, three (so far) in Athens.

Well, part of the reason we had fewer athletes is that athletics Canada chose to use a stricter qualifying mark than the Olympic standard. We had lots of athletes that qualified to compete, but whom athletics Canada decided not to send because they weren't legitimate threats to make the finals in their events.

[monty_]

Doesn't it seem that the Candaian athletes who are world champions, don't do as well in the Olympics? ala Perdita Felicien, Alexandre Despatie, Emelie Heymans, etc. And the athletes who sort of fly under the radar do really well- Adam Van Koeverden, Kyle Shewfelt, etc...too much pressure on our medal favourite athletes? I think so...especially on Alex Despatie, considering the kid is only 19.

[browna]

Originally posted by monty_@Aug 29 2004, 03:11 PM
Doesn't it seem that the Candaian athletes who are world champions, don't do as well in the Olympics? ala Perdita Felicien, Alexandre Despatie, Emelie Heymans, etc. And the athletes who sort of fly under the radar do really well- Adam Van Koeverden, Kyle Shewfelt, etc...too much pressure on our medal favourite athletes? I think so...especially on Alex Despatie, considering the kid is only 19.

Well, the spotlight goes from black to incredibly bright in the 2 weeks every 4 years, when the Canadian media does their research and try and figure out who is going to do well. Some of them pretend to be experts for 2 weeks.

Stricter standards are good IMO.

Most world championships are not televised here...if so, its usually a week late etc. These athletes have to go from total obscurity in Canada, to all sorts of media requests from Canadian media. That in itself is tough to have to deal with as a new experience.