Olympic Superpowers That Have More Medals Than Canada...

[Festus]

That is to say, more than zero, as of the end of Day Five:

Mongolia
Slovenia
Vietnam
Armenia
Belarus
Indonesia
Chinese Taipei
Tajikistan
Kyrgystan
Uzbekistan

and....(drumroll)...Togo!

[Festus]

Sorry, posted this on the wrong thread by accident.

[Ozy_Flame]

I just keep thinking about a gold medal for the men's hockey team in 2010, and I take a sigh of relief.

[FlamesAddiction]

And Croatia!

Seriously though, it is always like this for Canada at the beginning, and then it seems like we pile them on near the end. A lot of the sports we're good at are also ones that seem to drag out or start late.

Track hasn't even started yet, and we usually do well there (although a lot of our talent is not home grown, at least in past years).

[Phaneuf]

Add India as well. Big population that sucks in the olympics.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Really, Canada doesn't have a medal yet?
I hadn't heard.

Oh and by the way, did you hear Brett Farve wants to play football again?
And I think I heard something about polution in Beijing, can you fill me in on that?
And keep an eye on the Michael Phelps guy, I heard he's a pretty good swimmer, I'll bet he even wins a medal or two.

[The Ditch]

How embarrassing. Instead of giving the CBC a billion dollars a year of taxpayer money we could give them 500 million and give the other 500 million towards sponsorship and funding for our athletes. Oh I know I know, everyone is going to miss that latest episode of Little Mosque on the Prairie.

[The Ditch]

There was a dick CBC reporter interviewing the Canadian kayaker after his race. He ended up in 6th and she was leading him into really stupid questions that put him down, such as "How does it feel to train so hard and only get 6th". He actually kept his composure quite well but her final question was something like "How did you train for this leading up to the Olympics" and he said "My funding was cut leading up to the Olympics so I didn't get to go to any of the events every other country did, I had to make do training at home".

[Festus]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

....he said "My funding was cut leading up to the Olympics so I didn't get to go to any of the events every other country did, I had to make do training at home".

Incredibly revealing quote.

[Ford Prefect]

We should start an over/under pool on how many medals Canada is going to get compared to the last couple of Olympics. Canada won 12 medals in Athens and 14 in Barcelona or where ever it was in 2000. So that's an average of 13 medals. I say we fail to hit double digits this time ... I'm thinking 8 if we're lucky. Usually Canada has contending athletes in the pool, in boxing and in gymnastics. Not so this year and that's going to cut into our medal total a lot. We'll get a few in rowing, maybe a couple in cycling, and a couple we don't expect. Maybe something in diving. Am I missing anything? Is synchronized swimming still in the Olympics?

[Ozy_Flame]

On another note, I read a CBC article the other day that said the Canadian Boxing Association (I think that's the title) has seen their funding cut from $800k to $440k over the last 20 years.

How are we even supposed to produce athletes with financial atrocities like that? No wonder Adam Trupish was waxed in his first fight.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by The Ditch

There was a dick CBC reporter interviewing the Canadian kayaker after his race. He ended up in 6th and she was leading him into really stupid questions that put him down, such as "How does it feel to train so hard and only get 6th". He actually kept his composure quite well but her final question was something like "How did you train for this leading up to the Olympics" and he said "My funding was cut leading up to the Olympics so I didn't get to go to any of the events every other country did, I had to make do training at home".

Sounds like excuses to me. You realize that athletes in most countries get almost zero funding... I mean, look at a lot of these little African, Latin American, and Asian countries that seem to do well relative to their size. Many of those athletes get little support from their governments. Personally, I would love to see a level playing field where a country's wealth and ability to spend doesn't affect how many medals a country can win.

Honestly, does winning medals at the Olympics really make a big difference to the average citizen? I don't think it changes our lives at all one way or the other. For the people directly involved, maybe, but not for most of us.

Personally, I think there is a lot to be said for a country that can get past something superficial like piling up medals.

[Ford Prefect]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

On another note, I read a CBC article the other day that said the Canadian Boxing Association (I think that's the title) has seen their funding cut from $800k to $440k over the last 20 years.

How are we even supposed to produce athletes with financial atrocities like that? No wonder Adam Trupish was waxed in his first fight.

No kidding, and little wonder he's our only boxer at the games as well. All of the funding is getting funneled to the winter athletes so Canada can do well in 2010. That's not fair to the summer Olympic athletes.

[Ironhorse]

How does that commercial go again that's on right now?

At the start of one of the Olympic events, hearing the athlete's thoughts in their head as a voice over whilst they await the start signal:

International Athlete #1: I'm going to win.

International Athlete #2: I'm going to win.

International Athlete #3: I'm going to win.

Canadian Athlete: I hope I can re-mortgage my house, and convince my coach to work for free.



Sad state of affairs...

[The Ditch]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Sounds like excuses to me. You realize that athletes in most countries get almost zero funding... I mean, look at a lot of these little African, Latin American, and Asian countries that seem to do well relative to their size. Many of those athletes get no support from their governments. Personally, I would love to see a level playing field where a country's wealth and ability to spend doesn't affect how many medals a country can win.

Honestly, does winning medals at the Olympics really make a big difference to the average citizen? I don't think it changes our lives at all one way or the other. For the people directly involved, maybe, but not for most of us.

Personally, I think there is a lot to be said for a country that can get past something superficial like piling up medals.

Do you have any articles stating what countries do and don't get funding, I was under the impression that actually many countries did get funding and also payments if they medalled(sp?).

It obviously doesn't mean anything to you but sometimes I feel in a country like Canada where very few people seem to have national pride; as in I see way more people claiming they are whatever heritage their parents or grandparents were it would be nice to see everyone come together. I always get blown away when I go to the ol USA and see them waving the flag and taking national anthems serious.

I think there also would be economic benefits if we put more money into developing our athletes. Building training centers, getting athletes from other countries to train at our centers, maybe encourage kids to join sports when they see Canadians winning medals in certain areas.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Ironhorse

Canadian Athlete: I hope I can re-mortgage my house, and convince my coach to work for free.

Which is what most of us would have to do if we wanted to take time away from our jobs to travel the world and make our hobbies a lifestyle.

I find it funny how socialist many people become when it comes to supporting athletes. Bunch of pinkos!

It's also worth mentioning that as one of the richest and most industrialized countries, Canadian athletes have an opportunity for private sponsorship that doesn't exist in most countries.

I would bet that if you looked at total funding - private and public, that Canadian athletes do alright. I would love to see stats on how much total funding athletes from all countries get compared to how many medals they win.

[Ozy_Flame]

BTW, it's not the government's decision to fund athletes; it's the people's decision to do so. We always bandwagon jump during the actual games when we don't perform, but pay little attention to the issues for 3 years and 50 weeks straight.

Want to see our athletes win more? Become less apathetic towards low government funding and corporate sponsorship by lobbying the piss out of them during the pre and post Olympic periods.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Personally, I think there is a lot to be said for a country that can get past something superficial like piling up medals.

Especially medals in BS sports that hardly anyone cares about when there's not an Olympics. "Ooooo we are falling behind the rest of the world because our women's sychronized divers are not competitive with the Chinese!" or "damn our national pride should be zero because our rhythmic gymnastics team blows."

[Muta]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Which is what most of us would have to do if we wanted to take time away from our jobs to travel the world and make our hobbies a lifestyle.

What you suggested isn't actually as hard as you may think.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Especially medals in BS sports that hardly anyone cares about when there's not an Olympics. "Ooooo we are falling behind the rest of the world because our women's sychronized divers are not competitive with the Chinese!" or "damn our national pride should be zero because our rhythmic gymnastics team blows."

So then why does it seem like the rest of the world is trying to field the best competitors they can, and are actually winning medals in the process? Maybe we know something the rest of the world doesn't.

If we can't even field a winning team in 'BS sports', how the hell are we supposed to be taken seriously right from the get-go? Surely these sports would be the ones most easy to train for, and win at.