But do we support/criticize our athletes between olympics?
I know that Australia is a sports mad country and they will follow their swimmers all year round and will be in-tune with what is going on. They realize that the swimming team is in a bit of a decline and are pissed off that they're getting bronze and not gold.
You're bringing up good points but this is a pet peeve of mine. Why does the level of fanaticism a person has for olympic sport matter? Isn't this close to the 'real fan' argument that is so derided on the main boards? I don't set my PVR to record swim meets or track meets in non-Olympic years but I will watch them if I find them and read news stories if they catch my eye. Why do I have more right to criticize than someone else?
These athletes must all know that the only thing many people care about is the Olympics and I am sure most, if not all, of them train as if the Olympics are the most important thing in a four year cycle - which they are. It's the biggest stage there is, and many of these athletes are screwing up. If that's the case, it deserves to be said, especially Brett Hayden, who skipped another event we had 'a chance' in to focus on the one last night. That worked out great.
Not to mention the fact that anyone who has a job in this country is paying for these results, therefore, everyone deserves to criticize in my opinion. We are certainly not getting our money's worth at this point. Like Jiri said, the amount of stories you read/hear about that involve some supposedly world-class athlete completely flubbing their event by far outweigh the pleasant surprises.
As to the swimming results, I think you have to take the actual times with a pretty big grain of salt since setting a world record (!) isn't a big deal at all at these games. The actual rankings are interesting and I agree they are trending in the right direction, but there have been far more disappointments than joys from Team Canada this time around.
All that being said, in the past few Olympics it's taken a long time for Canada to bring home any medals. I just don't remember so many let-downs.
Too many medals are given out in swimming. A hockey player can win one medal after playing about 6 60 minute hockey games. A swimmer can win 8 medals for swimming 4 lengths of the pool 8 times. Too many events. Same for gymnastics and track.
Too many medals are given out in swimming. A hockey player can win one medal after playing about 6 60 minute hockey games. A swimmer can win 8 medals for swimming 4 lengths of the pool 8 times. Too many events. Same for gymnastics and track.
Track and gymnastics I can understand but swimming is ridiculous.
Track give a medal for each distance and gymnastics for each apparatus.
100m is one race. 200m is one race etc.. They don't give out medals for:
100m running forward
100m running backwards
100m hopstotch
100m crawling
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
Too many medals are given out in swimming. A hockey player can win one medal after playing about 6 60 minute hockey games. A swimmer can win 8 medals for swimming 4 lengths of the pool 8 times. Too many events. Same for gymnastics and track.
I've always said the same thing, but I think that swimming is way worse than track. It would be like having different track events for running with your arms spread wide, or running backwards, etc. Any of these would be silly, of course, because you'd obviously go slower. So why do we care abouting swimming techniques that are always slower? There should be medals for freestyle 100, 200, 400, 1600, and 100 and 400 relay.
I've always said the same thing, but I think that swimming is way worse than track. It would be like having different track events for running with your arms spread wide, or running backwards, etc. Any of these would be silly, of course, because you'd obviously go slower. So why do we care abouting swimming techniques that are always slower? There should be medals for freestyle 100, 200, 400, 1600, and 100 and 400 relay.
I just looked it up and was amazed to see 16 events for swimming. This is ridiculous. All you need is a short and a long for each style, say 200 and 1500. If a swimmer can win over 50 there is a good chance he can do the 100, 200, and 400 fairly easily as well.
my guess is that you have never swam? 50m and 100m are pretty close to the same (all out sprint, plus it is only 50m freestyle that is swam). Every other distance after that is quite a different swim. Plus There are only 2 events for the other strokes (100m and 200m for Butterfly, Back and Breastroke).
Phelps now the greatest Olympic athlete in history at 23.
Anyone know when swimmers generally peak? Fair to say he should still be dominating in London?
I actually watched a few of his events just to see how this guy is so good...and I think its because he avoids the "swimming" part of swimming. His actual crawl form is meh compared to some other in the field I saw, but his kick-off from the wall puts him meters ahead of everyone else. To be fair they are allowed something like 15 meters underwater, which is also stupid.
my guess is that you have never swam? 50m and 100m are pretty close to the same (all out sprint, plus it is only 50m freestyle that is swam). Every other distance after that is quite a different swim. Plus There are only 2 events for the other strokes (100m and 200m for Butterfly, Back and Breastroke).
I've gone through the lifeguard and instructors certifications, so I've done a little.
Not to be rude or anything, but do you really think that lifegaurd certification compares to compettive swimming? (I am really not trying to be rude, but I have done both)
Not to be rude or anything, but do you really think that lifegaurd certification compares to compettive swimming? (I am really not trying to be rude, but I have done both)
No I don't, but it does give me some idea of the distances involved and the energy required for the different forms.
You really dont know the difference than. Take 100m Butterfly vs 200m butterfly for instance. 100m fly is amazingly fast and an all out sprint (fairly easy), where as 200m butterfly is significantly harder, and takes skill, smarts and abilty to know how to swim (ie not going out to hard/easy, knowing that the 3rd lap is the lap that you most likely win/lose the event)
You really dont know the difference than. Take 100m Butterfly vs 200m butterfly for instance. 100m fly is amazingly fast and an all out sprint (fairly easy), where as 200m butterfly is significantly harder, and takes skill, smarts and abilty to know how to swim (ie not going out to hard/easy, knowing that the 3rd lap is the lap that you most likely win/lose the event)
Well thank you for telling me what I do or do not know. Your arrogance has made me see the error of my ways, and I will be sure to keep all future opinions to myself.
thats cool, I wasnt trying to be arrogant, I was just trying to explain the differences from experiences during different events, no need to get defensive.
Sherraine Schalm is out. She had a bit of a hissy after her loss and tossed out a few harsh words (CBC video). Here's how Mark Connolly described it:
Quote:
No medals so far, but the best Olympic moment has to be Sherraine Schalm, the Canadian Olympic fencer, pointing at the judge after losing her match and telling him to...well, I can't repeat it in this family blog. Then she screamed it out a couple of times, told a couple of other people where to get off and then gave the best interview of the Olympics, telling reporters it was like getting kicked in the....well, something she doesn't have actually....but it rhymes with putts.
I've never heard of this athlete until this morning when I watch an interview on CBC between her and Scott Russell(?) while I waited at the doctor's office. Schalm has a lot of personality and even wrote what promises to be an interesting book (Running with Swords), but the way she came across really irritated me. I really wish I could find a link to the video so you can all see it for yourself and tell whetehr I may be over-reacting but I guess I'll just have to go based on my memory.
Essentially, she apologized for letting Canada and everyone else down. Then she went on a bit of a rant about how she wasn't being treated fairly as a high-performance athlete in Canada. Apparently she's had to train overseas for the last seven years because it wasn't until this year that Canada got a national fencing coach and has actually put any money into the sport. She then went on to describe how she felt unwanted in Hungary and how Hungarians hate Canadians. A lot of generalities seemed to be tossed out at that point.
Sherraine Schalm is out. She had a bit of a hissy after her loss and tossed out a few harsh words (CBC video). Here's how Mark Connolly described it:
I've never heard of this athlete until this morning when I watch an interview on CBC between her and Scott Russell(?) while I waited at the doctor's office. Schalm has a lot of personality and even wrote what promises to be an interesting book (Running with Swords), but the way she came across really irritated me. I really wish I could find a link to the video so you can all see it for yourself and tell whetehr I may be over-reacting but I guess I'll just have to go based on my memory.
Essentially, she apologized for letting Canada and everyone else down. Then she went on a bit of a rant about how she wasn't being treated fairly as a high-performance athlete in Canada. Apparently she's had to train overseas for the last seven years because it wasn't until this year that Canada got a national fencing coach and has actually put any money into the sport. She then went on to describe how she felt unwanted in Hungary and how Hungarians hate Canadians. A lot of generalities seemed to be tossed out at that point.
It's really tough. Imagine training for years for the Olympics and being in a knockout competition. Anything can happen and you can lose in an instant.
The best in the world can get knocked out in a single-elimination tournament. Federer lost in the first round of the 2004 Olympics. Tiger Woods has lost in the first round of match play before.
If I were an Olympian I'd definitely be in a team sport where I can play some games!
I blame the athlete for picking such a sport!
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
I don't think it has come up in the thread yet, but Canada is doing something about this. Alex Baumann has come back to Canada to basically run a summer games version of the Winter "Own the Podium" program.
Canadian atheletes are now being paid for their medals as well ($20k for gold and $15k for silver IIRC). So far it hasn't cost a lot, but at the same time the incentives are there.
I too get very tired of watching failure after failure. The fact is that the funding is starting to come through...but it will take at least 4 years for that to matter. You can't cut a guy a cheque today and expect that in six months they are challenging for gold medals.
There are still a lot of medal hopefuls to come, and I just can't wait to see our first gold!
Canadian atheletes are now being paid for their medals as well ($20k for gold and $15k for silver IIRC). So far it hasn't cost a lot, but at the same time the incentives are there.
I too get very tired of watching failure after failure. The fact is that the funding is starting to come through...but it will take at least 4 years for that to matter.
I get tired of people ragging on these athletes who owe the average person nothing. Infact, unless you attend some of these events or watch them any other time then the olympics I think you have no right to complain about performance.
Fact is, these athletes work harder to get to this level then 90% of the population could even imagine.....training as hard as they do while working jobs to afford to go to event like these means they are working 80 hours a week just to make ends meet.
Canada is improving its abysmal funding system but its not enough to see a dramatic increase. The system needs to fund these people more then just for olympic medals. In every one of the medal leading countries the majority of the athletes are not working jobs to support themselves and can just focus on training. Its expensive for the government and tax payers but I'd rather see that happen then money being thrown into useless programs or rebates.
As far as i'm concerned i'm happy if they are out there setting new pb's and national records. The medals would be nice, but be realistic....unless funding reaches levels of other countries on a consistent basis, raising expectations isn't fair.
I get tired of people ragging on these athletes who owe the average person nothing. Infact, unless you attend some of these events or watch them any other time then the olympics I think you have no right to complain about performance.
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My tax dollars are going towards their development - your damn right they owe me something. Even as a fan they owe me something. This is sports, not elementary school recess.
If they want us to care - they have to take the criticism along with the praise.
In short - they need to suck it up. No sympathy from me. No one made them become olympic athletes.
