Olympic Superpowers That Have More Medals Than Canada...

[arsenal]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

And the other thing I was reading was that in the U.S. there is a *LOT* - and I mean a *LOT* of community fund-raising done for their Olympic hopefuls. Bake sales. Bottle drives. I dunno. Seems like a lot of effort. I'd rather chip in $2.

Canadian athletes do this as well. They work bingos, at casinos, do bottle drives, etc.
I remember when I turned 16, and could work bingos, i was working 1 or 2 a month at least. And that wasn't all the bingos i could have worked. All of this was to raise money for my swim club, so we could fund our travel and what not.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by arsenal

Canadian athletes do this as well. They work bingos, at casinos, do bottle drives, etc. I remember when I turned 16, and could work bingos, i was working 1 or 2 a month at least. And that wasn't all the bingos i could have worked. All of this was to raise money for my swim club, so we could fund our travel and what not.

Well, that wasn't quite what I meant. The article I was reading said that it wasn't the athletes always doing the fundraising. It was 5th graders via the schools. It was policemen. Moms. It was the whole community raising money for amateur athletes with Olympic aspirations.

As shown by this thread, there isn't the drive to do that here. I think if Canadians had the time, they would put their efforts into raising money for charity of some sort. I know the only fund raising that I aided last year (actively fund-raised... I gave to dozens of charities) was the food bank.

[sadora]

Originally Posted by 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.

Don't forget the women's Gold

[RougeUnderoos]

I just saw a Canadian swim 200 metres. He did it 1/10th of a second slower than people from 3 other countries., therefore losing out on the bronze medal in the blink of an eye.

I don't really feel bad about it. It would have been nice for him to win, but, well, that's still pretty fast swimming, and only 3 people in the world can swim 200 metres in a shorter time than he can. I don't feel shame and I don't think my pride has taken a hit.

[Joborule]

It's really unfair to not fund these athletes if we can afford to do it. When other countries just like ours can get numerous medals in all types of events, then we should be able to do the same, rather then being in last place in the world with medal counts. I think it's pretty unacceptable from the government. I would hope that we can pressure them enough that they start funding the summer Olympics from here on out instead of just the Vancouver winter Olympics.

[OilersBaby]

so one of my old college housemates was on the US Olympic team for judo....they get sooo much money through corporations sponsoring them. And this is judo, not putting the sport down, but its not the first sport you think of. Jon was saying that in the more obvious sports (like swimming, track or gymnastics) they get even more money.

Edit: i should add that I live in San Jose (in case you didnt check the location).....

[4X4]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

This thread makes me ashamed to be from the same country as many of you.

There are hundreds of other things our government spends money on that are way more useless than the olympics. You want the government to cut out frivolous spending, target those, not the olympics.

$1B gun registry + $100 million for Olympics + $many billions for health care
<<<
$200 million for olympics + $(many plus 0.9) billion for health care


...and saying that $0 for Olympics + $(many plus 1.1)B for health care would be even better makes me feel extra shame.

Well nobody is arguing that those are good places to spend money. But why should we all pool our resources to fund a few people to compete in a (and I quote) "dick measuring contest" when few of us care?

It's not about national pride to most Canadians, and therefore, it remains an afterthought.

None of the ones whining now will utter a word next summer or the summer after or the summer after that when these athletes are starving while training to compete against the best skeet shooters in the world. So why now? Because some obscure countries spend the money they jack from poor families on 'roiding up 17 people of their 17 million people to beat us at useless skills?

IMO, the Olympics should be about pitting your strengths against the strengths of other nations. Not about artificially grooming juggernauts in every so-called "skill-set" that the IOC deems a sport.

[pepper24]

Interesting stat.........the 7 other G8 countries (US, Italy, Japan, Russia, Germany, France, UK) are in the top 10 for medal count.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Joborule

It's really unfair to not fund these athletes if we can afford to do it. When other countries just like ours can get numerous medals in all types of events, then we should be able to do the same, rather then being in last place in the world with medal counts. I think it's pretty unacceptable from the government. I would hope that we can pressure them enough that they start funding the summer Olympics from here on out instead of just the Vancouver winter Olympics.

Is it even really a funding issue?

As someone else mentioned, there have been several Canadians so far who were considered medal favourites and just couldn't win.

Now, if the funding is adequate enough to allow them to train to the point they are considered "medal favourites", isn't it pretty much up to the athlete at that point to execute?

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

Is it even really a funding issue?

As someone else mentioned, there have been several Canadians so far who were considered medal favourites and just couldn't win.

Now, if the funding is adequate enough to allow them to train to the point they are considered "medal favourites", isn't it pretty much up to the athlete at that point to execute?

I agree, I think it has been more of a choke show than a funding issue.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

I agree, I think it has been more of a choke show than a funding issue.

It's been weird.. the people who are expected to medal have come up short finishing 5th or 6th. The people who had no expectations have done well finishing 5th or 6th.

(example last night 2 men's gymnasts finished 15th and 17th in the men's all-around. That's Canada's best finish EVER)

So we've got a bunch of Canadians finishing between 4th and 20th for better or for worse and everyone's mad

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by fotze

Wow. Being ashamed to be from the same country as peoiple with a different opinion on something like finances. Thats like being ashamed because there are more than 1 political party in the country. We need more North Korea attitudes around here.

I know what you are saying, but...

The olympics cannot be lumped into the greater pool of "finances" along with health care, roads, etc. They're the olympics. They are a part of world history.

There are thousands of athletes working their butts off every day to chase this dream. These are not "silly games" any more than most people's 9-5 jobs are "sheep farms". Both have their place in society.

To people who don't think spending money on the olympics provides economic return...ya you're mostly right. In the short term it probably doesn't. But big deal. Not everything can be measured with dollar signs. But some athlete winning gold in a more obscure event DOES raise interest in that sport. Greater success at the olympics DOES raise interest in a wider range of sports. That's a good thing. Sports and activity should be a part of everyone's life. And if you want to get down to $, a sportier and more active society is a smaller drain on the health care system.

A society of North American type 7-7 workers may make more $, but it is not a healthier society.

[CaptainCrunch]

Heads could really roll with this Olympics performance and hopefully the backlash from a pretty poor Olympics. Remember when Hockey got shredded for not performing well, this is going to be worse.

Even our good performers are not performing up to Standards.

The only good thing thats going to come out of this Olympics is hopefully a change and streamlining of the system.

I'm thinking that Canada is going to see 5 or 6 medals tops by the end.

[HOZ]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Heads could really roll with this Olympics performance and hopefully the backlash from a pretty poor Olympics. Remember when Hockey got shredded for not performing well, this is going to be worse.

Even our good performers are not performing up to Standards.

The only good thing thats going to come out of this Olympics is hopefully a change and streamlining of the system.

I'm thinking that Canada is going to see 5 or 6 medals tops by the end.

I agree with you. Unfortunately the other sports don't come under the same pressure/money/scrutiny.

Swimming tossed their coach from the Athens Olympics. The guy was a total turd. What I have heard though it takes 8-10 years to get it on track and from what I have seen so far the swimming program is better.

Unless Canada starts to develop a Judo program it is the swimming events where the medals pile up. All in all I keep seeing Canada spending great gobs of money to send these massive teams of losers. Did that boxer really have to go?

With Canada dropping a golden opportunity vs Cuba and the women soccer up against the USA....Whitfield just may be our Ben Kinobi.

How did Mali get into the Olympics Basketball (women)and Canada did not?

[Lurch]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Heads could really roll with this Olympics performance and hopefully the backlash from a pretty poor Olympics. Remember when Hockey got shredded for not performing well, this is going to be worse.

Even our good performers are not performing up to Standards.

The only good thing thats going to come out of this Olympics is hopefully a change and streamlining of the system.

I'm thinking that Canada is going to see 5 or 6 medals tops by the end.

I think realistically we could have expected 3 medals at this point. I suspect we will have double your estimate even with the slow start. In fact, between women's wrestling and the rowing/kayak/canoe group, I bet we get 5. Our good events are all in the second half - this whole thing is way blown out of proportion.

[flamesaresmokin]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yup, i've touched on this already but if anyone feels the need to call out these athletes then they should at least show some ounce of care for the sports other then at the olympics. Funding isn't there so we can't expect huge medal results like china, the US and even austrailia are seeing.

People have lobbied in the past, personally i think the government just needs to try opening the purse strings for once in this area. Worst thing is that cbc pays 3 mil a day to broadcast the games, while our athletes get 40 mil a year between summer and winter athletes. You'd think if the government was willing to pay that to broadcast the games they'd be willing to pump a more respectable amount of money into supporting our athletes.

We are talking about 2-3 dollars per tax payer per year to make it respectable, hardly a huge hit.

[Boblobla]

so, if I interpret this correctly, we are the only nation without a medal??

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/standings/

[firebug]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

so, if I interpret this correctly, we are the only nation without a medal??

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/standings/

Nope, 52 countries have medals, the remaining 153 (205*-52) are all tied for 53rd place.

~firebug

*my understanding was that 205 countries are competing

[jar_e]

Originally Posted by Boblobla

so, if I interpret this correctly, we are the only nation without a medal??

http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/standings/

Kinda off topic, but a neat fact...86 countries have never won a medal at any olympic games ever. It was 87 before these games but Togo got a medal to lower that number to 86.

[driveway]

I dunno if it's been mentioned yet or not, but the "Own the Podium" program has been running strong since 2005. The stated goal is to win the most medals out of any country competing at the 2010 games in Vancouver.

Launched in January 2005, Own the Podium 2010 is a national sport technical initiative designed to help Canada’s winter athletes win the most number of medals at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

With the amount of money and attention that's being focused internally on winter sport in this country, it's not surprising that we might be seeing a slight drop-off in our summer events. There is only so much corporate and government funding to go around.