Jungle Jim Hunter blasting Canadian Olympic team on 960

[Fire]

Originally Posted by Ducay

The only sport I see this applying to is long track speed-skating. You can tell some of the other countries are "trying" a whole lot harder.
Canadians are skating half-arsed and don't really seem to have any sort of fire to give 110%.
Watching the Koreans and Japanese in these events is amazing, you can tell they're giving it their all while the Canadians seem to give up on the last lap or so.

Right...... the Canadians train for years for the Olympics so they can slack off at the Olympics. There has only been 1 or 2 disappoints so far. I don't know what you guys are complaining about. We are only a country of 33 million. We can't expect to dominate in every sport and I don't believe in giving a gazillion dollars to Olympic athletes so we can be proud of some shiny medals every couple of years.

[Redliner]

Anyone who is familiar with Jungle Jim Hunter knows that he has always been very outspoken. This is a man who has no shortage of opinions and no qualms whatsover about sharing them - right or wrong. Hunter was known as an obsessive trainer and fitness maniac when he was on the Canadian ski team. Even though his ability was never on par with guys like Ken Read & Steve Podborski, there was no questioning his commitment. He gave 110%, 110% of the time, and he expected no less from the other team members. I would expect that he probably does think that our athletes could have accomplished more, and is perhaps voicing his disappointment through these comments. Then again, this is a man whose expectations were/are not always realistic, either of himself or others. He often comes across as judgemental and critical, and that is unfortunate.

Canada's goal for these Olympics is to surpass the medal total (17) of the Turin games. We are well on our way towards accomplishing that. We realistically could have double the medal count that we do right now, and that is disappointing but it's really important that people do not underestimate the tremendous pressure that these athletes are under. I prefer to disregard the likes of Jungle Jim Hunter and be proud of our athletes and the way they are representing our country.

[North East Goon]

Originally Posted by BigFlameDog

Everytime I go to COP and see those kids in the half pipe I will now wonder how we can't be better at that event...we should have 4 guys in the final with the facilities we have available?

Shawn White has a bigger half pipe than COP in his backyard!

[jeremywilhelm]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blb0MNOG-no

Here is her interview. Interview starts at 2:30 minutes.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Smell My Finger

Jungle Jim is making a valid point that if you are in the Olymics you have to give it everything right to the end. Even if you place 40th.

That logic is so flawed. Hunter's complaint is based on real, measurable results. He is mad because we don't have enough medals. How does he know if the athletes are giving it everything? Despite what some like to think, work ethic and attitude is only one piece of the puzzle. Do we honestly think these athletes have trained their entire lives to only give it 75% at the most crucial moment?

This is the same issue we see in so many people complaining about the Flames. We over and over the various possibilities for our lack of success, while ignoring the most obvious answer- we are simply not good enough. Other teams, countries, athletes are more talented and will beat us.

Of course there are ways to turn it around, but it requires a cultural shift and the realization that we need to invest time, money etc. into young athletes.

[Russic]

I am really enjoying the Olympics and I do sincerely look forward to them, but I don't see the point in spending too much more money on them than we already do. I understand the discussion gets heated every couple of years when Canada under performs (mainly due to unrealistic expectations imo), but honestly in 2 weeks is anybody going to care? In terms of importance I just don't see medal count being note worthy.

Originally Posted by BigFlameDog

Everytime I go to COP and see those kids in the half pipe I will now wonder how we can't be better at that event...we should have 4 guys in the final with the facilities we have available?

All those countries have half pipes though. Perhaps I'm wrong but I don't think COP is that unique is it?

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

To my mind it's basically like suggesting Canada spend the same amount on our military as the US. Not a possibility.

My interpretation is that if both countries spend roughly the same amount per athlete, you should have similar results. I'm assuming we spend about 1/10th as much as the US (given our population being 1/10th of theirs).

Anyone have numbers on that? How much does the US spend on it's Winter Olympic program, and how much do we spend?

Which means so long as we have 1/10th the medals, we are basically accomplishing what we should be. And I haven't looked at the medal count today, but I believe we are well above that rate.

To be fair, the population of the US that lives in areas where winter sport is possible, would be much lower. So the ratio should be higher. maybe around 1/5?

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

FYI Shawn White had his own halfpipe to train on. paid for by Redbull one of his sponsors. Our athletes need more sponsors, not more government money. Shawn white is a freak though. we need more freaks

[MJM]

This not enough funding excuse is pure BS. I personally know a speed skater on this team, and he does more than well for himself. Sure he's not living like a millionaire, but the guy plays a sport for a living and does better than the average person while being provided with first-rate training facilities at no cost to himself.

Some of the women on the CDN Hockey team live in my neighbourhood for pete's sake, and these are all 500K plus houses. Contrary to popular belief, they do not have second jobs either.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. These are choke-jobs out and out. I have some pitty for our alpine ski team given the injuries, but the rest, give me a break. If we are so underfunded, how come several of the US athletes come to Calgary to train at our facilities?

[MJM]

Originally Posted by Salt Water Cowboy #10

FYI Shawn White had his own halfpipe to train on. paid for by Redbull one of his sponsors. Our athletes need more sponsors, not more government money. Shawn white is a freak though. we need more freaks

What is stopping a Canadian from going out and getting sponsored by Red Bull? Shawn White didn't always have a half-time in his back yard. He worked hard for it, got noticed for it (virutally unknown prior to the 2006 Olympics), and is now reaping the benefits. Again, excuses.

[Dentoman]

I heard the commentary .... and although abrasive, I agree with most of it. The discussion was based around the Globe and Mail projecting Canada to still get 36 medals. He totally disagreed and said 24 total medals (which he said would equal or be less than Turin, I don't know the actual numbers). You can't argue with his logic ... you can disagree with his way of going about it and calling out individual athletes ... but his logic is sound. He was right on the money with Brydon's skiing ... she was skiing not to fall, not to win a medal.
If it turns out to be a low medal count, then the "Own the Podium" program was a failure ... either by creating unrealistic expectations or creating too much pressure on the athletes.
But then I am cheering for Finland in mens hockey and predict Russia to win gold ....

[Smell My Finger]

Originally Posted by Salt Water Cowboy #10

FYI Shawn White had his own halfpipe to train on. paid for by Redbull one of his sponsors. Our athletes need more sponsors, not more government money. Shawn white is a freak though. we need more freaks

That dude is from another planet. I usually want all Americans to fail rarely ever happens, but White is such a likable character you want to see him succeed.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

X2

I hope they do well and all, but I don't get too upset when they don't win.

I'm as big of a sports fan as the next guy, but there are more important things in life, and for our country.

This is only an issue in less popular sports.

Will we ever have to argue in Canada about a lack of funding (corporate and federal) for hockey?

People assume throwing money into sports that has an extremely small drawing pool is going to fix the issue.

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

Originally Posted by MJM

What is stopping a Canadian from going out and getting sponsored by Red Bull? Shawn White didn't always have a half-time in his back yard. He worked hard for it, got noticed for it (virutally unknown prior to the 2006 Olympics), and is now reaping the benefits. Again, excuses.

True. As canadians we have no excuses when it comes to snowboarding or skiing. Maybe our "scouts" aren't picking the right athletes. Canada should be searching for blood thirsty athletes, not just guys who will do ok, and take the check they're given. Shawn white isn't the best comparison example though. he's like Wayne Gretzky of snowboarding, and way ahead of his time

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Salt Water Cowboy #10

True. As canadians we have no excuses when it comes to snowboarding or skiing. Maybe our "scouts" aren't picking the right athletes. Canada should be searching for blood thirsty athletes, not just guys who will do ok, and take the check they're given. Shawn white isn't the best comparison example though. he's like Wayne Gretzky of snowboarding, and way ahead of his time

How can that be true? I guarantee that the US has a heck of a lot skiiers and boarders to draw talent from. I don't think we can argue that our training or facilities are that much better than the US for these sports.

[Pastiche]

Canada also suffers because of it's federal structure. Take skiing for example, it only happened recently and all provincial ski associations tried to work under one national banner. You don't have that problem in the States or Australia. That's one of the primary reasons why our ski program has been so terrible. Development of athletes wasn't handled in a central system but was disparate and up to various provincial associations.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by Salt Water Cowboy #10

Canada should be searching for blood thirsty athletes, not just guys who will do ok, and take the check they're given.

We do.

They all play for our hockey teams.

[BigFlameDog]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

Shawn White has a bigger half pipe than COP in his backyard!

Point is there is a half pipe and dozens of kids doing crazy crap every weekend....we should be better than a middling 33 year old in the final.

No offense to middling 33 year olds...

[Salt Water Cowboy #10]

thats what i'm saying. there are plenty of skiers/snowboarders in Canada, and plenty of facilities. Maybe our problem is that everyone wants to go rip powder and have fun. Rather than practice at pipe or whatever. I'm sure there are more talented riders and skiers in Canada than those who are on the team. These people don't compete, or don't have anyone to push them to do so , or don't want to.

[Pastiche]

However one of Canada's big advantages is relative equality in funding for male and female athletes. In many European countries and other countries around the world male athletes receive the lion-share of funding. That gives our women a funding advantage and is one of the reasons why most of our medals, including gold medals, are won by female athletes. That advantage should fade however as countries see this as a flaw in their development system. With that said, many quasi-sexist countries value 'male' medals more than female medals so this could persist.