How long 'till Own the Podium organizers call it an 'outright success'?

[tkflames]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

And you think that is enough of a contribution that you can make to your countries athletes? How much does that work to? About $10 from you? Nice effort.

I am talking to the people who are moaning and whining about our athletes. They talk about the athlete choking. Not trying hard enough. When the poster is not contributing to the cause enough. Why aren't they out there cheering on the sport? Volunteering at events. etc etc etc

I am as patriotic as the next Canadian and agree with your point regarding supporting the Olympics the other 3.5 years. However, this like any government spending program should be evaluated by the public (just like Education, Health Care etc.). It is our duty to form opinions and vote based on those opinions, that is part of a democrazy. Living in Vancouver, if these games don't break even, could be burdened with government debt for a long time (much like Montreal). Your "$10...Nice Effort" comment is out of line.

SUMMARY: It is our democratic responsibility not only to evaluate the OTP program, but also the value/cost-benefit of hosting the Olympics.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by tkflames

I am as patriotic as the next Canadian and agree with your point regarding supporting the Olympics the other 3.5 years. However, this like any government spending program should be evaluated by the public (just like Education, Health Care etc.). It is our duty to form opinions and vote based on those opinions, that is part of a democrazy. Living in Vancouver, if these games don't break even, could be burdened with government debt for a long time (much like Montreal). Your "$10...Nice Effort" comment is out of line.

SUMMARY: It is our democratic responsibility not only to evaluate the OTP program, but also the value/cost-benefit of hosting the Olympics.

Canadian medals and the Vancouver games breaking even are completely different things

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

And you think that is enough of a contribution that you can make to your countries athletes? How much does that work to? About $10 from you? Nice effort.

I am talking to the people who are moaning and whining about our athletes. They talk about the athlete choking. Not trying hard enough. When the poster is not contributing to the cause enough. Why aren't they out there cheering on the sport? Volunteering at events. etc etc etc

Why? These people chose to pursue a sport/lifestyle funded with my tax dollars - any taxpayer has every right to bitch and moan about their performance. There are two issues here - one is the philosophical question of whether taxpayers should sustain amateur sports, and the other of whether I am interested enough in any of these sports to do anything else. Personally, I am not, but as long as I fund them, I can complain about their performance.

[old-fart]

I don't think these games have much hope of breaking even, nor do I think Canada has much hope of meeting the lofty medal guesses of some of the media outlets and the "own the podium" program.

[Textcritic]

Update: The COC officially concedes, and admits that Canada will be hard pressed to meet the original lofty expectations set by the Own the Podium programme.

[Yamer]

Hmmm, the article seems to say that we intended to finish on top.

Really? When did this happen? I was honestly thinking that 'Own the Podium' meant at least a top 3 finish. I don't think that will happen either, but I also don't believe that we were expected/expecting to win these Games.

To me, the Games have been a disappointment so far. Tough to see so many Canadians have an 'off day' on home soil.

The Van Sun thought we were gonna win 39 medals? Wow.

[FurnaceFace]

Did I hear correctly OTP cost "us" $120m? Something like $4 per Canadian? This seems like such a tiny number to me to fund a fairly large number of athletes. I'd be curious how much Shaun White's Red Bull half pipe cost to make and how much funding he alone would have received. I bet it's something close to 10% of the entire OTP budget. I'm sure he's the big exception but it's still hard to compete with things like that. Or Korean athletes who get a salary for life winning a gold, that's pretty intense motivation.

[GirlySports]

Hard to blame an athlete who falls just short in a sport measured by hundredths of a seconds. Hollingworth made a small error and it costed her a medal. It's unfortunate and understandable.

But when alpine skiers and speedskating men are not even in the top 15 and losing by MINUTES, that's a choke.

[Pastiche]

Pretty flimsy investment of public funds for elite athletes. How did Canada's record showing in Turin affect your daily life? Were you healthier, smarter, more productive, more civically engaged or did you (like me) forget about the medal count within a week of the end of the Turin Olympics?

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Hard to blame an athlete who falls just short in a sport measured by hundredths of a seconds. Hollingworth made a small error and it costed her a medal. It's unfortunate and understandable.

But when alpine skiers and speedskating men are not even in the top 15 and losing by MINUTES, that's a choke.

Laugh, minutes?

[united]

OTP has spent $117 million on athlete recruitment, medical support teams, international training camps and high-tech equipment since 2004. The federal government paid for $66 million of the plan, while the Vancouver organizing committee covered most of the remainder.

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centr...ian+teams+plan

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by Yamer

Hmmm, the article seems to say that we intended to finish on top.

Really? When did this happen? I was honestly thinking that 'Own the Podium' meant at least a top 3 finish.

http://www.ownthepodium2010.com/About/

1. Podium Performance at Olympic and Paralympic Games
Winter

• Place first in the total medal count at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by Yamer

Hmmm, the article seems to say that we intended to finish on top.

Really? When did this happen? I was honestly thinking that 'Own the Podium' meant at least a top 3 finish. I don't think that will happen either, but I also don't believe that we were expected/expecting to win these Games.

Sadly, it actually did intend for us to finish first at these games.

http://www.ownthepodium2010.com/About/

Vision
For Canada to be a world leader in high-performance sport.

Mission
To lead the development of Canadian sports to achieve sustainable podium performances at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Our Goals
1. Podium Performance at Olympic and Paralympic Games
Winter

* Place first in the total medal count at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games
* Place in the top three in the gold medal count at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games

Summer

* Place in the top 12 nations in medal count at the 2012 Olympic Games
* Place in the top eight in the gold medal count at the 2012 Paralympic Games

2. System Development

Own the Podium with its partners will strengthen national policy, programs, the sport delivery system and commitment to excellence for winter and summer high-performance sport.

[The Yen Man]

I don't see why Canada's performance should come as any surprise. I've always expected Canada to be near the bottom compared to ther 1st world countries, and they'll continue to be so. It partly has to do with our population size, and partly to do with how important Canadians view sports when it comes to national pride.

A lot of first world nations (the US, Australia, Germany, China, Korea, etc) deem success in international sporting events as great national pride, and their governments will pour tons and tons of money into it (in terms of training and incentives to win for athletes)

Bottom line is, in relative terms, it sucks to be a Canadian amateur sportsperson compared to a lot of other 1st world nations because of the money their respective countries are willing to pour into their sporting programs. We, as Canadians, have deemed amateur sports not very important, and thus have allocated smaller amounts of money to fund athletes when compared to these other nations. It's not right or wrong, it's just how it is.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by valo403

That is absolutely never the case in a competition at this level. Not one single athlete has had a medal gift wrapped and waiting for them, none have won every single event on the world cup or relevant season. This is the absolute best vs. the absolute best, you aren't going to win every single time. There have been disappointments, but the idea that certain athletes had wins gift wrapped is preposterous.

LEt me ask you this, where do you get your expected results from? I'm sure you've intently followed the respective world cup seasons to know who is performing well under certain conditions, who's struggling through injuries, who's peaking, who's slumping etc., or maybe you just go with the hype machine that is CTV. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Do you feel better about yourself when you get on the condescending train and just roll? Your entire second paragraph is from the highest perch possible. Better yet, you sound like Stewie from Family guy. CP is getting terrible for this.

As for the rest of your post, agree to disagree. When you fall down during Ski Cross going over a jump with no one around you, that's losing a medal. When you go into the Skeleton finals with the best time and finish out of a medal position on your home track, that's losing a medal. When you have 2 Canadian skaters in the finals for 1000 m short track and place 4th and 5th, well, that's just flat out embarrassingly pathetic.

[Pastiche]

Health Care
Defence
Foreign Aid
Education
Homeless programs
Infrastructure
Pay down debt
Cancer research
Skeleton funding

I believe the official name of skeleton funding is:

The Helping Jon Montgomery get Drunk and Laid Fund

[Yamer]

Originally Posted by Super Nintendo Chalmers

http://www.ownthepodium2010.com/About/

[/LIST]

Yikes.

Thanks. I guess?

[FurnaceFace]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Hard to blame an athlete who falls just short in a sport measured by hundredths of a seconds. Hollingworth made a small error and it costed her a medal. It's unfortunate and understandable.

But when alpine skiers and speedskating men are not even in the top 15 and losing by MINUTES, that's a choke.

The only Athletes who I would perhaps consider chokes are Witherspoon and Morrison...and I think Witherspoon had his true choke at the Turin games. I don't recall another "choke job" of these Olympics. Mistakes are made by our athletes and mistakes have been made by other countries too. How about the Korea speedskaters who had all three podium positions only to have them take each other out and only end up with one? Is that a choke job? Guess it depends on your definition.

I also think it's got to be pretty freaking tough to have a nation wanting Gold and nothing else. Look at yesterday, how many know Groves won a silver? She got beat by a world class Olympic record performance. I suspect that got lost in the crappy hockey results by many.

[MelBridgeman]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

Why? These people chose to pursue a sport/lifestyle funded with my tax dollars - any taxpayer has every right to bitch and moan about their performance. There are two issues here - one is the philosophical question of whether taxpayers should sustain amateur sports, and the other of whether I am interested enough in any of these sports to do anything else. Personally, I am not, but as long as I fund them, I can complain about their performance.

I wonder what their performance are like in the Athletes Village? Maybe we can save some face in that aspect

[Wish They Could Win]

Ah, DownGoesBrown with a beauty:

DownGoesBrown

OK, plan B: Borrow the podium from the Americans, stash it in the back of the garage, and never give it back.