What is wrong with our Canadian male atheletes?

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Exactly my point. Usually the difference between finishing 4th or 5th as compared to medaling... is in your head. Performing when the pressure is on or cracking and finishing out of the medals

Or is that just the nature of many of these sports? Even the best in the world don't podium every single race. And someone who is predicted to get a bronze is on the podium less than half the time in most of these sports

At the end of the day, the public makes a huge deal of the Olympics because it's the only time most of these sports get major media coverage. But for the athletes, the race or event is no different than any other race or event they compete in during the year. Winning it is surely a much different feeling, but just because it's the Olympics doesn't change the fact that in most of these sports there's about 10 people who could win on any given day. The typical response to that they have to step it up on the biggest stage, but there's so many other factors at play (weather/track conditions, style of track, etc.) that it's not that simple.

If we want the right to call our athletes chokers for finishing 4th or 5th then we should be celebrating when they win World Cup events too.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Frankly, I think our women are just tougher mentally than our men.

I suppose it could be true, but I'm not sure

if someone wants to argue that women in general are mentally tougher than men or vice versa, I think that's an interesting topic, but I'm not sure that its really true that specifically Canadian women are disproportinately tougher mentally tougher than Canadian men , although I guess it could be?

I think it does reflect well on Canada in the sense that it shows that as a country we probably come closer to other countries to equal access/funding in sports as well as philosophy re: sports participation. My sister was a pretty good (not elite but very good) soccer player here in Canada-she lived in England for a year or so as a young adult and all the guys there thought it was a laugh that she claimed to play soccer/football. she eventually played with them and held her own and I gather they were astonised/impressed

there was also the point made in the paper today that for many sports the field of top males worldwide is currently broader at the top end (they gave the example of alpine skiing and the number of top men within x seconds of the leaders versus in women where the number close to the top was smaller).

anyways its an interesting discussion and I'm certainly proud to be from a country where the female athletes rock. I'm just not sure it necessarily follows that male Canadian athletes are particularly mentally weak

[VladtheImpaler]

Our men our politically corrected and sans testicles, whereas our women are "manly", after being thoroughly processed by Queens University, CBC, and the Human Rights Tribunals...

[Russic]

Gotta feel bad for the athletes. 99% of their lives we couldn't give a single damn about their sport and when they don't take gold in one event we complain about them.

[GGG]

Its clearly hockey that eats up our Talent pool. When our potential Elite male athletes are 16 they are still playing hockey by they give up their hockey Careers 20-21 years old they are far behind the elite athletes of other nations to get their 10,000 hours in.

A good example is Cindy Klassen. She was cut from the women's hockey team in 1998. Instead of staying in hockey she switched to speed skating and became dominant. If there had been a professional women's league that paid well she likely would still be playing hockey but thier really only is one team. Imagine if all but the top 50 canadian hockey players played other sports. With our limited population the NHL and competing to get to the NHL steel the majority of our male talent.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Russic

Gotta feel bad for the athletes. 99% of their lives we couldn't give a single damn about their sport and when they don't take gold in one event we complain about them.

And when they don't win gold the only reason is they lost is because they choked.

There's no other reason a Canadian athlete or team loses aside from choking evidently.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by Rerun

We need more of this in our non hockey playing male atheletes....



Too often we seem to be just happy with showing up. Just getting to the Olympics is good enough. Every Olympics Canada sends one of the largest contingents yet ends up with a very poor percentage of medals... particularly in the mens sports.

That's such garbage. I hate this whole 'we're just happy to be there' argument and the general running down of Canadian athletes that is inevitable during every single Olympic games. It's embarassing.

[yads]

I don't buy the hockey argument. Why doesn't football eat up all of the male athletes in the US and soccer everywhere else?

[-TC-]

not mentally strong enough, let the pressure get to them

[valo403]

Originally Posted by yads

I don't buy the hockey argument. Why doesn't football eat up all of the male athletes in the US and soccer everywhere else?

Why doesn't football eat up all the male athletes in the US? Maybe because there are 10 times more of them?

And soccer does eat up a lot of athletes elsewhere. You'll notice that the only nation that's really strong in both soccer and winter Olympic events is Germany, who just happen to have a strong tradition in winter sports and grab a ton of medals from a select few sports that they dominante.

[yads]

Originally Posted by valo403

Why doesn't football eat up all the male athletes in the US? Maybe because there are 10 times more of them?

And soccer does eat up a lot of athletes elsewhere. You'll notice that the only nation that's really strong in both soccer and winter Olympic events is Germany, who just happen to have a strong tradition in winter sports and grab a ton of medals from a select few sports that they dominante.

Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy all have had lots of success in the olympics and other sports (soccer/hockey.) Not even mentioning the US with multiple sports pursuits (football/basketball/baseball/hockey)

[valo403]

Originally Posted by yads

Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy all have had lots of success in the olympics and other sports (soccer/hockey.) Not even mentioning the US with multiple sports pursuits (football/basketball/baseball/hockey)

Russia has an on again off again history of soccer success, Great Britian is abysmal in the winter Olympics generally, France is typically a second tier winter Olympic nation, same goes for Italy.

The US has the perfect combination of mass population, state of the art facilities, and heavy funding. For them to not be the leader would be a shock, especially with the benefits they are now realizing from the Salt Lake legacy. We have two of three in that list (with funding varying from year to year), the population difference is a huge deciding factor.

BTW, all those sports you listed as pursuits in the US are also pursuits in Canada, it doesn't really add to your argument.

[Resolute 14]

Our short track team would officially like to tell Rerun to suck it.

[nieuwy-89]

The men's short track team must have read this thread!

Good on them...redeeming the men's record somewhat.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Our short track team would officially like to tell Rerun to suck it.

I think you might mean "sucez-le Rerun".

[GreenTeaFrapp]

And was there a bigger Canadian choke job at these games then the female curlers?

[MrMastodonFarm]

Nothing wrong with our male Olympians.

As is life, the male just hit their stride a little later.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

And was there a bigger Canadian choke job at these games then the female curlers?

What's her name in women's skeleton?

[octothorp]

China is the exact same way: 8 medals by women, 2 by pairs and just a single medal won by a male athlete or male team.

[Smell My Finger]

They answered the call today. 2 golds and the Mens longtarack pursuit paved the way USA 1 on 1 showdown for a Gold Medal race tomorrow.