Jungle Jim Hunter blasting Canadian Olympic team on 960

[Antithesis]

I have such negative associations with 'Jungle Jim' and his horrible, horrible radio show, that any time I hear his voice I just change to a different radio station. I wholeheartedly advocate more people doing that in the future!

[IceMan]

I don't disagree with anything Hunter said. The goal was to win 35 medals and they're way off that pace. It's disconcerning to a lot of Canadians when they watch Britt Janyk and Manny Osbourne Paradis, who race on Whistler everyday, barely crack the top 10. I know Janyk finished 6th but her reaction was like she won a medal, saying that she was so proud of her performance.

Another great point that Hunter made was that in order for Canada to obtain their 30+ medals, they need to get more than 1 Canadian on the podium. There have been many missed opportunities for Canada to get 2 athletes on the podium which would obviously increase their chances of winning the medal count. Look at the US yesterday, 3 events in which 6 Americans won medals and that catapulted them to the top of the medal standings.

I enjoy listening to Jim Hunter as he gives his listeners an in depth insight as to what is going on in the minds of Olympic athletes and what they need to do in order for them to win a medal. I don't disagree with what he said but it is still early and there are still a lot of medals to be won by Canadians.

[MRCboicgy]

I haven't read this thread or heard what he said today, but listening to him and D'oh on Monday while I was out driving around made me turn off the radio, despite the fact i wanted Oly. updates.

The two of them were being the biggest d-bags around, complaining about the fact that famous Canadians were carrying the Olympic flag instead of Donovan Bailey or other 'worthy' athletes.

All in all both made me sick and I wanted both wastes of space off the air.

[Pastiche]

The only really disappointing results so far are alpine skiing. And really, who legitimately thought we were a shoe in for a medal in the downhill?

[Pastiche]

Thornton's game just doesn't translate well to high intensity high tempo games like this.

[LockedOut]

Originally Posted by Pastiche

The only really disappointing results so far are alpine skiing. And really, who legitimately thought we were a shoe in for a medal in the downhill?

Marc Osborne Paradis has won 2 downhills this year and is 3rd in the downhill standings. He was a legitimate candidate for gold. His result was a dissappointment.

[Pastiche]

Originally Posted by LockedOut

Marc Osborne Paradis has won 2 downhills this year and is 3rd in the downhill standings. He was a legitimate candidate for gold. His result was a dissappointment.

Yes I know all that but are you telling me, knowing Canada's history in alpine that you were confident we'd medal? I sure wasn't.

[Skate around the circle]

Originally Posted by jeremywilhelm

Well he is not wrong. It is typical Canadian effort in sports that aren't hockey. Just being there is good enough.

This stems from the fact that there is no real world motivation for these athletes to win or lose. If they win, they get a pat on the back and a small amount of money and then are told to do it all again in 4 years, all the while having to fund themselves with little to no support. If they lose, no big deal, the public and the government just assume they will try harder next time. It's a societal loser attitude, something Canada has been promoting (although probably without knowing it) for a long time. Canada is a rich country that makes no real effort to produce great athletes.

I speak from experience by the way, not just an outsider observation. I've seen and talked to athletes from stronger countries in the athlete villages at large competitions like the World University games, and it is astounding how well they (the non-canadians from the other competitive countries) are supported financially.

Example: I went to the World University Championships for Taekwondo (which is an Olympic sport) in 2004. It was in Patras Greece. I had to pay for pretty much everything except a Taekwondo uniform, a track jacket and one meal. Our team doctor was a hollistic healer... thats right, a hollistic healer who was telling us that these crystals she would press into our flesh would heal our injuries (like my tweaked ACL). This is the type of support that sport Canada supplies athletes in international competitions in Olympic sports.

Chinese Taipei's and Korea's governments on the other hand had put up over 100,000 dollars to send the teams to the Games. They had olympic coaches, real doctors and funded equipment.

This is not an abnormal thing, this is just the way sport Canada works.

And that is what makes our athletes as great as they are! Pure passion,the rewards will follow imo

[JayP]

Originally Posted by IceMan xMVPx

I don't disagree with anything Hunter said. The goal was to win 35 medals and they're way off that pace. It's disconcerning to a lot of Canadians when they watch Britt Janyk and Manny Osbourne Paradis, who race on Whistler everyday, barely crack the top 10. I know Janyk finished 6th but her reaction was like she won a medal, saying that she was so proud of her performance.

Another great point that Hunter made was that in order for Canada to obtain their 30+ medals, they need to get more than 1 Canadian on the podium. There have been many missed opportunities for Canada to get 2 athletes on the podium which would obviously increase their chances of winning the medal count. Look at the US yesterday, 3 events in which 6 Americans won medals and that catapulted them to the top of the medal standings.

I enjoy listening to Jim Hunter as he gives his listeners an in depth insight as to what is going on in the minds of Olympic athletes and what they need to do in order for them to win a medal. I don't disagree with what he said but it is still early and there are still a lot of medals to be won by Canadians.

It's hard to get two Canadians on the podium when thus far we've only had a handful of Canadian medal hopefuls. What events exactly should Canada have double-medaled? Maybe women's 1000m long track speed skating, but it's hard to get up in arms over .06 seconds separating Groves from her second bronze.

The US might be up in medals now, but they were expected to be. Canada is expected to clean up in the last 4-5 days of competition. Here's an awesome link (by Nate Silver of Baseball Prospectus fame) that took the predictions from major sports news sources and averaged them out to produce a projected medal total for each country:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/...ons-day-6.html

As you can see, the predictions say we're 1 medal behind where we should be right now, but still are on pace for 31-32 medals. The charts are updated daily so it's interesting to check it every day and really see how the country is doing.

People were saying the exact same stuff about Beijing in week one and we ended up doing pretty well in the end.

[JustAnotherGuy]

I think anybody who is critical of our Canadian athletes should just go to hell. I am proud of every single one of them no matter where they place. That includes the hockey team.

[greentree]

Jungle Jim should spend more time worrying about his daughter Anna, who is an "activist" in Vancouver's downtown eastside and mixes with a pretty thuggish crowd of welfare-sucking povertarians. Sad.

[Calgary '89]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherGuy

I think anybody who is critical of our Canadian athletes should just go to hell. I am proud of every single one of them no matter where they place. That includes the hockey team.

What you're saying makes sense cuz we all have to be proud of the elite athletes that represent us.

The problem I have with this and why I agree with Jungle Jim is that Canada is the world mecca of winter sports and other countries still dominate us!

It's BS, it shouldn't happen.

[Yamer]

After watching Christine Nesbitt race and seeing the slow-mo of her facial expressions, I can say without a shadow of a doubt she gave it 200%.

I can't say for sure that the Canadian athletes who have come up short so far didn't have that same determination. However, it was clear to me that Nesbitt did and I really hope that her attitude and will is highly contagious. That being said, I do get a sense from the seat of my couch (demonstrating my expert opinion, obviously) that some of these athletes are not pushing their own limits....for whatever reason.

Also, not sure if this has been discussed on the boards yet, but is anyone talking about the John Garrett scene (audio?) stealing on the radio broadcast last night? Got a kick outta it even though I am listening for Mr. Maher and Mr. Maher only.

[questionmotives]

I can't believe people actually listen to this guy, let alone pay attention to the crap that comes out of his mouth.

I didn't realize talking about "preparation" would warrant it's own radio show.

It is the only show that I absolutely will not listen to on the Fan 960.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by opendoor

That's an apples and oranges comparison. That Australian total includes "total government funding for sports and recreation activities." Given that 49% of that funding comes from local governments suggests to me that they're including virtually every facility in the entire country. In order to make an analogous comparison for Canada, you would have to include every government subsidised arena, baseball field, soccer field, community center, pool, etc. I can say with great certainty, that if you included all of the sports facilities in Canada, that the total would be much, much greater than $155 million a year (a single pool near where I live requires over $2 million a year in government funding to operate).

I think it's an apples and oranges comparison because you can't compare the summer games to the winter games.

Most of the summer games are track and field. What do you need to practice those? A track, and a field. What do you need for alpine sports? A freaking mountain.

It's a lot easier for Australia to have 20 kids from Dingledopper Queensland do every event in the summer games 20 times a year, than it is for Canadian would be athletes to say "I think I'll go try luging today!"

Edit - Assuming those Dingledopperites own horses. And sailboats.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by IceMan xMVPx

I don't disagree with anything Hunter said. The goal was to win 35 medals and they're way off that pace. It's disconcerning to a lot of Canadians when they watch Britt Janyk and Manny Osbourne Paradis, who race on Whistler everyday, barely crack the top 10. I know Janyk finished 6th but her reaction was like she won a medal, saying that she was so proud of her performance.

Everything else set aside. She's officially the 6th best person in the world at her sport. She's damn right she should be proud.

[John Wayne]

Prior to the Olympics even starting the experts were saying that after the fist 6 or 7 days do not expect Canada to be high on medal counts since it is the last 2/3 of the events where we will shine.

Since I didn't look at the schedule I am assuming there are still many events that have not started/finished where we should be in medal contention.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by John Wayne

Prior to the Olympics even starting the experts were saying that after the fist 6 or 7 days do not expect Canada to be high on medal counts since it is the last 2/3 of the events where we will shine.

Since I didn't look at the schedule I am assuming there are still many events that have not started/finished where we should be in medal contention.

I agree. It's just stupid to be getting wound up about our medal count right now.

We were told by the Canadian Olympic Association in both the last summer and winter Olympics the latter halves of those games would be where the gravy was going to be . . . . . . yet we had the same big panic repeated.

For the most part, aside from Dowbiggin and Hunter, the media seems to have learned it's lesson from those prior debacles and is staying far more patient than it did in the past, perhaps remembering the egg it ended up wearing.

If it doesn't happen when it's all over, let's have a talk. Meanwhile, premature ejac . . . . . well, it all seems a little silly considering we've been forewarned and we're not even halfway yet.

Cowperson

[troutman]

Originally Posted by questionmotives

I can't believe people actually listen to this guy, let alone pay attention to the crap that comes out of his mouth.

I didn't realize talking about "preparation" would warrant it's own radio show.

It is the only show that I absolutely will not listen to on the Fan 960.

I've said before that I found him interesting at first, but eventually his new age slogans became tiresome.

[Infamous1]

We will do much better in the last half of the games but the US has dominated much more than I think anyone would have expected and will be difficult to beat.