Why would you worry?

I am an Aussie, but lived in Canada for many years, so I always barrack for the maple leaf if the Aussies aren't in it. We are kicking Canadian butt but every bit of metal we win costs us in the millions of dollars. I think it would be interesting to know the cost per medal in the various countries.

Look at the Brits, they have spent a fortune on their athletes. After years in the wilderness they are third on the medal count, but the population still has to live in a dump.

In my view there are better things to spend public money on.
Sam See, 2008-08-22 23:46:47

I don't understand the question.

Canada is doing fine: 13 total medals as of Aug 19 with Adam van Koerveden still racing in prelims.

The first week of the games sees medals awarded in sports such as fencing, shooting, judo, weightlifting, greco-roman wrestling, archery, etc. where Canada does not have much tradition, participation, or medal prospects.

The other major sport is swimming. Tough to win medals in swimming. Canada won 2 medals at 2007 Worlds and a max of 3 at the any of the last 5 Olympics. Sports Illustrated predicted 0 medals for Canada here. Everybody swims. In Beijing 20+ nations won medals AND the US won nearly one third of the medals up for grabs. AUS is also very strong with 20 medals.

As good as they are, tt's tough for the Cdn rowing team to win medals before the finals take place.

Seriously, was the public/media expecting an avalanche of shooting, swimming, fencing, and greco-roman wrestling medals in week 1?
billg, 2008-08-19 23:08:54

Whats truly disheartening is all of our Canadian Champions are unkown by Canadians who then claim they are ashamed of our athletes when they see them for the first time on the international stage. Little eye opener for you couch potato US watchers, those athletes you see winning are celebrated by their own nations long before they hit the international scene.

Get off your buts and support your local athletes, it might inspire them to do even better, rather that train in obscurity only to be maligned when they represent you on the world scene.
wayne, 2008-08-19 10:58:48

The other thing the press and morons should be aware of is the schedule and the length of the games. The events we do excel at get medals at the second week of competition. Open your mouths when its all over or do we get to call you idiots today since caanda now stands in 17th in the medals and all above countries are far below now.
wayne, 2008-08-18 13:39:46

I love all this bashing.

My life growing up all i ever heard about was hockey. What do we excel at? Hockey

Then we compalin we don't do well and blame it on government. Hey if you want to compete at the olympics then get your kids in ping pong, badminton, archery oh ya we never hear of those. Even track and field hardly has anyone, oh ya and support, only hockey games get fans, everyhting else is just the parents of the athletes watching. Go visit the US they fill the stands from highschool on for every event, Everywhere at every level and every day.

Face it people there are a lot of factors.

1) population- billions of people in this world were only 30 million of them, odds are we aren't going to do well

2) size of country, its a huge country making competiotion internally (the drive) sparse and training very spread out unlike smaller countries

3) Drive and determination- for canadians this is a past time that we do while we learn our careers to live our whole lives at one of the highest, most comfortable standard of living in the world. these others countries many of them compete to survive, literally.

4) focus-some of these smaller countries have 1 sport and focus on it. We generally fund every sport there is and send huge teams. Pick something and focus.

5) we focus on the winners, well it wasn't started that way. There is 1 winner and all the rest and without all the rest there wouldn't be a winner, and that winner is a flash in the pan because to stay number 1, every day is a lot of strain and pressure. many of these winners were losers before and just peaked at the right time.

I think we do great.
wayne, 2008-08-18 11:45:33

I don't quite understand why we give medals to second and third places and surely don't see why we send people who are aiming the top 10.

Eric, 2008-08-15 23:51:53

There was an article in here somewhere where an athlete said "don't give up on us". I don't think Canadians have given up on our athletes, but we have certainly given up on the system. I personally expect the entire COC to resign after this Olympics is over. Not one member of the committee has anything to say. Clearly the leadership at in the COC is ineffective in creating Buzz, raising funds, allocating funds, fostering talent etc. All they are good at is getting our athletes who have poured their hearts and souls into their sport qualified and "set up" to fail at the highest level of competition. Thanks, but no thanks.

I'd rather watch the Special Olympics (and that is another topic altogether) than another Canadian kid getting his/her heartbroken and listening to the "I came here looking for top 10 and I did that (having just come in 10th)" BS speech.
joEL, 2008-08-15 19:42:02

Regardless of the reasons/excuses,the bottom line is,as of NOW,Canada hasn't won a single medal....so i would say....BAD.
Mitch, 2008-08-15 10:05:07

Do you think these coutries Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Algeria, Togo and Armenia provides more $ to their athletes? Well I am sure you know better...So please stop blamming the government! It is all about who wants it more...Canadians do have all the chances in the world. Please go around the world and you will know that we have better facilities than the rest of the world...So get to the gym!!!

Sorry to be the bad guy. But, I am tired of excuses....

EX- Athlete, 2008-08-15 09:25:47

The previous comments show what is wrong with our Olympic athletes. Why do we not hold them to task? Most of them either train full time at schools in the U.S., or get paid to train full time in Canada.

I for one am sick of these pampered kids not living up to the hype.

Here we are, a nation of 30 million, being out-performed by the likes of Togo, Kirghyzstan, Georgia, and Michael Phelps!

UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!!!!!

But hey, look on the bright side...we're tied for 53rd place overall (with 152 other medal-less countries)
Tom, 2008-08-15 06:59:27