Moan the Podium
Day 10 and we stand in 5th place with 8 medals…even South Korea is ahead.
I for one, place the blame squarely on these fellows. It is one thing to excessively fund the team, but it is something else to arrogantly predict them to win a huge chunk of the medals. I haven’t heard of other countries smugly making such claims. I surmise that they are most likely far more confident than we are. The USA, German, Norway…they know their teams kick ass…even without funding and they probably don’t feel the need to shove that down the throats of the world.
Not only has this strategy set themselves up for a never-ending stream of international ridicule should they fail (which is what is happening) but it places an extra heavy layer of hype and pressure on an already over pressurized team.
I have to admit though, there is a small piece of me that is slightly annoyed at team performance given the massive amounts of cash thrown at them. Taken on a per-capita medal basis, 2010 is presently a very expensive Olympics for Canada.
Luge death, opening ceremony malfunctions, medal fiascos, security breaches, a near loss in hockey to the Swiss and a deadly cross-country ski track (I didn’t know there was such a thing)…
Go Canada?
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21 Feb 2010 01:07 pm Bryan 4 comments
It’s one thing to fund the team excessively (as you say), but in my opinion, you can’t expect the team to ‘perform’ with short term funding. Team Canada does not have the depth of training that teams like US, Korea and China have… these guys have solid sports programs. They want Team Canada to perform, they have to think long-term. Keep the funding coming, seriously train and invest in the athletes so they can stay focused, and see results. My deux cents.
I see the argument, but I think Team Canada has fielded solid teams over the past two decades…
They have improved every year since 1984 with the usual funding scheme.
1984 – 4
1988 – 5
1992 – 7
1994 – 13
1998 – 15
2002 – 17
2006 – 24
We had a pretty solid team in Torino, and a pretty solid team in Salt Lake City…operating on a fraction of what they received for 2010.
I was looking at the funding comparisons off the “own the podium” website…
14 million in the years leading up to Tornio…compared with 69 million in the years leading up to Vancouver.
http://www.ownthepodium2010.com/Funding/comparison.aspx
That’s a huge difference in funding.
Come on, man…. don’t be so picky… Canda is doing well in terms of everything so far! Good host all in all.
I just miss the old humble Canada :-p