As I mentioned before, I listen to Bob McCown every day at 5:00 to hear what crap he’s brewing up. This week, his “thoughts” have centered around Canada’s performance at the Beijing Olympics. In Bob’s words, the Canadian Athletes have been an embarrassment, they have underperformed and we should only send athletes who have a shot at a medal. This post will discuss the merits of his comments.
First off, are the Canadian Athletes an embarrassment to our country? Yes and No. I don’t beleive that they are embarrassing us and I don’t think that Bob believes that either, but he’s trying to show a strong opinion. We should never be embarrssed by people who, whether they win or not, are the best in the world at what they do. However, the fact that Canada is getting worse every Summer olympics is a little embarrassing. Fact is, ever since 2003, when Canada won the right to host the Winter Olympics in 2010, the COC has diverted all of it’s energy and funding towards the “Own the Podium” program, meant to outright win the 2010 Olympics. In doing so, they have largely ignored the Summer Sports and it’s starting to show. Funding takes about 3-5 years to have an impact in the World standings and the lack of attention being placed on our Summer Sports is starting to show up in our medal count. However, this is the right thing to do. What would be even more embarrassing than the goose egg Canada is putting up through week 1 in Beijing, is to not finish in the top 3 in the Winters in 2010 on home soil. In fact, Canada has hosted the Olympics twice before and has never heard their anthem played at a medal ceremony. That’s right, twice Canada has failed to win a gold on home soil. Unbelievably, the two times Canada failed to win a gold medal at home are the only two times that that has ever happened in the history of Winter AND Summer Olympics. That’s embarrassing. Once the 2010 Olympics are over, Canada should start re-diverting funds back to Summer sports.
The next question is whether Canada is underperforming at these Olympics. The answer is no. Every Olympic year, Sports Illustrated puts together a list of who will win every olympic medal in each sport. Canada is listed to win 14 medals this year, anchored by predicted golds for Adam Van Koeverden and the Men’s 8 Rowing team. If you cross reference the prediction with the Olympic schedule, Canada is not supposed to win it’s first medal until Saturday, August 16th. That means that as of today, Sports Illustrated predicted that Canada would have 0 medals, exactly where we stand. Just because we have a crappy team does not mean that we are underperforming. Canada is supposed to win 3 bronzes in Wrestling and Rowing on the 16th, and is predicted to win 5 medals on Friday the 22nd. So, everyone relax!!! Now, does our currnet medal count concern me at all? Of course. Every Olympics, Canada typically only wins about half the medals they are predicted to win. They typically supplement this with a number of surprising wins. The fact that they have not been able to manage to win an off the board medal after the first week could mean a final medal count in the single digits. That would be disastrous. Frankly, there are not alot of potential medallists left that aren’t already picked to win a medal. Alex Despatie, Karen Cockburn, the Women’s softball team and Mark Oldenshaw are all amongst the best in the world at their respective events and are not predicted by SI to win a medal. If a few or even all of them don’t medal, Canada could end up truly having a terrible Olympics.
Finally, let’s address the question as to whether Canada should send any athletes that cannot compete for a medal. Well, this is a ludicrous statement. If every country prescribed to this theory, some sports would only have 4 or 5 athletes competing at all, and Canada would only send a team of about 25 athletes. That would not be alot of fun to watch on TV and especially live. Plus, going to the Olympics can also be a development opportunity for future medal hopefuls. When the US sent Michael Phelps in 2000, they did not expect that he could compete for a medal, but they also knew that he would be dominant 4 years from then. What they didn’t want was him competing at the Olympics for the first time when he’s in top form. If you were a coach in the NHL, would you want your prized prospect goaltender making his professional debut in game 7 of the Stanley Cup? Of course not. You would want that Goaltender to have some experience before competing in such an important competition. I will admit that you can argue that there is really no point in sending a 32 year old to the Olympics who has no chance of cracking the top 25, but the only way to handle that is to tighten the standards that Canada has already placed on qualifying for the Olympics. You can’t start handpicking your athletes and excluding others who deserve to be there by qualifying.
That’s my feeling on the Olympics. Kudos to the athletes that are there and trying their best, and once again, Thumbs down to Bob McCown.
Tags: 2008 Olympics, Canadian Olympians
