You knew it was coming. Usually it doesn't start up until the second week. But accusations are now flying, claiming that the reason Canada has no medals in the Olympics yet is due to the fact that our "sport spending" falls short:
"Why are they so good?" Diving Canada technical director Mitch Geller said Tuesday after the Chinese synchronized diving team easily won a gold medal in the women's competition and the Canadians finished seventh. "They screen tons of kids. They put them all through some very, very good fundamental training. And then the cream rises to the top." In Canada, governments and business are offering more money than ever, but the country's sport spending lags behind that of China, Russia and other modern countries.
Wow. Did anyone tell Mitch that China, that most modern of countries, is a totalitarian dictatorship which may go some way to explain how they get to "screen tons of kids"? That the Chinese even measure kids by the ton may have been a hint.
But setting aside of those dreams of Nicolae Ceausescu's 1970's gymnastics teams - though he apparently hated sport - have to explain how it is that those who are well funded, got to China and have the best chances have failed. Yesterday, Brent Hayden, Canada's fastest man in the pool, the reigning world champion failed to make the Olympic men's 100-metre freestyle final. Ottawa's fault? Did you know we had the fifth best fencer? She lost in her first match. She gone. Stephen Harper made it so. Personally. So unmodern of him.
There are reasons our entertainments are not as entertaining as others - and Olympic sport is just that, entertainment. First, we are a middling nation with middling resources which are actually allocated by Federal and Provincial governments ranging from socialists to neo-cons with a great measure of prudence. Second, we lack a pervasive national joy in achievement that drives the competitive spirit. Third, we simply like winter sports better. Fourth, the CFL gets all the real cash from Ottawa and you might as well get used to it.
Do you care? I don't. I am happy to see some Canadians play an excellent game of softball and even was interested to see we have a men's field hockey team even if the Ozzies smoked them. That's what the Olympics mean to me - learning that we have citizens who love weird sports, having a slight interest in that oddly placed passion rise to my mind's eye for about seven minutes and then moving on, forgetting them for another four years.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - August 13, 2008 8:54 am
We diverted our sports resources to the winter sports, because we want to make a splash when we host the games in 2010 -- Canada currently holds the dubious distinction of having hosted two Olympic Games without ever having won a gold medal at home.
And we're doing well at that -- we were third overall in Turin, and we're aiming to be better still in Vancouver/Whistler.
It's a policy that predates the current government, and I think it's a good one.
brodie - August 13, 2008 10:27 am
watching the womens (girls) gymnastics team finals last night and the announcer tells the story of the chinese girl who at 3 years old called her parents and asked to come home from training camp and was told no, this will change our lives - which I'm sure it did but it's sad that its necessary. From 3 to 13 she sees her folks once a year. I'm good with the low medal count in exchange.
sean - August 13, 2008 10:30 am
I blame our national affliction with "fair play", our continued wholesale dumping of money into hockey (even though its amateur participation level drops every single year) as well as every single special interest sporting group that no-one would dare offend. Top that with as a false national expectation that the cream will rise to the top even though the milk is frozen.
Take amateur soccer for example. Money and facilities are scarce to begin with (look at the positively crappy fields in Kingston versus the plentiful and well kept hockey rinks). Parents rule the leagues as opposed to persons with experience in the sport (and no, a level 1-2 coaching certificate doesn't make you a good coach or know the game). Kids that show some inkling of ability are possibly, maybe, funneled into the few and small advanced team spaces available. Generally, competitiveness and hard work are set aside so every awkward little so and so who decides to play soccer because "its a no contact sport" and who's parents want them away from the gameboy for 90 minutes a week, gets fair time on the field regardless of their relative suckiness on the pitch.
This same attitude exists in most sports in Canada. Athletic children with a competative nature end up leaving the sport for other things and our watered down system produces watered down teams for international competition. But at least the helecopter parents of non-gifted children are happy.
Hans - August 13, 2008 11:49 am
"have to explain how it is that those who are well funded, got to China and have the best chances have failed. Yesterday, Brent Hayden, Canada's fastest man in the pool, the reigning world champion failed to make the Olympic men's 100-metre freestyle final. Ottawa's fault? Did you know we had the fifth best fencer? She lost in her first match. She gone." Also, Perdita, Wotherspoon, the ski acrobat guy, Kurt, the 100 metre relay team, etc.. I can't remember all our athletes who have failed to meet expectations/hype. Why? I saw an interview with the deservedly cocky Donovan Bailey who said Canadian athletes have to drop this idea of "personal best". He said nobody cares about personal best they care about winning, they care about the gold medal. These people should get focussed on winning or go home because either way, I don't give a damn about their personal bests. I had a personal best in rec soccer 3 weeks ago but Ron MacLean isn't doing a profile on me.
Alan - August 13, 2008 1:17 pm
Suddenly I want a "Hans Olympic Moment" brought to me by Tim Hortons and the Royal Bank.
David Janes - August 13, 2008 3:01 pm
(Saying this without blame) one reason I suspect we perform poorly at Men's Soccer in general is that many people who are into it and are talented/good come from dual-citizenship families, and if they want to pursue soccer professionally, exercise their option flowing talent away from Canada.
The reason we perform well at Women's Soccer is the rest of the world is full of sexist pigs ;-)
Chris Taylor - August 14, 2008 2:28 am
David Ford, Canadian kayaker, finished 6th in the men's whitewater kayak competition. I like how he complained, on the air, about how COC funding cuts sunk him. Meanwhile Benjamin Boukpeti of Togo takes the bronze in the same event. I am sure Togo, with that staggering $1,700 GDP per capita, funds the hell out of their amateur athletes. They eat like kings, train in palaces of gold, and never have to hold down a day job to pay the bills, I'm sure. Far better off than Canadians.
Micheal Knight Rambo - August 14, 2008 4:30 am
No medals. (Maybe...MAYBE women's soccer- Kara Lang's adorable.)
Wait'll the winter.
Alan - August 14, 2008 8:04 am
More from Blatchford.
sean - August 14, 2008 9:39 am
Above all else, I still take issue with the assumption that how "our team" does reflects on me. If Person X wins a gold, good for them. I didn't do it and it doesn't mean I am a better person let alone a better athlete. It simply means the person had abilty that was honed to a point where for an instant they were better than everyone else competing in that sport at the evant at hand, and that my tax dollars helped them do it to a degree or more, because they live in the same country as me. If Canada's team wins no medals, its a reflection on the athletes and their coaches moreso than any of the flag waving archair athletes eating poutine and drinking Pepsi.
Same goes for the arts. I posititively like the Superfantastics and Kathleen Edwards but I am not "proud" of them because their ancestors, like mine, chose the same cold bug infested land to live in.
People need to get off their butts in this nation and do things that they can be proud of doing themselves and stop living vicariously through mercenary athlete armies that wear their nations colours.
Paul of Kingston - August 14, 2008 10:23 pm
A new Canadian sport - synchronized harping. My national identity is not defined by a group of athletes (you dressage people are called something else - horse minders or something) that I don't know doing sports that I don't care about all the while spending time and money that really could have been used to better something. Anddon't get me started on how the CBC is using their "news" to advertise the olympic coverage that they bought into.
sean - August 15, 2008 9:33 am
Paul hits the nail right smack on the head about the horse dancing.
And how come 7 minutes per hour on CBC is devoted to telling us how many medals Canada has not yet won and how many personal and canadian best times are made in lieu of said medals.. then they do it again during the news 10 minutes later.. ugh.