As Canadians we wouldn't want to bring any sort of competitive spirit to such a multicultural event. Our human rights tribunal may have all our athletes at high court if they dare to beat out any of the poorer, more deserving countries like Togo and Uzbekistan.

Perhaps there will be a gold medal for being gracious in defeat.

There are commercials playing during the CBC broadcasts set in foreign lands and the locals are seen humming a snippet of the Canadian national anthem. The message I think is that Canadians are oh so nice or Canada is so successful at the Games.

At the start of the Games the CBC broadcast interviews with many of our athletes in which each of them stated how the world loves us ‘cause we’re so nice.

So you’d think that maybe a Fwench or Russian judge would throw us a bone and zoom one of our athletes to the top, seeing as we’re “so nice.” But no. Because it ain’t true.

I saw some Mexican divers win a bronze last night. Togo got a bronze in kayaking.

These Games are a scandal. We sent far too many athletes and allowed the money to get spread amongst far too many people who didn’t have a hope of succeeding. The $500k allegedly spent on one boxer who got his azz handed to him alone should force a complete overhaul of the boxing federation and the COC.

As I mentioned before, I stopped listening to Russ Anber and the rest of the CBC boosters decades ago. Their perception of a Canadian’s chances and reality aren’t in the same room.

And Sean Majumder sucks the big one. Unfunny, man, unfunny.

I think it's American/Canadian Idol, instant gratification, Gen Y puffballs praised since childhood by over-protective, over- indulgent boomer parents just for showing up who lack the focus, intensity and desire to make a mark against REAL competition from places like China, the USA and even Australia...masked steroid use aside.
They seem as a generation to feel that they've "hit a triple by simply being born on third base".
End products of the left-Liberal
'compa-a-a-a-ssionate' Trudeaupian Nanny State. No rigour.
God help us in Canada when this generation starts attempting run things as they mature.

A private benefactor is the only reason our Women's soccer team is in the Olympics. There are huge amounts of money taxpayer dollars spent on the Olympics, but in true Canadian fashion those dollars are consumed by the bureaucracy and hangers on. US women National soccer players make 60K/year. Only a few Canadian women National players get 18K/year for complete devotion to training and playing. Lots of nice offices in Ottawa with big salaried folks running around all over the planet on our athletes behalf though. Lots of money being spent on sports salaries in Canada............... for the non-producing jerk-offs with CBC like jobs.

Then there is CBC itself.... what a bunch of money gobbling wankers.

Once again we need an obscure new sport that we can dominate until the world catches on and catches us. Synchronized rhythmic pole-vaulting, anyone?

See what happens when you actually like and admire the USA instead of bitch and moan about it?

"The (CBC) corporation paid $45-million for the rights (to broadcast)". "Special analysts, including Perdita Felicien, the former world champion hurdler, and Sacha Trudeau, a documentary filmmaker and son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, have been hired."

My daughter is a starting player on the Canadian Olympic Women's team. Her paycheck for her entire year of devotion to training and playing for Canada in 2008 is $6000. A private benefactor named Greg Kerfoot paid for their meals and accommodation and location for a training camp from May thru the time they left for China in late July.

Anyone else see a misallocation of funds?

Well, this American says if just one Canadian beats a Russian then all will be forgiven, eh ?
,

Wait until they introduce the sport of Tax and Spend Canada and the provinces will be right on top then.
People complaining about not enough money being spent on the athletes, go ahead spend all you want but Not one cent of tax payer money should be spent!
Too many cheaters, the honest participants don't stand a chance.

At what point does constant gleefull celebration of your own country's failure make you as bad as the Kos set?

Well the Georgian woman's beach volleyball team beat the Russians last night....Wasn't 1956 hungary vs USSR Water Polo, blood in the water, but the Georgian team was certainly pleasing to watch.....skill wise that is

If only all war photos were like this one

http://m.si.com/news/wr/wr/detail/1101546;jsessionid=F93C28A5FA492BDF5192E954621924C1.cnnsilive10i

Words I would like to see banned - especially from the CBC:

"Canadian record"
"personal best"

you tink its hizzy winning medal - Borat Dion

the union of olympic atheletes would share the medal(s) - Taliban Jack Layton

right now there are medalists in Prince George with burning desires in their hearts. - Hot Cross Hedy Fry.

Give us medals and cash - Danny Whine for Win Williams.

Mississauga Matt, given all of the Russians that Judy Sgro helped emigrate to Canada, perhaps we should push for the sport of synchronized rhythmic pole-DANCING. That sport would be a win-win!

Speaking of stupid cbc announcers and political correctness at its worst. I watched the CDN womens softball team play the other night. I almost threw up listening to the idiot calling the girls playing either first, second or third as the "first baseperson, second baseperson, etc. It would have to be cbc. I watched the rest of the game with the dound turned off!!

And people say conservatives are the ones wholove this country. Geesh.. you guys would only be happy if Canada did FAIL.

The hypocrisy is astounding..

PS I love the Mensa tag on the front page - as though it provides you with some sort of 'cred. Formal education doesn't count of course(because you don't have any), but some stupid club does! What a farce..

"First baseperson", you got to be joking right? Even NBC isn't that bad.

I'd kind of like to see just what ratio of bureaucrat to athlete ratio Canada actually has.

Maybe all the athletes are p working in Fort Mac makin' izzy monies. Just a thought.

As of now, our best finish is a 4th by Christine Girard in women's 63kg weight lifting. From CBC's site about her training facility. "She trains in her grandfather's barn. They have a woodburning stove in their so she can train when it's cold."

Well Doug,

Mensa or formal ed, you have to live with neither.

Considering we've been dumping money and getting poor results over the years only a lib would suggest we add more money. Just maybe and here's where the conservative message comes in Doug, we need to examine where the money we spend goes and do things differently.

That's the difference between dumping in money and pretending to do something ( a la crouton and pmpm) and actually doing something that will accomplish something worthwhile.

"sure we haven't won a medal yet, but there are a lot of our swimmers who have set Canadian records, who have had personal-best performances, and that's worth something"

I don't think the bar can be lowered any further.

Well we know Doug isn't very bright.

Irwin,

How many Canadian records do you hold?

Coming in 4th in the world in anything isn't failure. It means that out of 6 or so billion people, there is only 3 single individuals out of all of those who score better.

If that's failure, just what are you better at?

"First baseperson", hilarious!

If people on this thread were the commentators - we'd have something like this:

"And the slanty eyes just beat the nig*ers.. where's my beer, woman!"

Sure peter, so long as you're not the woman.

I suppose if you were the commentator, we wouldn't have teams cause that's not inclusive and we wouldn't have scores cause that would harm the self-esteem of you and the ladies.

No Peter. We would call them basemen. It took a progressive like you to post the words "slanty eyes, nig*ers. And you threw in an insult to women to boot. Typical lefty intolerance.

Rod Said: "Speaking of stupid cbc announcers and poli tical correctness at its worst. I watched the CDN womens softball team play the other night. I almost threw up listening to the idiot calling the girls playing either first, second or third as the "first baseperson, second baseperson, etc. It would have to be cbc. I watched the rest of the game with the dound turned off!!"

I certainly hope that the scoreboard didn't indicate errors, if any were made. Mustn't hurt anyone's feelings now!

This is so embarassing. Countries I never heard of are winning medals and Canada isn't.
For a clue as to why this is so, check out Rosie Di Manno's column at the Toronto Star (I know, I know, I can't stand the Red Star either, but Rosie is the exception). She interviews the members of our women's synchronized diving team - who had a solid chance at a bronze before they dropped to second-to-last - who cheerily tell Rosie that they didn't mind losing and are happy with their performance because 'we're having fun'.
The Chinese ahtletes, who are there to win instead of having fun, walked away with gold.

Warwick,

No need to get pissy.

Winning requires commitment to, you know, winning. The long time Canadian Olympic standard used to be "go for the bronze." IMO, based on the quote, the bar has been lowered even below that.

"I don't think the bar can be lowered any further."

Que Sasha Trudeau

"China has achieved at least as much as the west"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaqI1Dg_VVY

The $500k allegedly spent on one boxer who got his azz handed to him alone should force a complete overhaul of the boxing federation and the COC.

Posted by: Mississauga Matt at August 13, 2008 2:53 PM

Absolutely right. I'm a member, and I would like to get rid of the whole lot and start over. There are to many political animals in this and probably other associations.

"synchronized rhythmic pole-DANCING."
ROLF

does Canada's performance at the Olympics have anything to do with its egalitarian agenda?

it just wouldn't be fair to everyone else if we won a medal, in fact there shouldn't be any winners at the Olympics because we're all equal

the important thing is that we celebrate our differences while having fun

Peter, you kiss your mother with that mouth?

RCGZ is making good points. I also know a relative of one of the women's soccer team...8 hour/day practises...that's committment.
Let's hear what the athlete's think about all the $$$ going to CBC while they practice in barns.

"If people on this thread were the commentators - we'd have something like this:

"And the slanty eyes just beat the nig*ers.. where's my beer, woman!""

If I had been living under a rock I might believe your premise that conservatives are racists, or should I say leftards are not. As per usual the leftard is working with last decades misinformation.

That being said your comment was quite funny.

Well, the indoctrination in schools is all to the effect that competition is bad. This will have an effect.
And, of course, Olympic athletics come under the Federal government - that's right, folks,
the same people who tried and failed at growing medicinal marijuana
commercially.

Let's just declare ourselves the winners in the niceness events and withdraw.

"the same people who tried and failed at growing medicinal marijuana
commercially."

I know some people without jobs who are experts in the field. I'm pretty sure that if they were running things we'd have a surplus to export, delivery included. There is an idea for job creation.

There is government money and there is coprorate money. In the US there is lots of corp money and a REALLY well funded university system. Funded partially by government money and a lot by Alumni. Canadian Alumni dont give as much and governments dont focus their dollars.

It takes infrastructure to asist the atheletes. But the caveat is that there MUST be performance or the "hangers on" get sacked. Pretty clear this is the required or you end up with the coaches blaming bad atheletes.....same raw material on all countries....its about training, support and challenge.

Why do you want medals, well on their own who cares but if it inspires more young Canadians to be involved in sports and is the reason for creating the infrastructure to enable it then thats why you do it.

But the final intagible is the desire/need to win. This is the cultural issue that needs to be addressed. As I said earlier it is about how you play the game but if you arent winning or getting closer to winning you arent playing the game right.

The gap between the winners and Candian records are enormous. That tells you the programs have been allowed to fall into disrepair. The fixes that started after Athens, think 3 years ago, are just beginning to take effect.

You will see better performances in London, but there is lots of ground to make up and the other atheltic programs dont stand still either.

We are in somewhat better shape for Vancouver, but I still wonder how that will turn out.

Elite athletics requires strategy and resources to carry out that strategy, money comes from Government or companies or as in the case of the soccer team some individuals. No magic here, but this government needs to ensure there is a proper startegy in place so that there isnt a waste of funds by bureacrats and that the oney shows up in infrastucture and medals, not nice jobs.

did i miss something? i thought that the thread was about the cbc ignoring a war. too bad. i heard that big bad georgia was the problem not russia. kinda like the ny giants football team beating up a midget.

Canada needs to face the fact that we have the greatest Olympic nation just to the South of us.

The USA is the model. The US Olympic trials in swimming and track and field are probably deeper and more competitive than the Olympic games.

Phelps and some of the best US swimmers train in Michigan. Why are they so successful south of the Great Lakes and so mediocre north of the Great Lakes?

Shawn Johnson is from West Des Moines, Iowa. What would have happened if she was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba? Would she arguably be the best female gymnast in the olympics? Probably not.

If our elite athletes have to move to train with the best maybe they need to train to the south instead of where the national training centres are in Canada.

If you are a Canadian kid in high school and your goal is to play professional basketball. Where do you go to college? You play with the best in the NCAA you don't stay in Canada.

This is likely the case for any other sport except for curling and hockey.

Hear hear, Capt. Bob. Not a penny of tax money, not ever again.

Its a BUSINESS. Sell tickets and pay the athletes or get sponsorships like Nascar and NHRA racing teams do. Sell space on the team uniform by the square inch if you want. Win on Sunday, sell on Monday, that's the model that works.

Fingers out of my wallet please.

It all boils down to wanting it.Not funding, nor allocation of resources (see: Togo..)

Our youngsters, and possibly the generation before this, are products of a system that rewards the mediocre at all levels.Egalitarian fools who applaud everyone getting a trophy, and not rewarding a clear victor.It's all about the 'fun'.

Not at this level folks.

We bend over backwards to appear fair, to be just, and the rest of the world pushes right on past and goes for gold.

It is disturbingly endemic in Canada, and can be seen in our industry as well, who rely on govt handouts rather than explore and exploit new markets.It's always the safest route, no matter the venue.

I for one, would love to see a little more nastiness, a little more will to win, damn the pain.It is no longer good enough to say 'i did my best'.Not when your best is not good enough, or downright pathetic.Worst of all, the money spent is just flushed down a black hole never to be seen again.$400,000 to one boxer, no coach, no shirt or cornerman, to get punched out 20-1?

This is outrageous..!

I don't care...Canadians are Great, or at least most of em who read this blog, eh. I'll be praying for the Canadian teams. What's odd is I live in the USA and have to watch the games on CBS - no US station is covering the games full time. You have a hot womens beach volleyball team too. Cheers...

Hey -- isn't curling an olympic event? You guys (Canadians) kick butt at that sport. What happened?

Some wardrobe ideas for the 400+ "masked wrestlers" Canada will be sending to the next summer games:

http://www.prowrestlingboots.com/pro_m.htm

That should help increase the entertainment value of the beatings we take at these games.

If Canadian athletes were scoring meddles like a lumberjacks take down trees and the CBC were not there to cover it ..... would we be any less informed?

Watching the Ceeb coverage is like the events are secondary to these boobs we paid to go cover the sports.

And for the knob who claims that somebody here is glad our athletes are sucking back teet ... get a life loser.

The point is the whining that is going on in the team and the organization ....

Isn't everyone who participates in the Olympics is a "winner"?

Why then, does the IOC feel that is must award "the best", a practice that involves "beating" and demoralizing the "losers"? Not only does this result in "hurt feelings", it is a discriminatory practice!

As an interim measure to ensuring that everyone is recognized, the IOC should add iron, copper, tin, aluminum, graphite, sandstone, and particle-board to the medals list. All others should win an "Gold Star Award".

As the saying goes, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you play the game."

Michael Phelps is winning so many swimming medals because he's the quintessential energy-burning, global-warming-denying American!

Good Lord, he consumes 12,000 calories per day! No wonder the Arctic is melting! http://tinyurl.com/68y2lx

Thankfully, if Obama is elected, he'll put a stop to this madness:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,”

http://tinyurl.com/5f64uc

Obama's right! Starting today, it's "Scraps for Phelps!"

Suck it up and work harder.

Might be an idea to have a few more Canadian babies, eh!

We have finally reached socialist Utopia. We are all the same. Losers all but still the champs of statism & multiculturalism. I bet we fit in perfect with the Chinese PC language police?
Losing as the HRC’s would say is winning because all tried but did there best . No one excelled to hurt the feelings of the other athletes.
The real story is how this Country that used to produce wonderful achievers with little money but lots of encouragement has died. Have we lost our will as well as our guts?

We're awesome in hockey and icerocks, and sometimes baseball, but not track&field. i bet steffie&boob might win a metalion in synchro ballhay.

A few years ago an Equestrian competitor I know went to the olympics.

When the horses arrived at their desitination they would not be released until the bill for transportation (or quarantine or whatever-can't remember)was paid. This person's father(who I also know and happens to be wealthy) PERSONALLY paid the bill for ALL the teams horses to be released.

BUT YOU CAN BET YOUR SWEET ASS ALL THE EQUESTRIAN OFFCIALS HAD ALL THIER EXPENSES PAID BY THE COC.

And what about the athlete at the last olympics who couldn't afford to take their trainer. The trainer would watch the event on TV and then phone the athlete to confer with he/she.

Dissgraceful!

My hope is the we don't win a SINGLE medal (with appoligies to the fellow on here whose daughter is on the Womens Soccer team).Perhaps then the government will do something, if only out of shame.

But we were promised 15 medals, were we not?

Horny toad

How 'bout we sell the CBC. That'll free up a whole shit load of cash for amateur athletics.

...and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK

'Cause, y'know, it's either a world-wide popular vote or shout-down contest that decides how we live in the west.

This quote is very telling.

Craig hit on a valid point about being in the shadow of the greatest olympic nation. This is a big factor when it comes to qualifying.

In order for a Canadian boxer to qualify, he must place in the medal round of at least one designated tournament. The Americans must do the same, so at most of these tournaments there are several of the best American boxers trying to qualify. In many cases the American boxer has pretty well secured the olympic gold medal by the time he's made the American team. In the process he and the other Americans have pretty well dashed the hopes of any Canadian qualifying.

In recent memory, the only Canadian boxers that made it to the games have been at least number 3 in the world before getting there. That's a much higher standard than boxers from most countries have to meet.

I can tell you another thing about Adam Trupish. It has to be a huge psychological kick to be all alone, with a totally incompetent support team, and dressed up like a clown.

why Canada are not getting or hardly getting any
number in athletic score in internationla competition

1) Canadian are lazy too much coffe break
2) no dicipline or good school with smart brain can come up
3) no funding in correct direction
4) not hiring good coach to help them
5) this is proces from childhood to young age
you can get goos sportmen or woman withour environemtn be ready

6) wht young doing going to bar and coffee while in most country lik US they go doing excersie
7) this become too uglyif Canada choose for put olympic because in this country take another 6 years can accpe to host
8) good sport teacher
9) community centere for sport is full of druge and all gange boys not good place for mentaly and phsycially made the star yet
10) if some group are smart need the group who find those star and put them or join them and govmernt need to fund those smart body and girlst to get deloep to higerr level with good caoch to become reall good madal athletic person
11) raptor is sting for me hiring americna to fight amerian and at the end they hold and hug each other to not win the Canda become up yet
this is good to hire out of canada not for olympic though

12) enviorent, mentaly health and body and parents funding coaching cut the laziness and discipline and concentration in this job be sriud plust after you becom winner then WHAT not future for those winner of olypim too they must get more directed before on thetime of high and after they got he medal to devlope good sport in Canada
in all kind of sport
rogers center is exist but no sportsmen to paly it isntead they bring musican to sing the song
plus if some one need to put all time for becoem good sprot men or woman hwo those time should get suported

and how to open the passion mind for love of sport and open some nationalisim to that

we have not nationalism here we are mutliculturims

in hard job and hard cours in university you will see the list mostly minority take engineering and hard sport like soccer but in easy course like Enlgish or busienss course you will see too many coffee break Canadian origian take those course to say I have degree not for real know those course or spend time for it.

Rusia and Gorgia also play game of olympic who has the winner at end of that gaem
this remind me god father that young son of god father wait after two grups shake hand with father he identify them then he revenge and he kiled them all
now rusis give all seperation and all freedom then now they are revengeing of who was behind this game and bulying gma of russia
do not forget russia bullying cost countries
lost so much money and too muchn nuclear wars
equipment left for sell

then russian never learn what is important to pay or spend instead of Russia spend money
for nuclear they could spend it for feed their coutnreis not get seperated

now they are seprted war is too late
plust I do not understand why russie must get
seprated for me this stupied
Gorgia and Azerbaigan all was part of Russia
there was not reasonfor seperation to me

they could live togeher in peace and feed insid to each otehr I dnot belive Gorgia speartion was benfit real to those peopel and to Russie they arelook like each otehr they talk like each otehr they have the same culture
they only play for piece of land to me and power and money nothing else!!
this seperation made russia weak and beenfit USA

Russioa also find to me are two grup one hard workign smart people and one grup are bully and no heart people inj power they are very smart and they are very polite and

Never try to use F or B word when you talk to Russian they really get angry

some are racist too but culture of Russina look to me very kind and nice talking hard working smrt but not stand with rules and like power and money and theyare poor mentally
they are not use money to enjoy but use mone to spend in useless war as we can see
the Russion who become so many medals in sport
they should smar enough to not fight in any war

Russia are lack good leader unfortuanly

teh method of talk to Russian if you talk nicelythey listne to you more to order or talk to them by bad language they are jelouse too
hard working in computre

I'm American, so of course I like to see U.S. atheletes win as much as possible. But...

You guys have great hockey, and Ian Miller and Big Ben rocked the equestrian world back in their day.

It's sad that you don't win more (besides USA of course) -- I could cheer for Canadians a whole lot more easily than for some countries and take a defeat from you a lot better as well.

2) no dicipline or good school with smart brain can come up

Sorry to correct your words in public "haye", but the above should read,

"no dicipline or good school with which smart brain can come."

Otherwise, graet post as usual!

The US and many other countries know that what the Olympics really do is foster national pride and patriotism, etc. It is a nation building activity. That is why they invest in it so heavily - it is creating a glue and enhancing a national culture.

They also tend to build accountability and benchmarks into funding (e.g. we'll give you this much but we expect 2 medals in this event, etc.). This means they have to produce - or they are gone.

If we are going to fund athletes then we better make sure they are producing. We are not doing that right now.

Louise said:

How 'bout we sell the CBC. That'll free up a whole shit load of cash for amateur athletics.

That's the best idea I've heard in a long time.

Doug wrote, "And people say conservatives are the ones wholove [sic] this country."

Hey, Doug, at least we don't love it for the right reasons.

If we are going to fund athletes then we better make sure they are producing. We are not doing that right now.

Posted by: cconn at August 14, 2008 6:54 AM

The athletes aren't the problem. Athletes are raw material. Almost every healthy kid you see is a potential world class athlete in some sport or another.

Amateur sport associations are the problem. I know because I'm a member of one that isn't doing a very good job. The people who run these organizations answer only to themselves. There is very little oversight of anything, including finances. Since they are non-profit, they are not audited with any great scrutiny. They don't fall under the same jurisdiction as corporations.

What I'd like to see is a separate board, or commision, (made up of volunteers if possible) with members from business, sport, and government. If they picked one association per month, and demanded a full business plan, they could have this mess cleaned up in 4 years.

Don't blame the athletes. Don't blame funding. Don't blame our medicocre persona....Blame Mike Harris.

Its not the funding nor the size of our population (smaller and poorer countries are kicking out butts).

Its the decades long process of teaching young Canadians that competition and winning are bad (ie American). We're removing all forms of competitive sports from the school and teaching kids that we should all just get along - don't keep score, don't beat your opponent that would make them feel bad.

Dennis Miller once complained about the removal of dodgeball from school sports. To paraphrase him, he said "What are we teaching our kids? Life is one dodgeball shot in the groin after another - kids need to learn this".

In my neighbourhood the local school recently removed their baseball field and soccer pitch and replaced them with pseudo-inner city forests so kids could learn about nature instead of getting exercise and learning the benefits of some good natured competition.

Losing isn't the end of the world - its a valuable learning experience and makes us stronger. But there's nothing wrong with teaching kids that winning is a good thing too. Encouraging your children to TRY to be number one is sadly missing these days.

I've heard too many Canadian Athletes saying "I'm here to give it my best even though I know I won't win". One CBC commentator at the pool said "... he doesn't want to talk about winning a medal, that's not on his mind right now" ... um why not?

Can we keep a little perspective here, people? Canadians truly worth cheering on — our brave soldiers — are winning where it counts: in Afghanistan.

The reason we aren't doing that well is we don't have the RCMP to protect us by tasering the competition.

dp,

I hear ya. I think I agree with your solution as well.

john brown,

I hear ya too. I happened to see some of the golf player interviews (the scorecard interviews) after the PGA championship last week. The interview with Harringtion (the winner) was really interesting. He was asked questions about Garcia (the runner up) and how he had never won a major and wasn't it time for him to win. Harrington answered,(paraphrased) "as a person I would like to see him win, and as a fellow professional golfer I am sad to see him lose, but as a competitor, I have no time for this sentimentality stuff, I am there to win, and I am going to do everything in my power to win". I thought this summed up the attitude that is needed - and is not being taught - to our athletes.