54 Replies to “It Serves Us Right For Taking Their Steroids Away”

  3. How can the CBC ranking make the US in third, but the Yahoo ranking (linked from Drudge) shows the US in second?
    Al little Canadian 9enis envy?

  5. I am watching my daughter and her soccer team take on the world for an Olympic medal. I can attest to the fact that they are steroid free, in spite of that it is highly likely that they will come away with a medal. They play #3 ranked Sweden tonight for the last game in the preliminary rounds, and if they even lose they will highly likely be in the medal round. In short, there is a very good chance that this team of exceptionally dedicated (and mind boggling fit) women will beat a single team and be playing for 3rd place at least. Gold is definitely well within there grasp. Go Canada!!!!
    Free enterprisers on this site will he glad to know that a Dot.com millionaire by the name of Greg Kerfoot put more money into the girls preparations (two years of residence camp to play together) than the entire Canadian government sport machinery. Go Free Enterprise and wonderfully decent men like Greg Kerfoot, current owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps men and women’s teams.

  6. The listing above is sorted by number of gold medals, not total medal count or some weighted-average-so-golds-are-worth-more type count.
    Sorry, nothing to see there.

  7. Well, if it will make anyone feel better, I don’t think there were any serious medal possibilities out of the Canadians who have competed so far, except maybe Kyle Shewfelt.

  8. *Yawn*
    The global pissing contest known as the Olympics couldn’t be less interesting. Especially since it looks more like Peter Mansbridge’s China vacation that anything else it is supposed to be.

  9. Just an aside, the Chinese Olympics are treating the Athletes like rock stars. My daughter and a few of her teammates decided to take advantage of a van and driver at their disposal to go out of the Olympic village for a Starbucks coffee. They 5 of them piled into the van and noticed no cars on the streets on their way to the coffee shop. 50 Chinese policemen had blocked all traffic on the roads so that their van drove down deserted streets to starbucks. They were so horrified at the measures that had been made for their safety and the inconvenience imposed on Chinese citizens they resolved never to do that again.
    Their bus left Beijing for Tianjin two hours away. The entire 2 hour trip they did not see a single car on the freeway coming or going. The police had again cleared the highway for their “convenience and safety. The bus was a quick replacement for the bullet train they were originally scheduled on. It had no bathroom on board and the girls had to convince the driver to stop for a pee break. They ran down the side of the highway and did their business in complete privacy given there was no one to see them but the bus driver himself.
    Fortunately, the trip back from Tianjin was taken on the bullet trains which hit 344KM/hr on the way back.

  10. RCGZ – Congratulations on your daughter’s success. I have been a supporter of the Women’s program since the mid-90s and I am very happy for their success. I fought in the good ol’ days for equal funding for the Women from the CSA because those were our fees they collected and the women had at least a right to funding proportional to membership. And as much as I like the team, I am against government funding of elite athletes on the simple principle that governments have many more pressing responsibilities. And that is also why I am aware of Kerfoot’s support and applaud his efforts. I’ll be watching them at 4:45am tomorrow morning.

  12. According to my youngest child, chinese athletes will have an unfair advantage. They already know how to chew the air before using it…
    Seriously, my kid is teaching in China and she says the air quality is so bad it’s hard to breathe at times in downtown Beijing.

  13. In order for a country (in this day and age) to be competitive at the Olympics you have to identify talented atheletes at a young age (11 or 12) and continue to develop their talent until their 30s. This is difficult to do without major organization, and when there is little incentive to continue in most of these sports after a very young age.
    The countries that are (very) successful in the Olympics provide financial incentive for their atheletes to continue to train and compete through government and/or corporate funding. For most companies the marketing value of funding an athelete is too small for a market as small as Canada, and our government is not comming close to the funding that other countries provide.
    Now, I would rather see funding for atheletes than for welfare … but I would rather see lower taxes than either.

  14. When I can’t cheer for Canada I cheer for the good ol’ USA. Just think of the people you know who are anti-American and imagine how ruined their day is with each U.S. success.
    Last night in the men’s 4 x 100 relay in swimming, coming from back from an impossible deficit and beating the hated Fwench? Priceless.

  15. Thanks Rat. Its the efforts of people like you and Kerfoot that have made it possible for our girls to make it to the Olympics and compete for a medal. A tie with Sweden guarantees their move into the knockout round. Even if they lose, the goals for goals against so far argue strongly that they will still move into the knockout round unless something really unusual happens.
    At the moment, Norway is the only team that has gone undefeated! Vaunted US 1 win, 1 loss. Vaunted Brazil 1 win 1 tie, Vaunted Germany 1 win 1 tie, the military team of N. Korea 1 win 1 loss, Sweden 1 win one loss………… Canada 1 win 1 tie!

  16. “ompetitive at the Olympics you have to identify talented atheletes at a young age (11 or 12)”
    You might be surprised that this happens in Canada in female soccer. They play in provincial championships and if they are good they get picked up by the National program. The cash that we put out to help our daughters career funds the development until they are recruited by US universities to play for exceptionally well funded and coached teams along with getting a full education. From there they get pulled back to play international games with the National teams in U-17, U-20 etc until they make the full National squad. From there, government funding increases but nowhere nearly enough to be competitive worldwide. The difference is when a philanthropist like Kerfoot steps in and helps out in a major way.
    It may not be pretty, but the combination of private and US University support makes it all work out. The real key is the US title IX which mandates that as much money invested in male sports must be spent on Women’s sports. It works, and I for one am grateful for the US commitment to giving our athletes world class training and and education free of charge!

  17. The “real” events of the olympics are truly worth watching:
    – swimming (like last night’s 4*100)
    – track & field
    For the rest, one needs to have a special interest or connection.
    The games would benefit greatly if they cut away all events added since 1972 or so. (The same applies to the winter games.)

  18. RGCZ:
    You can no more guarantee that your daughter or her fellow athletes are not cheating than you can guarantee that she is texting a biy that you would not approve of. Chances are very high that she and her team mates aren’t but women’s soccer is hardly a heavily contested sport – much a women’s hockey isn’t – as compared to men’s soccer where we rank 150th or so. As in so many other ‘new’ sports, we do well until a couple of olympics pass and the rest of the world catches up and leaves us in the dust – usually through a combination of more intensive training, better coaching and yes, prohibited drugs and other practices.
    I’m not complaining – i’m just saying.
    I adamantly oppose gov’t sponsorship of top-flite athletics – i find the sheer outrageousness of the cost-no-obect facilities at beijing, Montreal and Berlin nauseating examples of autocratic government run amok.
    I feel that pressure for cdn athletes to succeed at this level is to coerce them to cheat. I feel that perhaps the person in athletic history to get the rawest of all deals was Ben johnson – he got caught and publically humiliated when over the interimi period it has 6 of the remaining 7 sprinters in that race were also doping – including Carl lewis. And I think it’s repugnant that Donovan Bailey has been so readily thought to be clean.

  19. We sent 331 “competitors” to the games. After watching Spain rape the water polo team yesterday, why isn’t it obvious to our government that we should have trimmed that number below the embarrassingly wasteful 265 person contingent sent to Athens?
    There were always masked wresters needed for the stars to beat up on “Stampede Wrestling” broadcasts. A necessary evil for ratings.
    I’ve got a bad feeling that Canada supplied Beijing with 331 masked wrestlers.

  20. “You can no more guarantee that your daughter or her fellow athletes are not cheating”
    I will agree with you that in certain sports doping is endemic. On the other hand these girls get tested randomly all the time for doping. In their case, the budget does not exist to operate expensive masking programs in the way they can in big money sports like cycling and sprinting. Its a good bet they are clean, but you are right. No guarantees. I will say I am pretty sure they are au natural given that I know quite a few of them. In my view, the Canadian Womens Soccer team is an exceptional assemblage of honorable competitors. They worked their asses off for 2 years just to qualify for the games. They are a fit, tight, determined team. I do not share your dark view that they are all on drugs.

  21. BTW, when Brent Hayden pulled out of the 200m freestyle semi’s so his team could finish a meaningless 6th in the 100m x 4 freesyle relay that struck me as chicken sh_t. If Hayden wants to wear gold he has to have a heart big enough to earn it. It doesn’t look like he has one.
    I’m tired of Canada rooting for it’s athletes not to finish last. This is the time to give it all and look ahead, not behind.
    We’ll win much more when we lose the fear of losing. Our 50yr old fencer Jujie Luan held her own last night in her last match against a much younger skilled opponent only when she was pushed by desperation into attacking. A good lesson and a redeeming performance. I hope the other 330 were paying attention.

  22. I’m happy for the soccer program’s success. The intervention of a corporate sponsor was a real break.
    I’ve been a boxing coach for many years, and this time we sent one boxer to the olympics. Amateur boxing is at an all-time low as far as financial support, and for that matter, fan interest. Most of the paying fans at our shows are relatives and friends of the athletes.
    That’s one reason I’d like to move to Saskatchewan. The amateur boxing association there has its act together.
    I find there’s a misconception that the government sponsors most of these amateur sports. This attitude makes it hard to squeeze funding from private sources. I’ve been paying most of our expenses out of my own pocket. I’m lucky enough to be able to afford it.
    Since my own sons have entered competition, I’ve become a lot more involved in athlete development. They were too young this time around, but in 4 years we’ll see. I don’t put too much stock in the olympics though. There are other goals like the commonwealth games, and the world championships. The olympics is still the big ticket though.

  23. With all due respect, but Sweden will wipe the floor with the Canadians (women’s soccer).
    Heja Sverige!

  25. Regarding boxing, I must say that I learned to disregard what Russ Anber says way back in 1984 in Los Angeles.
    Also, which Olympic genius decided to pit the #1 & #2 flyweights against one another in the very first match?
    Lastly, how do they consistently manage to find such obnoxious women to do the diving commentary?

  26. Matt- Boxing matches are the luck of the draw. They don’t seed the athletes. Scott Olsen got a bad draw in Seoul, and lost to the gold medal guy before the medal rounds. Same thing happened to Carmen Rinkey in Montreal. Russ Anber is a bit noisy, but he’s a quality coach.

  28. Remember the sex testing at the Montreal olympics? I think the East German swimmers brought that on. Anyone remember the only person not sex tested in Montreal?

  30. I think the East Germans figured the dose was enough when the girls started wearing a mens Speedo and their nether parts started to create extra drag. they were the most beastly things to enter the olympics ever.

  31. The East German swim team was caught injecting helium into their bottoms a few years back. I never figured out whether that was for bouyancy or propulsion.

  32. It is thought that the Chinese have hired top Russian and former East German “trainers” to do cutting edge research in athelete enhancement technology.
    These coaches train their test subjects in complete secrecy. Experts in the this area suspect they have had breakthroughs in mitocondria manipulation which has led to amazing improvements in performance. The side effect is that many top Chinese athletes of the last Olympics have dissapeared. The price of victory is a very short life.
    State sponsored cheating is the hallmark of a totalitarian regime.
    Many Canadian athletes are cheating. They have to if they want to win, they just do not have the state behind them or a big corporation funding their pharmacological advantages. So inevitably they are failing. At least they less likely to die young.

  33. Anyone remember the only person not sex tested in Montreal?
    Princess Anne.
    I went to see some of the footy held at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. I saw Brazil, Poland, and Israel (one of them twice, can’t remember which).

  34. Being the parent of an aspiring Olympic athlete and a carded athlete, I can say that our government should can funding and simply permit parents of Olympic athletes to deduct the expenses from our income. My son has represented this country at Beach volleyball internationally since he was sixteen. Although it has cost us a great deal of money we will continue to fund his achievement and his goal of representing this country in the 2012 Olympics. He is one of those 1 in 10,000 athletes who, given the right training and opportunity, could achieve gold.
    If this country wants to see athletes achieve then more should be spent on athletes and less on undeserving meaningless projects which do not advance humanity. High level international athletes are developing skills and world wide contacts which will be of value in our global village.

  35. Notes from tonight:
    1) No Canadian in tonight’s swimming events, but the CBC gets the Canadian angle: the mother of one of the gold medal winning Americans is from Nova Scotia. Similarly, no Canadians in the beach volleyball competitions, but the CBC again gives us the Canadian angle, this one being that a Canadian firm brings in and looks after the sand.
    2) Expect Ron Maclean to be recalled any moment now. He referred to one of the Candian women’s softball players as the third baseman. Expect lots of agonizing and soul searching at the Corpse.

  36. When Henry Morgenthaler was awarded the Order of Canada, it gave me pretty much the same feeling I had when Bejing was awarded the Olympic Games. I won’t watch either event on ANY news medium!

  37. “And as much as I like the team, I am against government funding of elite athletes on the simple principle that governments have many more pressing responsibilities.”
    I agree with you 100 %. But to take it one step further IF a Canadian wins a medal they should stand on the podium as a private entrant and not a Canadian as Canada has done NOTHING to get them there. No anthem, no flag, just the athelete who has worked his/her ass off to get there with no help from their country.
    That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
    Horny Toad

  38. I’m not sure what to think of the olympics quite honestly. I watch snippets of it because that’s all there is to watch most of the time. The coverage is so chopped up and uncoordinated that trying to follow it is a painful exercise in frustration most of the time. The number of events has expanded way beyond reason, and some of the events, e.g. equestrian are hugely expensive drains on the national olympic organizations’ budgets for sports to which only a wealthy elite can ever hope to aspire.
    That being said, I would like to see a national sport program/strategy. It is an area in which I think government should have a role. It should emphasize broad based participation up to university level and coincident with that an elite program that would identify the potential elite athletes early on with a program to develop them. These elites could serve as a corp to inspire athleticism generally in the country, provide the future coaches and from this elite those with real olympic potential could be fostered and developed. But the ultimate focus would still be on the broad masses of children and young adults. I believe that if the habits of physical fitness are inculcated early, they will be more likely to persist throughout a lifetime and Canadians will be healthier for it.

  39. In most cases that would be fair indeed Horny Toad. A lot of people want to take credit, but it’s the athlete who gets it done.
    I guess I’m behind the times here, because I didn’t know beach volleyball was an olympic sport now. I remember when tae kwon do was a demonstration sport in Seoul. Is it a permanent event now too?

  40. rcgz: I do not think they Are all on drugs – but I do think that the system pressures all of them to do so.
    “Ookpiker” comment was hilarious BTW.
    – watched a bit of men’s synchronized diving today – a British “couple” featured a 27 year-old paired up with a fourteen year-old. Does anyone else find that to be highly disturbing?

  41. Norman – what makes you any different than someone supproting their kid playing midget hockey? Can you imagine the amount if money laundering that would be done if such an examption existed?

  42. Personally I rather like the Olympics, particularly the track & field and swimming, even though I was always a no-hoper in any of the pursuits. I’ll cheer for Canadians but also for the Surinams and Maltas and Naurus that show up from time to time. As long as they’re semi-free or better.
    “The games would benefit greatly if they cut away all events added since 1972 or so.”
    But wouldn’t this hurt Canada’s only medal hopes, in synchronized equestrian?
    “The East German swim team …”
    Speaking of which, anybody see the movie Top Secret in 1984?

  43. Anyone remember the only person not sex tested in Montreal?
    Princess Anne.
    was it too humiliating after the test to see which one was the horse?

  44. Princess Anne, 20 something old mare appearing at the Olympics for england…
    that’s the one cal2!

  45. An old friend’s quote from years ago imagining Canada in the 10000m track event at the 15 minute mark:
    “And there’s Canada, comfortably in 5th!”
    So Canadian…

  46. I rate watching the Olympics as #1 and although Canada is not taking allot of medal, my hat is off to all their athletes. Go Canada…friend from the USA.

  48. We aren’t doing well because we don’t pay for it.
    This is Canada. We don’t support elitism. We support mediocrity. Everyone’s equal here, don’t’cha know? We’d rather fund a never-ending line-up of crack-whores, criminals and other liberals.
    As for those who at the same time crab about funding for our athletes but root for the US when there aren’t any CDNs in the running, know that the arch-capitalist US runs a HUGE Olympic program (as does Australia) while socialist Canada has a huge welfare program. I know which I’d rather have.

  49. “I agree with you 100 %. But to take it one step further IF a Canadian wins a medal they should stand on the podium as a private entrant and not a Canadian as Canada has done NOTHING to get them there. No anthem, no flag, just the athelete who has worked his/her ass off to get there with no help from their country.
    That would be fair, wouldn’t it?
    Horny Toad”
    Absolutely! I think the nationalistic bent of the Olympics is sick in the way that some nations will literally kill athletes in pursuit of “National Pride”. From Iraq’s beating of their failed soccer team to China’s “disappeared” athletes to East Germany’s “Man”-women, the Olympics have been nothing but a disgrace. If we removed the nation aspect and allowed individual athletes to compete for themselves the Olympics would probably be a lot less dodgy.
    I know some might think “what about team sports”, but I believe most team sports have (or should have) prestigious world championships like the World Cup in soccer, the Rugby World Cup, the World Cup of hockey etc.

  50. warwick- Our system of funding athletes is not working at all. The government gives us just enough to scrape by, and just enough to give the impression that private sponsorship is not required.
    I don’t fully understand the American system, but I believe it’s mostly corporate sponsorship encouraged by tax incentives. I don’t know if it would work here, but it’s worth a try.
    My son just got back from a boxing tournament in Kansas. It’s the largest amateur tournament in the world, with 1400 athletes crossing the scales. It’s sponsored by Ringside Products, the biggest boxing equipment supplier in the world. They’ve been sponsoring this event for years, and I plan to send my kids every year. This is a shining example of a corporation spending a little capital to help promote amateur sport. It didn’t cost them all that much, and they probably sold a lot of stuff. My son came home with a lot of new equipment.
    There were quite a few Canadians at the tournament. Most of them paid their own way. My son got half his expenses paid by our association because he was on a “provincial team”. As a coach, I’ve seen a lot of kids get passed over because their parents can’t afford “training”. I’ve sponsored a lot of kids over the years. I probably postponed my retirement for a few years but that’s okay.

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