With nowhere to go but sideways;
…if only Canadian kids had the opportunities of those spoiled beach boys growing up in North Korea – we too would have seven medals by now like they do.
With nowhere to go but sideways;
…if only Canadian kids had the opportunities of those spoiled beach boys growing up in North Korea – we too would have seven medals by now like they do.
Not funny Kate, do you think it’s izzy getting medals?
We shouldn’t even be in the Olympics, they’re un-Canadian.
They have the (G)old medal, (S)ilver medal, and (B)ronze medals. What about the (E)ffort medal?
If their was an (E) medal then Canada would have its share. IT’S NOT FAIR!
There’s no marksmanship except for bean shooters at 30 feet. The martial arts competitions are so rule bound they are no better than ice dancing competition. In swimming they are breaking so many records by such large margins (4 seconds faster in the 200 meter?) one needs must suspect better living through chemistry.
I’d pull every single penny of government funding for the whole thing. Its a friggin “shade inventory” for sports. Kids want to go, they can totally go. They want to raise money, they can do that. Tax money? No way.
its a product of the Harper regime.
This hits it on the head.
I for one am sick and tired of living in a country that celebrates being second rate.
A national dialogue on on “excellence” “quality” and a redefinition of national identity must begin.
Those in the MSM make note. It will take a tremendous amount of courage to even raise the subject.
In the end, Trudeau’s ideological poison will come out as the culprit of Canada’s inferiority complex.
Bingo Phantom! “Amateur sport” and the CBC. Not one more thin dime.
Harper no way. This has the markings of Mike Harris. ;>)
Amateur sport just needs a new method of funding. Would all you anti-funding people be okay with corporate sponsorship through tax incentives?
Everyone should write the CBC and thank them profusely for showing the USA winning medals at a non-stop pace.
As I wrote yesterday, the CBC told us that the sand for beach volleyball is trucked in by a Canadian firm and that an American gold medal swimmer has a Canadian mother. It’s about participating, people. Winning is just so American.
Panama sent 5 athletes to the games, and so far we’re holdin’ our own with them!
Really though what does running 100 meters in less than ten seconds mean in the real world, those than can do it catch the bus we are running for and I have to wait for the next one?
Sure it is nice to win and it is a great ego boost if your country is the best at something. In the long run does it really matter? Without looking it up can anyone name Donavon Bailey”s teammates who won gold with him in the Men’s relay?
dp, NO.
They want to play their sport? Find their own sponsorships and the rest can come out their own pockets. No way it should ever cost me anything for someone else to play a sport.
I support my own sport habit to the tune of almost $2000 so this year.
“I didnt take no stereo.” Ben Johnson
In keeping with the medal count, “Raj Binder” has been spectacularly unfunny so far. I hope he pb’s, because he’s almost as bad as that bald guy from games gone past.
Should Canada expect medals? How racist!
So many of these comments here prove my point.
American’s believe (and I mean REALLY believe) in the pursuit of quality and excellence in ALL areas of life.
Canadians believe that it’s a luxury left for the other guy to take this seriously.
Jim- Sport is fed from the bottom up. It also dies from the bottom up. I have 2 boys in amateur sport. I wish my cost was $2000 a year. It’s more like $10000. I also sponsor some other people’s kids. I’ve been doing this for many years, and it’s not enough.
What you’re involved in is recreation. It isn’t the same thing. I’m not criticising, plenty of people can’t make the distinction. I have recreational athletes in my gym. They’re an important group in any sport. Their membership fees really help fund operating expense, and they always seem willing to help with the high level athletes, any way they can. I don’t think very many facilities would survive without user fees from recreational athletes.
What I’m suggesting is a government regulated corporate sponsorship. Corporations have ways of avoiding taxes anyway, so what’s wrong with giving them an option that helps us avoid an international ass kicking like we’re getting right now?
Did you know our only boxer had to get help from an Irish coach in his corner? He also had to find a new shirt 5 minutes before his match, because our “designer” thought he knew more about “style” than the IABA. He’s 29 years old, it’s his second olympics, and he got a severe beating. We should have just stayed home.
We’re now in 74th position. With a team of more than 300 atheletes we’re getting beat by countries that sent 50 atheletes.
Instead of sending every Tom, Dick, and Janie who has a dream to “just compete in the Olympics” we should limit it to atheletes that can prove they have a shot at finishing 5th or better.
It’s an embarrassment.
Reid- Some sports do require their athletes to meet certain criteria. Canadian boxers have to finish in the medal rounds in a number of designated events to qualify. That’s why we only sent one boxer.
Our problem is in the early development of athletes. Our only exception is hockey. In most cases they could mail us the gold medal, and save on travel costs. This is because a lot of effort is put into developing very young athletes. They get plenty of support from professional hockey. Too bad all the other professional organizations are so short sighted.
I have a radical proposition…
Canada should no longer participate in the Olympics and should not fund high-level sports.
What would we be giving up? Not much, really. Every two years we wouldn’t have a team to cheer for. Big deal. I can live with that. And I’m skeptical that the Olympics does much to bring the world together to achieve peace and harmony for all.
High-level competitive sports don’t achieve very much. They have nothing to do with the fitness of the nation as a whole. The number of athletes is too small, and many of them train so hard it’s often unhealthy. The money is better put into local sports programs.
Did you know our only boxer had to get help from an Irish coach in his corner?
Correct me if I’m wrong but I also heard that $400-500k was spent on the Canadian boxing “team.”
Is that what half a mil gets us? Where did that money go?
If Canadians want Olympic medals, then drop the blinders and start doping the hell out of our athletes.
Does anyone REALLY think those swimming records are falling because of clean living, a fresh haircut and tight suit?
I agree with the last 2 comments.My kids were in sports one at the elite level.As parents we paid fees ,paid for every meet from national down and fund raised like crazy. So he we were selling muffins and candy and whatever else we could to help defray some of the costs of travelling only to find out that the people (not coaches mind you,the bureaucrats) at the federation BC GYMNASTICS, would travel with full expenses paid. They would also hold their AGM in fancy downtown Vancouver hotels where they were staying and renting expensive meeting room.AS a note, Sports BC has a very nice building on the very expensive west side of Vancouver.
The money never makes it to the athlete or only in tiny amounts.The sports bureaucrats in canada are the pampered ones, I don’t know about Bejing but in Athens the delegation of canadian officials was larger than the athlete’s delegation.
The whole thing is disappointing right now….the gymnastic team totally underperformed, there was “supposed” to be something from them…big disappointment.
Our swim team is still recovering from whatever problem the program had leading into Athens….they are setting Canadian records but that just tells you how far out of whack our program is with the rest of the world.
Only hopes now are Kayaking, the Mens 8, the decathalone(I think ???)
Must admit that if she wins a medal, even a bronze, that Wilkinson girl will be all over Canadian media….for a communications major she speaks like a Valley Girl 🙂
Unfortunatley the Canadian Womans soccer team lost today, I believe they will advance but I was hooing they had really found their game.
As for funding, I dont have much of an issue with it, but you definitely have to expect results and set goals. If it isnt happeneing then there is something wrong with the coaching or the training, the same basics are there in all countries, forgiving the chemical enhancements for a second…
The funding is minor compared to lots of stuff and quite frankly I think there is something to be said for providing a path to world athletic stage….shoot even the paragon of capitalism, the US, does it. I just think the expectations should be high and the disappointment and shame for not performing should be real, and yes coaches heads should roll if there are large failures like it looks like we are headed towards…again. 80’s and 90’s were really the heydey, it can be done again.
Our sports system is rancid with pork barreling politicians sponging off sports money. Buckets of money for lard a$$es to attend meetings and grease their fingers with tax money.
It became all too clear for me back in the 90’s when Karen Lee-Gartner, after finishing a dismal 27th or something like that in a down hill ski race, exclaimed… “that’s ok, I’m here to have fun anyway.”
The same thought occurred to me when Jeremy Wotherspoon wiped out on the speed skating oval last Olympics after winning all the trials previously.
That thought was ‘I bet we see gold medal performances at all the after hours parties.’
The best comparison, in terms of population size, history etc is Australia. They have ten medals; Canada has none.
Oh, and Australia has taken charge of its political and social infrastructure. They made their Senate elected and equal while Canada’s Senate is filled with patronage appointees living off the taxpayer.
Their immigration and even visitor visa rules require that the applicant sign a commitment to the Australian ‘way of life’ (eg, equality of men/women; democracy, rule of law, etc.)
Oh, and they are competitive economically and otherwise. Canada doesn’t compete. We rely on the US to purchase 85% of our exports; there isn’t country in the world that is so dependent on one export nation. We don’t compete in the world for other markets. And if the US doesn’t purchase our goods, we get very, very upset.
We don’t start up our own businesses; if Wal*Mart decides it doesn’t want to set up shop in one town, we take them to court. We don’t set up our own stores.
We don’t fund our own researchers; we rely on the research of other countries – because research takes a lot of money and time. Then, we copy the products produced (eg new drugs) and sell them cheaply and tell the world how kind we are.
We don’t fund our economic infrastructure because our taxes are so high we haven’t developed an investor class. We have to rely on foreign investment, which comes in and sets up our industries.
This dependency, which means that we are essentially living at home with our parents (the US) means that we aren’t responsible for anything. Let our parents (the US) look after world troubles and compete and strive for excellence, and look after the world security and economy. We, lucky us, living at our parent’s home, are protected.
From cbc.ca, two months before the games began, a story on Olympian Kyle Shewfelt titled “A Study in Courage” begins:
“Kyle Shewfelt’s frustration is palpable. ‘There are gaps between the planks in my hardwood floor,” he says from his new home in Calgary. ‘Some of them will have to be pulled up.’
“Shewfelt took possession of the house in early April, and arranged fro the floor to be done before he moved in a month later — but that didn’t happen. The gymnast is quick to point out that flooring isn’t important in the larger scheme of things. Still, it’s a distraction he could do without…
“Home renovations are not his only distraction. He’s also dealing with the end of an important relationship. ‘Melissa and I parted ways,’ he says of his former girlfriend.
“And then a minor headache: ‘The engine light in my car went on,’ he says. “When I went out with my friends last week they told me the gas cap might be loose. But I tightened it and the light is still on. I have an appointment with the dealership on Friday.’ Then Shewfelt adds, almost apologetically: ‘I know this happens to everyone.’
“‘Beijing is always in the back of my mind. It always factors into my thinking. For example, I want to finish dealing with this hardwood floor problem so I can get into my comfort zone to prepare for the games.'”
I saw Shewfelt interviewed on CBC at a point in time where he was 89th overall. He was glowing. He said he was happy because he’s never set “results goals” for himself, only “performance goals.”
Also at cbc.ca, a link — “Tumblin’ nice: Canada’s male gymnasts are turning heads” — contains this all-Canadian nugget from the men’s program director at Gymnastics Canada: “That eleventh-place finish in Germany was more impressive than the sixth-place finish in Denmark.”
Hmmm, do you think it’s possible that…
Naah.
Matt- I’ll tell you where the money went.
First, carded athletes are on a “salary” which works out to more money than most struggling professional athletes bring in. It’s a good incentive for old guys like Trupish to stay on the national team. If they learn the politics, and attach themselves to the right coach, they have no problem manipulating the system.
Second, there is a very large “pool” of coaches and officials who enjoy paid trips all over the world. Every time a team goes to a tournament in an exotic location, they end up with a bunch of them in tow, at the association’s expense.
Third, but not least, there are way too many parasites living off amateur boxing. Long time national coach Taylor Gordon became a wealthy man while running our program, I’ll admit he got results, but he was well compensated for it. He also made sure “his” athletes were ushered through the important events. He’s also been accused of paying $100,000 to the father of Kirk Johnson, to deliver him to Taylor’s gym. If there’s that kind of money kicking around, I’ve been going at this all wrong.
According to the commentator, the Olympics is “good experience” for the athletes. I thought one should get lots of experience and THEN go to the Olympics!! Me stupid.
Shewfelt broke both of his legs not too long ago. For him to come back to compete at this level actually was kind of a big deal.
Continue on with the NIMBY circle jerk.
For those who don’t like tax dollars funding amateur sport, it a matter of pay now or pay much more later.
Kids have mega hours of free time. They will use that time for something. Could be sports, could be crime.
If they can’t afford sports, well, you do the math.
Hey Jim,
Those midnight basketball courts sure cut down on the gangsters in Toronto.
Canada. A shining example of the sissy mantra, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
How embarrassing.
I agree with Doug. And ET has as Revernt Dream would say “gotten to the core of the apple”.
I am suprised by the comments from so called “c”onservatives. What is wrong with supporting our youth and expecting them to strive for excellence? I can’t say if an athlete is selfish or selfless when they compete for Canada. I think it is a little of both; but, I have no doubt that most of these athelets with their determination and drive would fair much better economically if the pursued careers instead of medals.
Or, what kind of a sports team do you expect from a hotel?
The end result of the Ben Johnson fiasco:
While we flagellated ourselves and swore off the dope, and purged our athletes of the chems..other nations found better and more efficient ways to mask their doping and continued to excel in all areas.
Does anyone really believe that the slight of body Chinese are that much better in power sports like swimming, weight lifting etc?
Pound for pound, there is no way that these people should be even close to larger, stronger western Europeans/North Americans if it wasn’t for doping..
…if THEY pursued careers instead of medals.
oops
Kyle Shewfelt had a girlfriend !!! I would have never guessed that. I thought he moved so well in the floor exercise because he was light in his loafers.
Or, what kind of a sports team do you expect from a hotel?
Posted by: irwin daisy at August 12, 2008 4:39 PM
No kidding. Plenty of athletes take advantage of Canadian programs, then run home to compete for their country of origin. Even first generation Canadians are allowed to compete for their father’s country of origin.
Irwin Daisy said’ “Canada. A shining example of the sissy mantra, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.””
I actually agree with the mantra but would add, but if you dont win your obviously not playing the game right.
I think we need to encourage elite amatuer atheletes, but look where we do best, hockey. Hockey is perform or you dont get to the next level.
Extensive coaching system and coaches move up based on success (winning) as well. Other sports need to take the same attitude and the governing bodies need to be ruthless in how they move coaches up or down. The government, being the payer, needs to ensure that clubiness doesnt set in.
Australia is an excellent example to follow, I thought we were supposed to be doing that.
Right now it looks like the only program that really has that kill or be killed attitude is the mens 8 rowing. I hope they are bringing the follow up rowers along so the dominance can be continued.
We used to dominate the pool….something went wrong. We also used to dominate womens rowing, 8’s 4’s etc but that seems to have fallen off as well. All indicators of a bad prgram (coaches and infrastructure) not bad atheletes.
Witherspoon, Perdita Felcien potentially examples of a system that might coddle rather then support and push.
Shwefelt…yes the coming back from the leg breaks is interesting, but did he prevent someone else from coming? Or is an injured Shewfelt better than anyone else we have in our system? That should worry you as well.
Stephen- In our system, the coaches are advanced by the association they belong to. As most of you know, associations are political in nature. If someone you beat 20 years ago when you were in competition becomes president of your association, your athletes might pay the price for a 20 year old rivalry.
Team sports are a little less prone to this, but I’m sure it happens there too.
I tried Amazon.ca but found that they don’t recognize the title nor the author.
Indiana Homez said: “I am suprised by the comments from so called “c”onservatives. What is wrong with supporting our youth and expecting them to strive for excellence?”
Supporting kids to do well in sports is good. Sports are fun, winning is fun, fun is good. Its fun to be conservative too.
Paying for your own fun is a conservative value.
Having the government pay for it is a liberal value.
Having government pay for sport is bad. Bad for sport, bad for tax payers. Having government funded sports bureaucracies is REALLY bad. Sport is about performance. Bureaucracy is about 2 hour lunches and padding your expense account. These two things do not belong together.
High level Olympic sport is professional. You either develop a program with that in mind and give the kids a career path like hockey does, complete with the devoted assistance of major pharma, or get used to lots of future Olympics with no medals except in sports where doping, cheating and corrupt judging don’t confer much of an edge.
Sports like High Power Rifle, for instance. Not very exciting to watch on TV, but very cheat resistant. Useful too, in case we have to go shoot some Russians up north.
Because we can see just exactly how much The Olympic Spirit is affecting world politics this week, can’t we? Old Vladimir Pootypoot Putin just FILLED with the Olympic Spirit there, eh?
I just want to be clear here, in my previous comment I wasn’t taking a shot at Kyle Shewfelt so much as pointing out what was inherent in the tone of the both CBC pieces — that winning is a secondary consideration in the mindset of Canadians.
In the last few decades there’s been a noticeable shift towards the attitude that winning isn’t as important as having a positive experience. Not everyone can win, obviously, and there’s no shame in not winning, but when you look at any athlete who reach the top of his/her sport, whether it be in professional boxing or in the Olympics, what the champions have in common is that for years they’ve been motivated by the improbable (at the time) goal of being the best in their sport. You have to believe you have a chance to win if you’re going to have any chance to win.
After-the-fact, it’s perfectly fine to say that you did your best — it’s a statement of fact. But if you enter an elite competition with the mindset that the ideal is to try, rather than to win, you’re going to lose to people who have the huge competitive edge of being single-mindedly out to win.
Maybe it’s just Canadian politeness that’s taken us to the point where not many of our athletes never say “I’m going there to bring home the gold.” American athletes definitely show a lot more of the stubborn, striving, deadly-serious attitude that the gold is theirs and that they’re going to go take it with force.
“In the last few decades there’s been a noticeable shift towards the attitude that winning isn’t as important as having a positive experience.”
Posted by: EBD at August 12, 2008 6:47 PM
You’re right. I do the same thing with my athletes sometimes. Maybe I need to be more focused on winning.
EBD – I agree with you that the desire to win is vital.
It isn’t ‘Canadian politeness’ that is affecting this desire. Canadians are no less or more polite than other people and it’s part of our self-delusional myths about ourselves that we are ‘more polite’. Just as we define ourselves as ‘more tolerant’; heh – we can’t truthfully say that, not as long as we have our active HRCs in every province.
Nor are we more peaceful in the world; we hide behind the protection of the US, the UK, the Australians – who are always ‘there’ in trouble zones, far ahead of us.
I feel that our ‘living in the basement at home’ is our basic problem. We live, comfortably, without any of the responsibilities of adulthood, in the House of America. We export our goods primarily to them; we don’t compete or market our goods to the world. We don’t compete or develop innovative research..and so on. Even though we do none of the hard work to achieve these comfortable results, we still have them – from the Americans or others.
We have thus developed a mindset that keeps us in the basement of this House of America. We tell ourselves that ‘it’s right’ to not compete, to not try to excel, to..etc etc. We chastize the Americans for this behaviour, ignoring that we are a major beneficiary of their work.
As I said – Australia, with much of the same history as Canada, has been able to move out of the colonial nest. We didn’t. We moved out of the British colonial nest and instead of going out on our own, we rapidly moved ourselves instead, into the basement apartment of the House of America.
For gawd’s sake people, smarten up! How can Canadian athletes possibly be expected to win when their Prime Minister didn’t go to Beijing to suck up to China?
Watch for the reporting from the Canadian media twits, it’ll get around to being Harper’s fault if there’s a poor showing.
Hey, let’s wait until the results are in.
But, Canadians, are you not the most post-modernist culture? Not only Candaian, not even to mention Western, civilization is not important, but winning is just… so … inmperialist.
So, why the angst???
Let us see now.
In the first place, Mr. Adler, would you find out, being in the find out business, how much does this country spend in millions of dollars on the athletes alone, the hangers on alone, the bureaucracy alone and all the separate components that are not actually athletes. This would be the first step in killing the overhead machine.
There is no excuse what so ever for the Canadian athletes to complain about anything whatsoever. They got into the athletics, presumably because they like the sport in what they compete. It is incumbent on them 100% to do what they have to do to go to Olympics and win.
Being reasonable, it is clear that only one can win in a discipline.
The commentators on the publicly funded television and elsewhere are satisfied even with 10th best, if you can call it best at all. Every body involved in production then, gets a free ride so to speak.
Other countries that can be considered poor by the standards of North America are doing well because they want to win. They could not give a damn how the other countries got into the Olympics or how much they spent; the only goal is to win a gold medal.
Your initial sentence is absolutely correct, look on the responses of some, as though it really does not matter if we win a gold medal, as long as we are warm and fuzzy, the others, who ever they are, will say, the Canadians, aren’t they just so sweet, warm and fuzzy, they wan us to win .
Georgia and Russia are now playing against each others at Beach Volleyball.
You can see 4 hot girls in bikini playing sports instead of war. That’s the future of humanity.
I’ve played rugby since 1989 on several clubs in 4 provinces and have played with and against international caliber players including world cup participants, and I train just as hard and carry just as many aches and pains (actually way more aches and pains)while working 40 hours a week, off season I work out in my basement and pick up tips on nutition and performance from teammates who train athletes for a living. rugby is not an olympic sport (and hopefully never will be) but it is far superior to any olympic sport…besides hockey I’m having trouble thinking of a 2nd olympic sport that I give a crap about. my point is that I don’t whine that the government doesn’t support me enough my problem is MY taxpayer dollars are being spent so Canadians can feel pride in someone elses accomplishments from the comfort of their couch- as if winning a medal in synchronized fuking diving is worth adoration!