Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Joe Boxer]

I hate that Canada is consistently underrepresented at the medals table.

Every Summer Olympics it's the same thing. Other countries, including smaller and poorer countries, win so many more medals than Canada.

It's embarrassing.

[Dodge7]

lol. Then breed more bigger, stronger, faster Olympians.

[sml7285]

[radcon]

[Steelrails]

You guys consistently over-perform in the Winter Olympics. Don't worry.

[kiknkorea]

[Joe Boxer]

[sml7285]

[misher]

Well, for starters, Canadian athletes are more along the lines of real amateurs. That is they don't follow an athlete factory model by hand plucking kids from a young age and rigourously training them in elite sports academies on the tax payers dime. The old east german/soviet model is what it takes these days to be the best of the best and canada just can't get it together on that kind of level. Heck, only RECENTLY have they implemented the own the podium program for the winter Olympics by providing limited government funding and cash rewards for medals won because canada wasn't about to repeat the calgary olympics all over again(not a single gold). The winter olympics are also completely different as many of the sports are culturally important to canadians ( skiing, hockey, curling etc). The summer olympic athletes just dont get that support. Canadians IMO will GENERALLY not get whipped up about a sport they cannot relate to unlike individuals from ethnocentric/hypernationalist countries that just want to see their country beat the crap out of any other country on the world stage. Even if it is pie throwing.

[catman]

If it isn't hockey or curling I don't care.

[Joe Boxer]

sml7285, thanks

[radcon]

[Mr. BlackCat]

How is Canada underrepresented? In 2008 we finished 14th in overall medals. We're not the 14th most populous country in the world. The only countries that got more medals than us with smaller populations are Belarus, Cuba and Australia.

For Belarus, they got one more gold and one more overall, and they're still feeding off the Soviet era infrastructure. They're fading. Cuba got one less gold, but 6 more medals. They do well by concentrating on a few key sports and getting as many medals as possible there. However, this year their volleyball teams failed to qualify and baseball has been taken out so Canada will likely finish ahead of them. Australia is always a summer sport powerhouse, but actually this year they're struggling. They'll still finish ahead of Canada, but we'll kill them in the Winter Games.

I'm not saying this to insult the US or China, or diminish their accomplishments, only to refute the claim that Canada is underrepresented in medals. The US has 10x the population, but in 2008 won about 6x the amount of medals. China is even more skewed. So how are we not represented?

There are a number of reasons why Canada doesn't win that many Olympic medals. As others have mentioned, funding is one issue, although it's being addressed slowly. I think someone else noted that in Canada sport is still amateur in the sense that our athletes don't train 40 hours a week. Most of them still have jobs or go to school, unlike most from the US, China and other big countries. But another big part that people often overlook is the fact that Canada is huge and has a very spread out population. If there's a kid in the BC interior, for example, who shows promise in swimming he and his family must pick up and move thousands of kms to Vancouver to start to train. If he's really good, he'll likely have to move to Montreal where we have Olympic sized facilities. In France, Italy, even Australia due to their relative population concentration, the distance is much shorter. In the US, state of the art facilities can be found in many cities across the country. It sounds like a lame excuse, but I'm not making excuses. It's just a fact of life.

We currently have 7 medals, with many more to come this weekend. No golds yet, but our big favourites haven't competed yet. At this point in Beijing we had exactly ZERO medals, so just enjoy it. Or stick to the Winter Games.

[radcon]

[hellofaniceguy]

[quote="Joe Boxer"]