Why does Canada suck so bad at the Olympics?

Or maybe I'm exaggerating the situation. It's just felt pretty hopeless the last couple days any time I tune in.

(Props to Karen Cockburn - Yorkie! - and best wishes to Perdita Felicien.)

Another problem is that Canadians tend to accept mediocre performances. Say what you want about the Yanks, but any of their athletes who come in 6th place in a heat aren't likely to find themselves on TV. Hockey is the only sport in Canada where the attitude is first place at all costs. Maybe a little more of that in other sports wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Also, I don't buy the "Canada accepts mediocrity" argument. We accept mediocrity when we are not expected to do well, and are pleasantly surprised when our athletes exceed expectations. I think this is true of all countries. Nobody would have accepted 6th place from Donovan Bailey or Silken Laumann in their primes.

If the US, China, Russia and all the other Olympic giants expect more from their athletes, it's because they have a lot more favourites in a lot more events compared to Canada.

However, I'm still spending my days glued to the set.

WHOLY SHIT¡¡

I kind of noticed something like this the other day on the coverage of some of the medal winners; there was the Calgary gymanst who won gold, and listening to him talking was refreshing, because he sounded very pleasantly surprised that he actually got the gold--pleased, but not arrogant about it. Compare with a U.S. runner who won a gold who was saying things like "this is my DESTINY" and saying that he was designed to win golds, and I started to understand why Canada doesn't do so well: they're there to do their best, but they won't have to commit suicide afterwards if they don't get the gold.

I think Canada should patent inverted jingoism. It really is a wonderful descriptor of what we do.

I'm on a senate committee that lets students into the university based on d1verse qual1f1cati0ns, and fighting every meeting against a tacit approval process that green-lights any kids with a letter from a university sports coach, no matter how crap their grades or academic interest.

Yeah, true, but it seems far less glaring. But yeah, we've had our knobs too.

And can I claim the "inverted jingoism" thing?

And, following from the Olympics 2004 (US) thread: Have you heard the Canadian national anthem they're piping out in Greece. Makes me cringe.

It's a cash grab to try and make up for the fact there won't be a NHL season this year.

As a sports-only example though, check out the discrepancy btwn women's and men's sports funding. Holy crap.

actually, a question: does/would nunavut-ers compete as canadians or on their own a la england/scotland/wales in the world cup?

could you hum it¿

They were talking about it like it was some inept Portsmouth Sinfonia-style rendition, but it was actually kind of cool.

"Sporting event matters to participants, attending crowd: Film at 11."

We'll make sure to check with you before we enjoy any sporting events in the future, ok? Plus I'll make sure to check in with you to see what I should consider important. Glad that's settled.

yes and I'm sure all those people affected by the quake don't give a flying fig that they have no home, cause YAY LOOK AT THE LIL GIRL DO THE FLIPPITY DO!

-- Granny Dainger, Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:12 PM (Thursday, August 14, 2008 3:12 PM) Bookmark Link

i'm sure they don't give a flying fuck about the current state of the american economy but that doesn't mean it's not important.

Water is wet, too, you guys.

Although I still HATE the fact that Beijing won these games over Toronto, maybe it was for the best

I wish Toronto had gotten the Olympics for the simple reason that Vancouver wouldn't have it in 2010. I've only lived in the lower mainland for three months and I'm already sick of all the Olympic blahblah out here.

Ugh, and listening to the CBC whine, whine, whine at every opportunity about the lack of medals. SHUDDUP. Canadian pride is is a funny thing, indeed. And not just every 4 years at the Olympics.

how can any of you people even enjoy music and art, let alone sports, when there's earthquakes everywhere.

just trying to raise your unathletic Canuckian spirits

slocki you're to blame for spending so much time filling your piehole rather than doing handstands

i'm sure they don't give a flying fuck about the current state of the american economy but that doesn't mean it's not important.

can't argue with that logic!

can't argue with that logic!

that doesn't surprise me.

ok guys what i'm saying is over here... and you're over on Planet Zing.

all my fault for positing the radical notion that perhaps Olympic success is overvalued in most if not all cultures. thanks for setting me straight, ILX.

and thank you sir, for setting us straight on earthquakes

i for one welcome our planet zing overlords

Planet Zing, locked in perpetual intergalactic combat with Planet Butthurt

Mr Que you need to step up your game. Maybe get your country to increase its support of zinging?

ok, enough of that.

i really liked what robyn said :
i think the argument as to why canada isn't 'kicking ass' at the olympics goes far beyond wealth and technology - this is an extremely culturally complex country when one really looks at it, and it's only getting more difficult to fully understand and 'manage'/govern in any traditional way - our federal government barely touches on 'what's best for all canadians' in the long term (e.g., see latest cuts to arts funding re: international stage, see diminishing # of health care practitioners, even see migration of hockey to US) and we don't have a solid, organized private patronage as the states does. our ongoing national/regional/individual nebulous multiple identity issues, as wimpy as such an issue may seem, are much more at the heart of this matter than access to wealth and technology.

we have no myth! there is no 'blood' myth for canada, e.g. france or germany, and no 'independence' myth either, i.e. american revolution. it doesn't really matter if canada is better or triumphant or anything, because we're not really sure what we're defending.

the thing with the 'sting' is that we all forget about it after the games are over. this thread exactly parallels what actually happened in canada. in 2004, we talked about how badly we did at the games. then we talked about a lot of other things, and now it's 2008. oh, surprise, we're in the same place. it is what it is - the lack of attention on yr average non-olympic newsday (i.e. almost every day ever) is indicative of how much it actually matters that we aren't winning.

oh, vancouver. i'm in a debate right now about whether to leave town for 2010 or not. my home is 5 min walking distance from the figure skating practice rink, and apparently we could get a huge amount of money by renting our place out. like, $10,000+ dollars for the 2 weeks. we go to the island and hide out, come back and pay off our student loans, while some rich dude gets to stay at our place and watch the games. win-win.

at the same time, how could i leave my city when we're about to go through the biggest gong show of our short history? it's like having the farm next to woodstock and leaving for the weekend to avoid the noise. i kinda want to see what happens on a day-by-day basis. can i still get a cup of coffee like every other day? i want to find out!

oh, kate78 you should have been here for our little vote in 2003. and back in 2002, when the hip thing to do was to have a "salzburg 2010!" sticker on yr bag.

now we have "no olympics on stolen native land!" stickers. uh, it's a little late for that now :(

some blogger type i just read, sports frog maybe, says it's all ben johnson's fault

lol yahoo.ca headlines:

'Don't give up on us'
Canada's struggle to win Olympic medals highlights an old problem with a 'bleak' future.» What?

it's the What? as link/punchline

LOOK AT THE LIL GIRL DO THE FLIPPITY DO!

pretty sure this is illegal

The real reason why Canada sucks at Olympics is that it's impossible to assemble that many Canadians without at least half of them failing the drug test. Every time.

congratulations canada on the gold. ms hunyh is very cute and funny

All this is, is the common fallacy of projection and confused identification that sports fans all seem to share.

A Canadian athlete is just a person with athletic skills who has the accidental attribute of Canadian citizenship. "Canada" does not suck at the Olympics. But the Olympics encourage these mass delusions of national idenity. Sorry.

But isn't accepting this reality better than continuing to feel bad that you somehow participate in some mythical Canadian suckitude?

The Olympics are, more often than not*, a reflection of the facilities and systems of support provided by their countries to encourage athletes to pursue their chosen sports professionally.

*except there are athletes who overcome lack of support by their determination/passion/genius organizing and 'revolutionary' training methods...

It's not just at the Olympics that Canadians think they suck. I think the whole country suffers from an unnecessary inferiority complex that manifests on a national level every four years at the summer games when nobody wins a medal for a week.

i don't think canada sucks

I agree that the suckitude is mythical.

our current fed government is totally fucked up however and there is a huge amount of complacency in the general population but seems things've gotta get worse before they get better in this case, e.g. wake up wake up wake up

listening to the CBC whine, whine, whine at every opportunity about the lack of medals

This is why I finally clicked on this. WTF people get some priorities. Also hosting the Olympics is for cities with something to prove (Atlanta, Athens, and especially Beijing!), doesn't Toronto have self-confidence? Well maybe not.

Ugh, the CBC. Today they'll be prattling on about women's wrestling. Somebody please start the "CBC: Classic or Dud?" thread. Really wish I could pick up NPR here...

Since 4 yrs ago, I think I've pretty much come around to just thinking the govt should spend less on sports and not bother sending such a big team. (I think it was the discrepancy between the size of the contingent and their actual success that seemed jarring?)

CBC = classic though.

Surely there are NPR podcasts.

Oh, there are. I usually download the weekly programs I want to hear, but I don't think you can download the complete daily news programs (Morning Edition and All Things Considered).

Also, the CBC's French news podcasts don't seem to want to work. Not that I could really understand them well anyways. Still it could be funsies.

Judging by your French Scrabble playing, I wouldn't have imagined that they would be hard for you to understand.;)

The Scrabble board, she does not talk.

rowin n wrasslin, dudes

I felt kinda sorry for the Canadian bloke who got lapped in the 10,000 metres final. He was really trying hard.

If he made it to the final, he's obv among the best in the world. Just not in the top 3.

not top 3 = dead 2 me

wow - seven now - look out Kazakhstan!

There's no heats for the 10,000!

"Since 4 yrs ago, I think I've pretty much come around to just thinking the govt should spend less on sports and not bother sending such a big team. (I think it was the discrepancy between the size of the contingent and their actual success that seemed jarring?)"

Got some numbers Sundar? Britain has sent about 300 athletes compared to China and US who have sent 600 each.

I think govt should spend more on sports at the activity kids level (I reckon the UK is appalling at it and the only downside about the success at this level is that it covers this up) than what we have now which is that spend quite a lot at the higher end so that anyone that shows ability has a better chance of developing into a medal contender. A more bottom up approach.

So it looks like we don't suck THAT badly... 13 medals now, which is more than in 2004 (12) more than we got in '76 when it was held in Montreal (11), or in any Olympics prior to that. And the countries that have more are for the most part bigger than us in population, GDP, etc - the usual suspects for mega medals.

I haven't seen any medal count lists that take into consideration a country's relative size/wealth/# of athletes sent/etc, but this is a pretty cool tool.

xyzzzz: 332, according to this article.

we never sucked in the first place!
i love that canada excels in trampolining and rowing
and yaaay Alexandre Despatie! and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep!

I read somewhere that Canada in '76 is the only host country not to take a gold medal.

(The UK has something like 1.9* Canada's population for the sake of comparison.)

Yes, but the UK suck too (but not this year)