After berating Canadian athletes for the last two weeks with some poor performances and buildups I’m happy to say I wont have to do it again for another two years. Come Vancouver 2010 I’m hoping I wont have to hack this country and the media as much as I did for it’s BS propaganda towards our athletes. Sadly that probably wont happen as buildup has already begun with the Canadian media already pumping our athletes tires claiming that the 2010 games will be Canada’s best.
Anyone who follows the sports world in this country has heard it played repeatedly since the games in Vancouver were announced. 2010 is Canada’s coming out party. In 2010 Canada will be battling for the top spot in medals. 2010 Canada will make some noise. The real question is if anyone should believe the hype.
2008 wasn’t a terrible performance but it was looking pretty grim there for awhile as Canada struggled to get going early on. Thinking about it it’s almost comical the way this usually happens at each Olympic games. Days go by as Canada struggles to hit the podium, Canadians and the media begin to question what’s wrong with our athletic programs, and then the moment someone finally reaches the podium the medals seem to come in at a much more acceptable rate. In case you didnt follow the games Canada had 18 medals this year, up from 12 in Athens in 2004 and 14 from Sydney in 2000. Based on past success this isn’t terrible by any means but it certainly isn’t as good as some think we should be doing.
I suppose my biggest gripe is our overall attitude towards our performance. While spending my last summer vacation up at Lloyd Lake I had to endure countless “I’m happy with my performance and am looking to better on it for 2012″. It was almost as if half our athletes were satisfied with finishing 6th, 8th, 16th etc. Isn’t it a little disappointing to train for four hard years only to come to an event where everyone is cheering and depending on you only to not qualify or finish last. I would of been happy to see something as simple as a “I’m disappointed with my performance but will look to build on it the next four years.”
If there was ever a team for inspiration it was the Mens 8 Rowing. After having to listen to critics and deal with there poor performance from Athens these guys took it upon themselves to come away from Beijing with nothing less then the gold medal, anything else just wasn’t sufficient. With somewhat of a cocky (but subtle) arrogance they knew they were the best and knew they should win, and guess what, they did.
Perhaps that’s what’s been lacking in this program. A lot of Canucks wont tune to NBC for Olympic coverage because they hate to deal with the U.S announcers bloating its country and its athletes, but when you tend to consistently be in the top 3 countries for medal totals I would think you have some sort of right to talk yourself up.
With all that said though lets face it, the Summer Olympics aren’t Canada’s cup of tea. Our Olympic success as a country is based on what we do in the winter games and come 2010 we should finally have a chance to make other countries take notice. Barring some bad roster decisions like 2006 we should have a legitimate shot at gold in both Womens and Mens hockey again. Curling should be a lock. Speed skating (both short and long track) should carry high hopes and even our alpine ski team seems to have started to turn the corner along the way to 2010. If any winter athletes are looking to draw inspiration on walking away with nothing less then gold they need look no further then either of our hockey teams as this entire nation and its players wont settle for anything less.
The Summer games are over and we are approximately a year and a half away from what should be Canada’s coming out party. With the way the media and its athletes are hyping the next edition of winter Olympic athletes anything less then a top 5 finish in medal count will be nothing short of embarrassing.
Walks
PS. I’ll miss you womens beach volleyball.
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