…that Canada sucks at the Olympics this year? Can anyone even grab us a “Canadian Gold” (a bronze)? Remember that photo of all those Canadians, walking proudly into the opening ceremonies at The Bird Nest, hopeful, confident, well dressed, cocky…Well, they may have a little less wind in their sails now…Here’s a comparison, thanks to the awesome graphic representation put together by the New York Times: in 1984, in 2008.It almost looks like 1980, except there’s no North American boycott going on against communism. OR IS THERE (Cue dramatic music)? It’s sort of a shame we wasted all that money flying to China to boycott the games. OR DID WE? (Cue disappointed, slightly flat music).I’ll keep in mind that it’s still early, and that there’s still hope. But seriously, someone win SOMETHING. Geez.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2008.
Remember the scientific precision in which the medal count was predicted for the winter games? I wonder if it works for the winter games because the pool of contestants is relatively small, and they come from countries with (huge generalization) countries with similar cultures to Canada (that is, alpine and northern, with left-of-centre governments). For the summer games, are bets are off. It’s like the whole world is competing.
Yes, I’m an editor. But I don’t edit my own posts, so there’s that. Please excuse all misspellings.
We suck because you get what you pay for.
If you look at the NYT map from 1960-1972, Canada generally won under 10 medals. I wonder how the funding compared to today? Maybe we’re heading back to that kind of medal earning range. Thing is (and we read this constantly after the Summer games) our total Olympic medal counts balance out when you include the winter olympics.