The Canadian Olympic Committee chairman stated prior to the beginning of the games that he expected Canada to improve to a top-12 finish, two more than at the Beijing Olympics, and was a “little disappointed that they only finish in 13th place.”
I don’t know where he gets his positioning from but in actual fact Canada finished in 36th position with only one gold medal. One gold and they finished in 13th place.
Is he saying that because they got a total of 18 medals in total, with five second-place and 12 third-place finishes that’s good enough for 13th?
Is his head in the sand?
Is he saying that an athlete who doesn’t even get in the final of an event (using one example — boxing) that person is equal to the winner of the final?
In other words, a bronze medal is equal to a gold medal.
That’s absolute nonsense.
If the Canadian Olympic Committee is satisfied in any way with the results of these Olympics, then they should immediately all resign en block.
One of the main problems in this country is that there is very little sport in schools and certainly no competitive sports. Competitive sports should be part of the school curriculum starting in elementary schools, like in all European and U.K. schools.
In Canada, all sports are privately operated with parents having to pay the full amount from a very early age and I’m sure that every family cannot afford to pay for their children to go and if they do go, as my three very young grand-daughters do, they are being taught by willing adults who give up their valuable time but don’t even know the rules of the sport and say things to the children and their parents that it’s not about winning, it’s all about being able to participate.
Nonsense. It’s all about winning!
A good example is on the island of Jamaica. The young children in elementary schools start in third grade to complete against other schools in all sports, especially running, cricket and football. They run to school, they run home from school and they run against each other during these runs and all the time they are watched by the gym teachers at the schools, who pick out the ones they think have talent and as they move up to high school. This continues and once a year the big event in athletics is at the huge stadium in Kingston where all the top grammar (high school) athletes compete against each other, the supporters all wearing the colours of their school uniforms and the top winners are then chosen to be coached by professionals. And what do you get? People like Usain Bolt, who won three gold medals at the London Olympics.
So give us a break.
So-called athletes who were supposed to win gold didn’t even get past the heats and to top it off, the same committee picked the captain of the women’s soccer team who didn’t get even get into the final to be the flag bearer at the closing ceremonies when the only athlete to win a gold medal for the country (who incidentally never got a mention on the Canadian sports channels because all we got was mainly second and third places finishers over and over again) should have been the flag bearer.
But I suppose that’s how the system works in this country: you don’t have to win, just show up.
Another very poor show, Canada.
James Taylor
Red Deer