Canada's Medals

[Faster]

So this is starting to turn into a disastrous Olympics.

Morrison couldn't come up with the goods,

Hollingsworth couldn't hang on,

Groves, Guay and Janyk missing the podium by millimeters,

Rush and Lueders not have good days on the track,

Paradis didn't medal,

Hamelin's double failure,

and being taking to a shot-out by Switzerland in hockey.

I don't think we will beat Torino now. The one consistent was that we weren't shut out on a day, that changed today.

With the men's 1000m and men's 2-man bobsleigh gone

tomorrow we have men's ski cross and women's 1500m and both have multiple medal chances, and the last men's speed event.

We need 4 medals tomorrow

[dave199]

I'm very disappointed after today.

I thought we would have won a medal in the 1500m Long Track and 2 medals in Short Track. Man was I so wrong. A lot of our athletes have been choking and its embarrassing to see.

For us to get back onto pace.

We need to win 2 or sweep the podium in the Women's 1500m Long Track Speed Skating event tomorrow.

Also sweep the podiums in Ski Cross which our team is the deepest and strongest.

[4seasonscentre]

Our job as host has been excellent.

Performance of our athletes has been mediocre. People are going to start questioning whether own the podium is worth it.

[Faster]

It is working, just not in the way we wanted. Its giving a lot of top 5 and 10's but not a lot of podiums. Just because we are spending money doesn't mean the Germans, Americans, Koreans, Chinese etc aren't spending more. Winter sport is becoming more and more competitive.

[canuckfan]

Do I have to remind you about Beijing

We can still win the most gold medals.

And if we "only" win 20 medals, who cares? We're still punching way above our weight. The success of these games won't be measured by the number of bronze medals that for the most part have been decided by a few hundreds of a second...

If only the media could understand that.

Calling the funding programm "Own the podium" is backfiring though and it was a mistake.

[dave199]

We could still win more than 26 just by skimming through the schedule and looking at the rest of our medal possibilities. Majority of them will come in the last 4 days

[Faster]

Well:

Women's 1500m: Nesbitt and Groves should medal, but Sablikova and Wust are definately challengers, Schlusser and Klassen could medal and with the luck the US is having Rodriguez could as well.

No chance in Men's crappy combined (I hate that format)

Men's ski cross, Stan Hayer, Chris Del Bosco could medal. David Duncan had an injury and Davey Barr is his replacement.

Men's and women's team sprints, a possibility especially the way the men skied today.

Virtue/Moir could medal

Women's Ski Cross - all 4 are capable of medaling

Ladies 5000m, Groves and Hughes could medal with Sablikova

Women's 3000m relay, Canada should medal in this

Women's bobsleigh, two teams with legitimate medal hopes.

Women's figure skating, Rochette could medal

Men's aerials, Omischl and Shouldrice could medal

Men's 500m short track, Hamelin and Trembley should medal

Women's 1000m short track, Roberge could medal

Women's PGS - its a possibility

Women's curling - they are looking good

Men's curling - same

Men's PGS - three medal potential athletes

Men's 4-man - Rush is a definite possibility

plus men's and women's hockey.

We would have to be the Americans for the next 8 days to come close to 30 medals.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Faster

[baron-pierreIV]

Virtue/Moir could medal

They will at least get a bronze.

[~Inspire~]

Today was an extremely tough day! Here are my thoughts.

Own the Podium has pretty much given Canadians the mindset that Canada is not here to just participate in these Olympics, but to win medals, win a lot of medals, win the most medals of every country at the Olympics. In my opinion, the result has been a lot of focus on winning, and on feeling let down, or disappointed when Canada doesn't come up with medals. In past Olympics, both in Turin and Salt Lake, most notably, it wasn't until later in the games when Canada's medal haul really started, and we started to accumulate medals. In both 2006 and 2002, we were much behind the pace we are on now, medals wise. Along those lines, everyone keeps saying that Canada will again finish strong and win a lot of medals toward the end.

That being said, I've tried to be patient all this week - when Americans had a 6 medal day, including several events in which they won 2 medals, I've tried to keep my cool. But today, given the events and our strengths, I honestly thought we were in for our first multiple medal day of the events, and instead we came up empty, ending our medals streak. Disappointing.

I am honestly worried now. Our Alpine Mens and Womens teams have come up short. Our speed skating teams, both long and short track have hugely underperformed. Our sliders have seemed to choke, with a few exceptions. To me, the greatest disappointment is not that Canadians lack the ability to compete, lack the ability to win medals, in fact quite the opposite. To be, the greatest devastation comes from knowing that our athletes DO havet the ability to perform on the world stage, and are instead succuming to pressure, choking, getting caught in unlucky breaks, or simply being beaten by better athletes from other countries.

I have serious doubts that Canada will finish first in the medal haul, but I am still hoping for a strong second week. We'll see how it goes.

It is working, just not in the way we wanted. Its giving a lot of top 5 and 10's but not a lot of podiums. Just because we are spending money doesn't mean the Germans, Americans, Koreans, Chinese etc aren't spending more. Winter sport is becoming more and more competitive.

I completely agree - Canada has shown a lot of depth in several sports, but simply failed to convert these top 10 finishes into double medals in events as the Americans, Koreans, Germans, etc. What do you think is the reason for this?

On another note, why have some noteable American star athletes performed to expectations and won gold, such as Shaun White, and Lindsey Vonn to name a couple - whereas star Canadian athletes have failed to convert potential shown in world cup events to the Olympic stage (Hollingsworth, Leuders, Morrison, the list goes on and on)

They will at least get a bronze.

Unfortunately, a lot of Canadian athletes thus far were thought to "at least get a medal," take Hollingsworth for example. The unforeseeable happens at the Olympics, and unfortunately it seems to happen to Canadian athletes a lot as of late!

[skscorpion]

Well:

Women's 1500m: Nesbitt and Groves should medal, but Sablikova and Wust are definately challengers, Schlusser and Klassen could medal and with the luck the US is having Rodriguez could as well.

No chance in Men's crappy combined (I hate that format)

Men's ski cross, Stan Hayer, Chris Del Bosco could medal. David Duncan had an injury and Davey Barr is his replacement.

Men's and women's team sprints, a possibility especially the way the men skied today.

Virtue/Moir could medal

Women's Ski Cross - all 4 are capable of medaling

Ladies 5000m, Groves and Hughes could medal with Sablikova

Women's 3000m relay, Canada should medal in this

Women's bobsleigh, two teams with legitimate medal hopes.

Women's figure skating, Rochette could medal

Men's aerials, Omischl and Shouldrice could medal

Men's 500m short track, Hamelin and Trembley should medal

Women's 1000m short track, Roberge could medal

Women's PGS - its a possibility

Women's curling - they are looking good

Men's curling - same

Men's PGS - three medal potential athletes

Men's 4-man - Rush is a definite possibility

plus men's and women's hockey.

We would have to be the Americans for the next 8 days to come close to 30 medals.

To add to that, the mens and womens long track speedskating relay, and the men's short track relay

[LuigiVercotti]

Home town medal success is a natural requirement of any games, but of course when it comes to Vancouver I can thoroughly understand that the expectations have been so much higher because of the poor results in previous Canuck-hosted games. But, from an outsider's perspective this concept of 'own the podium' was always going to backfire, in that there is an almost arrogant selfishness underlying such terminology.

The way that the AOC down here in Oz (arguably) manipulates public expectations is someone like John Coates comes out and says we should finish in the top 5 (at SOGs of course), and derives a suspected medal haul based on world championship results in Olympic sports for Australians. And aside from the fact that our athletes have done very well at the last 4 or 5 SOGs (including Sydney 2000) most Australians have been on average happy because our expectations weren't raised to unrealistic levels by stupid mottos.

The Canadian Olympic Committee would have been far better served in saying something like expecting x amount of medals and a top 3 finish, and then standing back from any of the media induced hype (or at least not egged them on with silly mottos). No one country (except perhaps the US in St Louis 1904) can ever be said to 'own the podium'.

[Olympian2004]

Actually it's a normal development that many of the potential medallists fail to medal. If all of Germany's medal candidates had been successful, our team would already have more than 30 medals.

Yes, "Own The Podium" was the wrong and even a quite presumptuous name -- it sounded as if the guest nations would say, "Oh, you're the host nation and you're incredibly nice -- so we'll let you win or at least not try as hard as we actually could". That was not going to happen. Winter sports have become extremely competitive and in the past 20 years, more and more nations suddenly popped up in sports in which you wouldn't have expected them at all. Chinese figure skaters now belong to the best in the world, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Belarus and Croatia have Olympic medallists in biathlon, Latvia has tremendous lugers and skeletonists. Furthermore, traditional strongholds of certain nations start to break down. Germany faces strongly increased opposition in biathlon, Norway is not the natural winner of cross-country gold medals anymore.

Considering this situation, you Canadians (just like any other nation participating in these Games) shouldn't put yourselves under the pressure to sweep the podiums or even win several Olympic medals each day. As I already said in a different context: Don't push too hard, lean back, relax a little and enjoy the show. Even if there are quite a few disappointments now, Canada has already achieved something extremely important: It has broken its "Olympic curse" already four times now.

[4seasonscentre]

To add to that, the mens and womens long track speedskating relay, and the men's short track relay

There's a relay in long track? Do you mean the pursuit?

[~Inspire~]

Interesting Statistics from CTV:

The USA has 31 top 5 finishes so far in these games, while Canada has 24 top 5 finishes.

The USA has 24/31 top 5 finishes resulting in medals, while Canada has 8/24 top 5 finishes resulting in medals.

[mr.x]

It has been a very disappointing Games so far...we certainly won't win any medal tally at this point, and if we also lose the gold medal in men's ice hockey I think many Canadians will consider these Games as a complete competition failure.

[dave199]

So we have 9 medals now.

This day definitely didn't go according to plans.

We should have won 3 medals.

2 in Long Track Women's 1500m

and 1 medal in Men's Ski Cross.

It's unfortunate once again.

[Fox334]

Not a good day for Canada. Two events where we where the favorite, where we had 3 strong medal chance in each and where we won the test event (heck, we sweep the Skicross test event). Result: a silver medal.

[dave199]

Let's take a look at the rest of the schedule

Current Medal Total: 9 medals

Monday Feb 22

Ski Jumping Team - No CHANCE

Cross Country Skiing Women's Team Sprint - There could be a surprise here with Renner/Gaiazova

Cross Country Skiing Men's Team Sprint - The mens team could surprise after their success in past events

Figure Skating Ice Dance - Virtue/Moir will contend for that Gold medal.

PREDICTION: 1 medal Total:10

Tuesday Feb 23

Speedskating Men's 10000m - No Chance

Biathlon Women's 4 x 6km Relay - No medal

Nordic Combined Team - No Chance

Freestyle Skiing Women's Skicross - There's a possibility here of a podium sweep but 2 medals here is quite probable. Gold Medal favourite is Canada's Ashleigh McIvor, also watch out for Canadian medal favourite Kelsey Serwa and Julia Murray.

PREDICTION: 2 medals Total:12

Wednesday Feb 24

Cross Country Skiing Men's 4 x 10km Relay Classic/Free- Surprise medal could come after the 4 top 10 Canadian finish in the Men's 20km Pursuit

Speedskating Women's 5000m- Groves and Hughes have a legitimate shot at meddling here

Alpine Skiing Women's Giant Slalom- No Chance

Bobsled 2 Woman- Upperton should medal

Short Track Women's Relay- Canada should medal with Silver or Bronze

Freestyle Skiing Women's Aerials- No Medal

PREDICTION: 3 medals Total:15

Thursday Feb 25

Cross Country Skiing Women's 4 x 5km Relay Classic/Free - No Medal

Nordic Combined Large Hill- Yeah Ok!!

Hockey Women's- Can do no worse than Silver....Gold looks about right though.

Figure Skating Women's- Rochette was always a strong medal favourite here but how will she skate after the tragic death of her mother?

Freestyle Skiing Men's Aerials- Can Omischl finally win an Olympic medal?

PREDICTION: 2 medals Total:17

Friday Feb 26

Biathlon Men's 4 x 7.5km Relay- NO

Alpine Skiing Women's Slalom- No way

Snowboard Women's PGS- Alexa Loo could surprise

Curling Women's- Surest bet

Short Track Men's 500m- Can Charles Hamelin finally win a medal in Vancouver? Louis-Tremblay is also a strong favourite here

Short Track Women's 1000m - A Canadian women could surprise here

Short Track Men's Relay- Should be able to medal

PREDICTION: 3 medals Total:20

Saturday Feb 27

Cross Country Skiing Women's 30km Classic Mass Start-No medal

Speedskating Men's Team Pursuit- Definitely medaling

Speedskating Women's Team Pursuit- Can I say Gold medal?

Snowboard Men's PGS-Jasey Jay Anderson is a strong Gold medal favourite. Michael Lambert is also a strong favourite to medal

Alpine Skiing Men's Slalom-No medal

Bobsled 4 Man- Good shot to medal

Curling Men's- A medal should be a lock...Gold medal?

PREDICTION: 5 medals Total:25

Sunday Feb 28

Cross Country Skiing Men's 50km Classic Mass Start-No Medal

Hockey Men's - A medal should come

PREDICTION: 1 medal Total: 26

Overall: 26 Medals

[dave199]

Lets say if my projections are right. Would 26 medals place us 3rd Overall on the table? We already know the USA has already won the #1 spot. How much is Germany projected to win overall?

[Faster]

There is a chance in the men's 50km cross country, especially with the 30km results. Moyes will be the medal potential not Upperton.

With the way the Canadian men have been skating its doubtful that Canada could beat the Italians, Americans, Norwegians and Dutch for men's.

Canada won 7 medals in long track last time, not a chance that is going to happen again. If everything goes perfect we might, might tie it.

Based on current results Canada is probably the 5th best team in the men's hockey tournament.

[dave199]

Shani Davis isn't apart of the American team in the Team Pursuit

[Faster]

Doesn't matter. Hedricks has been skating well and will be able to pace them. Certainly the 3 American skaters have posted better results than the 3 Canadian skaters.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Faster

[A.W.T]

Own The Podium is clearly starting to fall by the wayside. Its unfortunate, but I think the expectations placed on this Canadian Olympic team were too high to begin with. At the start I said to myself I would be more than pleased if we were able to equal Torino's count of 24 or better. Its looking like there is a strong possibility they won't even make that now. Canada needed to win at those events this weekend where they were favoured and they didn't.

Oh well, regardless I am still enjoying these games very much. Hello everyone, by the way

[~Inspire~]

Tough breaks for Canada. At this rate things are not looking good. I think the problem with own the podium is the expectations were set too high, so there was really only disappointment that could come when Canada didn't reach the OTP Standard. Unfortunate, because there have been a lot of excellent stories so far in these games that I feel are being overlooked because of the focus on medal count and results.

[dave199]

If we get back on track we can still better our Torino total by a medal or two.

Let's say we end up not matching Torino's medal total, we might win more Gold medals here than in Torino and this will be used to describe the success of the Canadian athletes here. Well you could say it will be used as damage control.