SkiFreak Posted February 12, 2022 Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 Oh Canada, anyone else think we're not doing too good this year? Currently sitting in 14th place in the medal tally with only one gold medal so far. Is it the Lululemon gear? The fact that the Olympic Oval here in Calgary was closed for nearly a year due to mechanical problems (during the winter before an Olympics)? Are the Own the Podium funds drying up? What could it be? Many complaints about Lululemon's expensive Team Canada gear. Last week I looked at their website and not even two days later, the media covered how the red mittens jumped to $68, when HBC had them starting at $10 for Vancouver but they crept up to $20 in 2018. Here's the CBC article about it: CBC: $68 for mittens? Team Canada fans cry foul over Lululemon prices for official Olympic gear T-Shirts too are way pricey compared to HBC. HBC's were about $20-$30, while Lululemon's are $74. On the brightside. A bronze in ski jumping - a Canadian first. And a bronze in Alpine Combined. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanMUC Posted February 12, 2022 Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 Well, that ski jumping medal in that event… Anyway, right now Canada has one more medal in total than Germany. I know that usually, gold count takes priority, but it hardly seems a failure in these Olympics for Canada so far, and some of your best events still seem to come? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 12, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 Yup, our speedskaters are not doing good this year. Methinks it was thanks to the Olympic Oval here in Calgary being shut down from August 2020 to May 2021 - a key season just before a winter games winter, for much needed training. CBC nor any of the skaters have mentioned the closure. I know Junio and others were heading out to Lac des Arcs in Exshaw to practice. It's a lake right beside the Trans Canada Hwy right on the eastern edge of the Rockies when you're heading to Canmore and Banff and part of the Bow River. The oval was closed to the general public during the first part of the pandemic, but open to athletes. Our sliders aren't doing good either. Probably thanks to WinSport shutting down the sliding track here to rebuild the top portion and put more environmentally-friendly guts in the refrigeration building. I heard they need another few million $s to complete the project but where that money is gonna coming from, who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2022 Was gonna cheer-on Kaillie Humphries, then I remembered she turned her back on Canada, jumped ship and is sliding for the US now. Booo. Go Canada Go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faster Posted February 13, 2022 Report Share Posted February 13, 2022 Alpine Skiing Canada was not anticipated to win a medal here. Comes away with a bronze, 4th and 6th. Very good results and that bronze will be huge in funding allocation. Biathlon One top 5 finish. Never any realistic medal prospects here. Bobsleigh de Bruin has put down 2 good runs and is looking like a solid chance at a medal. The Canadian women are still in with a chance in the 2-woman event two and Kripps is a double medal threat as well. Cross-Country Skiing This sport has been a write-off since 2014. Unfortunately Russian doping cost Canada at least one medal and the funding that would have come from that. Curling Oh boy, this is looking rough again. JJ is 1-3 and will need to win out to control her own fate into the playoffs. Gushue has played 4 good games out of 5 and lost 2. Should be a strong contender to be in it at the end. Mixed doubles was always gonna be a struggle. It is very competitive. Losing to Australia was pretty bad though (lost to them at the WC too) and the missed playoff by about a millimeter was rough Figure Skating There was never a serious chance to win a medal this year. No strength in any discipline and after the generational team in 2018 its a big letdown. 42 years since Canada last did not win a medal in figure skating, so this is a bit rough. Freestyle Skiing Bit rough here. Kingsbury missing gold. Oldham coming up short in big air. Therriault not making the final (given that the WC results were not great overall). Halfpipe and slopestyle are still 4+ medal possibilities. Ski cross is another 2+. The mixed team aerials was a big surprise. Kinda a disappointing event when only 6 teams took part. Hockey Women will win a medal, men is more up in the air. That being said every time Canada has won gold, there has been a rough game in the preliminaries. It ain't over until it is over and no team has looked particularly unbeatable. Luge Canada really only had an outside chance at a medal in doubles. Young, inexperienced team. It took 3 Olympics and some dopers not getting disqualified to see Canada win medals in luge. Short Track Two big misses in the 1000m by Boutin and Pascal. But the Pascal medal was made-up for in the 1500m by Dubois. Looking solid for shots in the relays. Kinda still annoyed by the questionable PEN in the mixed relay. Canada has two threats in the women's 1500m and in the men's 500m there is an outside chance I'd say. Skeleton This was only ever an outside medal chance but she did come close. One mistake on run 2 cost Rahneva a medal. Never stood a chance in men's. Snowboarding Gone about as well as you could have hoped. Blouin just missing a medal was a bit rough, but she is a threat in big air. Men's big air is still a good opportunity. Speed Skating Probably the worst miss of the games in the men's 500m. 8 podiums this season and the world champion finishing 4th was rough. Canada still has good to strong chances in both team pursuits and both mass starts. And Dubreuil can medal in the 1000m There are still 20+ medal chances and given Canada's conversion rate to date 8-12 more medals is realistic. Canada has just won a fair number of marginal and surprise medals, 5 of them bronze. This was going to be a down Olympics compared to 2018. As for Lululemon. it may be pricy, but it has sold incredibly well. A lot more Roots vibes (which was also complained about being expensive back in the day). And the company didn't give the COC money to hock their wears to the Canadian market. They did it to advertise in China, France and Italy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 13, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2022 11 hours ago, Faster said: Speed Skating Probably the worst miss of the games in the men's 500m. 8 podiums this season and the world champion finishing 4th was rough. Canada still has good to strong chances in both team pursuits and both mass starts. And Dubreuil can medal in the 1000m It's sad seeing the speed skating results for Team Canada. But not surprised with the oval here having the mechanical issues, and no ice for 10 months, in a winter prior to the winter games. I just checked the oval's website and it is reopened to the public, with ice, and they have twoonie skates back on Monday evenings. I haven't been skating in two years thanks to covid. So tomorrow after skiing, I think I'll head over to the oval for a skate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2022 I just saw some video on Facebook from the athletes village that various Team USA members filmed. Some great shots of Team Canada walking around in their Lululemon parkas. Good god do they look ridiculous. Team Canada failed with choosing Lululemon, and Lululemon failed with their design. Almost looks like something from the '88 to '92 era. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faster Posted February 17, 2022 Report Share Posted February 17, 2022 (edited) We need to change things with curling. The team is selected far too close to the Olympics. The team should be selected a year earlier, and be the world championship team so they get experience against the teams they are going to face at the Olympics. Teams like Switzerland/USA/Sweden don't change for multiple Olympic cycles and ours changes every year. Its not working anymore. The teams should be picked in December 2024, go to the 2025 world championship instead of the Scotties/Brier champion and then go to the Olympics with a year being supported by Curling Canada and the COC instead of a month. Edited February 17, 2022 by Faster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotguy II Posted February 17, 2022 Report Share Posted February 17, 2022 Still got my Vancouver mittens 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 17, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2022 2 hours ago, Scotguy II said: Still got my Vancouver mittens I got 3 pairs of the original kicking around along with 2 or 3 of the redesigns. The new Lululemon ones are way to expensive. Woohoo! The ladies reclaimed hockey gold! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 19, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2022 Well things picked up a bit in the second week. And I'm glad Kaillie Humphries did not podium the US in the 2-man bobsled. Even CBC said she can be a difficult team member. The last event where we may podium is the 4-man bobsled, and that's about it. Just the gold hockey game and then the Closing Ceremony. After that, we all take off to the bomb shelters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faster Posted February 20, 2022 Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 I vaguely remember a big beef between Humphries and Upperton back in 2010 and I know Heather Moyes does not have nice things to say about her. Overall happy with the total number of medals. But 4 gold and only one of them individual is rough. Worst performance since Lillehammer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow Posted February 20, 2022 Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 you came upsettingly close to 2-3 golds, especially in skating. but everyone has an off olympics. i find skifreak's explanations satisfying but remember 2016 was an off olympics too. you're really at the mercy of about six athletes, summer and winter, and that's a bad position to be in for any country except some place like new zealand, which has a smaller population than my apartment building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 20, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 1 hour ago, Faster said: But 4 gold and only one of them individual is rough. Worst performance since Lillehammer. It's as if the Own the Podium funds are drying up. And CTV ran an article about athlete funding today: CTV News: 'We saw $0 in support,' claims Canadian skeleton Olympian Mirela Rahneva Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow Posted February 20, 2022 Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 31 minutes ago, SkiFreak said: 'We saw $0 in support i believe it! canada sucked so bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiFreak Posted February 20, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 27 minutes ago, krow said: i believe it! canada sucked so bad. If I recall, Own the Podium started around 2003 when we got the bid for Vancouver. I believe OTP has their offices here in Calgary at Olympic Park. But even WinSport is neglecting the facilities. No ski jumps, no sliding track (temporary closure), no nordic club at the park (they got evicted to put in a tubing park), the oval experiencing mechanical failure last year. There is, or was, a Calgary '88 Legacy Fund. I recall reading it was over $70million. I want to know what the hell happened to this money? Maybe Vancouver 2030 will give the program a boost? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow Posted February 20, 2022 Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 2 hours ago, SkiFreak said: Maybe Vancouver 2030 will give the program a boost? you better fucking hope. having the US obliterate you in the summer olympics is one thing. you tell yourself you'll get your revenge in the winter. but then you have to actually perform in the winter. you can blame as much as you like on the pandemic closures, but every country that beat you lived through the same pandemic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krow Posted February 20, 2022 Report Share Posted February 20, 2022 that women's hockey final fucking slapped though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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