Canada's Olympic Team

[olympian]

at least Adam managed to be in the podium after yesterday's debacle. feel bad he fell short of his goals. i think he really felt the pressure of the entire nation on him.

[micheal_warren]

a silver medal is still a great achievement! Well done

[Faster]

Another games, another disappointment.

We won more medals (at least silver and bronze) but about the same top 8 performances.

[olympian]

Another games, another disappointment.

We won more medals (at least silver and bronze) but about the same top 8 performances.

if Canada was able to better its Athens peformance which it did then its not really a disappointment. let's just wait for London to see if the increase funding works.

[micheal_warren]

I think canada has done a good job! Well done for a good overall effort

[Guest erikh]

It's all over now... ended how it started... disappointment.

[Guest erikh]

Okay the dust settled. It's not so bad now it's time for us to do our part ...

[IceNarcissus]

Canada's performance wasn't disappointing at all! Tying their third highest medal total ever in the face of China and so many other countries starting to win more medals! The same amount of golds is a BLESSING. Each one should be valued more than each one from Athens because the level of competition gets tougher every single time. What's not to like? I blame CBC for constantly reminding us who ALL the Canadians are and how bad they're all doing. CBC gets a sadistic kick out of publicizing every fourth place performance and using words like "disappointment" and phrases like "not what they came here for." I really wish they would go away from all of this "Let's interview the losers for a few days straight and ask them why they lost over and over again." It's driving me INSANE. I really hope CTV takes over soon in the future.

If CBC got legitimately EXCITED about good performances and maybe did some better follow-up reporting on athletes from small countries who are successful or inspirational side stories everybody would have such a feel good time. The forums would be FLOODED with how good Canada is doing! But oh no, we are going to hear about it ALL OVER again just as Athens.

I'm wide awake because I'm sick and can't sleep, and I don't want to watch another 15 minutes of boohooing over Adam van Koeverdern not winning a gold and the guys who didn't make the final in men's platform. There are some seriously good boxing, volleyball, tae kwon do, and table tennis FINALS going on! Thank god for streaming coverage.

[Gangwon]

The Canadian performance wasn't disappointing per se, but it would be nice to start owning the podium more and break the 3-gold pattern. That almost-4th gold by Van Koev would've topped off an excellent second week. For a country that has the resources and the population to make things happen, things can be a lot better. We should use both our first week failures and second week heroics to build momentum.

[dave199]

Another games, another disappointment.

We won more medals (at least silver and bronze) but about the same top 8 performances.

These games weren't a big disappointment, so be it we didn't win a lot of gold but was it really expected anyways? We weren't expected to win 18 medals. We exceeded our projected medal count for these games and that's a success in itself.

Our funding for our summer athlete programs won't show much results at these games, we'll have to wait for London 2012 to see if it has made any change.

[Faster]

We have the same performance since Atlanta, 3 gold medals. Norway has 3 gold medals and their population is only 4 million, we have almost 30 million on them, yet we produced the same number of gold.

We have had only 1 athlete in 12 years to win more than 1 gold medal, and no athlete has successfully defended a championship.

[IceNarcissus]

Yes there is a low number in medals per capita compared to others, but this is CANADA. Not a midsize European nation with world class facilities in all four corners of the country to serve a centrally located population. The country does really well considering it doesn't have relatively strong domestic summer events programs and their traditions as a lot of European countries and countries like Australia do. Also, many of the athletes are NCAA college and university level competitors in the states training under scholarships and money set aside for Canadians to do just that. Canada is making the best with what it's got and that's all it can do. Nations like Norway and Jamaica with smaller populations but with more gold medals don't mean anything. It just means there are a few sports those countries have good central foundations for, shaped over years of tradition, success, and popularity.

[SkiFreak]

18 medals - not bad, but also not geat. Oh well, it's our turn now in BC!

[lplove]

Karen Cockburn has been named Canada's flagbearer at the closing ceremony:

http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2008/08/2...emony-flag.html

Karen won the silver medal in women's trampoline and has won medals at all 3 of the last olympic games (trampoline has also only been an olympic sport for the past 3 olympics, so she is 3 for 3).

does anyone know what the selection process was like? 4 years ago I could have sworn that it was an athletes' vote, but from the announcement this morning (Sylvie Bernier on CBC) it seemed like it was a COC decision. It seems unlikely that Karen would win had it been a straight popularity vote.

[Kenadian]

We need to do some alchemy in this country. We won 9 silver medals. Which is the 9th largest haul of silver at these games and just slightly half of what China has. But only 3 gold, meaning 18 countries have more gold than us. The big magic act will be to turn those silvers into gold.

[Faster]

The good of these games is the age of many of our athletes. Many are young and will be back in 2012.

18 medals is, in my opinion, just off of what Canada should be winning, our affluence and level of sport participation should be around 20 to 25 medals, on par with the Dutch. We were on par with the Dutch this time, but only because of under-performance on their side.

From here, hopefully London is 5 to 8 Olympic champions and 20 to 25 medals.

As for Cockburn, she is a good choice and with Lamaze already back in Canada probably the correct choice as a nod to her body of work over a decade of struggle for this country at the summer games.

Edited August 24, 2008 by Faster

[Faster]

Sports Illustrated Predictions:

Correct:

55kg Wrestling – SI: Bronze, Actual: Bronze

Women’s 67kg – SI: Silver, Actual, Silver

Men’s Eights – SI: Gold, Actual: Gold

Under-Estimated:

48kg Wrestling – SI: Bronze, Actual: Gold

Men’s pairs – SI: Bronze, Actual: Silver

Individual Show Jumping – SI: Bronze, Actual: Gold

Team Show Jumping – SI: Bronze, Actual: Silver

Women’s Trampoline – SI: Bronze, Actual: Silver

Over-Estimated:

Canoe 1000m – SI: Silver, Actual: Bronze

Men’s K1 500m – SI: Gold, Actual: Silver

Did Not Predict:

Men’s 1500m Freestyle – SI: No Medal, Actual: Bronze

Men’s Lightweight Fours – SI: No Medal, Actual: Bronze

Women’s Lightweight Double Sculls – SI: No Medal, Actual; Bronze

Men’s Triathlon – SI: No Medal, Actual: Silver

Men’s Trampoline – SI: No Medal, Actual: Silver

Men’s 3m Springboard – SI: No Medal, Actual: Silver

Women’s 100m Hurdles – SI: No Medal, Actual: Bronze

Women’s 10m Platform – SI: No Medal, Actual: Silver

Missed:

Men’s 80g Taekwondo – SI: Bronze, Actual: No Medal

Women’s 49kg – SI: Bronze, Actual: No Medal

Women’s Eights – SI: Bronze, Actual: No Medal

Women’s Mountain Biking – SI: Silver, Actual: No Medal

Men’s K1 1000m – SI: Silver, Actual: No Medal

SI Predicted 2G, 5S, 8B, actual 3G, 9S, 6B

[Gangwon]

Strong finishing kick propels Canada

Canada won medals in 10 sports here and Baumann has said he'd rather concentrate on a core number of sports rather than trying to go too wide.

So it's possible Canada will send fewer athletes than the 332 here in the future. This year's contingent was swelled by teams qualifying in five sports.

"We made a decision some time ago to start targeting the money and we realized we couldn't be a mile wide and an inch deep," Rudge said. "Australia targets the sports where they know they can get medals.

"I'm not sure we can ever be as targeted as that and I don't think Canadians would accept that. We have a certain egalitarian nature that is going to demand that every kid gets a chance, but we can target more than we have in the past."

Agree or disagree? One part of me wants Canada to specialize more in certain events to rack up the medals, but an even bigger part of me wants to continue with our "egalitarian nature" so all youth get at least some funding for their efforts, no matter which sport. As much as I'd like Canada to dominate the Olympics, looking at the bigger picture I'm somewhat happy that we're well-rounded in many sports, as opposed to say Jamaica who's higher up in the standings but only excels in athletics.

[SkiFreak]

From http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/story/2008/08/2...coc-london.html

Canadian Olympic Committee thinking bigger for 2012

Goal for London Summer Games set at top-12 finish after strong showing in Beijing

With a successful Beijing Games in the books, a satisfied Canadian Olympic Committee has started looking ahead to 2012 and London, England.

The COC is targeting a top-12 finish in four years after Canadian athletes met its goal of a top-16 standing in Beijing by placing 15th with 18 medals (three gold, nine silver and six bronze).

Canada was tied for 19th with three gold medals.

Chris Rudge, the COC's chief executive officer, says the difference in Canada's preparation for Beijing compared to the 2004 Athens Games was like night and day.

Almost every athlete had been to Beijing for training or competition before the Games, which wrapped up Sunday after 16 days.

In addition, former Olympians appeared at seminars to provide athletes with advice on how to handle the distractions and frustrations at the Games.

As for London, Rudge says more government funding would be welcome.

He also feels more sports facilities, especially in southern Ontario where one-third of Canada's population resides, would increase the pool of athletes with medal potential.

The 2010 Winter Olympics start in 536 days in Vancouver.

[micheal_warren]

good luck with the top 12 finish! Do you think it is possible? Wow only 536 days to the opening in vancouver! Its going to be great

[Fox334]

good luck with the top 12 finish! Do you think it is possible? Wow only 536 days to the opening in vancouver! Its going to be great

Possible? Yes. But we really need to get our act together to achieve it, and all the pieces need to fall in place come London. And start winning less silvers and more golds...

[baron-pierreIV]

BTW, how did the Canadian poster boy, van Couferdam, do? Never heard whether he finished or not.

[Kenadian]

He got a silver and placed 8th in another event. Didn't have his best moments out there.

[IceNarcissus]

I don't really understand how "sport concentration" would produce better results anyways. Nobody is ever guaranteed to win, so many unexpected things happen. It's better to just support whoever can qualify.

[Kenadian]

Yes, but you have to support them first BEFORE they can qualify. That strategy has worked for other countries - Australia, for example - and back in 1992, Canada had a pretty hefty medal haul in rowing.