Canada's non existent Olympic medal count symptomatic of societal decline

Didn't we just get voted into the top three best countries to live in?  Also I'm living in Asia right now.  It's a heck of a lot better in Canada.  In fact complaining about Canada not being a good enough country is paramount to complaining that you didn't get sprinkles on your foo foo latte.

you made absolutely no real ties to the poor olympic showing and the societal decline. You simply stated that they were connected but showed no proof of that being so aside from referencing it in the first and last paragraph. That being said, I think you might be on to something here. However, I wish you could better connect the two.

It is shocking that after 9 days of the Olympics, Canada only has 7 medals.  To put it in perspective, Italy has 18 and Cuba has 8.  Australia, whose population is less than Canada's, has 29.   Why send so many athletes (over 300) if they don't meet the requisite standard?

Yes, in my view that is an excellent point.. why send 300 athletes?  So that they can acheive 'Personal Bests" maybe?  Or, perhaps for a public relations show, to make it look like the Canadian Olympic Committee is doing a great job training so many althletes?

There is a free chat system, re: www.canadianchat.agoracosmopolitan.com, that can be used for creating electronic chat around Canada at the Olympics related issues.

Canada is an industrialized nation -- a member of the G8. A much higher standard is expected. Smaller, less industrialized countries like Kazakhstan (8 medals)  Cuba (8 medals), Jamaica (4 medals) send far less athletes to the Olympics relative to their respective populations. They cannot afford the level of funding that Canada can, but their athletes produce better results.   Isn't there something wrong with this picture?

You're right.  All the other G8 countries have exceeded Canada's medals by far-- France (25 medals), Germany (22 medals), Italy (18 medals), Japan (20 medals), Russia (31 medals), Britain (25 medals), USA (65 medals), Canada (7 medals).

Canada now has 13 medals, tied for 13th with the Netherlands. Of these, Canada has one of the smallest populations, as well as the shortest summer training season. Keep in mind Canada's impressive medal standing at the 3006 Turin Olympics, placing 5th!! behind Germany, USA, Austria, and Russia. To say that Canada is failing athletes, or that our "poor" showing in Beijing is connected to larger socio-economic issues is rather silly. Canada was, is, and will continue to be one of the top 5 coutries in the world to live i. The UN ranked Canada extrmely highly on its Human Development Index, placing 4th after Iceland, Norway, and Australia. Of these, only Australia is beating Canada in the medal count. Conversely, the US places 12, and China is abysmal at 81.

Canadian athlestes have done remarkably at these summer olympics; winning medals or not, the have set amazing Canadian medals and acted as true ambassadors for our country. However, I would side with the Canadian Government in their support (or lack their of) of our athletes; I would much rather have free health care, roads, and clean water than all the gold medal in the olympics.

But please, do some research before posting such articles. Or at least wait for the Games to finish :)

China is winning medals for exactly the -=opposite=- reasons you cite.  They are not getting pulled in a thousand directions by a thousand special interests and are allowed... probably forced... to take pride in their country.  The victim-based economy of Canada has devistated our national interests.

Get your head outta that dark place its stuck in, neither have anything to do with the other. The games aren't even over!  I bet you throw your lotto tickets away before the numbers are called.

You have not seen poverty till you have been to 3rd world county's, Children spending there whole day's rummaging through garbage dumps etc. If you had you wouldn't be preaching this smack.. Good thing we have freedom of speech though!

Canada Rock's and we will Rock in the winter olympics too, I thank christ I live in such a great country and am proud of all the athletes, medal winners or not, they are all winners to me!

It seems that Canada strives for mediocrity. To be proud of being 16th in the present medal count is shocking.  If you set low expectations, you will rise to such low expectations.  A lot of the sports are indoors, so it's a lame excuse to say that you have a short summer to prepare.  A better medal-to-population ratio is, for example, Australia, with a population of 20 million,which has a current medal count of 38 (a ratio of 1 medal per 0.5 million); Cuba, with a population of about 11 million, which has a current medal count of 14 ( a ratio of 1 medal per 0.75 million); and Jamaica with a population of about 3 million, which has a current medal count of  9 (a ratio of 1 medal per 0.3 million).  Besides, countries like Jamaica and Cuba do not have the kind of budget that Canada has to prepare its athletes.

It's not the population size of the country that counts.  It is the number of athletes that each country sent to the Olympics that counts and how many medals each country earns in relation to its athletes.  Canada sent 330 athletes and earned 17 medals (5%); U.S. sent 596 athletes and earned 102 medals (17%); France sent 334 athletes and earned 34 medals (10%); China sent 638 athletes and earned 89 medals (14%); Jamaica sent 58 athletes and earned 10 medals (17%); Cuba sent 133 athletes and earned 19 medals (14%).   It's the quality that matters, not the quantity.

Whatever you say, facts are facts... Jamaica, Kenia, Ethiopia and... and... Canada!

I see what you're saying, "rivers" (above).  As a percentage, Canada only earned 5%, compared to other countries who earned 10% or higher -- especially less industrialized countries like Cuba and Jamaica, which did extremely well.  As an update, the final medal count for Canada is 18 (does not change the percentage, however) -- although, to be fair, other countries medal count also increased (Jamaica, 11;  France,  40;  China,  100;   United States 110;  Cuba, 24)

The logic of the article shows an appalling ignorance of the sport environment. It's is just a silly socialist rant that now looks even sillier since Canada's 18 medals now top Greece's results and are also the BEST per capita of the G8. Some decline

Why didn't any of these geniuses realize that Canada's chances are best in the second half. Didn't anyone do any preliminary research before becoming  "appalled" at our medal count in week one. Of course they didn't.

We send 300 athletes so that it will help them developmentally for future competition, not to show people that they are doing a great job training athletes. It is hard to win at the Olys if you have not been seasined at other lesser meets first. In fact the COC does NOT train athletes itself, that is the job of the sport federations, funded by federal and provincial governments, sponsors, an army of paid and unpaid volunteers (usually the latter) and others. The COC's mandate is to fund and organize the trips to both Olympics and the Pan Am Games. And ni, the COC is not a governement body.

Being proud of 16th is not shocking. It is very good considering our population and funding levels. Do you know how many countries would love to be in such an appalling situation? Unless our society takes on Spartan proportions, Canada will just not be able to beat large nations such as the USA, China, Russia, and others. Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Ukraine and others are all at least twice our size and we are indeed holding our own against them per capital-wise. It will be tough to keep up there but perhaps possible. We can try to beat smaller Australia, a country so much like ourselves but much more committed to sports. That will indeed be challenging, and so will the will needed to bring it about.

And as mentioned above by others, all of the Canadian team did make standards or they would not be allowed to compete. That's the rules. And that standard, for those writers who are athletically unaware, is high. Very high.

It is not just a matter of the numbers of athletes sent. If a country enters a lot of team sports, that will seriously affect their chances, since a 15 person team can still only win one medal. All members would get a medal, but it only counts as one in the standings. Not all team members have an equal chance of winning their event, and that inncludes any team. Increasing team size only helps if the added members are capable of winning. Jamaica could have increased their's but would not have won any added hardware. Population size does unfluence medal count eventually. The bigger your pool and the more people to fund an elite program the more you will win eventually.

Canada may be faulted for not giving a high enough value to sport and winning. Blame that not a Steven Harper (on the scene for only 2 years), not of George Bush (the US gov't is very laissez faire wrt their Olympic Committee's program, so would have even less influence on ours). Blame it on the wimpy lefties who have made "competition" and "winning" and "success" dirty words in our school system and have scaled down fitness and sports in many of the schools they control. You have no right to be appalled if you are unwilling to find the alternative.

And if we won 100 medals I have no doubt that the same geniuses would indeed be compaining about how that was also a sign of "societal decline" somehow. Truly one of the silliest pieces I have seen in years. Better to go to some coffee house and have a group wringing session about our awful Canadian society, (coffee paid for with EI proceeds no doubt). Just leave sports to those who have a clue about its dynamics.

Former COC member

You are presumptuous about what some of the writers know about sports.  First of all, the Olympics is not a venue to help athletes developmentally for future events, because they face stiff competition with the best in the world.  Save the embarrassment and use another venue for this purpose.  Jamaica and Cuba, for example, decided not to increase the number of athletes sent to the Olympics because they didn't  believe that the Olympics is an event to train/help athletes for "developmental" purposes.   They want to showcase the best they have against the best of the world.  As someone else said, they have much less athletic funding than industrialized countries like Canada.   And yes, if Canada is to be a member of the G8, it should demonstrate - at least on a percentage basis - that it is on par - or close to par, with the other G 8 countries.