Canada and the Olympics

So it is day number eight of the Olympics and I woke up this morning to see that Canada still had zero medals. [Update: by this afternoon we had 3 but I'm still going to rant anyway]. Now I know that Canada has never been a major Summer Olympics nation but even this was a little surprising to me as it usually doesn't take us eight days to get medals. Not surprising to me however was the inevitable news articles and editorials in Canada griping about our Olympics performance. So why wasn't I surprised?

Because this happens every Summer Olympics!

Canadians always seemed shocked when we don't wind up with 40+ medals so we start going through the excuses, the handwringing, the appeals to our politicians and sporting authorities to explain what happened, the angry letters to the editor. Comparisons to Australia are inevitably made. Comparisons to countries in the developing world who managed to get medals are inevitably made. And then one month later we forget about all that because it is time for hockey to start. Four years later the cycle will begin anew. As far as I can tell moaning about the Summer Olympics is a Canadian tradition.

So, in true Canadian-Olympic spirit, here are my gripes about the whole process:

1) Stop the comparisons with Australia

Yes, Canada and Australia have similar levels of wealth. Yes, both countries are large, sparsely-populated “Western” nations. Yes, men in both countries like to wrestle wild and dangerous animals (Australians: crocs, Canadians: Revenue Canada lawyers) but there is one key difference -- Australians happen to like some sports that offer a lot of medals, such as swimming, whereas we like sports that don't offer a lot of medals, such as hockey and curling. It is that simple. The most medals a country can win in hockey is 2. The most medals at country can win in curling is 2. The most medals a country can possibly win in swimming is probably something like 10,000 or so. That's just the way it is. If it bothers you that much that Australia has big Summer Olympics medals tallies than petition the IOC to include all of the NHL's Skills Competition events as separate medal items in the Winter Olympics. While you're at it, ask them to include relay versions of those same events. Canada will then triple its Winter Olympics medal tallies and you can sleep smugly.

2) The other 46 months between Olympics

One article I read really hit it on the head when they noted that we don't seem to care about almost any of the Summer Olympics events or the athletes competing in them for the 46 months between Summer Olympics. Only when the Olympics are upon us are we suddenly concerned with our rowers, wrestlers, gymnasts, and swimmers and demand that they perform and get medals. Is this really fair?

Why are we heaping these expectations upon them now? If we haven't been following gymnastics for these last four years it seems a little unfair to suddenly become concerned about our athletes performance in Beijing. While we spent 46 months ignoring the athletes they continued to train and compete, representing their country in the sports they loved. They certainly couldn't have been doing it for the money, and probably 98% of them are never recognized by people when they walk down the street. Local television usually doesn't even bother broadcasting their events because they know Canadians would rather watch something else. And a major endorsement deal is highly unlikely. So we don't embrace them for 46 months, then for two months demand medals. If I were a Canadian athlete slugging it out for four years in obscurity, then suddenly asked why I'm not in the top three, I'd be tempted to tell these people demanding medals where to go. Maybe Canadians should stop looking at medal counts and look at how they placed compared to expectations. Winding up in fifth place at an Olympics is pretty awesome when you are only ranked number 20 or so in the world. Yet for many of these athletes such achievements go unnoticed.

3) Stop the comparisons with developing countries

Whenever we start comparing our medal count to some country in the developing world the underlying implication is that only money gets medals. The worst offenders are those that state something along the lines of “EVEN country XYZ has medals” with country XYZ inevitably being either war-torn, destitute, in Africa, or all of the above.

Many Olympic events do not require a lot of technology or money to train athletes in. Athletics, boxing, weightlifting, in sports like these any country has the potential to create gifted competitors, and in many of these countries sporting success is the only hope these athletes have of earning a reasonable amount of money to support their families. So they train, and train hard. Their countrymen support them. I attended the weightlifting at the Asian Games the place was packed with Iranians, Arabs and people from other nationalities, who were loudly cheering for the athletes, many times chanting their names. Can you name one Canadian weightlifter? And many times these athletes are successful and rightfully earn Olympic medals. Good for them! Money doesn't mean everything in sport so stop acting too shocked when someone from a poor nation can actually outcompete “Western” athletes in some events.

In fact the Olympic events that annoy me are those that basically exclude the Developing World because of the costs involved to either participate in it, or to train people to excel at it. Could someone explain to me how most developing nations could have even a chance of competing in something like equestrian events? Or sailing? As far as I'm concerned the IOC should consider getting rid of most of these high-tech, high-expense events and focus on those that countries of any economic level have a realistic chance to participate in.


Okay rant over, time for me to go back and watch the Olympic coverage.