Now that the Winter Olympics are over, I just wanted to say how happy I am that Canada did so well this time around in terms of number of medals won.
Canada came in 3rd in the overall medal tally, with 24 medals alltogether. Germany is in first place with 29, and the US is in 2nd place with 25 medals.
This is encouraging, especially after Canada's disappointing performance at the Greece Summer Olympics, where only 12 medals were won (for the sake of comparison, the US won 103 medals in the summer games!!).
Of course, it makes sense that Canada performs better at the Winter games given that winters there last between 7 and 9 months. But still. I feel that the Canadian government does not invest enough in helping athletes fulfill their Olympic dreams. That was actually a big debate that took place after the 2004 Summer Olympics. I wonder if it'll be different for the next Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Oh and the next Winter Olympics are happening in Vancouver. Go Canada!
2 comments:
The Canadian governement has, and will be investing a lot in winter sports in view of Vancouver 2010. The goal is 35 medals in Vancouver (yeah, right!). Our medal tally went up 41% from Salt Lake 2002 (17 medals vs. 24) that means we would have to make sure that goes up 45% again in 4 years. And you have to remember, the the winter olympics are VERY small in comparison with summer olympics since less countries compete and less athletes per country compete. So it is normal that we perform better then than in the summer Olympics.
With regards to the US winning 103 and us 13 in Athens - if you compare that to population, it is logical. But then again, I do hope we do better in Beijing 2008. But I'm not so sure if I want a whole lot of my hard earned cash (vive les impôts!) going toward training athletes in order to beat the US in the final medal count...
I love the Olympics!!!
Go, Canada!
Actually, it is a relief that we did so well. After all, it's a dress rehersal for Vancouver. At least now we know that we have a good chance of not embarassing ourselves (i.e. having another Montreal).
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