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We do own the podium. It's just that, in most cases, people from other countries are standing on it.
Time to replace Brodeur - 2nd request. Oh well, at least the women's hockey team will do us proud! The boys can't keep up any more.
Canada won 29 medals in World Championships last year (6 of them Gold). 11 of those were in events that have been completed (as of Jan 21)
COC's new programme: Loan the Podium.
I'd just like to say: pwn the odium, Mr. Harper.
Growin' the opium.
A Montreal Gazette article this morning suggests Canada will end up with its best Winter Games medal haul ever, but won't necessarilly finish at the top.
Famous last words?
excerpt:
Canada, however, expects to pick up from 11 to 13 medals in the last four days, and trails the Americans in the gold-medal standings by just three.
"This may have been the U.S. week - the week coming up will be Canada's week," Chambers said.
Maybe you should re-read what you wrote. It was obviously a rationalization for pumping millions of dollars into elitist pursuits. Just because other countries do it, we should too??
"Own the podium" is an embarrassment regardless of the number of medals won. Paradoxically, the more absurd it seems the better for the nation.
Hitler perfected the Olympics spectacle model of jingoism with a smiley face.
If the propaganda circus could work for him (and it did), is it little wonder that politicians of all stripes fall over themselves, crush domestic needs, and put their nations in debt for a few moment of "glory" in the reviewing stands?
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/olympics.html
Owning the Embarrassment
VANOC and COC have admitted that Canada "cannot own the podium now, with the USA too far in the lead for us to catch up in the medal count". In fact, we might even end up behind Korea.
"Owning the Podium" is very UN-Canadian anyhow, it is just not like us. We don't want to "own" it, we just want to get there when we deserve it. Doesn't "owning the podium" sound like a big bully talking? It is not us.
Also, it never felt THIS bad before, and I blame the "Own the Podium" program for that. I would have been content if Canada's Olympic athletes were doing the usual "finishing just out of the medals since 1896" if we had never heard predictions and expectations of "owning the podium".
PS - we might end up with only 12 medals, which would be the lowest total since 1994 when Canada won 13 medals.
I don't care how many medals Canada wins, but my prediction is that Canada will be closer to 20 medals overall, not 12.
My guess is that Canada will exceed 20 medals.
If we were to respect the idealism that is supposed to be behind the Olympics rather than the reality we see then we should reverse the approach and produce a Canadian approach.
1) do not spend money trying to bring the Olympics here
2) invest some of the money in to athletes who can compete
3) invest some of the money in to healthier living and sport for all Canadians
4) invest some of the money in to a program to adopt other countries -- share and link directly to athletes who are competing from countries who cannot support them --(You could call this "share the podium") We could help with their training and equipment. Effectively double what we do- but have half go to our athletes and the other half support athletes from developing countries. I think that would create a lot of good will and Olympic spirit. We would be invested in those people.
Given how massively expensive it is to host the Olympics not doing so could do all the above as well as support our own people where they need health care etc.
I came up with the 4th because I am so struck by the greed of the Olympics. The ad for the Olympics I actually like was the story of the Norwegian coach who gave the Canadian a ski pole after she broke hers. The idea of helping each other is much more modern than this taking any advantage to get whatever hardware we can buy.
I also would like to see a real cost of the Olympics calculated- has anyone done this? -- there is a financial cost that is net of course for any revenue-- but there is also human costs-- it would be interesting is anyone put them in the same place.
CBC on my way home had bits of interview with a (CanOC?) official. Lamenting that the "own the podium" program has fallen so short of owning the podium, he stated that post olympics they would..."eviscerate the program to the nth degree" in order to find out what they had done wrong.
Huh?
I agree with "Sean in Ottawa", I think all that money would be far better spent promoting the health of all Canadians, including an increase in funding to minor sport, youth programs, and school nutrition. $6 billion dollars to procure the games would have gone a long way in improving the infrastructure of this country's health care system. From a selfish standpoint, the $110 million spent on "owning the podium" would have done much to address the plight of the homeless where I live (Toronto).
As much as I enjoy seeing Canadians win medals, I also appreciate seeing the excitement in the faces of those from other nations who do the same. I'd rather the Olympics be a competition among true amateurs, without so much focus on who wins what, and if we stopped trying to buy medals we'd likely win less sure, but then winning a medal would mean more.
Are the NHL players getting paid to play in these games???
No, they are already loaded by big salaries from the NHL-- so yeah they are getting paid but not for this specifically.
The Canadian dream is dead. The Americans own our podium.
Own The Podium dream is over; Canadian officials say Americans have too many medals to catch up
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hmEgRu0B7ZD...
Thanks, Sean.
The Olympics is proof of the old adage that you can ruin anything by throwing enough money at it.
You know, that's not a bad quote. I would slightly modify it thusly:
... and our gas and oil, massive mounts of hydroelectric power, minerals and timber rights in Bananada. And if that's not enough, Steve the penultimate stooge wants to hand more of our Northern Puerto Rico to Yanqui imperialists. 22 percent of Banadians voted for this stooge, and he will sell what's left of Bananada out from under our feet for a bit of kick-back and graft. And I don't think it's for that much money or anything. I think Steve and his stoogeocrats are all pretty cheap dates like their US counterparts are in Warshington. They'd sell their mothers for a song.
*Groans*. This old adage comes to mind: if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Canadian NHL players are eligible for a $20K bonus (if they win gold, $15K for silver and $10K for Bronze). US players are eligible for a $25K bonus. So far the Canadian players have done their best to make this a moot point.
For what it's worth, at least Canada finally won gold at home.
I'm curious. It the Canadian women's hockey team played the Canadian men's hockey team in a hockey game, what would the final score be!
4 marriage proposals, 1 broken nose, and 7 missing teeth.
It depends. Who's in net for the men, Brodeur or Luongo?
Do they use Men's or Women's rules?