There’s a little thing you forgot to mention called the NCAA. in facilities and funding/scholarships, it’s worth BILLIONS per quad.
my comment about the killer instinct, has to do with a friend of mine who knows one of the Canadian gymnasts. Appearently she gets babied, if she doesn’t want to do a particular skill or is scared, she gets a pat on the back and a “thats ok we don’t have to do it.”
if that happened in say Romainia she’d be off the team!
djp, good point about corporate canada. i noticed the same thing, RBG, Bell, and Visa seem to be the only company’s i’ve seen putting money into the atheletes.
And the Milk commercials with the cartoon Cow winnning all the events…
Here’s an interesting series that was on CBC a few years back - might give some insight for some…
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-597/sports/sports_funding/
If you have time read this series of articles from the Toronto Sun written just before the Olympics.
The Milk Producers of Canada give rockin’ bursaries to those who qualify ($10,000) which is almost as much as carding $$. An athlete can get it twice in a career.
Bell gives free cell phones & 800 free min/month to qualified athletes which is an expence or luxury they don’t have to pay for.
Clemson… for some (IMO) solutions… the politicians along with the sport governing bodies need to figure out how many cards/funding they need. A sport that doesn’t produce should not have an abundance of funding & those that do win medals should get more. It is re-assesed every 1-2 years so adjustments can be made fast not the example of overfunding men’s bobsleigh because they won gold in Nagano in '98. (Again, I have been told “but we would have to assess all sports” & I’m saying “yeah… so?”)
Development as well as continued improvement at the elite level in the sports needs to be mandated & (like in business) if the goal is not met, immediate action needs to be taken. Currently they say “well we don’t want to change things”… I keep asking “why not?”.
If it is run like a business, better results as well as effort & rewards generally follow.
I noticed as well that the USOC’s website sells the sport’s clothing. Can you imagine how many Canada Roots hats were sold after Nagano & the COC got 0$ from what I was told. That deal needs to be re-negotiated 'cause getting Roots rich & the sports poor is not the idea here.
There is my start… next would be take all the $$ that would have been spent sending delegates/politicians to the games… put it into athlete support.
I have had an interesting talk with the head of the National Sports Centre here in Calgary who does not believe massage is helpfull therefore will not fund it??!
the bloody nub on my shoulders is what’s left of my head from whacking against the wall…
I can’t tell you how many people live in Azerbaijan but I can tell you for sure that Slovenia has a little bit less than 2 millions citizens (1.980.000) or something like that.
Charlie, you of all people know you that much can be done with little…NCAAs is a good point, but look at Hungary. And if the japanese are training in your town, why are the canadians not getting hardware?
I will not post what swim clubs I saw train, but their training methods are stuck in the 1980s. My first USS Swim Club had swimmers that would beat many olympians in Canada but would get left dusted at trials…take a look at the 50m free for women up north…what the hell?
There is a soccer comentator over here (Eamon Dunphy) who was asked what does it take for a nation to produce a good soccer team …
“A dictatorship and lots of poverty.”
He believed people from not as well off nations were hungrier for success and more eager to do well in life in general in such circumstances, he was also convinced that for the majority of the people in such instances their ideals were purer and less corruptible by money.
He figured in more well off nations, that people just didn’t have the same drive to suceed and do well and that their discipline and respect for authority was much poorer and hence didn’t learn or want to learn as much.
It’s not an argument that is very realistic, practical or watertight but it’s a very interesting observation nonetheless.
No23,
It’s happening here in America! Some poor kid in Mississippi is running on the grass barefoot and will be the next great running back because he isn’t hanging at arcades drinking bladderbusting cokes.
So the university system in Canada can produce swimmers…so what are you going to do? I see a lot of students that are from Toronto swim Division I here. I still don’t get it. I guess Canada is doomed.
Well we’ll never be on the level the United States and Australia are in swimming - just like the US will never be on the level Canada is in hockey, however I wouldn’t say we’re doomed - not yet anyways 
With more of the right people involved, better spent money (not just more) and more corporate involvement I don’t think it’s unrealistic for Canada to be back close to the level we were in the late 70’s, early 1980’s. I think once the powers that be realize we were shut out of the medals in Athens (to go with only one medal in Sydney), and only a couple of swimmers hit PBs, we’ll start to see some change (either that or we can genetically clone Victor Davis ). Not all is lost!
Yes - that’s true … it’s happening somewhere … good point
Why not!? We have to change that kind of attitude, we can’t be thinking like that!
Well we’ll never be on the level the United States and Australia are in swimming
How can you not be? You guys have 50m pools while I must deal with 25yard shot glasses to train swimmers. I still claim coaching is a big problem since what I saw up north look like a horror show.
YES! Coaching comes first- no point having a Caddy with no driver and no gas.
It’s the truth. Let’s face it, how many 8 year olds growing up in Canada want to be the 100m butterfly champion at the Olympics? Ask the same question in Australia and you’ll get a different answer. Yes, the coaching is lacking, but so is the caliber of the athletes. Every kid in Canada wants to play in the NHL, putting kids in sports cost alot of money - money that most families can’t afford to pay - so the parents are mortaging their house so their kids can play midget hockey, they’re not going to sink the same amount of money to send their kid to be a swimming or track hopeful. There’s simply no return on that investment. So the talent pool gets watered down. Most parents will bet that their kids makes the NHL - few will bet their kid wins gold in the pool.
Swimming is practically the national sport in Australia. In Canada it’s something you do at the beach during the summer.
Come on now! What kind of talent “pool” do you need for swimming anyway!
In sprints, a far more competitive sport, you could rule the world with the talent that’s gone begging in Toronto alone.
BS programs by the COA and others compete to take the money away from athletes and coaches. Gov created lotteries take funding away from a bingo-driven club system. And, cruelest of all, a decade of poisonous labour unrest among teachers’ unions, creating a work-to-rule environment that has cost hundreds, if not thousands, of poor Canadian kids their chance at scholarships to the US.
Ironhead…I don’t agree with that bullshit.
You think swimming in the USA is loved? I looked at the size of Cascade in Calgary and the club is HUGE…enough to produce some fast swimming. In the states every parent thinks their kid is going to be in the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, and now MLS!
Think about that! Tall and thin kids aren’t swimming they are playing AAU basketball…if not…they are playing JV basketball at their high school! Paul Bergan and Cecil helped shape the olympics in the 80s and I have yet to see the same caliber of coaching. t I was fired at age 20 producing swimmers that went to Nationals swimming only .8 seconds slower than Canada’s record holder( Imagine 400m time in track)…Now that I up north I can produce kids that go slower in yards and be a hero! My main kid may break the state record in three events and if it was four years ago I could be fired. The farther north you go the less pressure there is…
I’m just saying that Americans and Australians have alot of success in the pool and on the track - in part because there’s more public interest in the sports and more parents get their kids into those sports at an early age. Less talent is lost to other sports.
What would make a kid in Canada want to be a swimmer or a track athlete?
Public interest? The stands at NCAAs aren’t even filled! At least it should be packed full of parents!
Jenna Gresdal is 19 and swims a 25.76 …will she improve in Canada? Don’t bet on it.
What would make a kid in AMERICA want to be a swimmer or a track athlete?
With Spring Football, soccer, lacrosse, and baseball…
Hmm…
What kind of rewards/benefits do Olympic champions from the United States get when they return home (ie, endorsements, jobs, speaking appearances)?
Brad Bridgewater’s Gold Medal from the olympics gave him some great perks! More bullshit…do kids think about the CEO engagements? Kenny Brokenburr had to through red tape just to speak free at my own elementary school!