One week into the Olympics Canada stands at 10 medals. One of them being gold.
The USA leads with 54 medals and 26 gold followed by China with 53 of which 25 are golden.
The rest of the top ten contains the usual suspects of Great Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Australia, Korea and Italy.
Predictably, some Canadians on the call in shows are not happy with the medals won so far. It seems to them, it's unacceptable Kazakhstan (population 16 million/GDP per capita $13 000) has 4 gold medals and New Zealand (with a tiny population of 3 million) 3.
A popular comparison is with Australia (similar size, wealth, part of the Commonwealth, a little crazy in the head etc.) who consistently outperform Canada at the Summer Games. The interesting thing about the Aussie's is that while they have 20 medals only one has been gold - equal to Canada.
The major reason for this is that the Aussie's didn't do so well in the pool - the backbone of Australian Olympic success. China and Japan have eaten into their cut. Only the USA remains supreme in the water.
I tend to be hard on Canada when it comes to results myself. For example, we send large contingents with little returns. I don't know but sending 260 athletes to get two or three gold medals isn't very efficient in my eyes. However, this time around, Canada is actually performing well. I was watching the women's gymnastics (a sport Canada has historically been mediocre) and was actually impressed with the performance.
The Americans, Chinese and Romanians were simply better. The Americans in particular were just plain fantastic. In this instance, finishing 5th was quite an accomplishment and something to hopefully build on.
Gone are the days when Canadians were "happy to participate." That naive attitude is slowly (mercifully and thankfully) slowly changing as Canadians actually want to be on the podium now. I think they just got tired with the "I'm happy with my 11th place performance." People expect more and this is not a bad thing.
Nonetheless, 10 medals (11th overall) is bound to raise questions. Or as my wife put it, "we get an 'A' for effort but not much else." The question I like to ask is "ok, you're not happy with 10 at the moment. How many do you reckon we should be at?"
I don't know myself.
But how "bad" is 11th?
The only real metric to determine if Canada does well is to measure itself against traditional sports powers Canada likens itself to. Canada isn't a top 10 country at the Summer games (more like top 15. We're top 10 or 5 at the Winter games as it should be), but that doesn't necessarily mean failure. There are 200 countries in the world you know.
Canada, as I mentioned, is currently in 11th spot. That's pretty good given who is ahead of them.
I went back and looked at the medals won since 1992 for major Olympic powers. Gold medals/Total:
1) USA - 190-515
2) Russia - 153-429
3) China - 143-325
4) Germany - 95-293
5) Australia - 63-221
6) France - 54-148
7) Italy - 50-145
8) South Korea - 49-144
9) Great Britain - 45-140
10) Japan 36-117
Hungary: 37-95
Romania: 31-91
Netherlands: 29-97
Poland: 22-70
Canada: 19-84.
Clearly, there's room for improvement. Canada under performs every single country on this list except for Poland (who still manage more gold medals) but asking Canada to crack that top 10 is unrealistic unless there's a major shake up and commitment to excellence.
***
Quick word on Germany. While the results of the USA, France, Britain and Italy have been steady, there's been a slow downward trend with Germany. Consider:
1992: 82 medals
96: 65
00: 56
04: 49
08: 41
Between 1992 and 2008 the German medal haul is down 50%! I'm guessing funding is down?
Germany is at 21 medals at the moment.
Another country not having the usual success is Russia. China, it looks like, are poised to be replace Russia as America's main rival. It will be interesting what direction Australia goes into.
***
Meanwhile, Americans are asking if Ryan Lochte's performance in the pool was disappointing relative to the expectations.
He won five medals/two golds.
Half of Canada's totals and double the gold production from ONE guy and the Americans are wondering if the guy "choked."
Ridiculous.
Only in America.
***
Watched the boxing match between Zou of China and Veiteia of Cuba. All I can say was what an outrageous outcome. Zou committed so many fouls I lost count yet he won. Not only that, he got clocked in the final round but the ref (who was terrible) didn't give an eight-count. But when Zou delivered a harmless head shot, the Cuban boxer was given a standing eight. Final score 14-11 for Zou who hugged his way to a controversial victory.
Not a first in boxing of course.
Just terrible.
Predictably, some Canadians on the call in shows are not happy with the medals won so far. It seems to them, it's unacceptable Kazakhstan (population 16 million/GDP per capita $13 000) has 4 gold medals and New Zealand (with a tiny population of 3 million) 3.
A popular comparison is with Australia (similar size, wealth, part of the Commonwealth, a little crazy in the head etc.) who consistently outperform Canada at the Summer Games. The interesting thing about the Aussie's is that while they have 20 medals only one has been gold - equal to Canada.
The major reason for this is that the Aussie's didn't do so well in the pool - the backbone of Australian Olympic success. China and Japan have eaten into their cut. Only the USA remains supreme in the water.
I tend to be hard on Canada when it comes to results myself. For example, we send large contingents with little returns. I don't know but sending 260 athletes to get two or three gold medals isn't very efficient in my eyes. However, this time around, Canada is actually performing well. I was watching the women's gymnastics (a sport Canada has historically been mediocre) and was actually impressed with the performance.
The Americans, Chinese and Romanians were simply better. The Americans in particular were just plain fantastic. In this instance, finishing 5th was quite an accomplishment and something to hopefully build on.
Gone are the days when Canadians were "happy to participate." That naive attitude is slowly (mercifully and thankfully) slowly changing as Canadians actually want to be on the podium now. I think they just got tired with the "I'm happy with my 11th place performance." People expect more and this is not a bad thing.
Nonetheless, 10 medals (11th overall) is bound to raise questions. Or as my wife put it, "we get an 'A' for effort but not much else." The question I like to ask is "ok, you're not happy with 10 at the moment. How many do you reckon we should be at?"
I don't know myself.
But how "bad" is 11th?
The only real metric to determine if Canada does well is to measure itself against traditional sports powers Canada likens itself to. Canada isn't a top 10 country at the Summer games (more like top 15. We're top 10 or 5 at the Winter games as it should be), but that doesn't necessarily mean failure. There are 200 countries in the world you know.
Canada, as I mentioned, is currently in 11th spot. That's pretty good given who is ahead of them.
I went back and looked at the medals won since 1992 for major Olympic powers. Gold medals/Total:
1) USA - 190-515
2) Russia - 153-429
3) China - 143-325
4) Germany - 95-293
5) Australia - 63-221
6) France - 54-148
7) Italy - 50-145
8) South Korea - 49-144
9) Great Britain - 45-140
10) Japan 36-117
Hungary: 37-95
Romania: 31-91
Netherlands: 29-97
Poland: 22-70
Canada: 19-84.
Clearly, there's room for improvement. Canada under performs every single country on this list except for Poland (who still manage more gold medals) but asking Canada to crack that top 10 is unrealistic unless there's a major shake up and commitment to excellence.
***
Quick word on Germany. While the results of the USA, France, Britain and Italy have been steady, there's been a slow downward trend with Germany. Consider:
1992: 82 medals
96: 65
00: 56
04: 49
08: 41
Between 1992 and 2008 the German medal haul is down 50%! I'm guessing funding is down?
Germany is at 21 medals at the moment.
Another country not having the usual success is Russia. China, it looks like, are poised to be replace Russia as America's main rival. It will be interesting what direction Australia goes into.
***
Meanwhile, Americans are asking if Ryan Lochte's performance in the pool was disappointing relative to the expectations.
He won five medals/two golds.
Half of Canada's totals and double the gold production from ONE guy and the Americans are wondering if the guy "choked."
Ridiculous.
Only in America.
***
Watched the boxing match between Zou of China and Veiteia of Cuba. All I can say was what an outrageous outcome. Zou committed so many fouls I lost count yet he won. Not only that, he got clocked in the final round but the ref (who was terrible) didn't give an eight-count. But when Zou delivered a harmless head shot, the Cuban boxer was given a standing eight. Final score 14-11 for Zou who hugged his way to a controversial victory.
Not a first in boxing of course.
Just terrible.
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