[Michael_M_Lazo]

Good Luck to Canada on the World Hockey Tournament 2004. <br />Aug 31, 2004 - Canada 2 vs. US 1 <br />Sep 1, 2004 - Canada vs. Slovakia <br />Sep 4, 2004 - Canada vs. Russia <br />Sep 6, 2004 - Quarter Finals Start <br />Sep 10, 2004 - Semi-Finals Start <br />Sep 14, 2004 - Championship in toronto. <br />It's 19:35 in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. <br /><b>Michael M Lazo</b> <br />http://www.angelfire.com/mech/michaelmlazo <br />

[Dr Caleb]

Looks like we sucked at the Olympics. Not to take away from the athletes; they did their best and gave it their all. And they did well for the training and support we provide them. Did you know our Gold Medal cycleist was the not only the oldest cycleist on the track, she was the only one who had a job? The others were professional cyclists. . . their countries and corporate sponsors actually provide enough funds for them to live off. <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/rolleyes.gif' alt='Rolling Eyes'> <br /> <br />But if we look at total medals, the US had 103. We had 12. For a country of 10% the population of the US, we got 10% of their total medals. Austrailia, smaller than us, got 49 medals. <br /> <br />Looking at it another way, by # of medals as a percentage of population, Austrailia was 4th overall (#1 Bahamas, #2 Estonia, #3 Cuba). Canada was 37th, the US 38th. <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/rolleyes.gif' alt='Rolling Eyes'> <img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/rolleyes.gif' alt='Rolling Eyes'> <br /> <br />Why don't we expect or even demand of our Olympic team the kind of performance we expect of our Hockey teams? Will we accept second place in the World Cup of Hockey? Have we been dissapointed so often by our Olympic athletes that, like our politicians, we don't expect much from them? <br /> <br />Judging from the number of well wishers in this thread, I expect so. <br /> <br />How far would the $5 million that Heritage Canada spent sending their people to the games have gone? The Sports Minister spent $50,000 per person to go the the games to 'liase with the Greek Minister of Sports to share ideas bla bla bla. . .'. Excuse me the Honourable Liza Frulla, but what kind of 'the dog ate my fucking homework' excuse is that? <br /> <br />Pardon my language, but some atheletes could not bring their coaches for lack of a mere $10,000, and she's spending $50,000 per person. <br /> <br />Canadian apathy must be at it's highest, because second place is not good enough for me. <br />

[whelan costen]

Well I agree Dr. Caleb, and possibly the Olympics have not had as much attention here in the media, because we know they are underfunded, and we are playing media for the U.S. Rep convention. It does say something about what is important to us. These young people bust their butts to make the grade, training constantly, giving up the rest of their lives to represent us, parents sacrifice to drive them and pay for training. Then we rally for a couple of weeks, maybe and that is the end of it. <br /> <br />We used to fund sports in schools so that all young people had an opportunity to try, now it cost so much to put a kid in anything, it's only the rich that can really enter the games. We wonder why some of this generation is so fat, unhealthy and unmotivated,etc, well what message are we sending?

[tifani]

Sports funding all around is weak. My chosen sport is not in the Olympics, and seems to get little government funding. I could (and have) qualified for World Championship events, and Canadian players must pay to go, meanwhile the Australian players will get PAID a couple hundred dollars for each game they win, plus all expenses covered. <br /> <br />I don't expect funding, but then should others expect me to go over and win for Canada? Many players can't afford to go, or can't afford to practice as much as they want because they must work, so then we're not sending our best players or our best prepared ones. There are things more important than sports funding sure, but then we can't complain if the results don't come in if there isn't the investment. <br /> <br />Maybe I'll move to Australia...

[Dr Caleb]

That's kind of my point Tifani. They spend our money on crap like the Heritage and Sports Ministries and the Gov'nr General and their mysterious phantom junkets, when it would do a world of good for the athletes.<p> <br />I learned to ski when I was 4 or 5. My family and I took trips to the mountains 4 or 5 times a season, and I was out nearly twice a week to local ski hills. I started competetive racing in the Molson league (as in beer, they used to sponsor many amature events), and I fell in with a really good group. One of my team's fathers grew up in Austria, working for a chair lift company. He was a level 2 Instructor, and he could ski like the wind, and his name was well known throughout the alpine community. <p> <br />With his help, I tried out for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. 5 of our team made it to the official team tryouts race, and two qualified for the tryouts, myself and another. Two members went down to leg injuries which required surgery, and they had no hope to try out. Due to some dirty backroom politics, the two from our team who qualified under the rules, were disqualified because of changes to the rules after the tryouts were finished.<p> <br />Now, for me, costs were low. A tank of gas, a lift pass (if I didn't already have a seasons' pass) and a hotel room were my costs. I already owned all the equipment I needed. Coach did what he did for us because he loved doing it.<p> <br />If Canada would put even a little more funding that they end up wasting, we could have so much better results on the world stage.<p> <br /> <br />

[Kory Yamashita]

Wow... I'm impressed that we have this kind of high-level athlete hanging around on this site!! <br /> <br />As for the Olympics... Well, good work by our athletes. We didn't even have a drug scandal this time around! <br /> <br />But really, the Olympics should be an opportunity to represent your country. That said, I don't believe it would be really honest to fund a bunch of elite athletes to improve our performance at the games. If the Olympics are about representing your country, then our country ought to have good athletics all around to do better at the games. <br /> <br />And which government will go out and fund children's sports, healthy eating initiatives, etc etc?? In terms of the Olympics, the turnaround on that kind of political move is probably around 20 years. <br /> <br />So maybe we should be focusing more on the health and general well-being of our citizens. And the Olympic performances we desire will follow naturally.

[Stymiest]

fund Rugby Union the second fastest growing sport in Canada next to Golf <br /> <br />