Closing Thoughts
August 27, 2008
Well, the games have come to a close and it is safe to say that they were a huge success for all involved. I think China put on a hell of a show and have raised the standard for all to follow. As for Canada, I am very proud of our athletes performances in Beijing. For me, anyone who makes it to the Olympics is a very special person and from what I saw many of our athletes achieved personal bests and/or broke Canadian records while performing at the games - and really, what more can we ask for. I do not aspire to the ideal that “a 1000 silvers do not equate to one gold,” I am proud of every medal our athletes earned. With that said, it is clear that we still have a lot of work to do on the world stage, but for now, we should all celebrate our achievements and get ready to do it all again in Vancouver.
I’m definitely proud of our athletes as well, but comparatively it’s actually quite sad. Two guys that I worked with here in Cambodia were from the UK and we talked quite a bit about the Olympics and how poorly Canada does in terms of medals (I backed up our athletes by mentioning the number personal bests and Canadian Records being broken….their response was “Yes, but unfortunately participation ribbons are not given out in the Olympics”). There are several commercials in Canada on how to support the athletes because on top of training they need to get jobs etc to support themselves….and I believe the ad was for a special credit card and how a small percentage of your purchases went to the athletes. Jump to the UK and they were telling me that one program they have is the National Lottery and how a huge percentage of it goes to support the athletes. How can we expect our athletes to compete on the world stage? Your story of Simon Whitfield is a perfect example….here’s our 2 time olympic medalist in the triathlon training for the games at a public swimming pool during public swimming hours, you’d have to guess that he’s there because it’s probably the cheapest time to go.
Comment by Doug — August 30, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
Here, here Dougie!!
Comment by Administrator — August 30, 2008 @ 7:12 pm