Olympics, who'll be watching?

[Will]

No one should care. He was a replacement bass player who contributed nothing to their music and was, by all accounts, a terrible musician. And those were his good points.

I've always found the Sex Pistols to be nothing exciting, then again I prefer the type of music that punk evolved into.

[1argoholic]

Oh The Pistols were all crap musicians and singers but that's why they were so fun.

[argolio]

They were about image mostly. The guitarist was probably their best musician.

[1argoholic]

Well we're up to four bronze medals. We really don't do much in summer.

[ArgoRavi]

Which of our teams are at the Olympics? I know that our women's soccer and basketball teams are there but are there any others?

[1argoholic]

There are actually more Canadian women then men for the first time ever. Well women finished 5th in team gymnstics today which was the best ever. Not sure we even have teams in volleyball other than beach.

[Will]

Congratulations to the men's rowing 8's on winning a silver medal in their event.

[1argoholic]

Still wanting to see a highlight of that. Vancouver Island connections as they train on Elk Lake. Rowing is huge hear.

[Will]

Well we're up to four bronze medals. We really don't do much in summer.

I suspect much of the resources go into our winter athletes. Our peak at the Summer Olympics was in 1984 when we won 44 medals, but that was during the Soviet-led boycott.

[1argoholic]

There saying we're ahead of our pace from the last few summer games. One silver and four bronze. Well I guess our athletes also live fairly normal lives unlike some of these countries where your a 24/7 athlete.

[Will]

The most common explanation I hear is that (i) Canada's population just cannot produce the same quality of athletes as USA, Russia or China and (ii) the financial resources provided for our athletes aren't great. The Winter Olympics has received a lot more attention as I pointed out above, but even before the facilities were built in Calgary the country struggled there, it wasn't until after Calgary '88 that we became much more successful at the winter games.

[anthonyrussell]

Just imagine what it's like here. We're hosting the ruddy thing and the fact we don't have about 30 gold medals is causing the media perturbtion. What I am happy about is handball is getting a lot of new fans.

[Will]

There was similar pressure on our athletes in 2010 when the games were in Vancouver. Canada (to that point) had not won a Gold Medal on its home soil. We won silver and bronze medals in both Montreal (1976) and Calgary (1988), but never won a gold medal! We ended up winning the most gold medals out of any country that Olympics so that gave the nation a morale boost.

[1argoholic]

Ok here's a question I have been asking my wife who's got both Scottish and English roots and has been to both a few times. Why for every friggin sporting event it's England against Scotland and at Olympic times it's Great Britain? Why don't we tag along with the US and call it Great North America. haha.

Thankfully Quebec never separated because they've won four of six medals. Quebec your either into sports bigtime or a heavy partying smoker. haha. I actually have met some great people from that province.

[anthonyrussell]

The answer? Britain is technically 3 nations (England, Scotland and Wales) and one territory (Northern Ireland) combined as a union in law. It's why we normally have seperate soccer teams for the 4. There is however only 1 Olympic committee combining the 4 so we're Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the Olympics.

[Will]

The women's rowing 8's won silver.

[1argoholic]

Rowing has been exciting once you get the highlights. Our time aren't great in these parts for live rowing.

[Deerkeeper]

I've been enjoying what I have been seeing so far. I find it really refreshing to finally see other sports that I enjoy rather than being force fed all this professional American crap the Canadian sports media is obsessed with all the time.

The Olympic let down from Vancouver is pretty obvious, but Canada is doing about what I expected. Lots of Canadian gold with a couple of silver linings, but it would be nice if we had actually won something by now. Take the hint Swim Canada. Of particular interest to me - being a paddler myself - was the whitewater canoe and kayak events today. We live in a country that essentially invented canoe/kayak and there wasn't a Canadian to be seen anywhere in that competition. Frustrating.

[1argoholic]

Deerkeeper I know exactly what you mean. One of my good friends who comes to Gey Cup with us from Calgary was a top notch Canadian White water guy back in the day. He has a photo from the front of a magazine with him going off a cliff into serious rapids. I can't remember what happened to him that he wasn't in the Olympics or World Championships. They missed bacause of a war or something I thing the story goes. That would have been a while back as he's around 47 or 48 now.
Anyhow it would be nice to see us on top in something by now.

[anthonyrussell]

Was at the women's hockey yesterday afternoon. I'll tell you this, phenomenal doesn't do it justice. The scale of the Olympic park itself is just amazing. It's big but at the same time you don't feel tired walking around it. There's a ton to see and eat. Most of the food is at airport prices and McDonald's is the only place where you can buy stuff at street prices but there's something for everyone.

The atmosphere at the Riverside Arena, the temporary hockey arena was great and full to the rafters especially with the hosts in action. Weather chopped and changed all over the place from sun to rain and back and forth to the point where my wife put her umbrella up 3 or 4 times due to the rain and got sunburn on her knees.

Watching it on tv really doesn't do it justice. Just the smiles on everyone's faces and being nice to everyone. To be able to do this in my lifetime is just amazing.