Canada Falling Short of Podium Aspirations

Sports News - February 23rd, 2010 - Written By Bryan Cross

In the face of an overwhelming deficit, Canada has accepted the fact that they will not actualize their avidity of finishing these Olympic games as the most decorated country in the medal count.

"We are going to be short of our goal," remarked Chris Rudge, who is the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee.

Through the 10th day of competition on Monday, the United States leads the overall medal count with 25, followed by Germany with 21. Both the U.S and Germany are tied with seven gold medals.

Canada, the host country, has tabbed 10 total medals, with five golds. The Canadian Olympic Committee received and spent $117 million dollars to finance the development of their athletes and facilities over the last five years, in preparation for the Vancouver Olympics.

They developed a campaign and slogan entitled "own the podium" and adopted it as the theme for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It has thus far been chagrin.

"We'd be living in a fool's paradise if we said we were going to catch the Americans and win," Rudge remarked of Canada's standing in the medal count. "They are way out ahead at this point."

Rudge pointed out this past Sunday, as several Canadian athletes were in position to claim a medal in both speed-skating and ski-cross. However, disappointing finishes resulted in a shutout, and another failed attempt at making the podium.

"It was a potential multiple-medal day where we didn't get multiple medals," Rudge remarked of the day. "We've had a number of those and those are disappointing."

Adding to the frustration, as gold medal favorites in men's ice hockey, the national team lost in preliminary group competition to their southern rivals. As a result, they will have a difficult road to the gold medal game as the elimination rounds begin. The team will have to get past Russia in a potential quarterfinal match up. Many had predicted that match up to be a gold medal game.

Canadian fans "were crying out for a sliver, any sliver, of good news on the weekend when we've essentially Blown The Podium," remarked Cam Cole, who is a Vancouver Sun columnist. "The hockey team couldn't produce it."

Just as the hockey team could not produce, neither has the Alpine skiing team. They were the recipients of the most "own the podium" funds over the last four years. To date, they have yet to earn a single medal.

"It's a little frustrating," remarked Gary Allan, who is the president of Alpine Canada. "Dealing with the hometown pressure did have an impact on the performances of the athletes."

High expectations at the 2010 Winter games were fueled by the team's performance in 2006 at Turin. There, Canada won 24 total medals, and were in third place behind only Germany and the United States.

Some have argued that the Own the Podium campaign put too much pressure on the native athletes to succeed, but the Vancouver Committee contended that the movement was only designed to give the athletes the best chance to compete at a top level.

"Own the Podium was designed to help them handle that pressure," said committee spokesperson Renee Smith-Valade. "All we as the organizing committee wanted to do was make sure that when each athlete stood at the starting line, they believed fully that everything had been done. That's all we could do.

"When the moment comes, it's really up to the athlete," she said. "When they don't deliver, they feel terribly bad about it. We know how hard they try."

Coming into the Vancouver Olympics, Germany was installed as the betting favorite to win the most gold medals, and overall medals according to the Olympic Betting Lines at Bodog sportsbook. Canada followed Germany in the line of favorites.