This past weekend marked the half-way point of this years edition of the Winter Olympic Games. So far, if you’re a Canadian (like me) the story of this Olympic games is like others, one of disappointment.
Chalk it up to the curse of the Ben if you want, or simply a national inferiority complex. The fact of the matter is—for the most part—Canadian athletes seem to get all choked up when it comes to representing their country in the Olympics—in a bad way.
Sure there are some exceptions, like Donovan Bailey, Catriona Lemay Doan and The Women’s Hockey team, to name a few. The problem is, for every Canadian success story, there are countless stories of tragedy and disappointment.
It’s one thing if we just didn’t have the population or the the athletes with potential, but we do. Our athletes have excelled in many World Cup events. They just have trouble converting World Cup gold into Olympic gold.
For example:
Silken Laumann: Won gold at several world-class events, after a tragic 1992 Olympics where she was involved in a collision, she managed a Bronze and in 1996 she won a silver. She’s a hero for overcoming adversity, but never realized her full Olympic gold potential.
Elvis Stojko: Won 3 World Championships in 4 years, was the first skater to perform a quad. Won silver in 1994. Even though he was favoured to win gold in 1998 he only managed silver due to a groin injury.
Jeremy Wotherspoon: Dominated the speed-skating world winning 4 World Sprint Championships and 12 World Cup Overall Championships. He was considered the most successful male skater in World Cup History. In 3 Olympics he has managed 1 silver medal in Nagano. In Salt Lake, he fell tragically at the beginning of his 500m run.
Perdita Felicien: Won the 2003 World Championship, the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championship and had 6 straight wins going into Athens. In the 2004 Olympic hurdle finals, Perdita collided with the first hurdle and didn’t medal.
Unfortunately I could go on…All of these stories (and many more) have one thing in common, unbelievable potential lost under unfortunate circumstances.
If we didn’t have bad luck, we’d have no luck at all as an Olympic nation. Sometimes I wonder whether we should change the maple leaf on our flag to a shamrock to see if our fortunes would change.
Things seemed to get a little better during the last winter games in 2002. We got 17 medals and our prospects leading into the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver looked bright. You could feel a change in attitude among the Canadian Olympic movement. Even the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) made the bold projection that Canada would win upwards of 25 medals this time around.
It was warm, fuzzy sentiments all around as our Canadian team made their entrance at the opening ceremonies, looking very much like Arctic GI Joes. There was an air of expectation, even—dare I say—confidence that this team was going to do something special.
After all, we are the Great White North aren’t we? According to many of our American cousins, we live in igloos and ride around in dog-sleds. If ever there was a time Canadians should want to live up to our stereotype, it should be at the Winter Olympics right?
I became excited! I couldn’t wait to start watching the medals piling up beside the red, white and red.
Then the competition began…
Day 1: Canadian skier Allison Forsyth suffered a torn knee ligament in a crash during Monday’s Olympic downhill training runs at San Sicario, Italy.1
Ouch! Okay, that was unfortunate, but it’s OK, she’s OK…we’re OK…right?
Day 2: Canadian athlete Meaghan Simister sustained minor injuries Tuesday in yet another crash on the Torino Olympic luge track.1
What the…
Day 4: Canadian Jasey-Jay Anderson was disqualified from his semifinal heat Thursday as snowboard cross made its Olympic debut in Turin, Italy.1
But…but…
Day 7: The Canadian Men’s National Ice Hockey Team gets shutout by Switzerland1
I thought we…
Day 7: Canada’s Brad Gushue suffered a major setback Saturday, losing 7-6 to Joel Retornaz of Italy in the men’s curling competition at the Torino Olympic Winter Games.1
Wait a minute…Italians can curl?
Day 8: The Canadian Men’s hockey team gets shutout by Finland1
What the FUCK!!!!!?
Day 9: Wotherspoon 9th in men’s 500 m1
Aw shit, here we go again…
No, it hasn’t been all bad news for team Canada. We have won 14 medals so far, but only 3 of those have been gold, and I can guarantee you that more were expected.
So why the Olympic letdown?
My theory…they changed the speed skater’s uniforms…
In 2002, the Canadian speed skaters had the most awesome uniforms in Olympic games history (IMHO). Check them out…
How fucking cool are they? They look like freaking superheroes and they skated like them too.
Now look at this year’s uniforms…
What’s with the zigzags? Are they supposed to look meaner or something? They look like giant red tiggers.
Last time I checked, tiggers loved to bounce, not skate. I don’t like them. They’re not cool anymore, now they just look silly. Whomever designed the new uniforms should bare the brunt of the responsibility for Team Canada’s Olympic Letdown.
So my advice to the COC is as follows. If you want to win more medals, to avoid embarrassment when this country hosts the next Winter Olympic games in 2010…
GO BACK TO THE OLD UNIFORMS!
If you do that, I guarantee that in 2010, Canada will on top of the medal standings.2
Update:
Day 12: Russia ousts Canada from Olympics1
I think my head is going to explode.
1 All stories taken from http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/
2 No I don’t
What are you thinking?