I thought we were supposed to “Own the Podium”
February 25, 2010 9:00 AM
On Day 8 of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Canada’s performance has been mediocre at best (note that you are reading this on Day 16 of the games). As of now we have 8 medals: 4 Gold, 3 Silver, and 1 Bronze; a performance for which I congratulate all of the medallists. However, I thought we were supposed to be “owning the podium.”
All the hype surrounding the games being on our home turf has lead the country to believe that we would be winning gold, and winning often. Yet this does not seem to be the case. Canada trails behind three countries: the Untied States, which has 20 medals, Germany, with 13 medals, and Norway with 10.
The ambitious program of Own the Podium set an unrealistic target for Canada to be the nation with the most medals at the end of the games, with a target of 30 overall medals.
The Own the Podium program and the Canadian Olympic Committee have spent about $117 million dollars over the last four years preparing our athletes for Vancouver.
Not all athletes feel that Own the Podium was the right thing to do, including Eric Guay.
The Alpine Skier had this to say to the Toronto Star in 2008 “It’s pretty easy to sit behind a desk and say, ‘Ah, we’re going to win all these medals. We’re going to be the best winter country out there. We’re going to just kick everybody’s ass,’” said Guay.
“It’s not that easy ... I think (Own the Podium) is a mistake, because when you’re saying things like that, it’s added pressure to athletes.”
In an interesting turn of events, none of Canada’s current gold medalists had any pre-Olympic hype surrounding them.
While other athletes, that are most likely to win gold have received pressure from all angles including: television spotlight segments on CTV that highlight our potential gold medalists; numerous interviews with over confident athletes; statements made by VANCOC, the COC and Own the Podium; and pressure from our international competitors.
With that being said, Own the Podium has not been a total failure. Canada had finally cleared up that embarrassing blemish of not having ever won gold on home soil within the first two days of the games.
Furthermore, for a nation with a population of about 30 million people, having 11 medals so far is quite commendable; especially considering Germany has double our population, and the United States has around ten-times Canada’s population.
Perhaps Canada can use the Own the Podium program as a learning experience; after all we are a young nation that is not used to having the spotlight on us for any length of time.
Possibly it shows that national sports programs in Canada need to focus more on psychological preparedness, rather than technical athletic preparation.
In my opinion, if there is another opportunity for Canada to host an Olympic games, an ambitious program such as Own the Podium should be kept quiet. Would it not be a bigger surprise if Canada came out on top with out feeling entitled to win beforehand?
Whatever unfolds in the next week of competition in Vancouver, I hope that Canada can look back on the games with pride. Maybe we won’t come out on top in terms of medals, but we can use the games to bring the fragmented nation together.
Even still, it is quite possible that the only medal Canada truly cares about is winning double gold in hockey in this last week of the 21st Winter Olympiad.
