As a “good American” I would take out all the stupid sports/events at which we do not dominate — fan dancing, team handball, human tetris, speed sewing, cup stacking, tic tac toe, water cannon dodging, soccer, synchronized team hula hoop, baseball, mentos & diet coke rocketing, caning, etc.

And replace them with stuff in which we do dominate — drunk driving, pornography, obesity, jingoism, horrible movie making, bigotry, celebrity worship, reality show vacuity, driving in a circle while chewin tabacky, football, judging others, lap dancing, atheism, flickin lit cigs out the window, hating, rap, relativism, etc.

LMFAO - that was good. Write that shit down.

listen i’m glad i got out of the army, because based on the comments here, i’d be sent into a nuclear war with a slingshot just because you guys are “patriotic and you believe in me”.

Carlin was irish descent and in the military too - go figure.

I was reading a little Carlin today and I was reminded of your post.

“…Nor do I wanna know about some athlete’s accident prone little brother or his sick little sister (I’ve edited the wording here, could offend). The Olympics specialize in this kind of mawkish bullshit. Either his aunt has the clap, or his kid has a forty pound mole, or his high school buddy overdosed on burritos, etc. Can’t sports exist on television without all this embarrassing, maudlin, super-sentimental, tear-jerking bullshit? Keep your personal disasters to yourself, and get in there and score some fuckin’ points!”

-George Carlin - “Play Ball”

http://best.olympicstats.ever.com/?skip_login=1

The first table is for all those fair weathered fans who like to do the statistical analysis based on population alone.

Which the stats prove - is a ridiculous hypothesis.

The SECOND table shows how many medals we SHOULD win based on atheletes sent.

Canada is at 27.55%. The last table shows what we should be winning based on atheletes sent to population - 16%.

Currently with 13 medals we are at: 3%

AND OH MY FREAKING GOD THE VERY LAST TABLE SHOWS HOW MANY ATHLETES SHOUDL BE SENT TO HIT TARGETS PRO RATA AND IT IS:

55!!!!!

How many did I say above to support - 50! WOOOO HOOO! I swear on the lives of all of you and your children that I didn’t check this page before coming up with these numbers.

Canada’s policy sucks, it’s a waste of money, and all the heart wrenching stories in the world don’t justify a chunk of our atheletes being there. Take it from a Leaf fan who knows a little something about supporting a bunch of losers. The vast majority of atheletes sent are not good enough and don’t deserve to be there. Period.

And if you think that sounds unpatriotic, you’re an idiot, because the numbers don’t lie. Something stinks about this level of participation and it probably has A LOT to do with the COC lobbying to get the games to a Canadian city. If you can fool the idiot population of Canada with stats from Table 1:

That is, Medals:population

then that justifies bringing the games to a Canadian city.

Hogwash.

Oh and as for funding- how’s Cuba do so well in boxing?

http://forum.canucks.com/index.php?showtopic=207436&st=4660&start=4660

I know, a lottery isn’t the same as direct tax money allocated towards athletics, but their point was that increased funding has been totally beneficial towards recent successes.

Firstly, you can’t prove value. Secondly, the money could easily be spent elsewhere. I know…you don’t want tax dollars going towards Olympic funding. I think most Canadian’s would agree as there is no definitive way to prove that it is money well spent. Instead, take that money and put it towards the federal “slush fund” and know for sure the money will never be accounted for. :-)

No I don’t.

Period.

I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that this is the case.

Can you prove this other than saying, “We won more medals at the next one?” And Australia does about as well at the winter’s as we do at the summers, and I think there is a key observation in that phenomenon.

Lennox hated judged sports too - that’s why he knocked Riddick the fuck out in the 2nd to secure gold. Why Yanks clamored for a rematch during their pro careers is beyond me.

And I am not conversing about the fund raising issue. If an individual wants to go out and sponsor an athlete, be my guest. God Bless ya I hope you get everything you want from them.

Take my tax dollars for it though? Screw you!

Firstly, you can’t prove value. Secondly, the money could easily be spent elsewhere.

I do believe in support though. Again, via sponsorship or just fostering the culture - I’m looking at you CBC who didn’t air any boxing and progressively less each year! You wanna draw a correlation? Look at how Canada used to place 6th overall in medals won since the inception of the summer games - and as coverage lessened not only did the country’s performance deteriorate in results - Canada literally started sending less atheletes. Despite them meeting the same “national standards” that other atheletes had.

What a fucking crock. The COC and the whole thing is more lopsided than a poor breast job.

.

But, I will say take a look at the medal count following the Calgary Games. Yah think all the money poured into those facilities hasn’t paid dividends?….remember, funding isn’t just what goes directly to the athlete.

Funding and money spent in infrastructure has played a big role as to why the Aussies have won gold medals in the last few WINTER games. Want a prediction? Australia will continually get better in the Winter games….and money money money used to hire the best people and develop their athletes and built needed venues will play a huge role. All directed through the proper channels as I said a few comments above.

FTR I never said don’t send athletes that are a long shot to medal. I’m against sending atheletes whose only credentials are their performance at the Canadian games.

If an athlete is not among the top 16 in the world, if not a finalist in his or her respective sport, what is he or she doing at the games? AGREED.

Here is one to feast on…..I hate judged sports in the games. I rarely watch ‘em. Why? Because of the history of corruption that has gone with judged Olympic sports. Look no further than boxing and figure skating. And yes, I love boxing as a sport too.

The very first post I put on this board was a medal comparison between the US and Canada per capita. My whole point in posting that was that I wasn’t worried about how many medals Canada had/hadn’t won. I was only putting positive spin on it as up until the last few days lack of medals had been so negatively perceived.

Yes, the conversation morphed into the funding issue, but I’ve enjoyed the discussion none-the-less.

Hey, Canada just won a medal in “red rover.”

You don’t honestly believe that Canada performs well at the Winter Games because of funding do you?

Let me ask you something, how many Tae Kwon Do, Ball Room Dancing, Atheletics or ping pong world championships did you catch prior to the summer games?

How many hockey games will you watch prior to the winter games?

That’s your answer as to our performance of one compared to the other. When the public gravitates towards a sport, and it becomes a fixture in the culture a funny phenomenon occurs. Kids start doing it, to emulate their heroes. Parents drive their kids to succeed in it.

Funding will help promote that culture, but the desire has to be their first. The lucrativeness for funding and sponsorship has to appear.

Consider this - what’s the name of the chick who won women’s wrestling? How many mulit-million dollar sponsorships will she get? How much air time can we expect on TSN or CBC dedicated to women’s wrestling?

Now How did figure skating do about when Kurt Browning competed? You can’t swing a dead cat without coming across that crap on the CBC if hockey isn’t on.

Lastly you’ll notice that boxing is around the 6th or 7th most medals Canada has won by sport and that was largely in part due to a very strong professional following of the sport from the 60’s-late 80’s. But since broadcasts and live showings have all but fallen off the map of the Canadian conscience, we now send but one no-hope competitor.

Our atheletes need more support, but not necessarily of the financial kind.

If you want to see a sport with truly an international appeal and support and therefore a level playing field regardless of funding (sans Tiger), look no further than golf. You go down the rankings and it’s a bunch of different flags from all different continents.

I wish that was allowed in the Olympics, we’d really stand a chance.

FTR I never said don’t send athletes that are a long shot to medal. I’m against sending atheletes whose only credentials are their performance at the Canadian games.

If an athlete is not among the top 16 in the world, if not a finalist in his or her respective sport, what is he or she doing at the games?

Wow, good read about Aussies and the Winter Olympics on Wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_at_the_Winter_Olympics

Funding down there built the “Olympic Winter Institute of Australia,” after the Nagano games.

What do we have now?….9 medals….then we should have targeted those as likely medals winners and only sent those nine athletes. The US should have sent only those 72 athletes that have won a medal …not the entire 500 or whatever it is. Likewise for the Aussies who have 33 medals and sent 450.

How’s Australia’s funding helping them at the winter olympics PB? Obviously it isn’t. However, how is funding helping on Canada’s winter Olympic teams…like I said before, I’ll bet the funding and initiative for “our” winter program vs. summer program don’t equate. I do know this about the Aussie’s…where are the mountainous winter like training facilities in that country? Do they have a legacy of Calgary ‘88 and all the facilities that were left from it?(funding) And guess what? They actually have won a medal in short track speed skating…My guess is they haven’t made the effort towards the winter games for the obvious reasons…

You really should read what you just wrote, and do it out loud, but instead of saying the letters “COC” actually read it…and that’s why it’s funny how you said it!

Money can help get those things but lets get realistic.

Who’s going to pay? And if you do pay, are they still amateurs? It’s a fine line.

I would rather see the money spent on the 200 atheletes that have no chance of making it to the finals be further spent on the 100 that do. Either that or dip into amateur hockey in Canada.

How’s Australia’s funding helping them at the winter olympics PB?

I once fought - and lost - to Turpish. Sean O’Meara beat him though, a few times.

Those were the days.

Hey any of you guys gonna watch Molitor’s next fight? If we’re all about supporting Canadian atheletes true and dear to the country, that live the dream and make it happen and stay true to their roots, I’d expect a huge following among the romantics that love the olympics.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43411

Here is a good article about how funding affects results. Look no farther than Australia.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43411

Their funding enables them to row full time (if I heard it correctly - I believe I did)….rowing is their job. And, because of this, they can focus 100% of their time & energy on training (and it shows). So maybe money does matter, as those who have to go to work and then train in their “spare” time obviously cannot devote the same amount of energy/hours into their sport as those who can train full time. Also, additional funding can provide better training facilities, equipment, etc. So I think it does translate to fitter/better athletes in the end. Sure, the argument is that dedicated athletes will somehow still make the time to train as hard, but obviously fatigue factors into that. So the funding provides the opportunity to focus solely on training which, in turn, results in fitter/better athletes.