The gold medal standings thus far are
Australia 56
India 26
England 24
Canada 18
I never expected such good results for India, but they are the host country after all.
But I am getting tired of seeing Australia once again dominating top spot. They’ve got 2/3 the population of Canada yet have won the games previously 10 times compared to Canada’s once. What’s up with that?
They spend significantly more money on winning medals than we do. And frankly, I’m ok with that.
How much more?
The running costs of the runs of the various elite sports institutes is around 220mil (AUD), but there are also significant infrastructure costs and funding of lower tiers. Total amount would be 3-4 times that amount. Curiously enough, a lot of Aussie Olympic sports programs would argue strongly that they are underfunded.
I find the nationalistic fervour about medal harvesting a bit disconcerting. The main reason for the “domination” is the disproportionate amount of events for swimming at Commonwealth and Olympic Games. That a country with 20 million has an expectation that it will be ranked in the world top 5 measured by medals is an indulgence.
The impetus behind setting up the AIS in 1981 was the failure (one silver and four bronze medals) at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games where the USSR and East Germany won the bulk of medals.
As an Aussie I don’t care how many Commonwealth medals we get as long as we beat New Zealand.
Swimming, shooting and cycling are sports we excel at. We are an island with fast moving kangaroos to shoot at and it is a long way between towns!
This explanation doesn’t really adress the difference with Canada, now does it? I would expect both hunting and travel distances to be more common in Canada.
Surely it’s to do with the fact that the Commonwealth Games events are much more closely aligned with the Summer Olympics than the Winter Olympics?
Probably right. We need to start a campaign for including hockey and curling into the commonwealth games.
I am not sure about Canada, but if Canada is like the US, the main reason would be that it is so easy to be involved in sport in Australia.
When I was a kid I played Rugby Union, Rugby League, soccer, cricket, swam competitively, ran in athletic carnivals and filled in once or twice in Aussie Rules football and baseball.
As an adult I still managed to play Rugby Union, Rugby League,soccer and cricket as well as refereeing.
Seemingly in the US if you aren’t a professional or wanna be professional after high school you have no sporting avenues available. I was able to play cricket in my 30s only 3 levels below the national team just by turning up and trying out.
Moose move a lot more slowly than kangaroos, and it’s hard to swim in ice. Though you can skate on ice. Needless to say, another vote for expanding the Commonwealth Games to include winter sports.
Problem is that only two other participants, Scotland and New
Zealand get any appreciable snow or ice.
So? Virtually every country has an IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) sanctioned national team, including India and Australia. Also, Great Britain has an Olympic gold and bronze in hockey.
International Ice Hockey Federation Rankings
Ranking of all Commonwealth Participants in the above federation
2 Canada
23 Great Britain (Scotland)
34 Australia
40 New Zealand
42 South Africa
No other commonwealth participants. No India
First, I never said they were good. Second, I have seen an India hockey jersey in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Could it have been a hockey jersey representing this type of hockey which is played at the Commonwealth Games ?
Well, as has been pointed out, the Commonwealth Games are effectively the Summer Games. If they had a winter sports division Canada would be a lot higher in the rankings.
Secondly, Australia does pour a lot of money into this stuff, and as a Canadian, it doesn’t break my heart that we don’t spend as much.
Nope. The Hockey Hall of Fame, which is in Toronto, is all about real (ice) hockey.
We don’t suffer in summer games because we also have winter games.
And is it really all about money?
We’ve heard that the Australian annual budget is 220M AUD (217M CND)
Since 2005, Canada’s annual sport budget is 140M CND
British Columbia alone has a sport budget of 48M CND
So far we are getting close to Australia’s budget and I haven’t included any contribution from the other 9 provinces.
And in both cases, the support privately and through the education budgets should be similar.
I don’t think money is the issue.
How much of that money went to summer sports, and how much of it went to winter sports?
I’d be really interested in hearing from Canadain & US dopers about this one.
I just take for granted the easy opportunity to play Cricket and Touch Football. I presumed that there would be pub Baseball leagues for instance?