Sure, the US does well at the Olympics, but they have lots of people. But Australia, a country with so many cultural and geographical similarities to Canada with a smaller population already has 3 gold medals and 10 overall . Canada has zip!
Most of these Australian medals are in sports requiring a fresh water medium, something which we have way more of in Canada. And we don’t have any crocks.
Australia always has done well in the Olympic, but Canada just seems to get worse each time.
So what’s our problem?
I think its our B.C. Bud, rated the best weed in the world.Much harder to get in the States now and probably unheard of in Australia. Its sapping the competitive drive in our young people .
I’m more surprised by India - 1.1 billion people as a pool of athletes - nearly 1/6 the world - and only a single medal. Yes, I know the reasons why, but China has many of the same reasons and they’re in second place medal-wise (as of this posting…).
Right, but does the Indian government spend a small fortune hand-picking and then training promising young athletes, with the sole aim of turning them into Olympians? This sort of government interest in sport can, especially in a poor country, have a dramatic impact.
Funnily enough, we can actually find an answer to the OP’s question in a rather similar set of circumstances…
Basically, Australia funnels a disproportionate number of taxpayer dollars to an institution designed to produce high quality athletes and sporting teams. Over the past couple of decades, the Institute has come under fire from some quarters, with people asking why its budgets continue to grow while other government programs are constantly canceled or cut back.
If Canada is spending its money on things that actually matter, rather than funneling millions into the nationalistic pursuit of Olympic medals, then i think the lack of Olympic success is a small price to pay.
Since Canada is my second favorite country in the world, and I always cheer for them against everyone but the US, I am similarly disappointed by their showing so far. If it wasn’t 80 something degrees outside, I’d be wearing my Roots toque as we speak. C’mon Canuck athletes, you can do it!
I’m so glad I live in the best country and don’t have to deal with these existential crises regarding my country’s virility. All we have to worry about is feeling guilty that we didn’t run the world well enough.
I’ve seen a chart that uses the population and the average income of each country to predict how well that country does in the Olympics. For a measure of how well each country does in the Olympics, it used the total number of medals won over the past several Olympics. Not surprisingly, the population and the average income of people in the country account for most of the difference in Olympic success. (After all, to be successful in the Olympics, or pretty much anything else, you first need to have a lot of people and you second need to have most of your country’s population above the poverty line.) The chart showed the correlation between population/average income and success, and you could see that there were a few countries that did better than would be otherwise suspected. The most obvious case is Australia. The article about the chart said that this was because Australia is the most sports-obsessed country in the world. This is partly because Australia spends a lot of its public money on developing athletes, but even more it’s because Australia’s culture lays a lot of emphasis on athletic success.
Umm- I don’t think it is disproportionate. We have support programmes, and a Cricket Academy. Such funding always comes under fire. However, going back to the 50’s Australia had a high proportion of top class tennis players.
New Zealand has always been rated one of the best Union teams in the world- with a relatively small population.
I would like to see a breakdown of funding of particular countries occurs compared to population. Sadly, I doubt that a realistic figure exists.
And also, could you please tell me which Institution we are talking of? (As for Govt funding coming under fire- that happens with every program).
Well, precisely!, throw a crock or two in the Canadian training pools and you’ll see a dramatic increase in the times of the swimmers.
Call it the Darwinian approach to improving performance.
In defense of Canadian athletes, let me point out that this is the Summer Olympics – they certainly can’t be faulted for their efforts, with only a week a year in which to practice!
ducks into nearest Tim Horton’s to avoid attacks by outraged Canadians
All we have to worry about is feeling guilty that we didn’t run the world well enough. 
