Own the Podium is being revved up by the media as being arrogant and too "American". They are stating that if we don't win the medal count, the project will have been a failure. Do they think we are stupid, or are they the stupid ones?
Canada may not 'Own the Podium'
By STEVE BUFFERY, QMI Agency
VANCOUVER — The Canadian Olympic team will likely not ‘own the podium’ at these Olympic Games.
Perhaps they can rent a part of it from the Americans and Germans.
Chris Rudge, the CEO of the COC, said Thursday that it was his organization’s “goal” to finish first in Vancouver, but that nothing was etched in stone.
“Nobody ever said we ARE going to be No.1,” said Rudge. “We put that out as a goal and objective. Is the sky going to fall if we don’t? I don’t think so.”
Own the Podium was a $110-million initiative geared towards making Canada a superpower in winter sports in time for these Games. But Rudge reiterated yesterday that finishing No.1 was just a goal, and no one at the IOC is going to commit hara-kiri if it doesn’t come to fruition.
....
Rudge was asked by a German journalist if this was the first time in his memory that Canadians were this aggressive and hungry for success at an Olympics.
“That’s probably fair that we’re historically, at least publicly, a more self-effacing nation,” he said. “I don’t think our athletes ever felt that way, they always wanted to be the best. But I think as a country, we’re probably talking about it a little bit more than we have. But I don’t think that in doing that you sacrifice the kind of niceness that we always thought we had. To some degree maybe Canadians thought we had a bit of a monopoly on virtue, and I’m not sure if that’s true. We’re just like everybody else in this world.”
Own the Podium was meant to rev up our athletes and the public, same with the "I Believe" slogan that CTV is busy selling on their web site. Difference is that Own the Podium gave money to our athletes and it appears to be paying off. The "I Believe" slogan is just that, a slogan, with merchandise to match.
So cheer loud and proud Canada! My favorite sports so far has been the curling, and speed skating. Anyone cheering for someone special in the Olympics?
4 comments:
Great post, this is a time to thank the young athletes who have made it to Olympics to compete at a level VERY few of us will ever reach.
Excellence in sports is on display and we should be thankful for this small break.
Winners are enjoying the games and losers are just finding another reason to complain about something.
I Believe and continue to be a Proud Canadian. I remember the first time I "cried" or "my heart welled into my throat” , it was when Nancy Green won her first Olympic medals and then heard the Canadian Anthem. Great moment in my life.
We need to increase our pride in country, it helps us to be better persons, achieve great things for the good of all. Go Canada Go!
I really enjoy the vignette's that profile the athlete and their inspiration makers. It gives each athlete more dimension.
Being here in Kamloops I can say that these Olympics are going to be game changers for politics in Canada.
It is forcing eastern media to spend 2 weeks in Vancouver really getting to know the west like they never would have otherwise.
In the future when issues arise they will have a personal memory of this part of Canada that will allow them to short circuit their typical knee jerk reaction to issues.
Out here you can really feel it. The power of eastern Canada is diminishing, especially that of Quebec. The Quebec athletes are definitely Canadian first. Their is no talk of separation, no Quebec flags.
This is all about Canada. The venues are full except for the seats reserved for the media and the athletes. This has never happened in another Olympics.
Vancouver is electric and the athlete's are feeding off of it. Cheers.
The one thing CBC can do better than CTV is cover a hockey game. Funny how we're 'treated' to Lisa Laflamme's outdated hairdo from a half dozen different camera angles in the marvelously spotlighted studio, but they send one camera to capture a hockey game with the picture quality of a kid's birthday party shot on Betamax 25 years ago. (What's with the hair, Lisa? Has there been a casting call for extras on the TV show Mad Men?)
Personally I could care less about who the athletes are outside of thier sport. I don't need to see them riding horses on the ranch, meet their sibblings, see old film footage of them skating/skiing etc. I also find this whole 'do you beleive?' campaign a little cheesy and I'd sooner watch paint dry than have to endure the droning commentary of the inflated egos of the CTV crew. But, to each his own.
I've gone out of my way NOT to watch the Olympics, but if I hear one more reference to the Jamaican bobsled team, I might go postal. That and the fact that I think the entire galaxy is now aware that Michael J. Fox and John Candy were born in Canada. Give it a rest already.
The opening ceremonies and the 4 athletes (well, make that 3 thanks to the hydraulics malfunction-probably union labour would be my guess) lighting the torch pretty much capped off what modern Canada is, a touchy feely, everyone gets a turn, there are no losers, only winners, multi cultural, kumbaya hootenanny.
My favourite part of the Olympics? All this tripe that it would be the greenest games ever! I wonder how many BTU's of natural gas have been flared off along False Creek this past week by the torch. Or the NO3 spewed from the tractor trailers and JET B burned by the helicopters hauling snow onto the mountain. Or the electric Zamboni having to be replaced by a gas powered unit, trucked in from that horrible capitalist, global warming denying city of Calgary!
/end of rant. I hope you fans enjoy the games, don't take this too personally!
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