The Olympics are a week old...

Submitted by hat on

and Canada has no medals.  I mean, think about that . . . CANADA.  That is amazing.  Among the 53 nations who have medaled:

-Zimbabwe 

-Mongolia

-Kyrgyzstan

-Uzbekistan

-Egypt

-Bulgaria

-Vietnam

-Tajikistan

-Togo

(Not that they're the only underachievers.  India, with its talent pool of 1.1 billion people pool, has won one medal.)

 

lhglrkwg

August 15th, 2008 at 10:06 PM ^

and least all the canadians arent complaining about when they lose. is it just me, or has every american athlete who has lost so far thrown a temper tantrum. gymnasts (bad judges? 8 yr old chinese girls), boxers (something about fans yelling), blake (tennis), baseball (vs cuba) and it seems like ther were more

BBB

August 16th, 2008 at 12:54 AM ^

I know nothing of gymnastics, but even I could tell those scores were weird, not to imply any judges being bribed or something, but they did seem a little more strict with the American gymnasts.

As far as the age thing? it was reported on a couple big sources that one of the girls was "proved" to be 13 by virtue of an older chinese article on her.


kgh10

August 16th, 2008 at 1:33 AM ^

Not all of those complaints (if any) are coming from the athletes. They are mostly coming from the NBC broadcasters and other American sports media outlets. The "8yr old Chinese girl" thing is a legitimate concern b/c that was a real suspicious age violation issue that had merit (not just how they looked, but actual documentation issues). The American gymnasts, however, never complained as far as I saw and only gave credit to how well the Chinese women competed.

Baseball vs Cuba is being complained about b/c the tiebreak rules are absolutely odd and ridiculous in the 11th inning. Most who follow baseball agree with how dumb they are. The American baseball players never complained about Cuba winning, just about the strange circumstances of the tiebreak rules (which they accepted as just a part of the game). Only the managers were bitching at eachother.

Blake wasn't complaining about losing, he was complaining about poor sportsmanship. His argument made sense and most importantly, he never blamed his loss on that play. Had he won he probably would still be ticked by it based on his words & actions in competitions past, and his general opinion of the Olympics.

The American boxer situation was weird, and the only one that sounded somewhat like sour grapes. From what I am hearing about it, he wasn't complaining about fans yelling. He decided to listen to the crowd's advice on how to win instead of apparently listening to his coaches. The crowd was supposedly telling him to dance around and his coaches were telling him to throw punches. He was also confused about the judging/scoring. I'm reading like 10 different stories on this, so sorry if I'm sounding ill informed here.

BBB

August 16th, 2008 at 12:45 AM ^

Egypt has over twice the population of Canada and has SOME measure of sport infrastructure, not all that surprising.

India has sent like 10(?) athletes.

truferblue22

August 16th, 2008 at 12:13 PM ^

who cares if its the summer olympics? If canada HAD won a medal at this point, we would hear nothing but them gloating about that...it's amazing...i sort of see them as the msu of the olympics...they are always SUPPOSED to be good, and they will make sure you know that, but when it comes down to it...do they really make any noise at all? and when it comes to winter its (obviously) even more intense, but they still don't nip us as far as medal count goes (at least not in the last few olympics).

Md23Rewls

August 16th, 2008 at 3:36 PM ^

I think the reason Canada loses to the US by so much has something to with the fact that Canada has a population of 33 million instead of 300 million. Honestly, the only sport I've ever heard a Canadian brag about is hockey, and since the USSR fell, they've clearly been the #1 international hockey force, and one of the top two in Olympic Hockey. (Sweden)

Michigan Arrogance

August 16th, 2008 at 3:44 PM ^

"they are always SUPPOSED to be good, and they will make sure you know that, but when it comes down to it...do they really make any noise at all?"

 

to either MSU or Canada? since when is MSU supposed to be good at anything besides basketball and sice when is Canada supposed to be good at the summer olympics/

hat

August 17th, 2008 at 12:34 PM ^

Canada obviously isn't up there with the U.S. in terms of overall strength, but they usually win a decent number of medals.  For them to get shut out for an entire week is stunning.  

(The drought's over, though; they just won a few yesterday.)