Canadians in their own Festina fiasco

[Neworld]

As much as I would like to say that Canada's performance at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics was great, you don't go from never winning a gold medal on home soil.

I like your unbiased nature but I have to disagree. We undermedalled (?a word) compared to what was expected. We really did poorly in the mens speed skating (Denis Morrison especially), and lost out on 3-4 medals. Also, Cindy Klassen, a mule of a skater, was only skating for 18 months before 2010 after recovering from a traumatic MVC incident with her family. Where we were expected to win, hockey, skating, skiing...we did.

Also, for the first time EVER the federal government put in millions of dollars into the "OTP-Own the podium" program which stated back in 2006.

A better gauge will be the 2014 Winters' as the OTP is still running and that may be a nice comparison. I hope so.

NW

 

[Random Direction]

More likely that others were cleaner than usual than Canada (we) were more doped in 2010. All one has to look at is the precipituous drop in Russian medals in x/c skiing and biathlon to see that there was relatively less doping.

Adding $ so our elite athletes aren't couch surfing and working nights to make ends meet might have helped too.

 

[Andynonomous]

I think we will see confirmation of my "theory" that the home team dopes more, at Sochi 2014 (I somehow doubt that the Brits will win that much at London 2012).

 

[Andynonomous]

According to an ex-player, NHL players would go OFF the juice for the Olympics (presumably because the testing is stronger at the olympics than it is in the NHL).



"First, you just have to notice how some talented players will experience an efficiency loss as well as a weight loss every four years, those years being the ones the Winter Olympics are held," he wrote.

"In the following season they make a strong comeback; they manage a mysterious return to form."

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/11/05/georges-laraque-nhl-has-steroids-problem_n_1077733.html