Is Winning Everything?

Originally published on My Life Is Like A Song on August 13, 2008

I am hearing and reading more and more from journalists/bloggers that Canada should stop sending athletes if they are not medal threats.

Seriously?

How does someone decide if you are a medal threat or not? Who would make that decision?

Winning Olympic medals does not always happen overnight. Sometimes, athletes gain experience from attending and end up winning at the next Olympics. Sometimes, attending the Olympic games is the achievement...just getting there against all odds is enough.

Our swimmers may not win medals this time around, but are their track records that much worse than Curtis Myden or Mark Tewksbury were? I remember Mark's gold medal win being a big surprise - perhaps it wasn't. Curtis Myden's only World Championship medals were in 1995 (he won two bronze medals at the 1996 Olympics). Should we not have sent him in 2000 as he wasn't as big of a threat then. He won the bronze medal in the 400m IM. Or should we not have sent him in 1992 when he didn't win a medal? Perhaps that experience got him ready for his two medals in 1996 and his 3rd in 2000.

One of the biggest stories of these Olympic Games for the Canadians and for the Chinese has been Jujie Luan. She was not a medal threat, but her story is so inspiring. In 1984, she won the gold medal in fencing for China (it's first and only gold in fencing). She moved to Canada in 1989. When she learned that China would be hosting the Olympics, she came out of retirement with the dream of qualifying for the Olympics. What a lesson to teach to your children. You can do anything you set your mind to! She is 50 years old and has 3 children.

She is a sports hero in China (they are saying even bigger than Yao Ming). She was on the front page of the newspapers over there on the first day of the Olympics. Now (personally) I don't understand why she is a national hero in China. They have so many gold medallists but perhaps it was because this was a sport that they weren't known for (just speculating). Linda Thom won a gold medal for Canada in shooting in 1984. Do you remember her? If she was coming back to Canada to compete in 2010 as a 50 year old, would she be treated like a national hero? I don't think so (nothing personal to Linda - at least I did remember her). Different countries...different mentalities. All I'm saying is what a great story and how inspiring. She makes me feel young.

Should we not send Ian Millar? He is participating in his 9th Olympic Summer Games. This ties the international record. He is 60+ years old. He is not a medal contender, but he is the best our country has. He has and will do us proud.

[update: Ian Millar anchored his team to a first place standing. He completed a faultless run that led to a jump-off for gold. Canada won the silver, so I repeat, should he have stayed home?]

I think these journalists and bloggers need to understand that the Olympics is not just about winning...yes, I would love for us to already have some medals - don't get me wrong...but the Olympics is also about personal struggles, dreams and disappointments. It's about trying to be the best that you can be. It's about sportsmanship. It's about the countries in the world coming together as one...as friends to compete and see who can win (do you have tears in your eyes yet? I can keep going if you don't).

Who will forget (and if you did, I'll remind you) when Sara Renner broke her pole in a cross-country skiing race at the Olympics in 2006. A Norwegian coach gave her a replacement and she (along with her partner) went on to win the silver medal. These are great lessons for our kids to see. People helping people no matter where they're from.

If it was just about winning medals, the poorer countries may as well stay home as well. They can't afford the new technologically advanced equipment. A friend of mine shared this article about the advances in technology. Canada could be considered one of these poorer countries. Our citizens and our government don't want to spend as much as other countries so that we are best represented.

David Ford is a 40+ year old kayaker. He lost his funding because Canada decided he wasn't a medal threat (see? we do it already) because he was too old. Yesterday, he officially came in 6th (there was some controversy about a penalty he received that was unproven - without the penalty he was 4th). What could he have done if he had proper funding? He wasn't able to attend the last training camp in Beijing because he didn't have the money to go. The five athletes who finished ahead of him did go (even the guy from Togo - is that a richer country?)

Sometimes, sports just sucks. There are some medal contenders who have never won an Olympic medal. Kurt Browning comes to mind. Dan Jensen (American speed skater) also does. He was world champion and did not medal in 1998 or in 1992. At his last race in 1994, he finally won a gold medal, but really, on paper, he should have won so many more.

That's the great thing about sports. Anything can happen if you peak at the right time, have done the right preparations and have luck on your side (ok, perhaps worth another blog about how few surprises there are these days compared to in the past).

We have only won 3 gold medals in each of the past 3 Olympics. We are only 5 days into the Games. We have never started out strongly. Every Olympics, this is how the discussion goes. How poorly we are doing. I'm not saying that we are definitely going to do better this time around. What I am saying is that at day 5 in the past, we haven't necessarily been doing much better.

Curtis Myden was the first male athlete to win a medal in 1996 (I remember because my husband and I were struggling to name our unborn son...so we joked that we would choose the name of the first gold medallist (which we changed to medallist when he won)). So not sure if there was a female medallist before him. He won a bronze on July 25th. The opening ceremonies were on the 19th. According to my calculations, that is on day 6. In 1996, we ended up winning 22 medals. Second only to our result at the boycotted 1984 games.

So I say, relax people!!! Wait until the games are over, then give your critical evaluations if we don't perform up to par.

We have 10% of the U.S. population (I'm using the U.S. as an example because we have similar cultures - but imagine if I compare us to China's population). Does it not make sense that we should have 10% of their medal count? At the last Olympics, U.S. had 102. Canada had 12. They have 29 now, so yes, ideally we should have 3...but let's wait until the Games are over before we do the final comparison. Let's not forget that we also have a shorter summer. So obviously countries like Australia (who love their sport and spend more than we do - and have a longer summer) do better.

If we start trying to decide who to send and who not to send, choosing our representatives will become like a judged event. Do we take our budget and bestow it only on our medal contenders? We will be putting all our eggs in one basket and what if this person decides he/she doesn't want to do it anymore? Who will be there to take over? Should we not spend on our younger athletes as well?

To me, the Olympics is an experience that should be enjoyed by the best athletes in our country. They should grow old with the knowledge that they were the best in the country and represented our country against the best in the world. That is what sport is about...competing...having the dream to win...training as hard as you can...giving it your all.

If you don't compete, you can't win. And don't forget...winning isn't everything.