2024 Olympics - Day 16 (August 11)

[intoronto 5,493]

Cycling Canada did not win a medal here

 

We have 2 and soon to be 3 velodromes in this country. Hopefully they can turn it around for 2028

[Surlympics 657]

52 minutes ago, intoronto said:

Cycling Canada did not win a medal here

 

We have 2 and soon to be 3 velodromes in this country. Hopefully they can turn it around for 2028

Yeah they will for sure . It was just a very unfortunate circumstance in Paris and they will learn from it 

[orangeman 1,961]

Kind of impressive Canada was able to win medals in the most sports ever without getting one in cycling. They've gotten a cycling medal in the past 3 Olympics, and last 7/9. 

[George_D 1,199]

I think Cycling (track mainly) and Rowing are 2 sports that Canada should focus for development 

Edited August 12 by George_D

[Surlympics 657]

2 hours ago, Surlympics said:

But I seriously want to know what exactly happened to our cyclists. Does anyone know how and why they got sick?

So they all picked up a bacterial infection from contaminated food at the hotel they were staying at. Cyclists and runners (Aaron brown, Michelle Harrison, Lauren gale, Zoe shear) all got it but they were able to quickly treat it with antibiotics and responded well. But the cycling team almost all debated on dropping out of the Olympics entirely but decided to compete since it’s the Olympics. They were surprised they even could complete there races the way they did. Evan Dunfee was apparently throwing up for 8 hours straight before his race. So his fifth place finish is even crazier.

[JockCartier 110]

Can't argue McIntosh and Katzberg

I was thinking they might go with Katzberg and Rogers and save McIntosh for LA28 opening ceremony. With Swimming moving to week 2 for that one, there wouldn't be any scheduling conflicts, and seeing she already went home. 

[orangeman 1,961]

36 minutes ago, JockCartier said:

Can't argue McIntosh and Katzberg

I was thinking they might go with Katzberg and Rogers and save McIntosh for LA28 opening ceremony. With Swimming moving to week 2 for that one, there wouldn't be any scheduling conflicts, and seeing she already went home. 

Thought the same thing about Summer. Glad for everyone either way. 

[orangeman 1,961]

We'll likely have a more in-depth discussion about this in the coming days, but Canada failed to win medals in 2 sports they won in 2020 that were contested in Paris (cycling and football). Given the controversy in football, and the sickness in cycling, that's not too unexpected. 

 

We can exchange softball in Tokyo and breaking in Paris. 

 

That means they won medals in 7 sports in Paris that they didn't win in Tokyo. That is incredible. 

-Fencing

-Rugby

-Boxing

-Beach Volleyball

-Trampoline

-Taekwondo

-Tennis

 

Some of these we hadn't won before (Fencing), some we only won once before (Tennis, Beach Volleyball, Rugby), some we hadn't won in a long time (Boxing, TKD), some were a return to the podium (Trampoline). In most, they are young athletes with bright futures. 

[JoshMartini007 2,507]

If Canada ever wants to make the jump into the top 10, expanding our sport strength sphere is key. Now we need to win multiple medals in more sports.

 

The added sports for 2028 benefit us. Lacrosse should be two easy medals while we'll have a great chance in softball. If we can qualify in baseball we could sneak a medal. Flag football could be an option if we focus on it (let's see how we do at the World Championships later this month). Qualifying might be difficult as Mexico is pretty good.

[orangeman 1,961]

1 hour ago, JoshMartini007 said:

If Canada ever wants to make the jump into the top 10, expanding our sport strength sphere is key. Now we need to win multiple medals in more sports.

 

The added sports for 2028 benefit us. Lacrosse should be two easy medals while we'll have a great chance in softball. If we can qualify in baseball we could sneak a medal. Flag football could be an option if we focus on it (let's see how we do at the World Championships later this month). Qualifying might be difficult as Mexico is pretty good.

Honestly, I think jumping to the top-10 requires a few multi-medal athletes. McIntosh, Kharun and Vincent were the only multi-medal winners here, the former two the only ones to do it in individual events, and Summer the only multi-gold medalist for Canada since the 90s - And I don't even know the last person to do it in individual events. 

 

2020 was actually an outlier on that. DeGrasse and Masse were the only ones to win individual medals, but Oleksiak, MacNeil and Vincent-Lapointe got individual and team medals, while Ruck and Sanchez got multiple team medals. 

 

2016 also wasn't bad, as De Grasse and Oleksiak again got multiple individual and team medals, Benfeito got an individual and team medal, while Ruck got two relay medals. Before that, you have to go to 2008 Lamaze (individual, team), van Koeverden (2 individual) in 2004 and Montminy (1 individual, one team) in 2000. 

 

If you look at the countries in the top-10, you will see they have at quite a few athletes who win multiple medals, usually multiple golds. They also tend to dominate one or two sports. Canada was able to climb the medal table in the 90s because we dominated rowing, but that has fallen apart in the 21st century. I don't disagree that it is good to be competent at many sports just to develop a healthy and entertaining sporting culture, but if Canada wants to move up the medal table it's about developing superstars and concentrating on 2 or 3 specific sports. Becoming good in swimming and athletics is a great development, but that won't do it alone. All the countries in the top-10 are just really good at one or two sports outside Athletics/Swimming (or just really good at swimming, like Australia). Canada needs a sport like rowing, canoe/kayak, track cycling, where there are lots of medals up for grabs and the USA/China are not dominant and where a couple of stars can win multiple gold medals.