Sports
August 21, 2008 11:20 PM
By: John Cudmore
After a dreary opening week of Beijing Olympics results for Canadian athletes and fans, clearly the scramble was on to push the panic button.
Never mind a respectable flow of medals in the meantime that has the Canadian Olympic Committee’s initial pre-Games projection to finish among the top 16 countries again within realistic grasp.
To be sure, this was a nation set to be really discontent with and really annoyed at its Olympians. Or politicians. Or the COC. Well, somebody’s gotta catch hell.
Busting past notables such as Togo, Tajikstan and Latvia, among others in the medal standings, after sitting dead last for a week, helped ease the angst, but ought not to mean the fretting is over.
We’re never going to win every event. Gosh, not even the billion-dollar, propaganda-crazy Chinese system can achieve that lofty goal.
Obviously, it is not as simple as showing up and expecting to win medals simply because you’ve performed your best-ever performance. Athletes from around the world are looking to do precisely the same thing.
As always, the talk every four years for the Summer Games touches on the breadth of financial support from the federal government in developing Canadian hopefuls for the world’s largest sports festival.
Yes, the feds did up their commitment earlier this year for Summer Games — albeit far too late for this Olympiad and maybe even the next in 2012 in London.
It pales to the commitment for the Winter Games, particularly the 2010 Games in Vancouver, for which the On The Podium program is designed to ensure Canada fares well after two straight gold medal-free Olympics (1976 and 1988) as host.
But, while acknowledging the need for cold, hard cash that actually is realized by the athletes themselves, there is an even more basic level at which the issue begins.
For the health of a nation’s children, the well-being of a country’s collective fragile psyche and the simple satisfaction of being competitive among the best athletes in the world, medals seem to be an uplifting occurrence for the general population. Who wants to be a leader in child obesity? Well, we’re among the front-runners there.
If it starts and ends with funding our athletes, there is a lot of ground in between to cultivate. It is true you get what you pay for, but small investments count, too.
Medals are not the be-all and end-all, but they sure are what grabs the attention of Canadians and, more than fifth or eighth place, provide the possibility of setting a path for young athletes to pursue.
The question: do we get enough out of our efforts or do we make enough effort to even have the right to expect results?
There must be inexpensive community programs in which children can participate.
Some exist but there is always room for more. But there also should be additional onus placed on a school system in which physical activity is becoming increasingly optional.
In short, there should be a mandate to make daily physical activity part of the curriculum.
Here's a possible, although un-PC solution to this issue and the logjam in the teaching industry — hire new teachers based, in part, on what they are willing to offer in extra-curricular activities, whether it’s for athletics or the arts.
Certainly that was a hiring condition in past generations, so it’s not a new idea. Why shouldn’t a potential teacher bring more to the table than what goes on in the classroom?
In any other business sector, versatility counts, right?
It will be interesting to see if the monetary dedication of the feds is long-term or merely lip service for sports associations and designed to shut them up for the present time.
Either way, why not direct federal money into school systems to develop activities to get children off their butts and away from computer or TV screens.
The argument a country is ignoring more pressing domestic issues because it is throwing money toward sports lacks credibility.
If it helps creates a healthier, more active younger population, the investment is worthy and is apt to pay off in future generations.
To that end, and for the sake of southern Ontario and its athletes, in particular, we should encourage heartily and support vigorously Toronto’s pursuit of the 2015 Pan American Games.
A successful bid will be a huge leap forward for so-called amateur sports in these parts, where proper training facilities exist for ... well, not very many sports.