Sometimes words just don't mean enough. When Rick Pitino talks of integrity or Tiger Woods attempts to seem human the words fall flatter than an American Idol contestant. Own the Podium is starting to feel this way for me.
When Canada introduced the slogan and program in 2005 I was optimistic. Finally we've realized that in order to compete against other countries we cannot have our athletes helping people decide between types of baseboards at your local Rona. They must be training full time and be funded this way. Here's the problem though. When results do not follow, someone has to be held accountable. As it states on the Own the Podium website the goal for Canadians was to finish in first in the medal count and top three in the gold medal count at the 2010 olympics. Well these are lofty goals they are almost laughable at this stage of the games. Canada currently has 9 medals compared to the United States' 24. The Canadian Olympic Committee still holds strong saying that a dominate second week is around the corner but unless the second week involves importing athletes from another country I don't see it happening. Many can point to the different aspects of the sports (judging in skating, the track in luge, skeleton and bobsled, the hill at Whistler) but I point to something else. Simply put we cannot have it all.
I still remember when I was young watching the Boston Bruins being saluted by their home crowd after losing a memorable deciding game in the NHL playoffs. I thought this was good sportsmanship by the fans and players as they acknowledged a great season. My dad thought otherwise. Or as he said it "This would never happen in Montreal". This has stuck with me and made me realize the inherent problem with Own the Podium. In order to "own" it, we cannot salute those who do not finish in the top 3. Or, if I could change my dad's quote "This would never happen in the USA". Our ugly big brothers to the south do not celebrate athletes who try hard but don't quite get it done. Melissa Hollingsworth would not be cheered by Americans for finishing fifth. Pieere Leuders and Jesse Lumsden would not be providing interviews on NBC with smiles on their faces after finsihing fifth in the bobsled. Quite simply put you cannot value every competitor on your team if you want to own the podium. You must make finishing off the podium so socially disgraceful that athletes cannot fathom not winning a medal. Look at countries that traditionally finish high in medal standings. Russia, United States, China...what do they have in common? An unreal competitive nature where 2nd place is not acceptable. Their are no moral victories or people who get famous off of heartwarming stories. There are winners and losers.
Built into the social fabric of Canada is an innate sense that people have value. Not just successful people, but all people. We are conservative fiscally as a country but very socialistic when it comes to programs. Look at our immigration policy, social security, health care, and education systems. They are grounded in the principle that every human has value, regardless of where they are in life. Compare us to the States where only the strong survive and you end up with a country built on cooperation not competition.
You do not need to look farther than the hockey tournament going on in Vancouver currently for evidence. In a game where half the American squad wouldn't have been invited to our summer training camp we get outplayed, outhustled, and outcoached by a group of competitors that realize losing is not an option. Whether our hockey team wins or loses does not matter in the long run since they will all still be heros in their home communities since they made the NHL.
In a country that is consistently voted one of the best places to live in the world there is really no reason to think we need to change our views on the value of our citizens. We support our athletes, win or lose. We support our citizens, win or lose. And while that is a value that I think makes for a great country to live in and to be raised in, it does not lend itself to owning the podium.
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is it wierd if i comment on every entry??? jason in particular agrees with this... it's hard when you like where you live but like the winning mantality of another country...
ReplyDeleteI like blogs if the content is something I care about Ryan! This is good stuff and I like your title. I was just having a conversation with someone this morning about this. Here are my thoughts. I apologize for the length in advance! I'll do this in two posts to make it easier! I basically agree with your main idea I think....
ReplyDeleteI don't like the Own The Podium program, but for different reasons. The Chinese and Americans are certainly incredibly "successful" in nearly every area, not just sports. Part of this is probably because they have a combined population of over 1.6 billion people and value competition, like you mentioned. In Canada, we have a mere 35 million. Some would say that's no excuse because we live in such a cold climate and have greater ability to play these sports, but though we are a cold weather climate, I would guess that no more Canadians grow up hoping to be biathaletes (sp?) than in America, and America (and other nations) simply have better athletes on the whole to select from.
We should be finishing with around 1/10 of the medals the American's do, and right now we are doing better than that by quite a large margin. I'm happy with our performance. I actually think we may have placed the bar too high for our athletes with the Own the Podium program. Many of the athletes feel that if they don't reach the podium they are a failure (Melissa Hollingsworth said she had let the whole nation down). Regardless of the truth of a statement like this, most athletes do not perform at their best when enduring stress of this nature. They need to be in the moment, and clearly our sports psychologists were not doing their jobs (maybe we needed Stephen Colbert?) if athletes felt like the success of their 15 years of training would be determined by the outcome of one or two events. Increasing pressure on athletes doesn't produce results unless they are given the coping mechanisms necessary to deal with the pressure. The statements a few Canadians made when losing shows that they were not prepared properly for this pressure. Jon Montgomery seemed to get it - he was relaxed and prepared and as a result did well. And he did it the right way - good sportsmanship, having fun, not relying on his success too much to justify his continued existence on this planet. Also, many of these athletes are not accustomed to this sort of intense media pressure and fanfare (who cares about double luge when it's not the Olympics?). If someone is to be blamed, it would be the Olympic organization which increases the pressure without providing the needed support and advice to cope with the pressure.
In the end, I don't want to be like the Americans. I know many do not fit the stereotype (Shaun White seemed like a good sport), but I wouldn't want to have that stereotype at all. I don't want our skaters pulling at an opponent in speed skating to try to get the extra edge and win (the Korean skaters have a reputation for this I guess). I'd much rather be the way we are, and if that means we produce about the number of medals we should, I'm happy with that. I'm generalizing here, but to me the Americans are like the person who wins every family boardgame you, but nobody wants to hang out with them after for nachos and a drink, and winning isn't worth that sort of result.
ReplyDeleteAmerica's economy is a still a mess, their political system is in deadlock, their military is making the world less safe, their population is more obese than any population in the world, they have cities that experience more murders in a year than most of Canada combined, and they (combined with China) emit more pollutants into our atmosphere than all other nations put together.
If winning means adopting a mentality like theirs, I don't want anything to do with it. So I'll take our 10, 15, or 20 medals and be happy with that, knowing that we've done it the right way. I believe the process matters more than the result, and the character you show in the process has a greater impact on others than the colour of medal that hangs on your neck at the end of the competition. Do I want to win? Absolutely. Should we be doing more to train our athletes and prepare them for the pressure of the Olympics? Maybe. And yes, I'm a bit jealous of a country like Norway that's program seems to keep winning despite an incredibly small population (6.4 million). And Norway, a socialist country and success story, does it without sacrificing their values of supporting everyone on their Olympic team and in their society, win or lose.
Thanks for the article Ryan. I enjoyed it.
man... now jason and i are on the bandwagon for canada again... marcus used his hour long rant to hypnotize us back into believing in our country and athletes... you are good marcus... and all those numbers and stats - that i'm sure you made up - are so convincing...
ReplyDeleteRyan ... love the intelligently provocative stance. I think you are correct on many things regarding the competitive nature of things. However living here has given me a whole new appreciation for the humble, unassuming nature of our heritage. To be able to win and not make everyone hate you because of it is so refreshing. It actually improves healthy competition. There is a desire to beat someone but a realization that the outcome of life and that stability of the world does not rest on that moment. The history of curling as a social sport is a perfect case in point. To battle hard to the last rock, with intense pressure and then be able to share a drink after the draw creates a community that can be depended on in many other circumstances.
ReplyDeleteA look at the competitive, only the strong survive nature of America and not to look at the greed driven collapse that is currently taking place is a bit naive. They go hand in hand. Corruption in minor hockey where 6 and 8 year olds never get a chance to love the game because of the obsessive greed and pride of the adults ruling and in some cases ruining their world is sad to watch. It exists in Canada but having watched both sides of the border it's much worse here. With the drive to succeed at all costs comes the sacrifice of values and morality. The overwhelming volume of scandal on this side of the border is discouraging at best and is successfully turning millions away from the world of sport at all. It becomes a self-defeating cycle.
The pride of being the best in the world comes with a lot of prices. The joy of striving for excellence with integrity comes with infinitely greater joy regardless of the outcome. I too would like to see better funding for athletes in Canada. Not so that we can claw our way to the top of the podium but so that they have a chance to win with integrity - to be truly Canadian in winning.
But I don't think setting a record for the number of gold medals one by a country in a single games is a bad place to start. We won more events than anyone else. And we didn't have to be obnoxious in doing it. Not often in America will you see a gold medal winner more excited about sharing the spotlight with his disabled brother than soaking it in for himself. I'm proud of our Canadian athletes today.
So that's my view on the matter. Proud to be a Canadian. I'll be wearing my Canadian hockey jersey to work tomorrow. But I love your posts and look forward to more.