Look past Olympic hype and focus on success
Posted Mar 5, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
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Tweet ThisEMC Lifestyle - The Winter Olympics in Vancouver have been relegated to history and I for one am just as pleased to see the games behind us.
Don't get me wrong! Like most true-blooded Canadians I was pleased and proud to have a world event such as the Olympics return to our shores. It was a unifying experience for Canadians in general, although all of the criticism which surrounded the venture was hard to take.
I'm certainly not among the critics. Quite the reverse!
Canada's gold rush during the final week of the games prevented a lot of red faces though. And our Olympic team's ultimate success was underlined Sunday with the dramatic overtime win in men's hockey.
Canada's "Own the Podium" objective was not achieved however. The United States and Germany finished 1-2 with 37 and 30 medals respectively, proving that pre-games "bragging" is ill-advised.
Canada was third with 26 including 14 gold. That's the best gold total by any nation in the Winter Olympics ever. We can all be very proud!
My main beef with the Olympics (winter or summer) is all the hype that accompanies them. Surely there are no athletic competitions in the world that are as overdone as the Olympics. I won't miss the commercial blitz that preceded and accompanied the Vancouver games. It became sickening after a while.
Although it too was badly overhyped, I think the Olympic Torch Relay, which passed through my adopted hometown of Carleton Place in December, was good because it brought people together for a common cause and gave us something unifying to cheer about. I don't think I have ever seen so many Canadian jackets, jerseys, toques and flags in one place before, not even on Canada Day.
This week, instead of focusing solely on the number of Canadian Olympic medals which has become a cause célèbre for many journalists in this country, I want to congratulate our athletes. Not only do they deserve our praise for undertaking demanding athletic endeavors on behalf of our country, they also earn high marks for having survived the media over exposure which accompanied the games. We also won the most medals in Canadian Olympic history which is fantastic of course.
Still, with the exception of hockey players, most Canadian athletes aren't used to the spotlight. And the glare they operated under during these Winter Olympics was incredible. Their every word was dissected, their every action closely scrutinized.
I won't call them "amateur" because I'm not really sure the word fits anymore? But the majority of Canada's athletes labour in obscurity throughout their careers. That is especially true of low profile sports such a luge, skeleton or bobsled and yes, even speed skating and snowboarding.
Paddling success
Carleton Place, as many of you may not be aware, is home to Canada's oldest flatwater canoe club. The international sport of canoe/kayak is a major one and yet the only time it gets any sustained publicity is every four years, during the Summer Olympics.
The Carleton Place Canoe Club (CPCC) has produced several Olympic paddlers over the years and with the club thriving I think it is safe to predict it will produce more in the future.
Because of my long experience covering the CPCC and its activities I have had the opportunity to get to know a number of Olympic athletes. None of them have reached the podium at the Summer Games. But when all things are considered that is not a major failing. Winning in any event that is timed in hundredths of seconds is an achievement and there are so many variables, just as there were during the warm weather in Vancouver.
Local canoe/kayak athletes have won many international medals and they've done their club and their country proud numerous times since the CPCC was founded in 1893. But because the success didn't occur in the fish bowl of the Olympics, their achievements are virtually unknown.
Sprint kayaker Adam van Koeverden of Oakville, Ontario is arguably one of Canada's best ever male paddlers. He has won races all over the world.
I am probably one of the few journalists in this country who follows the sport closely. When I pick up the daily paper, following one of Adam's international successes, I normally find it has been relegated to a few words under a small heading in a "sports shorts" column buried deep in the sports section.
At the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China two years ago Adam was chosen to carry the Canadian flag at the opening ceremonies. Just as cyclist turned skater Clara Hughes did on Feb. 12 in Vancouver, van Koeverden led the Canadian Olympic team into the stadium in China in 2008.
I remember smiling to myself as I read and heard all the hype surrounding his role as flag bearer in Beijing. Never before had the now 28-year-old paddler received so much attention. The publicity was massive. He defied the odds too (flag bearers often fail to win their events), capturing silver in the K-1 (kayak singles) 500 metre (m) race.
For the record van Koeverden also won gold in the same event at the Athens games in 2004 and bronze in the K-1, 1000m race in Greece.
He, along with female paddler Caroline Brunet of Quebec City, are the best known Canadian paddlers on the international circuit.
Brunet has 10 world championship gold medals to her credit. She won silver in the K-1, 500m at both the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and the Sydney (Australia) games in 2000. In Athens she claimed bronze in the same event.
Yet Brunet and van Koeverden rarely made the front page of the sports section, despite their many accomplishments over the years. Like most Canadian athletes they labour in obscurity.
The only exception is during the Olympic Games.
I'm not going to make excuses for any of our athletes who were expected to medal in Vancouver but didn't. I don't have to. They deserve credit, not criticism.
PRESSURE COOKER
But the fact is Canadian athletes were under enormous added pressure when they competed in their own country. As if the massive media attention and the fact they were showcasing their often obscure sports in Canada wasn't difficult enough, add to that the pre-games "Own the Podium" prediction. Quite the pressure cooker!
The fact remains that in sports anything can happen and usually does. In Vancouver there was also the unseasonably mild weather which would have lent itself more to summer games than out door winter competitions.
There is another factor involved, something I would never have considered had it not been pointed out to me by an Olympic athlete.
Andrew Willows is a native of Gananoque. Andrew, who just turned 30, is nearing the end of a long and distinguished career as a sprint kayak paddler, although he probably won't thank me for saying that.
But the fact is paddling is a young person's sport just as most athletic endeavors are.
Andrew and long-time K-2 partner Richard Dober of Trois Rivières, Quebec have enjoyed considerable success on the international paddling circuit. Most recently they claimed third place bronze at the World Canoe and Kayak Championships held in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia last August.
Andrew, who lists his profession as "full time athlete and public speaker", is a very personable young man who first honed his skills at the Carleton Place club. He attended Carleton Place High School while practicing and competing as a member of the CPCC.
He and his wife Valerie, an athletic therapist from Quebec, now have a full-time residence near Appleton, just outside Carleton Place. He continues to do some of his training at the local club.
With seven years on the national paddling team and 21 international medals to his credit he is a wonderful role model for young athletes here. Nationally he is an excellent public speaker who delivers his message about the benefits of sport to numerous audiences.
Like most Canadian athletes, outside mainstream pro sports, the name Andrew Willows isn't a household one.
Although they didn't medal, Willows and Dober competed at both the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games and the 2008 Beijing games. So he knows from whence he speaks!
Andrew told me that despite the fact they would love to win at the Olympics, most athletes see the games as "something of a distraction."
His reasoning, and it makes a great deal of sense on reflection, is that the Olympics are set up mainly for the international television audience.
As a past Olympic athlete he believes most competitors are focused on the world championships in their respective sports, not the Olympics.
"The Olympics only happen every four years. World championships are every year and that is what most athletes are working toward," Andrew told me.
The Olympic format also sees certain races either eliminated or shortened, meaning some athletes aren't able to compete in their specialties. They train year round over certain distances and then are unable to compete in their main events.
Add to that the hype, which Andrew calls "a constant distraction", and you begin to understand why it is so difficult for even the world's best athletes to come out of the Olympics satisfied. As I said earlier there are a lot of factors!
Therefore I don't think we should be disappointed because Canada didn't own the podium at the Vancouver Olympics. Instead we should revel in our unprecedented success.
To me the real objective of "Own the Podium" was to improve the overall performances of Canada's Winter Olympic athletes. Look beyond gold, silver and bronze and you will see that goal was accomplished. In sports measured in hundredths of seconds, examine how many close calls Canadian athletes had at these games. We finished near the head of the class in so many events.
I believe we should continue to properly fund our athletes, as so many other countries have done so successfully for so long, with a view to long-term success in future international events including the Olympics.
It would probably be wiser if we approached it a little more quietly the next time. Minus the hype and the criticism, I believe the Vancouver Olympics were a terrific success and particularly for Canadian athletes.
Pursue the same path - albeit a little more cautiously perhaps - and we are bound to reap the rewards, including many more Olympic gold medals.
If you have any comments or questions for Jeff Maguire, he can be reached by e-mail at: jeffrey.maguire@rogers.com
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