When I was in high school I played on a lot of teams but the one that made the biggest impression on me was the golf team-for all the wrong reasons. Our football team won the city championship so we were the winners but lost in the final provincial game so we were losers. Same with the basketball team although we lost the city championship game so we were losers. But although our golf team came third we got a bronze medal. Even though the football and basketball teams finished higher, I was pretty excited to get a bronze medal. But when I was showing it around the football locker room our coach came out, took it from me and said something like "Well done, you were on the 2nd losing team and still got a medal. What kind of sport gives medals to losers?"
I was shocked and downhearted. But the other guys voiced their agreement and I realized that he was right. No one ever asked who came second and certainly no one gives a rat's ass about who came third.
So as I sit and watch the Olympics, every time I see the silver and bronze medals given out, I think "1st loser-2nd loser-why are they happy? And that's the problem with the Canadian Olympic team-too many athletes happy about losing.
Don't give me that crap about doing your best and competing is what it's all about. If you come 2nd in business, the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NCAA basketball tournament, someone beat you and you lost. But that's OK in the Olympics and to me, that's just a way to rationalze losing. That's fine with 10 year olds, but not adults.
Canada had 281 athletes competing in London but only won 1 gold medal in that most popular of sports-women's trampoline. That's a winning percentage of .3%. And what did that cost Canadian taxpayers? I almost threw my remote through the screen when Canadian Kayaker Adam Van Koeverden was overjoyed when he won the silver and declared the winner from Norway a good friend. ADAM-HE BEAT YOU and you like it? WTF is wrong with you? You should be upset about LOSING!!! You led most of the race and I was screaming my head off for you but you couldn't get the job done and you're happy? I sure as hell wasn't because Canada failed to win another gold medal. Could you see Usain Bolt getting all happy about losing to anyone? I don't think so.
Ban silver and bronze medals and you'll see a lot higher level of competition at the Olympics. Until then, 2/3 of the time, it's a lovefest for losers. And Adam, you seem to be a nice guy but time to man up because when it comes to your sport on an international basis, you're a loser but I guess you can rationalize that by declaring there are another 279 Canadians who didn't win gold either.
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