SLAM! Sports
Commonwealth Games
INTERACTIVE
COMMONWEALTH
ALSO ON SLAM!
Canada blitzed by awesome Aussies
Either way, Canada was a loser here. And if we don't understand what happened in the XVI Commonwealth Games, we may never hit 100 medals again and we may never even manage half of Australia's total again.
So say Dave Johnson and Dave Thomas, national swimming and track bosses respectively, as Canada added up the final medals at the close of these Games and came to the conclusion that they just didn't add up.
For the first time since winning only 82 at the 1982 Games in Brisbane, Canada couldn't win 100 medals.
We ended up with 99 here - 30 gold, 31 silver and 38 bronze.
"We are hoping Toronto will be chosen to host the 2008 Olympics,'' said Thomas. "Unless we take a hard look at where we're at right now, if Toronto gets the 2008 Olympics, it's going to be the same as Montreal and we're not going to win many medals.''
Chef de mission Margie Schuett, who predicted between 100 and 115 medals for Canada, tried to rationalize the final count.
But Johnson, for one, suggested it's not time for a head-in-the-sand, we-did-OK approach.
The plain truth is that we can't compete against Australia, he said at Canada's evaluation press conference. And Australia is the one country to which we most compare. We ought to be each other's measuring sticks.
"Canada needs to do something very soon,'' said Johnson. "Soon we're going to be rationalizing 75 medals and then 50 medals ... ''
SUPPORT SYSTEM
He said we have to get back to a system of support like the one that didn't peak for Montreal, but for the Edmonton '78 Commonwealth Games, the last ones we won.
"Our athletes deserve a better shake than what they are getting right now,'' he said of government and corporate financial assistance.
"It's time we got with the program. Our country stands up and cheers very loudly when we have the results. And it's good for young people in our country. It's healthy.''
The mind-boggling thing is that it was essentially Canada's program from the '70s that the Australians copied and then perfected.
The team from Down Under, hot-housing their athletes for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, won exactly double our medals - 198 - including 50 more gold than Canada, which finished third overall to England after running second to the Aussies four years ago.
The difference is in the $160-million Australian program compared to the $58-million Canadian program.
These Games suggested we're actually going backwards. We won nine fewer medals in track and field, eight fewer in gymnastics, five fewer in shooting and not one medal in a team sport.
Not that you can knock our cricket, rugby, field hockey and netball teams. If our ice hockey team can't win a medal at the Olympics, how can we expect our cricket club to get one at the Commonwealth Games?
There were plenty of positives for Canada at these Games. We enjoyed a great many individual successes and a host of first-timers created names for themselves and identified themselves as athletes to watch for the Olympics.
Considering that this team featured 85 per cent Games first-timers, people like 13-year-old diver Alex Despatie of Laval, Que., and 22-year-old swimmer Mark Versfeld of Fort McMurray, to name two, introduced themselves here.
More than anything, these Games provided our next generation of athletes with Games experience. That should pay off next year at the Pan-Ams in Winnipeg, and then at the Olympics in Sydney.
POSITIVE EXPERIENCE
And most had a positive experience, despite being restricted to the village for the last two days due to political demonstrations downtown.
"The Commonwealth Games are my favourite Games,'' said boxer Mike Strange, who carried Canada's flag in yesterday's closing ceremonies. "It's the most enjoyable experience I think there is for an athlete.''
Swimmer Joanne Malar feels the same way.
"The level of competition is there. And it's so much fun. Being in the village at the Commonwealth Games is so amazing.
'`Where else can you have lunch with the Queen?''