The concept of World Cup-veat emptor – let the watcher beware – was mentioned in today’s front-page sports page piece in the Toronto Star, kicking off the 100-day countdown to February’s Vancouver Winter Olympics.
The idea is just because someone gets on a World Cup podium doesn’t mean they’re a serious Olympic medal contender.
That’s one of the big problems in Canada. An athlete’s medal chances often get built up way out of proportion, too often by an ill-informed media, and then people feel a big letdown and take it personally when they don’t win a medal.
We saw that in Beijing when Canada got off to a slow start – which was not unexpected by those that knew the strengths of the team – and everyone started panicking that first week. Some in the media – The Globe and Mail, comes to mind – came out with the now treadworn ‘Canada is a bunch of choking dogs’ story.
It turned out nothing was wrong – the rowing team hadn’t even competed for a medal nor had Simon Whitfield when those alarm bells were going off -- and the Canadian team went on to have one of its best Summer Games ever.
The danger of over-hype is greater than ever with a home Olympics, especially with Canada never having won gold as a host.
So it makes no sense when Sports Minister Gary Lunn comes out – as he did when the torch was lit in Greece -- and tells the Globe that “Our athletes, they are on fire in every single discipline and there is not going to be a dry eye in the country.”
That might be true about the eyes, but "on fire in every single discipline"?
If only that were true. Unless Own The Podium's Top Secret program really has something up its sleeve -- like the ability to clone Austrians and Norwegians -- we don’t have much of a ski jumping team (unless he can get the IOC to let the women in) and we’re nowhere in both nordic combined and biathlon. Canada's made big strides in cross country skiing and luge, but still have to be considered longshots right now.
No doubt, Canada has a strong team overall, but it doesn’t need to be oversold at this point. The World Cup season needs to unfold and in 100 days we’ll start finding out where Canada really stands.
Last Chance To Ride With Lueders: The ebay auction to get your name on the back of Olympic champion Pierre Lueders’ two- and four-man sleds – and to get to ride with him next year in the four-man -- is in its final hours. The bid is currently at $2,550.
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