Saturday, February 20, 2010

"If you ain't first, you're last!"

Through one week of the Olympic Games, the United States has 21 medals (9 bronze) to Canada's 8 medals (1 bronze). On the other hand, they have 6 gold medals to our 4. With hockey and curling yet to be decided, we have a significantly higher probability of winning most first place finishes than total medals. The wise philosopher and speed racer Ricky Bobby once said "if you ain't first, you're last!" Even not so Great Britain has now won a single medal!

85% of those polled indicate that they believe the country with the most total medals is the winner of Olympics. I know that many of you are happy with a top 5 finish, and that with our athletics budget being a fraction of that in the United States we should not expect greater performance. I agree and I am proud of our athletes whether they finish first or last, but I am much happier when they finish first. I will confess though that the excessive mitten waving is beginning to wear on my nerves...

It would nice to finish these games with more gold bullion than our southern neighbour, given the obscene price that the commodity has been commanding on the open market in recent years. I once won a gold medal in weightlifting at the Ontario Winter Games, but the medal was not made of real gold. What a rip off. I never asked why Ontario put weightlifting in their Winter Games.

6 comments:

  1. 303 million population vs 34 million, that being said Norway has only 4.6 million!

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  2. I never asked why Ontario put weightlifting in their Winter Games.
    ========================
    To prepare you for shoveling snow, or perhaps, take advantage of the fitness acquired therefrom.

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  3. I'll be happy if my favourite hockey team, Latvia, wins Gold! What sharp uniforms, best at the Olympics!

    btw, the US women's hockey team is gonna win gold, those women shoot harder than any other female players in the tourney.

    Dmorris

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  4. first is the only winner all others have lost the competition no matter what the event is.

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  5. What did you lift Iceman? Bag of Rudy Giuliani's dirty laundry?
    Okay, seriously - how much did you lift to win the gold.

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  6. Well dodo, it was almost half my life ago when I was in high school. I was far better at the "clean and jerk" than I was at "the snatch". My best lift would have been just under 90 kilos or 200 pounds from the floor to over top of my head. Ironically I could clean and jerk more than I could bench press. I only got into weightlifting to train for hockey and football.

    "If winning isn't everything, then why do they keep score?"

    -Vincent T Lombardi

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