The Ryndex

Alright, it’s my turn to weigh in (just to complete our blog quintumvirate). I disagree.

Whole-hearted dedication to a sport might be inspiring, but it’s insulting to the athlete to begrudge them a small percentage of attention to their family, or to their career, or to their life outside their sport. Kyle Shewfelt (our Gymnastics Gold winner) “dropped out” of the 2001 World Championships to finish University. The Canadian Gymnastics Federation was furious. His conclusion: “I realised that I wasn’t doing gymnastics for anyone but myself. All of my goals are MY goals and it is up to me to achieve them.“

And he’s right. How many Canadians followed the World Championships, the World Cups, the Goodwill Games, the Commonwealth Games and the innumerable Gymnastic competitions of Kyle Shewfelt on his journey to the Olympics? When it’s not in your home town, or you’re not a gymnastics mom, it’s not interesting until the Olympics. Then, you’re a notch on the Canadian Medal belt, or you’re nothing at all.

Lori-Ann Muenzer has a heroic story, and I’m glad she won. I’m also glad that Martina Navratilova is there. Is Ms. Muenzer more heroic because she brought home the gold, or Ms. Navratilova because she was female Athlete of the Decade in the eighties? Is the latter supposed to be embarrassed and feel bad because she was only at the Olympics but didn’t win? Is she supposed to taste the bitter fruit of failure because she didn’t cap her career with an Olympic medal?

If the Olympics are about heroes, then it’s about individuals. It’s hardly about bragging rights for the genetic farm of your country. Or the superior infrastructure your country has developed for its top athletes. Or the political manipulations that your country can contrive to influence the judging of subjective sports.

Per capita, Canada is slightly over 10% worse in medal-winners than the United States. (We have four million non-medal winners to one medal winner in Canada; they have three and a half). That’s hardly horrifying, and probably a fair trade-off given our national priorities. Yes, Australia should be proud — that doesn’t mean we should be ashamed.

Unlike the US, Russia and China, Canada has decided not to pay our athletes for medals earned, preferring to pay for training. That’s a wise use of our tax dollars. I like to imagine that we’ve also struck a good balance between spending staggering amounts on our top athletes and providing good services to clumsy, but interested amateurs. The health care versus athletic programs has always been a red herring.

The Olympics bring out the nationalistic, ungrateful worst in us. And the best in Coca-Cola, Kodak and Samsung.