Canada you see has not won an Olympic medal of any colour in a team sport since Canada's men's basketball team won silver in 1936. Hoping to reverse this trend Sport Canada announced the Summer Olympic Team Sport Initiative. As part of this initiative the Own the Podium program has identified 6 sports that will benefit from this program; they are: Men's and Women's Field Hockey, Women's Basketball, Men's Water polo, and Women's Rugby 7's. Noticeably absent from this list: Women's Soccer, Men's Soccer, Men's Basketball, and Women's Water-polo
Consider the following
Canada's Women's soccer team narrowly lost to the United States in the quarterfinals at the 2008 Olympic Games in the process coming the closest of any Canadian team (at the Summer Olympics) in the last 20 years to win an Olympic medal. For the better part of the decade they have been ranked as low as fourth by FIFA (the sport's governing body) and are currently the defending Pan-American Games Champion. Meanwhile, in Men's Field Hockey odds are that they will not qualify for the Olympic Games in 2012 and are currently not ranked in the top 10 in the world.
Canada has not had a Men's Volleyball team compete in the Olympics since 1996 and this is unlikely to change anytime soon. Meanwhile Canada is beginning to produce some incredible young talent in the sport of basketball including Tristan Thompson a recent first round draft pick in the NBA, and NCAA superstar Andy Rautins of Syracuse who is also playing in the NBA.
Canada's Men's Waterpolo team qualified for the Olympic Games in 2008 for the first time since 1996. They finished 11th. Further, in the past 15 years they have finished in the top ten at the World Championships once. On the other side of the spectrum, Canada's Women's Waterpolo team failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics however, they qualified for both the 2004 and 2000 Olympic Games. At the 2005 World Championships in Montreal they came 3rd. They finished 8th at the 2011 World Championships and second at second at the 2009 World Championships. It is however the men who get the needed funding from Own the Podium
Hopefully Heatstroke is not the only one scratching his head over these decisions. Someone within Own the Podium please explain.
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