Canada Doesn't Suck in Winter Games
To make this perfect, I'll try to find something from the National Post, whose editorial stance has been summed up as "Canada Sucks." The paper has also emphasized Olympic Games--especially in the summer--as proof of our mediocrity--especially in comparison to the U.S.
Earlier I did some calculations on Winter Games 2002 and Summer Games 2004. I argued that we did about as one would expect in comparison to the U.S. (10% of medals, matching 10% of the population) in the Summer, a bit better than expected in Winter. The country that was kicking our butts (in the summer) was Australia.
Summer 2004: Finals: Canada 3 Gold, 12 total; U.S. 35/103. We're a bit under 10% in Golds; a bit over in total. Australia, with two-thirds of Canada's population: 49 medals, 17 of them gold. Amazing.
2002 Winter Games, Salt Lake City: US 34 medals, 10 Gold; Canada 17, 7 Gold (50% overall, 70% Golds); Australia 2 Golds only.
Total 2002 Winter, 2004 Summer: USA 137 medals, 45 Gold; Canada 29 medals, 10 Gold: more than 25% total, 22.5% Golds. Australia 51 total, 19 Gold: say 40% of the US total, close to half of the golds.
Now add 2006 Winter: USA 25 medals, 9 gold; Canada 24 medals, 7 gold. Not far from: a tie. Australia 2 medals, 1 gold.
New totals, 2002, 2004, 2006:
USA 162 medals, 54 gold; Canada 53 medals, 17 gold (about 33% of the medals and the golds); Australia 53 medals, 20 golds (a bit better than Canada, which gets more balanced results between summer and winter).
Or just stick to 2004, 2006: one Summer, one Winter.
USA 128/44; Canada 36/10; Australia 51/18. Canada won 28% of the US medals, 23% of the golds; Australia, hardly winning anything in Winter, an amazing 40% and 41%.
Of course, much of Canada is in mourning because the men's hockey team finished out of the medals. Somehow the overall great performance, dominated by women, including Cindy Klassen and Clara Hughes making history, doesn't cut it by comparison.
A few other countries, 2004 and 2006 combined:
Russia 92 summer + 22 winter: 114 total; 27 + 8 = 35 golds.
Germany 48 + 29 = 77 total; 14 + 11 = 25 golds.
China 63 + 11 = 74 total; 32 + 2 = 34 golds.
Austria, better in winter: 23 in 06, 7 in 04 = 30 total; 9 + 2 = 11 golds.
Japan, only one gold in 06: totals 38/17.
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